Narnia Helps Revive Box Office
December 12, 2005
As expected, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was easily able to win the weekend race but it was able to do so in such a fashion that it lifted the entire box office. Week-to-week the overall box office saw a mind-blowing 42.2% increase, while more importantly, it was up 15.2% from the same weekend last year. That helped cut the year-to-date deficit to 5%, which is still a significant drop-off, but not the disaster that it was earlier in the year.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe packed them in over the weekend earning $65.6 million, third best opening on the year and the second best December Opening every. Even with extreme competition, the film should have enough legs to beat original expectations while showing a healthy profit during its international run. On the down side, its reviews were not great. I would compare them to War of the World's reivews; good compared to most wide releases, but not good enough that the film will be remembered as an epic piece of filmmaking. Call it the curse of high expectations.
It wasn't as good of a weekend for Syriana as it managed just $11.7 million during its first weekend of wide release. Its Per Theatre Average and its reviews should help it expand a bit more, and that should still help it earn enough to show a profit by the home market. Maybe sooner if it can earn some nominations / awards along the way.
With its $10.3 million weekend, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire moved into second place on the yearly charts topping War of the World $244.1 million to $234.3 million. Next target is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and $250 million domestically.
Walk the Line added another $5.7 million over the weekend and now sits at $77.0 million overall. This will be the last weekend in spends in the top five, but the holidays / award season could see it through to $100 million.
Rounding out the top five was not Aeon Flux as expected, but Yours, Mine & Ours with $5.1 million. Aeon Flux came in sixth with $4.6 million, down nearly 64% from its opening. Yours, Mine & Ours has now brought in $40 million at the box office and should see a profit after its initial push into the home market, Aeon Flux, on the other hand, won't be so lucky.
Filed under: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Walk the Line, Yours, Mine and Ours, Syriana, Aeon Flux