We all knew Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” would have a huge opening. The question was just how huge.
Box Office Mojo answered this question with Sunday estimates that suggest a North American gross of $140.7 million, which would make it the third highest opening weekend of all time, behind “The Dark Knight” and “Spiderman 3.”
It also reports that “New Moon” now holds various records including highest opening day gross, with $72.7 million.
The third film in the Twilight saga, “Eclipse,” is slated to open June 30, 2010.
While the weekend belonged to the vampire romance, Box Office Mojo’s early estimates for additional debuts include: “The Blind Side,” $34.5 million; and “Planet 51,” $12.6 million.
Sunday estimates also show that “2012” climbed to $108.2 million in North America. Disney’s 3D “A Christmas Carol” sits at $79.8 million in its third weekend. And “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire” earned $11 million in 629 locations—with a $17,500 per theatre average—for a new total of $21.4 million.
“Precious” has generated a lot of buzz as a likely best picture Oscar nominee. With awards season underway, we’ll be watching the box office numbers for “Precious” and other releases with Academy Awards potential.
Popularity: 7% [?]
For the past several weeks there have been whisperings in conversations throughout the motion picture exhibition industry about organizational changes at Kodak Digital Cinema. To put an end to the conflicting reports that were coming my way I did the most simple of things; picked up the phone and spoke with someone directly at Kodak. Strange, I know, given that this business has gotten us all so used to playing our cards close to the vest, but sometimes a direct approach actually works.
Indeed, Kodak Digital Cinema is dramatically changing the focus of its business. Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications for Kodak Digital Cinema lived up to his title by being very upfront in explaining the company’s new strategy. “We’re going to really concentrate on areas that build more directly on our unique capabilities of service and intellectual property licensing,” said Gibbons. “We’re going to discontinue all development and manufacturing of our preshow advertising systems, our Kodak screen management servers, our Kodak theatre management systems and what I refer to as our role as a feature systems integrator, putting the packages together and marketing the packages.”
Acting as a systems integrator has been the most visible part of Kodak’s digital cinema business up until now. Moving forward, Kodak Digital Cinema will instead develop and license digital cinema technologies to be commercialized by others while continuing to provide services and support for existing systems. Though Kodak may not be manufacturing preshow video players any longer, they will continue to prepare and distribute preshow content and playslists.
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Popularity: 12% [?]
As if theatre owners didn’t have enough to worry about with studios shrinking release windows at every opportunity, they may soon have to start worrying about moviegoers bypassing the real bread and butter of any exhibitor’s business, or more appropriately the popcorn and butter. A new study conducted by the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest and released earlier today reports that the food items found at most movie theatre concession stands are incredibly unhealthy. Lab tests revealed that eating a medium popcorn and soda combo from Regal Cinemas was the equivalent of eating three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter. For those with a more of an interest in nutrition, that’s 1610 calories and 60 grams (three days’ worth) of saturated fat.
The CSPI report also found that the candy sold by most exhibitors is no better. An extra large box of Junior Mints contains 570 calories and 8 grams of fat. Raisinets are 420 calories and 11 grams of fat. M&Ms may be tiny but they pack in 790 calories and more than a half a day’s supply of saturated fat (16 grams). Then there’s the calorie king of all movie theatre confections, Reese’s Pieces which are loaded with 1,160 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat. To hammer the point home the study compares the intake of such candy to eating a 16-once T-bone stake with a buttered baked potato as a side order. It’s a miracle that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’s heart was still able to glow after downing all those Reese’s Pieces in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster back in the early 1980s. The alien rightfully should’ve keeled over from a heart attack according to CSPI.
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Popularity: 10% [?]
Last Thursday when the Motion Picture Association of America made public an ex parte communication they sent to the FCC in defense of a waiver request it caused a flurry of headlines about studios going to war with exhibitors over release windows. To be sure, the letter sent by the MPAA’s lawyers, as well as the press release they sent out the same day directly refer to release windows. The headline of the press release boldly reads “MPAA Seeks FCC Okay For Transmission of First Run Movies Directly To Consumers”. However the MPAA may simply be hiding behind the concept of protecting content during shortened release windows as camouflage for their true motive; securing high definition digital content as it is distributed into the electronic ether of the home by controlling which devices can playback and display the content.
The MPAA’s letter was sent as a rebuttal to a communication sent to the FCC in October by Public Knowledge arguing the waiver not be granted. PK (as they are often referred to) is based in Washington D.C. and considers and is a public interest group that focuses its efforts on digital technology. The second paragraph of the MPAA’s letter and third paragraph of the press release reads in part:
As MPAA has detailed throughout this proceeding, grant of the waiver would for the first time allow millions of consumers to view high-value, high-definition theatrical films during an early release window that is not available today. MPAA has explained that release of this high-value content as part of an earlier window, especially with respect to movies released for home viewing close to or even during their initial theatrical run, necessarily requires the highest level of protection possible through use of SOC.
Ignoring the reference to SOC for the time being (I’ll get to it in a bit), one can see how the phrase “close to or even during their initial theatrical run” might make motion picture exhibitors angry enough to storm MPAA headquarters. It didn’t help that outgoing MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman is quoted in the press release saying:
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Popularity: 10% [?]
Let’s face it, while mainstream media might be screaming about an economic recovery, times are still tough for many businesses all over the world. That is especially true for trade shows. No matter the industry focus, attendance at global conventions has dropped in 2009 by more than 25% in most cases. Just look at attendance at some of the annual confabs the motion picture industry holds; the Sundance Film Festival down 11%, ShoWest down 15%, NAB down 20%, the Cannes Film Festival down 30% and IBC in Amsterdam down at least 7%. That may be why at ShowEast, which was held in Orlando, Florida from October 26th to October 29th, the talk amongst delegates was as much about the trade show’s attendance as it was about 3-D, digital cinema and the upcoming blockbuster release “Avatar”.
While such conversation tends to feed on itself ultimately making mountains out of mole hills, Robert Sunshine, the Vice President of Nielsen Film Group which organizes the event, readily admits attendance at this year’s ShowEast, like most conventions around the world, was down roughly 20%. “It’s numbers that we don’t like to see,” said Sunshine. “We attribute it to the economy and we also attribute it to the fact that there are lots of [industry] conventions, there’s the major convention, ShoWest, and certain people don’t have the money to attend all of these shows so they are picking and choosing where they go.”
Another factor Sunshine might not be considering is that digital cinema is maturing, growing out of its infancy and into adolescence. The technology is responsible for one of the greatest, if not most disruptive, transitions the motion picture exhibition industry has ever seen. By now, there has been some shakeout in the number of companies who entered the digital cinema space, and those that remain are naturally looking to augment their marketing plans. This is a common trend in emerging markets and industries, though unfortunately this phenomena is taking place in digital cinema during a record setting recession.
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Popularity: 10% [?]
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