CHRISTMAS EVE ESTIMATES: 'Treasure' Wrangles Another $8.4M Monday for a 4-day Cume of $54.6M; 'Legend' No. 2 w/$5.3M; 'Alvin' Third w/$5M; 'Charlie' Tops 'Sweeney' by $600k for Fourth Place
by Steve Mason
MONDAY NIGHT: Christmas Eve is never a big day at America's multiplexes, but Monday was considerably stronger than Dec. 24, 2006. The top movie last year was Night at the Museum with $5.7 million. By comparison, National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) has registered an $8.4 million estimated haul. The latest adventure of treasure hunter Ben Gates has now raked in $54.6 million in four days.
Christmas Day will bring three more wide releases, Alien Versus Predator: Requiem (20th Century Fox), The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Sony) and The Great Debaters (Weinstein/MGM) plus Juno (Fox Searchlight) will expand to 994 locations, so there's a certain Darwinism to the holiday season. A total of nine major films will have opened wide or expanded wide in a five-day period. It is, however, a good sign that last year's top 12 films on Christmas Eve grossed a cumulative total of $21.34 million compared to this year's $26.5 million haul for the Top 12. Also, three films with $5 million-plus bodes well for Chrisrmas Day.
EXCLUSIVE FANTASY MOGULS EARLY CHRISTMAS EVE ESTIMATES
1. NEW National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) — $8,420,034, $2,197 PTA [$54,680,784 cume]
2. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) — $5,329,500, $1,472 PTA [$142,833,500 cume]
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks (20th Century Fox) — $5,055,962, $1,445 PTA [$89,967,512 cume]
4. NEW Charlie Wilson's War (Universal) — $2,007,480, $780 PTA [$11,623,910 cume]
5. NEW Sweeney Todd (Dreamworks/Paramount) — $1,377,576, $1,103 PTA [$10,714,776 cume]
6. Enchanted (Disney) — $947,232, $344 PTA [$99,390,432 cume]
7. NEW P.S. I Love You (Warner Bros.) — $855,360, $349 PTA [$7,364,360 cume]
8. The Golden Compass (New Line) — $702,797, $238 PTA [$49,121,347 cume]
9. NEW Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Sony) — $645,964, $244 PTA [$4,749,764 cume]
10. Juno (Fox Searchlight) — $583,389, $1,919 PTA [$6,962,289cume]
11. Atonement (Focus) — $351,135, $1,182 PTA [$6,141,635 cume]
12. No Country for Old Men (Miramax) — $331,266, $217 PTA [$37,048,566 cume]
* The Kite Runner (Paramount Vantage) — $245,795, $652 PTA [$2,111,945 cume]
* The Savages (Fox Searchlight) — $49,758, $829 PTA [$822,818 cume]
* The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax) — $28,940, $877 PTA [$443,847 cume]
* NEW Steep (Sony Classics) — $4,833, $284 PTA [$29,697 cume]
* NEW Blonde Ambition (First Look) — $149, $19 PTA [$1,494 cume]
* NEW Flakes (IFC Films) — $44, $44 PTA [$255 cume]
Good Lord. I didn't think 'Blonde Ambition' could possibly get worse (mainly, I guess, because I figured those locations moronic enough to actually have OPENED the film, would have cut it loose by now). $19 in PTA? Gee, I sure hope the two people who're buying tickets to it per screening appreciate all the leg room...
Hey, there, Mase: Merry Christmas, buddy, to you and your family. You're a hard workin' fella, and we sure do appreciate ALL your efforts throughout the year. Have some (very heavily dosed) eggnog on me.
I remain, as always...
Nico.
Posted by: Nicodemus the Sage | December 25, 2007 at 08:58 AM