Box Office Actuals (6/3/11 - 6/5/11): "X-Men" Are Indeed "First Class"

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Despite landing the weakest opening attendance-wise in the "X-Men" film series to date, "X-Men: First Class" ruled the top of the box office weekend with an opening weekend tallied at $55.1 million. While this does exceed the opening of the first film in the franchise speaking strictly in a dollars-and-cents capacity (2000's "X-Men" started with $54.5 million), simple inflation would tell you that a lot more people saw that film in its first 3 days then this one. Was it the absence of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (save a hilarious and winning cameo by Jackman), the fact that James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and a 2011 Kevin Bacon are not bankable box office commodities, or simply attrition with moviegoers on this series?

Eyes turned to the success that another fifth film in a series experienced when "Fast Five" conjured up $568 million worldwide. Fox was optimistic that they would deliver a healthier number than they did, hoping in the mid $60-low $70 million range. Executives were saying all the right things regarding the opening, indicating that this "X-Men" is a starting over or relaunch of a series and pointed to the opening of "Batman Begins" ($54.5 million) as more of a reasonable comparison. Regardless, the film may have opened to strong reviews, but will struggle to make back its $160 production budget on the domestic side of the ledger, especially with the eagerly anticipated "Super 8" looming in a few short days.

"X-Men" proved to be the only major opening of the weekend, but how did other independent films fare? Did Woody Allen deliver a third impressive return with "Midnight In Paris"? How did Terrence Malick's "Tree Of Life" expand? Details and the Top 40 after the cut!

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Increasing to 147 screens, "Midnight In Paris" continued to amaze by ramping up business by nearly 44% and grossing $2.8 million and an impressive $18,843 per screen average. With a huge summer blockbuster on the way this coming weekend, Super 8", and a family film, "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer!" starting on 2,000 screens, Sony Pictures Classics is going wide for "Midnight In Paris", placing it more than 750 screens this coming weekend. This is the test to see if Allen's latest can play well with middle America and smaller cities. Signs point to yes, but it will be interesting to see if the buzz the film has built can generate it a robust return with more exposure.

THE TREE OF LIFE

Looking past Allen's success, one must account for the strong and impressive second weekend for Terrence Malick's "The Tree Of Life". Moving from 4 locations to 20, the film nearly doubled "Paris'" per screen average to almost $31,000 a showing, sliding it into 13th place with a $618k weekend. Total gross is up and over $1.25 million in 10 days and the rollout continues with more cities added next weekend.

BEGINNERS

Oscar buzz has started to swirl around Christopher Plummer's performance in this heartfelt indie co-starring Ewan MacGregor as a man who not only learns that his 80-year old father has terminal cancer but is also gay. Director Mike Mills' highly personal adaptation of his own true story, and his first full length theatrical release since 2005's "Thumbsucker", started with an impressive $27,039 per screen average at 5 locations. Shot for a mere $3.2 million, Focus will slowly rollout "Beginners" and could end up with a nice arthouse hit on their hands if the film catches more and more eyes.

SUBMARINE

The Weinstein Company also had a nice opening with British comedy, "Submarine", which had a healthy $10k+ per screen average on a small 4 location breakout. The coming-of-age tale of a 15-year old wishing to lose his virginity while making sure his mother remains single won over critics with a Tomatometer on the mid-90s.

ADDITIONAL INDEPENDENT OPENINGS

Audiences were less than taken by a host of other small indie openings. Jean-Luc Godard's experimental "Film Socialsme" began with a decent $4,600+ opening in its one showing in New York City.

The drama "Beautiful Boy" starring Maria Bello and Michael Sheen as divorcing parents whose only child, an 18-year old, pulls a gun on fellow students at his high school, saw a demure $16,162 opening on 4 screens. Anchor Bay had made a pretty strong effort in advertising the film in big markets, so those numbers had to be disappointing.

REMAINING TOP 12 FILMS

After its huge start, "The Hangover Part II" hemorrhaged a worse than expected 63.5% in its second weekend to finish with $31.4 million for the weekend. The film still has banked nearly $200 million domestic in 11 days, and word came that "Part III" was indeed on its way.

All other films saw their attendance cut by 50% or more, with one lone exception...

"Bridesmaids" lost a little more than a quarter of its previous weekend audience, finishing with $12.0 million and $107.2 million overall.

THE DISCOUNT HOUSE

"Insidious" was the only noteworthy addition to the second run circuit and saw a modest 10% increase in its weekend haul. The film arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray July 12, 2011.

THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN

#1 Film - "X-Men: First Class", earned $55.1 million in its debut weekend.

Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "Shrek Forever After", held for a second weekend with $57.1 million

Biggest Per Screen Average: "The Tree Of Life", $30,915 at 20 locations ($1.25 million cumulative)

Worst Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil", $382 at 80 locations ($31k, $9.5 million cumulative)

Largest Increase (50+ Sites): "The Tree Of Life", +65.8%

Steepest Decline (50+ Sites): "Priest", -78.8%

Films Earning More Than $1m for the weekend: 8

Films Which Surpassed $100m: "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Bridesmaids"

Films Which Surpassed Reported Budget This Weekend (Domestic): N/A

The Top 40 and other notables!

TW	LW	DAY	FILM	WKD	TOTAL	% CHG
1	N	3	X-Men: First Class	$55.1m	$55.1m	New
2	1	11	The Hangover Part II	$31.4m	$185.8m	-63.5
3	2	11	Kung Fu Panda 2	$23.9m	$100.0m	-49.9
4	3	17	Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	$18.0m	$190.3m	-54.8
5	4	24	Bridesmaids	$12.0m	$107.2m	-27.3
6	5	31	Thor	$4.3m	$169.1m	-55.4
7	6	38	Fast Five	$3.2m	$202.0m	-50.6
8	7	17	Midnight In Paris	$2.9m	$6.8m	+43.6
9	8	31	Something Borrowed	$848k	$36.7m	-54.4
10	9	31	Jumping The Broom	$845k	$35.9m	-53.7
11	10	52	Rio	$739k	$136.7m	-59.1
12	12	45	Water For Elephants	$695k	$55.7m	-36.1
13	15	10	The Tree Of Life	$618k	$1.3m	+65.8
14	11	24	Priest	$376k	$28.7m	-78.8
15	13	38	Cave Of Forgotten Dreams	$346k	$3.3m	-19.7
16	16	94	Rango	$239k	$122.2m	-33.5
17	18	66	Source Code	$235k	$53.9m	-27.0
18	14	59	Soul Surfer	$204k	$41.7m	-49.1
19	20	59	Born To Be Wild IMAX	$188k	$6.3m	-24.2
20	24	45	Incendies	$184k	$1.2m	-7.8
21	27	66	Insidious	$180k	$53.0m	+10.6
22	21	66	Hop	$170k	$107.8m	-25.1
23	22	80	Limitless	$150k	$78.7m	-31.7
24	19	24	Everything Must Go	$146k	$2.4m	-46.6
25	17	45	...Madea's Big Happy Family	$144k	$52.6m	-56.9
26	23	59	Hanna	$144k	$39.8m	-34.2
27	N	3	Beginners	$135k	$135k	New
28	25	80	Win Win	$125k	$9.9m	-36.3
29	26	80	The Lincoln Lawyer	$112k	$57.0m	-41.3
30	29	73	...Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules	$106k	$52.3m	-34.4
31	30	87	Jane Eyre	$101k	$10.9m	-37.2
32	31	52	The Conspirator	$84k	$11.3m	-45.8
33	36	444	Hubble 3D	$79k	$25.4m	-19.2
34	33	52	Scream 4	$77k	$38.0m	-38.4
35	37	59	Meek's Cutoff	$69k	$723k	-28.8
36	51	157	Sea Rex 3D: Journey To A Prehistoric World	$65k	$2.9m	+67.1
37	41	38	13 Assassins	$57k	$538k	-31.1
38	35	31	The Beaver	$49k	$874k	-54.2
39	40	59	Arthur	$46k	$33.0m	-45.8
40	N	3	Submarine	$41k	$41k	New

BUBBLING UNDER INCREASES AND OPENINGS:

42. “I Am”, $39k, $1.4m total, RE-ENTRY

48. "The Last Mountain", $18k, NEW

50. "Beautiful Boy", $16k, NEW

52. “Certified Copy”, $12k, $1.3m total, +50.0%

55. “Rejoice And Shout!”, $7k, NEW

Circuit Round-Up, 06/05

* Last week, Joey Magidson published his long-awaited (and very conflicted) thoughts on The Tree of Life, while Mike Ward mostly dismissed The Hangover: Part II.

* Joey also recommended something dumb but fun for his DVD Picks of the Week.

* The awards season has barely started and John H. Foote already felt comfortable betting the house on Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

* I gave a controversial warning in response to the rapturously-received trailer for David Fincher’s upcoming remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

* Anna Belickis concluded her long-running series on “Dancing with the Stars,” with her predicted winner Hines Ward taking the Mirrorball.

* Anna also paid tribute to Dakota Fanning for Women in Cinema, almost a full decade after her first major film role in I Am Sam.

* Speaking of tributes, I celebrated the recent success and acclaim of actor Michael Fassbender.

* Finally, the weekend openings were previewed. As always, we love to hear what you saw and what you thought of it.

