Spider-Man Boxoffice thread

[Dutchy]

I guess I start a general topic for this.

It made an estimated $46M in its third weekend, according to Boxoffice Mojo. That's just a 36% drop, even lower than last weekend. Especially with AOTC opening as well, that's an amazing figure.

[CMJ]

I know...I'm beginning to consider the possibility it may actually win the summer. I never thought it would REALLY hold on this well, especially after that opening.

[Dutchy]

Yep, $46M in a THIRD weekend... amazing. On the other hand, no matter how well it's doing, if it keeps dropping at this LOW (!) rate, it'll still make barely over $400M. Fantastic of course, but it also shows how hard it is to make that much money.

[CMJ]

Yep..."Titanic" is safe for probably at least five more years I'd say. I mean "E.T." held the record for what....15 years?? I see the boat having a similar tenure at the top.

[Dutchy]

Yup, Titanic was a true phenomenon. Man, now that was an exciting boxoffice run to follow. That was actually how I got interested in tracking boxoffice figures.

[CMJ]

Yeah "Titanic"'s run was really exciting and amazing. I've followed figures since the summer of '93 and "Jurassic Park"(a film I desperately wanted to take "E.T." down). I was like 14(turned 15 that summer) and had always LOVED Dinosaur's...loved the book...loved the film(with reservations of course, since it wasn't as good as the book) and loved the possibility os seeing that record fall. Alas JP came up short, but I've followed the numbers ever since.

[Jedieb]

What impresses my about that 36% drop is that it came against AOTC opening weekend. I would actually look for the drops to level off a bit in the next few weeks. Spidey will have the benefit of working off lower weekends and that should make it easier for to sustain some momentum. I think it's going to be much closer between these two films than anyone ever considered. We'll have to wait and see how AOTC's first non holiday weekend holds up. I think both movies will pick up an artificial boost with Memorial Day weekend.

[Quadinaros]

I'm just happy that these two movies are lifting the box office to another level without killing each other.

To me there was no sign that Spidey was hurt by AOTC opening, nor AOTC hurt by Spidey still doing well.

Hey, they're both great movies!! :D

[Darth23]

Actually Spiderman had the second worst drop of any movie in the top ten. Scorpion King dropped 44%, but the other movies had drops in the 20's. Changing Lanes only went down 18% from the previos week.

So maybe Spiderman WAS affected. :eek

Memorial Day weekend will be huge fro both movies, I think.

[Jedi Master Carr]

yeah I notcied that Darth. One thing that I think will happen is AOTC will win overall, Spiderman won't do that well overseas, I see people predicting it will make 300 million overseas and thats it, and I think that seems about right that would give around 700 million WW. AOTC will be closer to a billion.

[Jedieb]

A 37% drop from a record setting second weekend against a new SW movie is a fairly strong hold IMO. I think we're going to have a very close battle for the #1 spot this summer.

[JMK]

This is astonishing. We were all saying how AOTC was going to massacre Spidey, but it looks like it will be a close race, certainly not the blow out alot of folks were expecting.

[Dutchy]

$45M actual, according to Boxoffice Mojo. A 37% drop.

[Jedieb]

And still the highest 3rd weekend in history, breaking the mark held by Titanic. Did anyone expect Spidey to do that the same weekend that AOTC opened?

[Dutchy]

Spider-Man grossed $7.3M on its 4th Friday. That's a 37% drop from last Friday, its lowest Friday decline yet.

It gained 261 theaters, by the way.

[Jedieb]

I think there's no doubt that Spidey will out gross AOTC now. Again, who'd a thunk it?

[flagg]

I think the real victim in this contest will be my enjoyment of the film. Before the summer, I was looking forward to Spider-Man as a fun appetiser before the main course of AOTC. But since the release date has been pushed back where I live til June 14th, I'll be seeing Spidey with AOTC already on my mind. The fact that Spidey has got better reviews and seems to be outperforming AOTC at the box office may subconsciously make me hate the film. It's like The Matrix stealing TPM's thunder, but even worse.
I hope that doesn't happen.

[JMK]

Don't let that happen Flagg. Spider Man is a good movie, it's really alot of fun. I guess #1 for the year just wasn't in the cards for AotC. Heck at this point, LOTR or HP may be able to beat it.

[Dutchy]

Spider-Man broke TPM's fastest to $300M record of 28 days and set it to 22 days.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/fastest300.htm

[jjwr]

I read that the screen count for Spiderman was upped this weekend to 3800+....whats the deal with that? How often do huge releases like this get their screen count upped on their 4th weekend?

They possibly paranoid about AOTC so they bumped the screen total? Or just trying to squeeze as much cash out of it as possible.

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by Dutchy
It gained 261 theaters, by the way.


