WEEKEND ACTUALS: Hanna Sneaks Into Second Place at the Wire

 Compared to the Sunday Studio Estimates, the actual weekend numbers were actually a touch higher for Hanna, while lower (which is more typical as studios often “round up” on Sundays) for Soul Surfer, Arthur, and Your Highness.  The most interesting swing occurred between Hanna and Arthur.  On Sunday, Warner Brothers optimistically estimated Arthur would edge Hanna for second place by about $200,000, but the conservative estimate for Hanna by Focus/ Universal ended up being closer to the truth and Hanna wins the crown among the openers.  But keep in mind that Hanna still only did $4,880 per theater (almost exactly the two-year average for opening weekends).  Soul Surfer did a similar number per theater ($4,789), while Arthur ($3,731) and Your Highness ($3,380) were quite weak.

      Weekend of         Thursday     Sunday      Monday

In limited release, Blank City was the best of the bunch, opening with a solid $13,989 at 1 theater.  Meek’s Cutoff opened with an average $10,012 at 2 theaters.  In the more mediocre range, American: The Bill Hicks Story opened with $5,872 at 1 theater, and Born to Be Wild opened with an average $4,156 at 206 theaters.  No Eres Tu, Soy Yo was weak with an average $2,606 at 226 theaters. 

 The Past Week

Shifting our view from the weekend top 12 films to the past seven days, all films in wide release playing between April 4 and April 10 grossed $142 million, down 10% from the 2007-10 average for the comparable week and down a tough 25% from the same week in 2010.  Year to date, all films remain down 8% from the comparable four-year average and down 21% from 2010’s box office numbers. 

The Next Four Weeks

As we discussed yesterday, the next few weeks could show some year to year gains instead of the 10-25% declines we have gotten used to since January.  The table below compares this year’s releases versus last year’s for the next four weekends.  Generally speaking, there is more commercial potential in 2011 for the next three weekends.  However, the first weekend in May is Thor vs Iron Man 2 in the yearly comparison, and the advantage should shift back to the 2010 side of the ledger.  We’ll have a complete look at the rest of the important summer season (which begins in May) coming soon.