Box Office Actuals: Memorial Day 2011

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Delivering the 4th largest Memorial Day weekend opening of all time (without accounting for inflation), "The Hangover Part II" eclipsed $100 million in its 4-day weekend and has already moved well past $130 million in 5 short days. The film delivered the second largest 5-day count for an R-rated film, trailing just 2003's "The Matrix: Reloaded" ($139.4 million in 5 days) and sliding in just ahead of "The Passion of the Christ" ($125.5 million in 5 days).

Bulletproof to poor reviews, the Wolfpack drew a huge number, far exceeding optimistic expectations within the industry. With an estimated $59 million in foreign box office counts, "The Hangover Part II" has nearly grossed $200 million worldwide in approximately 120 hours! This is an extraordinary haul for the most eagerly anticipated film of the first half of 2011. The only remaining question comes with the second weekend, as the film will be seriously challenged by "X-Men: First Class" (June 3) and "Super 8" (June 10). The same audience will be tapped into for those films and we will see if this "Hangover" lasts a lot longer than one weekend.

Oh by the way...another sequel landed at the box office Memorial Day weekend and while these particular numbers would look good for many other films, Paramount and DreamWorks are reportedly disappointed in the $67 million domestic take for "Kung Fu Panda 2"'s first 5 days. Well received by critics and CinemaScore polling, "KFP2" performed well internationally, almost matching "The Hangover Part II"'s take and earning $124 million worldwide. Budgeted at $150 million, profit will not be an issue ultimately, but the all-important domestic figures hinge on a strong second weekend, which could happen depending on the demos who turn out for "X-Men", the only major opening next weekend. All of this taken into account however does not spell well for this "Panda" scoring the same $215 domestic/$631 worldwide bank of its predecessor.

Other notables, including a glorious "Midnight" and a sprouting "Tree", along with the Top 40 for the Memorial Day Weekend after the cut!



MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

After "Midnight In Paris" delivered a head-turning debut on 6 screens last weekend and handed Woody Allen and Sony Pictures Classics their largest per-screen average openings of all time, the film continued to make waves by vaulting into the Top 10 after appearing at a mere 58 locations. Gaining a staggering 326.6%, the film raised another $2.6 million over the holiday weekend.

I did not have the time to search back and locate what the fewest number of screens to ever produce a Top 10 film happened to be, but I will try and research this and post it in the comments below. "Midnight" continues to be universally loved by those who see it and might be in for a long run if these numbers can continue to climb with the screen counts. Already the film is garnering talk in Oscar circles and if it continues to draw through the summer, maybe Allen finds a spot in the 10? Alright...maybe that's a bit overreaching, but we shall see...

THE TREE OF LIFE

Terrence Malick's "The Tree Of Life" delivered a huge start for Fox Searchlight, better than what "Paris" accomplished for Sony Classics last weekend. In fact, its per screen average was the largest of 2011 thus far at the tune of $123,447 for a 4-day haul of nearly $494k. As indicated previously, the film is polarizing audiences but critics are largely on board with its complex and intuitive themes and images. Systemically rolling out week-by-week, the film will have reached its largest audiences by the end of June and "Tree", like "Paris" look to be alternative selections for older or more discerning audiences, when faced with pirates, green lanterns, hangovers, animated Pixar cars, X-Men, and aliens over the coming weeks.

BRIDESMAIDS

Impressively, "Bridesmaids" withstood the "Hangover" onslaught and with a larger than expected Monday turnout, slid less than 1% over the 4-day weekend. Banking another $21 million, the film has reached nearly $90 million and will surge past $100 million by the middle of the week.

REMAINING TOP 12 FILMS

With the cineplexes heavily attended, most of the Top 10 saw their 4-day numbers hold pretty strong. "Pirates Of The Caribbean" slid 44.7%, more than Buena Vista wanted, but still moved past $163 million stateside and $634 million worldwide. If not yet, the 5th film in the franchise is sure to be greenlighted and the $250 million budget is going to look like chump change for this film.

Interestingly, both "Something Borrowed" and "Water For Elephants" shed more than 1,000 screens each and still only suffered mid-30% drops over the 4-day weekend. Despite a disappointing start, "Something Borrowed" has held on admirably well, eclipsing its production budget with its domestic take this weekend; something thought unattainable initially. "..,Elephants" kept chugging along and banked another $1.4 million to raise its haul to $54.7 for its 6 weeks.

INDIES AND OTHER RELEASES

Werner Herzog's "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams" reversed its slide and improved 39% to finish 13th and raise its total gross to $2.8 million. "Dreams" needs just approximately $400k more dollars to eclipse Herzog's 2005 documentary "Grizzly Man" in becoming Herzog's biggest grossing non-fiction feature.

