Nothing fake about Avatar at the Box Office

As anticipated, the world of Avatar ruled the universe at the box office with $73 million, $3 million more than experts predicted. Thursday night’s midnight showing was the highest ever 3-D opening with $3.5 Million. With positive reviews and strong word of mouth, Avatar will surely dominate throughout the holiday. The Princess and the Frog took a big hit down to $12.2 million. The Blind Side continues another strong weekend at $10 million bringing it’s total to almost $165 since it’s opening. Twilight is quickly dissappearing but not before raking in $274 million.

1		Avatar Weekend gross: $73M Total Gross: $73M
2		The Princess and the Frog Weekend gross: $12.2M Total Gross: $44.7M
3		The Blind Side Weekend gross: $10M Total Gross: $164.7M
4		Did You Hear About the Morgans? Weekend gross: $7M Total Gross: $7M
5		Twilight: New Moon Weekend gross: $4.4M Total Gross: $274.5

AVATAR midnight opening totals and celeb comments

Avatar is finally here and hordes of sci-fi nerds and James Cameron fans will be out in droves to experience the long anticipated 3-D adventure. But no screening could be as cool as one held on Wednesday night. Cameron threw a private viewing party inviting his peers and other industry professionals to critic his new work. Variety Magazine reported these comments: 

Michael Bay: “Avatar puts you in another world, and that’s the highest praise.”

Michael Mann: “There’s before this movie and after this movie.”

Steven Spielberg: “The most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since ‘Star Wars.’

“Simpsons” creator Matt Groening: “I feel like this is a landmark in the history of cinema: it’s great storytelling using completely artificial means.”

Wow, I bet that was some party.

Avatar’s Thursday midnight totals were 3.5 million dollars in 2000 theaters (most in 3-D). Twilight: New Moon holds the current record at 26.3 million. We also have to remember the mega-hit Titanic (opening same weekend in ‘97) opening day was less than 9 million. It went on to be the highest grossing film of all time at 600 million domestically.

First reviews of Avatar coming soon. Check out our other posts on Avatar.

The princess is crowned queen at the box office

The new Disney animated tale is treated like royalty coming in at $25 million. This is fairly lackluster for the once king of the animated kingdom. However with little competition, it easily landed in number one. The Blind Side continues to surprise with another strong performance at $15.5 million bringing it’s total to an unexpected $150 million. Not bad for a movie budgeted at only $29 million. I guess no one saw the Blind Side coming. Invictus had very poor opening weekend totals at $9 million.

1		The Princess and the Frog Weekend gross: $25M
2		The Blind Side Weekend gross: $15.5M
3		Invictus Weekend gross: $9.1M
4		Twilight: New Moon Weekend gross: $8M
5		A Christmas Carol Weekend gross: $6.9M

Hit from the Blind Side (Box Office Dec 4-6th)

The Blind Side comes back with an extremely strong 3rd week in release overtaking the juggernaut, Twilight: New Moon (both released on Nov 20th). It’s obvious that strong word of mouth and overall positive message helped bring its total to $130 million in just a few weeks. Twilight still beat all competitors raking in over $250 million domestically. However, it’s no doubt that The Blind Side took a ’bite’ out of Twilight’s profits. Great to see a movie about hope and justice doing well at the theaters.

1		The Blind Side Weekend gross: $20.4M
2		Twilight: New Moon Weekend gross: $15.7M
3		Brothers Weekend gross: $9.7M
4		A Christmas Carol Weekend gross: $7.5M
5		Old Dogs Weekend Weekend gross: $6.9M

New Moon edges out The Blind Side at Box Office

While New Moon continues to dominate the past two weeks at the box office, The Blind Side comes out of nowhere with an even stronger 2nd weekend (+18%). This is unusual for any ‘non-holiday’ movie. Obviously strong word of mouth helped it to almost take 1st place over force of nature New Moon. It be interesting to see if it can take first place in its third week, which is unheard of. Good luck to The Blind Side!

