The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $24.5 million, while the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie thriller The Tourist landed in second place with $17 million. But with the exception of Disney’s Tangled ($14.6 million), the holdovers are losing steam and the box office was down 5% versus last year when The Princess and the Frog went nationwide.
Fox’s attempt to revive the Narnia franchise (the first two films in the series were released by Disney) appears to have foundered with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which, in spite of 3-D (which accounted for 55% of the film’s take), opened well behind 2005’s The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe ($65.6 million) and 2008’s Prince Caspian ($55 million). It even debuted well behind 2007’s “anti-Christian” fantasy epic The Golden Compass ($25.8 million, but $30 million accounting for inflation), which opened on the same weekend in December.
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Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): December 10 - 12, 2010 | ||||||
|
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./ Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
1 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader |
$24,500,000 |
3,555 |
$6,892 |
$24,500,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
The Tourist |
$17,000,000 |
2,756 |
$6,168 |
$17,000,000 |
1 |
|
3 |
Tangled |
$14,559,000 |
3,565 |
$4,084 |
$115,623,000 |
3 |
|
4 |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 |
$8,500,000 |
3,577 |
$2,376 |
$257,688,000 |
4 |
|
5 |
Unstoppable |
$3,750,000 |
2,967 |
$1,264 |
$74,272,000 |
5 |
|
6 |
Black Swan |
$3,332,000 |
90 |
$37,022 |
$5,611,000 |
2 |
|
7 |
Burlesque |
$3,200,000 |
2,876 |
$1,113 |
$32,574,000 |
3 |
|
8 |
Love and Other Drugs |
$3,000,000 |
2,240 |
$1,339 |
$27,648,000 |
3 |
|
9 |
Due Date |
$2,545,000 |
1,990 |
$1,279 |
$94,884,000 |
6 |
|
10 |
Megamind |
$2,510,000 |
2,425 |
$1,035 |
$140,202,000 |
6 |
Still there are some hopeful signs for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It attracted a fairly broad audience that was 51% female and 52% under 25. It received a positive “A-“ CinemaScore, and it did fairly well overseas where it brought in $81 million. There is some hope that the film will be able to demonstrate some “legs” over the coming weeks as kids get their Christmas break from school.
The Tourist, which was directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who helmed the Academy Award-winning The Lives of Others, has less rosy prospects in spite of the fact that its per-theater average ($6,168) was close to that of the Dawn Treader ($6,892). With a critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes of only 21% positive, and a poor CinemaScore of “B” from opening weekend audiences, The Tourist, which cost $100 million to produce, appears to be in some trouble, especially if it can’t broaden its debut audience, which was predominantly female (55%) and older (53% over 30).
Tangled dropped just 32.6% and finished a strong third, while Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Pt.1 fell just 50% while bringing its cumulative to nearly $258 million. It should end up with close to $300 million before it ends its domestic run.
Darren Aronofsy’s Black Swan expanded to 90 theaters and moved up from #13 last week to #6 thanks to a stellar per-theater average of $37,022. That average will decline as more theaters are added, but the Black Swan, which was produced for just $13 million, has already earned $5.6 million in limited release. Aronofsky, who scored a huge success with critics with The Wrestler, has done it again with Black Swan, which has an 87% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Aronofsky’s next project, a Wolverine movie has a chance to garner plenty of critical attention when it appears.
