Weekend Wrap-Up: Sky High Start

November 13, 2012

Most people were expecting Skyfall to be a monster hit, but the film actually beat great expectations. Its opening helped the box office grow by 25% from last week to $173 million, which was 26% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2012 reached the $9 billion mark and not sits at $9.10 billion. By comparison, at this point in 2011, the total box office was $8.72 billion giving 2012 a 4.4% lead over last year.

Skyfall opened on Thursday with an estimated $2.2 million while over the weekend it pulled in $88.36 million for a total opening of $90.56 million. This is the biggest opening for a Bond movie, even if you take into account ticket price inflation. Additionally, with 91% positive reviews and an excellent internal multiplier, there's a very good chance the film will have very strong legs and become the first film in the franchise to reach $200 million domestically. There's no doubt they are already working on yet another installment of the franchise.

Wreck-It-Ralph was also on the high end of expectations with $33.01 million over the weekend for a total of $93.65 million after ten days of release. At this pace, the film will cross the century mark by Friday. On the plus side, there are holidays coming up and the film should still be in 3,000 or so theaters when Thanksgiving arrives. On the negative side, there is direct competition arriving for Thanksgiving. Unless the production budget was a lot higher than estimated and / or the film fails to find an audience internationally, it will earn a profit before it hits the home market.

Flight added $14.79 million the weekend and now has a running tally of $47.46 million. By comparison, Unstoppable opened this time in 2010 and at this point in its run, it had $41.87 million, while it finished with $81.56 million. Flight will probably miss out on $100 million, but it could be really close.

Argo's running tally grew by another $6.62 million over the weekend reaching $85.58 million. It remains on pace to reach $100 million, but it will need a little boost from Thanksgiving to get there.

Taken 2 landed in fifth place with $4.01 million giving it a total of $131.3 million.

The only film in the sophomore class to not reach the top five was The Man with the Iron Fists, which plummeted 67% to seventh place with $2.59 million. I didn't think Skyfall would have this big of an effect, as it was aimed at an older demographic. Its running tally is just $12.82 million, but it was a relatively inexpensive film to make and could break even sometime on the home market.


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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, The Man with the Iron Fists, Taken 2, Skyfall, Wreck-It Ralph, Argo, Flight