#1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $42,500,000 -70 10 4,042 $10,515 $230,700,000 N/A #66

#2 The Blind Side Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $40,100,000 +18 10 3,140 $12,771 $100,200,000 N/A #436

#3 2012 Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $18,000,000 -32 17 3,444 $5,226 $138,800,000 N/A #222

#4 Old Dogs Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $16,800,000 N/A 5 3,425 $4,905 $24,000,000 N/A N/A

#5 Disney’s a Christmas Carol Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $16,000,000 +30 24 3,013 $5,310 $105,400,000 N/A #388

Twilight converts the weekend masses

#1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $140,700,000 N/A 3 4,024 $34,965 $140,700,000 N/A #211

#2 The Blind Side Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $34,510,000 N/A 3 3,110 $11,096 $34,510,000 N/A N/A

#3 2012 Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $26,500,000 -59 10 3,408 $7,776 $108,221,000 N/A #369

#4 Planet 51 Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $12,600,000 N/A 3 3,035 $4,152 $12,600,000 N/A N/A

#5 Disney’s a Christmas Carol Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $12,230,000 -45 17 3,578 $3,418 $79,790,000 N/A #590

2012 annihilated the world

#1 2012 Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $65,000,000 N/A 3 3,404 $19,095 $65,000,000 N/A #790

#2 Disney’s a Christmas Carol Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $22,325,000 -26 10 3,683 $6,062 $63,289,000 N/A #822

#3 The Men Who Stare at Goats Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $6,200,000 -51 10 2,453 $2,528 $23,376,000 N/A N/A

#4 Precious Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $6,090,000 +225 10 174 $35,000 $8,914,000 N/A N/A

#5 Michael Jackson’s This Is It Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $5,100,000 -61 19 3,037 $1,679 $67,211,000 N/A #749

The King of Pop…and of the weekend

#1 Michael Jackson’s This Is It Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $21,300,000 N/A 5 3,481 $6,119 $32,510,000 N/A N/A

#2 Paranormal Activity Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $16,540,000 -22 38 2,404 $6,880 $84,780,000 N/A #527

#3 Law Abiding Citizen Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $7,300,000 -41 17 2,764 $2,641 $51,380,000 N/A N/A

Top grossing horror movies of all time

Happy Halloween from the crew of BabbleOn 5. In honor of the ‘day of the dead’, we wanted to list the top 5 horror movies of all time. The classic beast movie, Jaws has been at number one for over 30 years! Jaws reminded the world that it was not safe to go back in the water. With the exception of Mummy Returns, the top movies are all classics in their own right. Personally, I was relieved that ‘McMovies’ like the SAW franchise did not earn its way past a masterpiece like Exorcist. So if you are looking for a good scary movie to watch tonight with friends, you won’t go wrong with one of these. Have a scary and safe Halloween!

Rank	Title	Studio	Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office1	Gross Domestic Box Office
1	Jaws (1975)	UNIVERSAL	$795,369,426	$260,000,000
2	The Exorcist (1973)	WARNER BROS	$686,631,452	$232,671,011
3	The Sixth Sense (1999)	BUENA VISTA	$357,566,366	$293,506,292
4	The Mummy Returns (2001)	UNIVERSAL	$221,650,716	$202,019,785
5	Jaws 2 (1978)	UNIVERSAL	$215,603,340	$81,766,007

Paranormal Activity scares back to #1

#1 Paranormal Activity Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $22,000,000 +12 31 1,945 $11,311 $62,480,000 N/A #832

#2 Saw VI Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $14,800,000 N/A 3 3,036 $4,875 $14,800,000 N/A N/A

#3 Where the Wild Things Are Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $14,420,000 -56 10 3,735 $3,861 $53,960,000 N/A #995

#4 Law Abiding Citizen Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $12,713,000 -40 10 2,890 $4,399 $40,318,000 N/A N/A

#5 Couples Retreat Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $11,097,000 -36 17 3,074 $3,610 $78,213,000 N/A #598

Box office gone wild…

This Wk	Last Wk	Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks	# of Theaters
1	-	Where the Wild Things Are	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$32,470,000	$32,470,000	1	3735
2	-	Law Abiding Citizen	Overture Films	$21,250,000	$21,250,000	1	2890
3	4	Paranormal Activity	Paramount Pictures	$20,163,000	$33,717,000	4	760
4	1	Couples Retreat	Universal Pictures	$17,949,000	$63,339,000	2	3009
5	-	The Stepfather	Sony Pictures Entertainment	$12,300,000	$12,300,000	1	2734

Love conquers zombies in the box office

#1 Couples Retreat Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $35,340,000 N/A 3 3,000 $11,780 $35,340,000 N/A N/A

#2 Zombieland Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $15,000,000 -39 10 3,038 $4,937 $47,801,000 N/A N/A

#3 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $12,000,000 -24 24 2,992 $4,011 $96,251,000 N/A #446

#4 Toy Story Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $7,674,000 -39 5,073 1,752 $4,380 $22,676,000 N/A N/A

#5 Surrogates Gross Weekly Change Days In Release Theaters Average Total Worldwide US All Time $4,115,000 -43 17 2,992 $1,375 $32,572,000 N/A N/A