WEEKLY BOX OFFICE ACTUALS & YEAR TO DATE August 27-September 2

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The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume

All films in wide release playing between August 27 and September 2 grossed $133 million, fairly close to the same week last year (-2%) but up 7% from the four-year average for the week.  The past six weeks have actually been fairly close to the four-year average box office average, although it is down significantly (-10%) from the same six-week period last year (one of the few bright spots in 2011).  Year to date box office (now over $7.1 billion for wide-release films) continues to run ahead of both last year and the average for the past four years (up 5-6%).

Weekend Actuals versus Studio Estimate

Lawless came in officially at $10,001,982 today for the traditional Friday-Sunday period, up fully 3.4% from Weinstein’s conservative estimate for the weekend Sunday morning.  Like many of the returning films, Lawless enjoyed a more robust Sunday than usual.  

The two other openers, however, ended up being very close to their estimates.  The Possession came in at $17,732,480 for the opening weekend, exactly nailing the studio estimate (only $7,480 above the estimate or 0.04% over).

Similarly, Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure came in at $443,901 total for the weekend (0.9% below the Sunday estimate), and sealing its place in box office ignominy: the worst wide-release opening of all time and the second worst per theater opening ($206 at 2,160 theaters).

Updated Estimates of Final Grosses

The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Grosses (the estimated North American gross when the film ends its run) are summarized below for films released the last six weeks. Pay attention to the final domestic grosses, which are much more important than individual weekend grosses and especially weekend rankings.  That’s quite an unimpressive list of movies, with many under $50 million domestic and little chance of making money.  However, keep in mind the most profitable film on that list could be 2016 Obama’s America, with an extremely small budget and a limited marketing budget that relied on free coverage in conservative media outlets.