Originally posted by jjwr
I read that the screen count for Spiderman was upped this weekend to 3800+

Where the hell did you read that? ;)

[CMJ]

JJ...alot of times big films get their screen counts upped when they hit a holiday weekend, even if they've been in wide release for sometime. "There's Something About Mary" comes to mind which got it's screen count upped by like a third when it hit Labor Day weekend..and the film had been out for like 6-7 weeks.

[Dutchy]

And then in its (TSAM's) 8th weekend it went to number 1 for the 1st time in its boxoffice run. A phenomenal achievement.

[CMJ]

That films BO run was really remarkable.

[JMK]

I think everyone was stunned by its revival at the BO. That's the best example of good word of mouth that I can think of.

[Master Yoghurt]

This is how Spiderman's 4'th weekend looks so far..

Friday: 7.3M
Saturday: 11.4M

4 day total seems to land in the mid 30's

[CMJ]

I know...it's really, really shocking how well this flick is holding up(to me at least).

[Dutchy]

Yeah, it's at $300M+ and still having $10M+ days!

[CMJ]

I never thought it was gonna break 300M...now 400M is almost a certainty.

*shakes head*

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well if it finishes in the mid 30's then it will finally have that 50% drop, I think it will drop big next weekend because they will probably lose a lot of screens because of their agreement with movie chains. I also find it odd that the chains let Sony put Spiderman into more screens considering how poorly it did compared to Insomina and AOTC (I mean per screen average) I bet three were a lot of half empty theaters for Spiderman this weekend.

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by Jedi Master Carr
Well if it finishes in the mid 30's then it will finally have that 50% drop

Last weekend it had $45M, so only a gross in the low 20's would give it a 50% drop. So what do you mean?

Of course this weekend being a Holiday weekend can't be quite compared to last weekend, but that's not the point.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I didn't say it right, if it grosses in the mid 30's for the 4 days that mean that it probably made 25-28 for the 3 day period so that would give it about a 45% drop which would be the biggest drop it has had to this point and could be a clear sign that it is losing some steam.

[Dutchy]

Fri-Sat increases: 53.2%, 69.1%, 57.2%
Fri-Fri declines: 49.5%, 40.5%, 38.5%
Sat-Sat declines: 30.1%, 34.4%, 42.8%

So its Fri-Fri deline was the lowest, its Fri-Sat increase was the 2nd highest (or lowest) and its Sat-Sat decline was the highest of its run. All in all I'd say it's losing a lil steam indeed, though not much. That is, according to these numbers.

[CMJ]

I know, I know. You know I still don't sense the "Spiderman" craze though...it's kinda wierd. Most big flicks you can kinda sense it in the air and I really haven't with this one.

[Dutchy]

Hmmm... you sense a 3167 in the air then? ;)

[CMJ]

LOL, not at all Dutchy...it's just odd. That's all I was saying, dont go overboard. :P I believe the numbers are legit. I don't know maybe I don't have the pulse of the movie going nation anymore. ;)

[Dutchy]

Well, I DO sense a 3167. For instance, take a look again at those numbers:


Originally posted by Dutchy
Fri-Sat increases: 53.2%, 69.1%, 57.2%
Fri-Fri declines: 49.5%, 40.5%, 38.5%
Sat-Sat declines: 30.1%, 34.4%, 42.8%


Nuff said.

[CMJ]

LOL...you're going all Jon Nash on us now...looking for number patterns that aren't there. ;)

[Dutchy]

Okay, I admit it, it's kind of a lame excuse to get a piece of Jennifer Connelly. ;)

[CMJ]

LMAO...hey that's cool man, she is quite a looker. ;)

[JMK]

She is sooooo hot....how do you think my girlfriend got me to see it so easily? ;)

[CMJ]

LOL, Kyle. I'd actually looked forward to the movie because I thought it looked really good...she was an unexpected bonus.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I didn't since the Spiderman thing either, I still seeing dying down, it will pass JP but I think it will end up being the 5th grossing film of all time probably halling in between 400-420, but WW, it might not make 800 or just barley do it, I think it will do like ET and do poorly overseas.

[CMJ]

Considering when it came out..."E.T." did great oversea's. It was the #1 film WW till "Jurassic Park" unseated it.

[Jedieb]

I can sense Spidey excitement in the air. I hear people talking about the movie, my son, (who I haven't taken to the movie because I think some of the scenes are too intense for him) is Spidey crazy right now. My wife just saw an ad in the paper which has a local furniture store using a costumed Spiderman to help bring in customers. We think my son will get such a kick out of it that we're going by there tomorrow.

[CMJ]

Thats cool Jedieb. You're son will prolly love it. At the Grauman's theatre they have a dude that's dressed as Spidey messing with all the tourists looking at the hand and footprints in the cement(which is kinda strange since "Spiderman" isn't playing there)

I mean...I sensed excitement for the film a few weeks ago ...but I mean looking at it's BO run, I really haven't sensed THIS level of enthusiasm. I mean this is crazy...I sensed more excitement for "Harry Potter" than this! Like I said, maybe I'm just totally outta the loop on this one.

