Monday, May 10, 2010

Iron Man 2 Is Kicking Off The Summer!

The summer movie season kicked off with the thunderous opening of the eagerly awaited super hero sequel Iron Man 2 which hauled in an estimated $133.6M over the Friday-to-Sunday period making for the fifth biggest debut of all-time. Paramount released the Marvel production in a mammoth 4,380 theaters including 181 venues with IMAX screens making it the widest bow in history edging out the 4,366-theater release of The Dark Knight in July 2008. The new Tony Stark film averaged a scorching $30,502 per site.

Hollywood's only blockbusters to open bigger were Knight with $158.4M, Spider-Man 3 with $151.1M, The Twilight Saga: New Moon with $142.8M, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with $135.6M. Iron Man 2 registered the largest debut in company history for Paramount beating Shrek the Third's $121.6M and was second-best among May titles behind another Marvel sequel launching over the first weekend of the month - the third Spidey flick.

Robert Downey Jr. once again played the title role with Jon Favreau directing and Gwenyth Paltrow co-starring. New players this time for the $170M production were Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Don Cheadle. Samuel L. Jackson's cameo in the first installment was expanded into a supporting role this time giving the actor the coveted 'and' credit. Rourke snagged the almost-as-cool 'with' credit. Numerous promotional partners added marketing muscle to the campaign including Burger King, Audi, 7-Eleven, Dr. Pepper, Oracle, and Hershey's Reese's brand.

Fans powered the first Iron Man to an opening of $102.1M (including Thursday night shows starting at 8pm) two years ago over the first weekend of May ahead of a leggy run that reached $318.4M. The sequel's opening was 31% better and benefitted from 7% more theaters, two years of ticket price increases, and the addition of an IMAX release which took advantage of higher ticket prices. IM2 set a new record for biggest 2D IMAX opening with $10.2M from 181 screens beating the $8.5M from 138 of last May's Star Trek, also a Paramount release.

As with its predecessor, Iron Man 2 scored an encouraging A grade from CinemaScore indicating great satisfaction from paying audiences. Critics were not as enthusiastic this time around but in general reviews were good, especially for a comic book sequel. Exit polls showed that 60% of the crowd was male and 60% was over 25. Friday kicked off with a stunning $52.3M in ticket sales including $7.5M in Thursday night post-midnight shows, Saturday dipped 11% to $46.5M, and Sunday is estimated to slide by 25% to $34.9M. The metal man accounted for a whopping 78% of all sales for the top ten movies this weekend as competition hardly existed and rival studios steered clear of releasing anything big against it.

Overseas, where the Stark gang debuted a week earlier, ticket sales hit an estimated $57.2M this weekend lifting the international tally to $194M. That makes for a massive $190.8M global weekend gross and a $327.6M cume to date worldwide in under two weeks. Even with large sequel-type declines in the weeks ahead, Iron Man 2 should have no problem zooming past the $582M global haul of its predecessor paving the way for a third chapter which Marvel is already planning.

Freddy Kruger took a tumble as expected. The horror remake A Nightmare on Elm Street fell a sharp 72% in its second weekend to an estimated $9.2M putting it in a distant second place. It was a larger sophomore fall than those for other fright redos like Halloween (64%) and Prom Night (58%) but did not reach the incredibly high 80% crash suffered by Friday the 13th last year. With $48.5M in ten days, Nightmare should end up with a solid $60-65M nearly matching the $65M of the Jason remake.

Holding up well yet again in its seventh weekend of release was the 3D sensation How To Train Your Dragon which slipped only 36% to an estimated $6.8M boosting the hit toon into the double-century club with $201.1M to date. A final domestic take of $220-225M seems likely.

Fox's leggy comedy hit Date Night followed with an estimated $5.3M in its fifth weekend, down only 30%, for a $80.9M cume to date. The Jennifer Lopez pic The Back-up Plan dropped 40% to an estimated $4.3M giving CBS Films $29.4M thus far.

Summit's family flop Furry Vengeance fell 40% to an estimated $4M resulting in a poor ten-day tally of just $11.6M. Clash of the Titans took a big hit from Iron Man 2 tumbling 61% to an estimated $2.3M. After its sixth frame, the Warner Bros. 3D adventure has banked $157.8M.

Chris Rock's latest comedy Death at a Funeral followed with an estimated $2.1M, off 49%, for a $38.3M sum for Sony. The Losers ranked ninth collapsing 69% to an estimated $1.8M with $21.5M to date for Warner Bros.

# Title May 7 - 9

Theaters Weeks
Cumulative Distributor










1 Iron Man 2 $ 133,600,000

4,380 1
$ 133,600,000 Paramount
2 A Nightmare on Elm Street 9,170,000

3,332 2
48,530,000 Warner Bros.
3 How To Train Your Dragon 6,760,000

3,003 7
201,093,000 Paramount
4 Date Night 5,300,000

2,734 5
80,854,000 Fox
5 The Back-up Plan 4,345,000

3,003 3
29,415,000 CBS
6 Furry Vengeance 4,000,000

3,002 2
11,622,000 Summit
7 Clash of the Titans 2,305,000

2,157 6
157,808,000 Warner Bros.
8 Death at a Funeral 2,100,000

1,706 4
38,323,000 Sony
9 The Losers 1,800,000

2,450 3
21,450,000 Warner Bros.
10 Babies 1,576,000

534 1
1,576,000 Focus

No comments: