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It’s 20th Century Fox vs 20th Century Fox. So reports big online ticketseller Fandango as of 11 AM PT. James Cameron’s Avatar continues to be a strong seller on Fandango (and 32% of Avatar filmgoers surveyed on the site say they’ll see it more than once). But Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is actually outselling the sci-fi epic in ticket sales today when it opens. Avatar is going into its 2nd weekend Friday. Also today Paramount’s Up In The Air is opening wide. Fandango says The Squeakquel has turned out to be Fandango’s top family pre-seller of 2009. Its advance ticket sales were greater than advance ticket sales for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Up, and The Princess and the Frog.
Overall, here’s the order:
1. Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (52%)
2. Avatar (33%)
3. Sherlock Holmes (5%)
4. Up In The Air (2%)
5. The Princess And The Frog (2%)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I am suprised to find CHIPMUNK fans can operate computers…
Nikki: Can I say TOLJA? Please? Pretty please?
The Chipmunks vs The Smurfs. I feel 12 years old again!
Saw this this afternoon. Packed with families. I grew up on Alvin as a kid and absolutely hated the first movie but figured I’d give this one a shot because I’ve seen everything else. Tell you the truth, this one was BETTER than the last, but then again that is not saying much. ** out of ****. It had cute parts and nothing was particularly cringe-worthy like OLD DOGS. I say this one makes close to the original due to the lack of competition and if audiences ate up the last one, they’ll eat up this one even more.
However, the trailers attached: CATS AND DOGS 2 3D, MARMADUKE, SPY NEXT DOOR, FURRY VENGANCE, TOOTH FAIRY, man do I feel sorry about the state of kids movies. Even the kids didnt laugh at all and this was a packed theater. They laughed at Furry Vengance but that was it.
Off topic again, but why did they higher Amy Poehler, Anna Faris, Justin Long, AND Christina Applegate for the voices? No one can tell that its them and then they go cheap for the live action actors. Makes little sense to me, because I dont see any of the big names promoting this either.
The actors don’t make much for voice work. For instance $100,000 with increases if a movie does very well. Sometimes more, but hundreds of thousands is the range from what I’ve read. But it only takes a very short time for the talent to do this type of project. A day? A weekend? I think the studios do it because it pays off as a kind of relatively cheap advertising for the film. That’s my take.
I was at the supermarket, and the person in front of me paid $7.99 for a 3D singing Alvin & the Chipmunks greeting card. The last movies soundtrack, and the Chipmunks Christmas album are very high on Billboards Soundtrack and Kid’s Album’s charts (#1 on kid’s albums). The only thing keeping this movie from seriously challenging Avatar’s weekend gross is it’s wednesday opening, which will siphon off weekend support.
Well they did say if Avatar failed The Squeakquel would be there secret weapon
I’ve seen Up in the Air and it left me with a sour taste. It wasn’t funny and it wasn’t pithy. I can’t imagine that this is going to get a strong word of mouth from those who see it during the Christmas break.
It seems like the type of movie that critics feel obliged to like, but it’s empty and soulless.
I recommend “Crazy Heart”.
Jackie–then you missed the entire point to this film. I suggest you read breakdowns of the film, and then go back and see it again. Then you will appreciate the moral of the film.
KDM
Sure is frustrating, reading a post and having to wonder whether the author is either (one or the other), a shill, or a film novice? I’m pretty sure which you are.
I have a hard time keeping idle when the shills come out and not only try to convince someone who was not impressed by a work with problems, that their eyes and ears were playing a trick on them, and then to boot you also try to sell her another movie ticket. Like the film itself, your jargon could use another rewrite to achieve believability.
Up in the Air will not have strong word of mouth. AVATAR – just saw it – believe the hype. Alvin 2 – it’s on my list. My daughter was crazy excited just from the one sheet. How could I not take her?
@Jackie. People are going to flip out when they see Up in the Air. Have no idea why Paramount marketed it as a comedy. It’s really anything but.
Re: the ‘munks. Fox 2000 is just crushing it. I wonder when Carla gets a bump somewhere else.
Alvin is released 2 days before Sherlock (and Avatar has been out a week), so would that account for online tickets selling faster?
Note how Princess and the Frog fell down? Diversity might be a nice buzzword, but the overwhelmingly White tween female audiences for that sort of Disney movie likes to see themselves in it, or totally cartoon (i.e. Lion King).
I saw on FT that Avatar’s weekend grosses were about 50% or so from the 3-D IMAX theaters. How sustainable is that (in other words, has everyone who wanted to see it already pretty much seen it?)
My guess is Holmes and Alvin are the big Christmas movies, the latter for kids/families and the former for adults.
Why do some white people get so worked up over the Princess movie? Its got a black princes, get over it. Can’t there be a black princess!
