Final Weekend in Poor 2005 Shows Some Life

January 3, 2006

The New Year's Eve weekend helped 2005 go out on a strong note, even though four of the top five films missed Friday's predictions. In total, the weekend saw earnings of $150 million, which was up 35.2% from last week and 2.0% from last year. However, the overall box office for 2005 was down roughly 5% from 2005, which marks the worst year-to-year drop-off since 1984-1985. We'll have more details on the year at the end of March when the State of the Industry address is given at ShoWest.

As expected Narnia retook the box office crown from King Kong, but it just missed its predicted box office with a four day total of $33.7 million. Even so, it has already matched initial expectations with $225.7 million and it still has plenty of life left in it, so there's little reason for the studio not to be happy.

When King Kong opened with just $9.8 million on its opening day, it looked like the $207 million film could be a financial disaster. In the past few weeks it has recovered somewhat, and while it won't hit the heights many predicted, it should still show a healthy profit. This week it moved one step closer to that goal with $31.8 million over the four-day weekend for a running tally of $174.6 million.

Fun With Dick and Jane overcame soft midweek numbers, and managed to stay in third place with $21.0 million over the weekend and $64.6 million in total. The good news is that there's not much in the way of competition this coming weekend, so the film should remain in the top five one more weekend. Just the same, it won't make the kind of box office one would expect from an $85 million movie.

On the other hand, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 cost half as much, and with $18.9 million this weekend and $54.7 million in total, it is already well on its way to showing a profit. It's another film that should beat initial predictions, but not by enough to warrant another sequel. But if they did, I predict Tom and Kate would adopt a kid, and the movie would be called Baker's Dozen.

Rumor Has It's performance matched expectations nearly perfectly with $11.8 million over the weekend. But its total of $26.9 million so far is still well below expectations. It is unlikely that the film will match its domestic box office internationally, which means it will have to wait until the home market for the bulk of its revenue.

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Filed under: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, King Kong, Fun with Dick & Jane, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Rumor Has It