CAA Signs ‘Robocop’ Joel Kinnaman 
Cannes: Fleming Q&A With Steven Soderbergh: … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
UPDATE: Broadcast Nets Expand Nightly News For Tornado … 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Up … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ric Robertson Taking Paid Summer Hiatus From Movie Academy … 
‘The Big C’ Finale Airs On Showtime Tonight 
Obama Scandals Bring MSNBC 7-Year Low While Fox News Rises 
Season Finale Of CBS’ ‘Mike & Molly’ … 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
DreamWorks Eyes January For ‘Glimmer’ And Dylan … 
Warner Bros TV & ‘Smallville’ Co-Creators … 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
UPFRONTS 2013: TV Spinoffs’ Almost Perfect Year 
OSCARS: Animated Feature Rule Change 
Cannes: Relativity Sets ‘Hunger Games’ Liam … 
Cannes: Park Chan-wook’s ‘Sympathy For Mr. … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Yahoo CEO Foresees Big Opportunities To Sell Ads On Tumblr 
SUNDAY AM, 7TH UPDATE: Both Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Warner Bros) as well as Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (Fox) badly trailedthe openings of their previous installments. (Sherlock 1/$62.3M vs Sherlock 2/$40M and Alvin 2/$48.8M vs Alvin 3/$23.5M.) The Robert Downey Jr-starring and Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock 2 total included $1.25M from 1,650 Thursday midnight shows. Audiences keep rejecting Hollywood’s sequels and threequels. Of course, the movie studios point out that both the last Sherlock and Alvin opened either on Christmas or after kids were already out of school. Execs are hoping to make up the difference before year’s end. But more pics will open, too, creating clutter. So if this weekend’s low grosses continue, then the domestic box office slump may very well ruin Christmas for Hollywood.
One bright spot is the new Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol which had the best major release per screen average all weekend helped by its higher IMAX ticket prices. It also opened with a huge $1.1 million playing on just 425 screens in 425 locations from Thursday evening through midnight shows. (As reference, M:I3 did $1.1M of midnight business on over 2,000 screens.) Wanna know why? Because it was goosed by none other than Warner Bros’ 6-minute The Dark Knight Rises preview on 40 of the 300 giant screen 70mm IMAX theaters. Paramount tells me that, because of strong early sales 
for midnight shows, IMAX asked to open Thursday evening to get the word of mouth started. Since Sherlock wasn’t booked into IMAX, Warner Bros couldn’t pair its ‘Batman 3′ prologue with its own product and lost a valuable marketing opportunity which went instead to Paramount on a silver platter. To say that Warner Bros was annoyed is an understatement. But there is a Dark Knight Rises teaser playing with Sherlock 2. The Tom Cruise-Jeremy Renner starrer directed by Brad Bird M:I4 expands this coming week — and then Hollywood will find out how the reformulated franchise fares on its own.
Here’s the Top 10. Full analysis in the morning:
1. Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows (Warner Bros) NEW [3,703 Theaters]
Friday $14.7M, Saturday $15M, Weekend $40M
2. Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (Fox) NEW [3,723 Theaters]
Friday $6.8M, Saturday $9.9M, Weekend $23.5M
3. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol 3D (Paramount) NEW [425 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Saturday $4.8M, Weekend $13M, Cume $13.6M
4. New Year’s Eve (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,505 Theaters]
Friday $2.5M, Saturday $2.9M, Weekend $7.4M (-42%), Cume $24.8M)
5. The Sitter (Fox) Week 2 [2,752 Theater]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.4M (-55%), Cume $17.7M
6. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Summit) Week 5 [2,958 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday, Weekend $4.3M, Cume $266.4M
7 Young Adult (Paramount) Week 2 [986 theaters]
Friday $1.1K, Saturday, Weekend $3.6M, Cume $4M
8. Hugo 3D (Paramount) Week 4 [2,532 Theaters]
Friday $1M, Saturday, Weekend $3.6M, Cume $39M
9. Arthur Christmas (Aardman/Sony) Week 5 [2,929 Theaters]
Friday $840K, Saturday $1.5M, Weekend $3.5M, Cume $38.5M
10. The Muppets (Disney) Week 4 [2,808 Theaters]
Friday $903K, Saturday, Weekend $3.4M, Cume $70.9M
Specialty Box Office: December 17-18
10:30 AM, 2ND UPDATE: Warner Bros is reporting that Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game Of Shadows opened to $1.25M from 1,650 midnight shows. That’s another very strong outing.