"Incendies" and "The Double Hour" continued to draw audiences as the slothed out to more cities and locations. At 72 sites, "Incendies" gained 39% and landed just under $1 million total in United States box office figures. "The Double Hour:" rose 76.6% moving to 58 sites and is also tracking towards grossing more than $1 million soon.

THE DISCOUNT HOUSE

With new and continued placements in second-run theaters, "Rango", "Hop", "Mars Needs Moms" and "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 2" all improved between 10-15%. "Scream 4" benefitted the most of its second-run status, gaining 69% from the previous weekend, but still grossing a paltry $592 per screen average.

THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN (4-DAY TOTALS)

#1 Film - "The Hangover Part II", earned $103.4 million

Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "Shrek Forever After", held for a second weekend with $57.1 million

Biggest Per Screen Average: "The Tree Of Life", $123,447 at 4 locations ($494k cumulative)

Worst Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil", $443 at 203 locations ($90k, $9.5 million cumulative)

Largest Increase (50+ Sites): "Midnight In Paris", +326.6%

Steepest Decline (50+ Sites): "Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil", -75.8%

Films Earning More Than $1m for the weekend: 12

Films Which Surpassed $100m: "The Hangover Part II"

Films Which Surpassed Reported Budget This Weekend (Domestic): "The Hangover Part II", "Thor", "Something Borrowed"

The Top 40 (with 4-day totals for the complete weekend) and other notables!

TW	LW	DAY	FILM	WKD	TOTAL	% CHG
1	N	5	The Hangover Part II	$103.4m	$135.0m	New
2	N	5	Kung Fu Panda 2	$60.9m	$66.7m	New
3	1	11	Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	$50.0m	$163.6m	-44.5
4	2	18	Bridesmaids	$20.7m	$89.3m	-0.7
5	3	25	Thor	$12.1m	$162.4m	-21.8
6	4	32	Fast Five	$7.9m	$197.3m	-25.3
7	13	11	Midnight In Paris	$2.6m	$3.5m	+326.6
8	6	46	Rio	$2.4m	$135.5m	-47.9
9	7	25	Jumping The Broom	$2.4m	$34.7m	-35.6
10	8	25	Something Borrowed	$2.3k	$35.2m	-35.2
11	5	18	Priest	$2.2m	$27.7m	-54.0
12	9	39	Water For Elephants	$1.4m	$54.7m	-36.9
13	17	32	Cave Of Forgotten Dreams	$577k	$2.8m	+39.0
14	11	53	Soul Surfer	$533k	$41.4m	-42.7
15	N	4	The Tree Of Life	$494k	$494k	New
16	19	88	Rango	$456k	$121.8m	+15.3
17	10	39	Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family	$433k	$52.4m	-54.7
18	18	60	Source Code	$403k	$53.5m	-2.2
19	14	18	Everything Must Go	$352k	$2.2m	-33.5
20	27	52	Born To Be Wild IMAX	$312k	$6.0m	+28.0
21	25	60	Hop	$287k	$107.6m	+11.8
22	22	53	Hanna	$275k	$39.6m	-9.6
23	21	74	Limitless	$272k	$78.5m	-20.4
24	31	39	Incendies	$260k	$107.2m	+39.1
25	23	74	Win Win	$246k	$9.7m	-10.9
26	26	74	The Lincoln Lawyer	$239k	$56.8m	-5.9
27	36	46	The Double Hour	$208k	$783k	+76.6
28	29	81	Jane Eyre	$208k	$10.7m	-3.3
29	32	67	Diary Of A Wimpy Kid...Rodrick Rules	$205k	$52.2m	+10.9
30	28	46	The Conspirator	$198k	$11.2m	-18.5
31	16	60	Insidious	$197k	$52.8m	-58.6
32	40	46	Scream 4	$155k	$37.9m	+69.3
33	12	188	Tangled	$136k	$200.8m	-85.1
34	30	25	The Beaver	$133k	$793k	-29.2
35	15	32	Prom	$129k	$9.9m	-74.4
36	41	438	Hubble 3D	$127k	$25.3m	+44.0
37	38	81	Mars Needs Moms	$122k	$21.2m	+15.7
38	42	53	Meek's Cutoff	$121k	$627k	+43.2
39	35	109	Gnomeo And Juliet	$113k	$99.6m	-9.8
40	44	32	13 Assassins	$111k	$450k	+53.3

BUBBLING UNDER INCREASES AND OPENINGS:

44. “I Am”, $83k, $1.4m total, +0.1%

45. “The First Grader”, $75k, $157k total, +96.0%

47. “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”, $67k, $568k total, +61.1%

48. “Bill Cunningham New York”, $63k, $1.1m total, +27.1

49. "L'Amour Fou", $55k, $184k total, +35.4