Oprah`s been on TV for 20 years Jerry. you sound pretty smart; guess what color the vast majority of her audience is….but this may not qualify. These same people may have elevated her to a queen.
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions and theories, but yours really is kind of a silly theory, considering that: 1) “Mulan” did $120M, 2) “Aladdin” did $217M, 3) those films certainly featured a “diverse” cast, and 4) by the terms of your own theory, then, “Princess” should attract the white tween crowd since the main characters are both “totally cartoon” – after the first fifteen minutes, they’re BOTH frogs!
I was deeply skeptical going in to see Avatar, but Cameron pulled it off. What a film! The effects were amazing, and the story was effective. I know the story has come in for some criticism, but there is nothing wrong with a simple story well told – and that is exactly what Cameron delivers. Most people I’ve spoken to plan to see it again. Avatar will do great business long term – and good luck to the pirates – the immersive 3D experience is only really effective in theaters. Buy a bootleg – lose out.
This was a brave move by Cameron – a half billion dollar flop could have killed his career. Instead he is king of the world. This is the kind of movie Spielberg should be making – not wasting his time with sequels and remakes. Same goes for Peter Jackson, JJ Abrams, Bryan Singer and their ilk. Bring us universes and characters we haven’t seen before, not ‘safe-bet’ re-imaginings of well-known TV shows, remakes of ancient movies, and retreads of eighty-year-old comic characters (Nolan exempted; Begins and Dark Knight were exceptional and count as new universes because he tore up the Batman play book).
Show us things we haven’t seen before – it’s what got people going to the movies in the first place and it is what will get them going again. Cameron has blazed a trail for others to follow. Take some risks, guys.
You’ve gotta be kidding me!
Interesting fact but that change the fact that Alvin and the CM will gross probably $80-120 million… and Avatar has just passed $100m in just 5 days. $32 million between Monday and Tuesday alone.
It seems that lots of moms must use Fandango.
After earning an impressive $16.4 million domestically on Monday, James Cameron’s Avatar added another $16.1 million on Tuesday! That’s the second-highest number for a non-opening film ever (behind The Dark Knight’s $20.9 million) and third-biggest Tuesday of all-time, trailing only The Dark Knight and Transformers, which opened on a Tuesday in 2007 and earned $27.9 million.
The blockbuster film has now reached $109.5 million in North America after just five days in theaters.
Overseas, the 20th Century Fox release has reached $191.8 million for a worldwide total of $301.3 million already.
That ought to make those haters/trolls pulling false “Avatar disappointed” statements out of their asses eat crow and it’s only started for the movie.
And you delusional scrooges have no right to call me a fanboy and apologist because I.HAVE.YET.TO.SEE.IT. I’m just stating the facts.
Marketing on the “Squeakquel” has been spot-on with the pre-teens, who are all out of school and already bored out of their minds. And they mainlined into the girls by introducing the girl chipmunks squeaking that Beyonce cover in the TV ads.
This is like a McDonald’s kind of movie – kid-driven, junk, but the parents take ‘em to placate ‘em for a couple of hours.
As soon as school’s back in, this movie exits stage-left to DVD.
Fox has nothing to worry about with Avatar.
@Jackie
“I’ve seen Up in the Air and it left me with a sour taste. It wasn’t funny and it wasn’t pithy. I can’t imagine that this is going to get a strong word of mouth from those who see it during the Christmas break.
It seems like the type of movie that critics feel obliged to like, but it’s empty and soulless.”
Are you sure your talking about “Up In The Air” & not “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”? I hope you weren’t expecting Apatow material or something from it. Sorry but it’s sounds you were ill-advise in what you were seeing. Critics are not obliged to like it. It’s liked because it hits the marks of the 26 elements of film storytelling as Jason Reitman knows the craft of film. The problem with the sizable portion of today’s public is most people don’t know a solidified film if it hit them in the face & the Box-Office has nothing to do with quality films. That’s a fact.
P.S. Oh! by the way, “Up In The Air” is one of the best films of 2009 & has been on pretty much on every top 10 list this year.
-Jackie-
Up In The Air- empty and soul-less?
I felt completely different…..I saw a screener, actually felt like I would go see it again, and pay for it.
I hope the chipmunks beat George Clooney to hell.
“Wah! Clooney is a liberal! I’ll skip it and watch Alvin. I don’t care about quality and how bad Alvin is! I just don’t want someone in the movie who’s a political loudmouth! Wah!”
This is what I read in your post. You sicken me.
“Die Avatar! Die!”
- Just thought I would put in some James Cameron dialogue…
How is Sherlock Holmes tracking? Third place opening doesn’t boon well for multi-sequel franchise material and RDJ said he was retiring to do these and Ironman movies exclusively now…