U.S Box Office Report - 16th - 18th December 2005

As mentioned in the first line, Vemsie took over box office duties while I was moving house. Hopefully his report isn't too much better than mine.

1. King Kong - $50.1M - $66.2M
2. The Chronicles of Narnia - $31.2M - $112.5M
3. The Family Stone - $12.7M - $12.7M
4. The Goblet of Fire - $5.95M - $252.5M
5. Syriana - $5.5M - $22.3M
6. Walk the Line - $3.62M - $82.5M
7. Yours, Mine and Ours - $3.4M - $45.1M
8. Brokeback Mountain - $2.9M - $3.3M
9. Just Friends - $2.0M - $29.4M
10. Aeon Flux - $1.7M - $23.1M

I've taken over from Goose until he returns. Thank for the trust buddy, I'll try to live up to your high standards.

As predicted, Kong reigned supreme at the US box office this weekend. It's 5-day haul was ten million less than Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, but more than expected after a slow start on Wednesday and Thursday. Fears that the big ape would bomb can be put to rest, as the film took $146.200.000 worldwide in 5 days. This means the acclaimed $207 million blockbuster will break even sometime next week. But where will it go from here?


Strong word of mouth and no real challengers to it's throne will almost guarantee a strong performance during the holidays. And bear in mind that Titanic only openend to $22 million...While it probably won't come even close to that behemoth, it does seem to have steady legs. It's Thursday drop was about 35 percent, which is less than Fellowship's 4 years ago. For those interested: Fellowship's total domestic gross was $313.364.114. Will Kong top that? Hard to tell at this point but my guess would be 'no'.

Narnia continued to do good business in the shadow of it's hairy rival, as it shot past the $100 mark domestically. It will be interesting to see how it holds up after dropping more than 50 percent last week though. The domestic box office of this expensive fantasy film ($180 million) now stands at $112.516.000.

The Sarah Jessica Parker dramedy The Family Stone proved to be a good alternative to all the fantasy out there. Though it gathered far from stellar reviews it proved to be quite the hit among women in particular. Being one of the few films targeted towards that demographic means it'll probably continue to do well for a while.

Which is exactly what Potter is doing for quite sometime now. The young wizard is still able to work some magic, though he isn't powerful enough to prevent children from seeing the White Witch or King Kong. It did pass the $250 million mark however, surpassing The Prisoner of Azkaban in the process. It's on it's way to $700 million worldwide. A true blockbuster.

Joaquin Phoenix continues to Walk the box office Line as another $3.2 were added to the pile. The well reviewed Johnny Cash biopic has now made $82.544.000. A huge hit, considering it 'only' cost $28 million to make.

The geopolitical thriller Syriana (starring George Clooney) opened strong but seems to be losing steam quite rapidly. It had a 53% dropoff from last weekend, more than most films in the top 12. It still has a long way to go if it wants to earn back it's $50 million production budget. Here's hoping it does, cause films that dare to take risks and say something are a rare breed these days.

Things could be worse than a 53% dropoff though. Case in point: Aeon Flux. The $62 million Charlize Theron vehicle had the biggest dropoff of them all: 63.3%. Aeon Flop it is then. The movie won't earn back it's budget in the US and worldwide audiences don't seem to be hor for it either.

Speaking of hot...gay cowboys seem to be quite the attraction. The Ang Lee directed Brokeback Mountain is one of the Oscar favorites and had the biggest average per screen of all films currently out there: $34,188 (Kong in comparison had an average of 'only' $14,054).

Critics tore it to pieces but Memoirs of a Geisha continued to do well on just 52 screens. It's done $2.2 million so far and had the highest theatre average after Brokeback Mountain.

The Producers took home $156,000 from 6 theatres. Good, but not stellar. The word on it? It's not very good.