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by Leonard Klady, published on July 18, 2010 - 20:12:11 It was a buoyant Inception as the mind bending thriller led weekend ticket sales with an estimated box office of $59.7 million. However there wasn't much of a spell for the debut of The Sorcerer's Apprentice that ranked third with an initial weekend of $17.5 million with the sophomore session of Despicable Me holding well with $32.6 million. In niche play there was scant applause for Standing Ovation - a yarn of a musical competition - with a single hand clap of $352,000 at 625 bandstands. Conversely French import A l'origine made off with a sweet heist of $480,000 from 56 venues. Exclusive debuts including Irish import Kisses and the non-fiction Henri-George Clouzot's Inferno were OK but short of stellar. Domestic box office crossed the $6 billion threshold Tuesday and the year to date is running about 14% ahead of 2009. The current weekend was about 9% superior to last year's comparable frame. In what might be characterized as a slow news week, pundits voiced some concern that Inception, a futuristic visual dazzler about mind control and hijinx, might have a difficult time finding audience support. However, as opening day approached crystal ball gazers predicted $70 million plus grosses that seemed over blown. The combo of Batman director and one of the genuine box office stars delivered on target revenues with exit polls showing not surprisingly a slight 56% male tilt and an audience skewing younger than 25 years old. Inception is getting a slow international roll out with the U.K. marking its first major opening with the solid $8.2 million launch. While expectations were modest for The Sorcerer's Apprentice, tracking indicated opening numbers in the mid-$20 million arena. It reached that level only with its advance b.o. from Wednesday and Thursday playdates. Summer 2010 has been dotted with high profile releases including Sex and the City 2, Prince of Persia and Knight and Day that failed to open with requisite momentum and continued to struggle to maintain screens and audience. Certainly the first two titles have been considerably more dynamic internationally but foreign box office recoupment is a considerably lower percentage than can be gained internationally and the season may wind up generating a high number of multi-million dollar write offs. Weekend revenues approached $175 million that translated into a 9% erosion for the immediate prior frame. The carbon copy percentage gain from 2009 was reflected against the debut of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's $77.8 million, 12 months back. The Kids Are All Right expanded nicely and the usual suspects of I Am Love, Winter's Bone and Cyrus continue to hold their ground while slowly adding screens to their larder. Source: www.moviecitynews.com |
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