The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume
All films in wide release playing between October 15 and October 21 grossed a decent $158 million, up 4% from the four-year average for the week and up 13% from the same week last year.
The past six weeks are now 4% above the four-year average box office average and fully 9% above the same six-week period last year. Year to date box office (now over $8.0 billion for wide-release films) is still running 5% above both the average for the same period the last four years and last year at this time.
| Domestic Box Office Volume: All Wide-Release Films through October 21, 2012 | ($ millions) | 2012 vs 2011 | 2012 vs 4yr Avg | |||
| 2011 | 4-year Average | 2012 | ||||
| Week #42 | $140 | $153 | $158 | +13% | +4% | |
| Past Six Weeks | $756 | $794 | $824 | +9% | +4% | |
| Year to Date | $7,675 | $7,675 | $8,075 | +5% | +5% | |
Weekend Actuals versus Studio Estimate
As is usually the case, actual opening weekend figures released today did not look as rosy as the estimates released by the studios Sunday morning.
Paranormal Activity 4 came in officially at $29,003,866 for its opening weekend, down 4.0% from the Paramount estimate Sunday, as the studio stretched to claim the film opened with more $30 million.
Alex Cross came in at $11,396,768 in its opening weekend, down 3.0% from the Sunday estimate.
Argo, in contrast, opened officially with $16,445,475 in its second weekend, down a more reasonable 1.1% from the Warner Brothers estimate.
Updated Estimates of Final Grosses
The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Grosses (the estimated North American gross when the film ends its run) are summarized below for films released the last six weeks. Pay attention to the final domestic grosses, which are much more important than individual weekend grosses and especially weekend rankings.
| Updated ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final Estimates | Domestic Final Gross ($ millions) | percentile | |
| Hotel Transylvania | 146 | 88 | |
| Taken 2 | 133 | 86 | |
| Argo | 92 | 75 | |
| Looper | 70 | 64 | |
| Pitch Perfect | 69 | 64 | |
| Paranormal Activity 4 | 62 | 60 | |
| Sinister | 51 | 51 | |
| Here Comes the Boom | 44 | 48 | |
| End of Watch | 41 | 45 | |
| Resident Evil: Retribution | 41 | 45 | |
| Frankenweenie | 40 | 44 | |
| Finding Nemo 3D | 39 | 43 | |
| Trouble with the Curve | 36 | 36 | |
| House at the End of the Street | 31 | 29 | |
| Alex Cross | 27 | 26 | |
| Seven Psychopaths | 20 | 16 | |
| The Master | 17 | 12 | |
| Dredd 3D | 13 | 7 |
Weekend Predictions for October 26-28 should be posted Wednesday. This weekend features the openings of Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (horror from Open Road Films), Fun Size (comedy from Paramount), Chasing Mavericks (sports drama from Fox) and Cloud Atlas (Warner Brothers).
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