[Jedi Master Carr]

ET did well? I guess its numbers just don't look good any more, I know its no where near the top 10 in overseas gross, a lot of films have passed it. I still don't think Spiderman will do very well overseas, the movie seems more US centric, because its about NY, comic books are mostly American like baseball, etc. It just doesn't have the appeal to those in Europe, Asia, etc.

[CMJ]

I looked it up...it's #16 on the list. Considering that during the early 80's the international scene was pretty meager in comparisson to now(not to mention inflation) I'd say "E.T." was pretty massive.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Just curious where is ANH? I am surprised it did that well of course I was probably thinking of the release which did awful overseas I don't think it hardly made any money.

[CMJ]

SW:ANH is #14 on the list, based in no small measure on the '97 rerelease of the films.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I kind of figured the rerelease helped it.

[Jedieb]

If Spidey averages drops of 35% then it should cross the $400M mark but fall short of TPM. If it manages drops of only 30% it might still fall short of TPM with a gross of around $420M. The only way I can see it passing TPM is if we start to see some holds in the 20%'s. If we see a few of those then $450 is a possibility. But if the drops continue to fall in the 30% range then TPM should be safe. There's something that might cheer some people up.

[flagg]

I've got a question for those who have seen Spidey. Who's the better heroine: Mary Jane Watson or Padme? I like Kirsten Dunst, but from what I've seen from the trailers she looks like the typical damsel in distress. I think Lucas is great at writing strong female characters and I'm surprised critics don't give him more props for that.

[JMK]

Dunst is a total damsel in distress for the whole movie.

[Darth23]

Originally posted by flagg
I've got a question for those who have seen Spidey. Who's the better heroine: Mary Jane Watson or Padme? I like Kirsten Dunst, but from what I've seen from the trailers she looks like the typical damsel in distress. I think Lucas is great at writing strong female characters and I'm surprised critics don't give him more props for that.

That would mean the media would have to say he good as something that doesn't involve special fx or toys. :p


Kirsten did have that one good kick in the alley - but mostly sehe gets rescued. She was also Parker's muse (I guess you could use that term) - inspiring him to do great things.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Spiderman dropped more than 35% this weekend (if you don't count Monday that it is) Since I can't find the weekend numbers I am guessing it had a 40% drop at least maybe more no higher than 45% no. That is steep and a lot of people though it would hold better on Memorial Day, I think we can expect a big drop again next weekend, it will defintely fall under 30 million maybe even under 20 million. I am guessing it will be close to 20, maybe 20-23 range.

[Jedieb]

Dunst was a better romantic interest, but Padme was definitely a more aggressive character IMO. Mary Jane isn't meant to be a heroine, she's meant to be a love interest.

[Darth23]

Dunst was bouncier, anyway.

[Jedi Master Carr]

That is why I never liked Mary Jane she is stereotypical Damsel in distress, I always liked Felicty Hardy (AKA Black Cat) better at least she could beat up a few bad guys.

[Jedieb]

I always liked Mary Jane better. Darth23 pretty much summed up why. :evil

[Jedieb]

Everyone once is awhile we mention screen averages. If you look at them closely you can really see just how great Spidey has done. With more theaters and screens it should have been at a disadvantage in comparison to AOTC. But look at how each of their first 12 days have played out:

Number of $12,000-$13,000 averages
AOTC 0 Spidey 1
Number of $10,000-$11,000 averages
AOTC 0 Spidey 1
Number of $9,000-$10,000 averages
AOTC 2 Spidey 0
Number of $8,000-$9,000 averages
AOTC 0 Spidey 2
Number of $7,000-$8,000 averages
AOTC 2 Spidey 0
Number of $5,000-$6,000 averages
AOTC 2 Spidey 2
Number of $4,000-$5,000 averages
AOTC 1 Spidey 0
Number of $3,000-$4,000 averages
AOTC 1 Spidey 1
Number of $2,000-$3,000 averages
AOTC 3 Spidey 3
Number of $1,000-$2,000 averages
AOTC 0 Spidey 2

Spidey's Average
5366.25
AOTC Average
5307.08

That they're that close tells the story. By comparison, I have no doubt that AOTC's screen average pummels a wide release like HP and TPM's is probably higher even without adjusting for inflation. But for Spidey to be slightly ahead at this point tells me why it'll end up winning the summer. On a side note, both ANH's and ESB screen averages for those first 12 days would pummel these films because neither was widely released at first. ROTJ was the first SW film to have a wide release.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Felicity is bouncy too, look at her in that Black cat costume :)