9:30 AM, UPDATE: It’s a holiday miracle considering how badly domestic box office has been slumping for the past five months. But now pent-up moviegoer demand for the big Christmas blockbusters — even though this weekend’s are three sequels — is looking to send grosses soaring. I’m told that, playing on just 425 screens in 425 locations from Thursday evening through midnight shows, the new Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opened with a huge $1.1 million. As reference, M:I3 did $1.1M of midnight business on over 2,000 screens. ”This is a great start,” a Paramount exec gushed. Of course, Paramount’s M:I4 grosses were goosed by none other than Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight Rises 3D preview footage in IMAX theaters alongside the Tom Cruise-Jeremy Renner starrer. “It’s a pretty compelling package,” Paramount tells me. “Given how strong early sales were for midnight shows, IMAX asked to open Thursday evening to get the word of mouth started. Since the plan was getting people to see the film early, we gladly said OK.” This weekend, M:I4 debuts in just a handful of theaters — 425 runs — alongside what’s expected to be the biggest opener this holiday season in a very wide release, Warner Bros’ Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game Of Shadows, as well as Fox’s Alvin And The Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked. Since Sherlock wasn’t booked into IMAX, Warner Bros couldn’t pair its Batman threequel prologue with its own product and lost a valuable marketing opportunity which went instead to Paramount on a silver platter. To say that Warner Bros was annoyed is an understatement. But I hear there is a Dark Knight Rises 2D teaser playing with Sherlock. More later today.
For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
why is hollywood so confused that their films aren’t doing as well as they’ve hoped? They’re either poor films or they’re incorrectly marketed. Adults are sick of Chipmunks and I imagine most are actively refusing to take them to see the new one. Sherlock Holmes will tank for three reasons, it’s trailers were lazy, people are fatigued of RDJ (who’s been in far too much, far too fast) and the BBC mini series of Sherlock that’s shown the public just how dumb Guy Richie’s films are. MI4? People DON’T LIKE CRUISE. He’s done. Finished. Bye bye Cruise! The only way he can start to rebuild is to get away from so many high profile would be blockbusters and get back to something small and indie where he can rebuild his cred. If people are going to MI4, it’s for batman, Brad Bird, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner or Tom Wilkinson. No sane human being is going for Cruise.
Why, you’re right! Just tonight at the multiplex, I overheard a bunch of teenagers talking about what movie they were going to see, and they eventually decided on “that new Tom Wilkinson movie!”
Puh-leeze. People obviously do still like Cruise in the right role/movie, and this weekend’s results prove MI:GP is that movie. Stop projecting your own hate onto everyone else.
Who the heck goes to see a movie because Tom Wilkinson is in it?
Apart from his direct family?
Jeez, I know the Cruise haters will be crawling out the woodwork in full force again to try an explain why any success ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ is NOT at all due to Cruise, but at least try and write something sensible when you do. I mean, if Smile1466 had just stuck to Brad Bird then they might have had something but……………..Tom Wilkinson?
Please.
Plus, it’s released around the multiplier friendly holidays. The buzz over the new Paramount logo (which looks gorgeous btw) and decent reviews doesn’t hurt either.
Besides, TC doesn’t bother me that much since he’s kept it quiet lately. Compared to a certain bigoted Catholic who threatened to bury his girlfriend in a rose garden, TC’s a freaking saint!
Seriously, the buzz around the new Paramount logo?
Seriously?
I’m loving how many Americans have this Tom Cruise is dead fantasy going on. The film where he played a one eyed Nazi took $200m and Night & Day $261m. Oh it’s a far cry from his bigger hits, but he’s hardly washed up. (Not the last movie star in the world either, Will Smith & Johnny Depp have much to say about that for starters.)
But even with the unwise tussle with Sherlock Holmes you’d have to think this will make $250m in the international market in its sleep. Likely much more than that.
I shall accept the criticism if I’m wrong there.
Exactly, Tom Cruise’s so-called “flops” make over $200 million worldwide. And no, Lions for Lambs is not a “Tom Cruise Movie.”
Your comment is soooooooooo naïve.
Do you think average moviegoers really know who Brad Bird is? Please. They might know Spielberg, they might know Cameron or Nolan, but NOBODY’s saying “Hey, I’m bored, let’s watch the latest film from Brad Bird!”. Directors from animated films are not famous. Without checking IMDb, lets see how many of you can name the maker of The Lion King, Aladdin or even a classic like Snow White.
Walt Disney?
Gustavo, I could answer that question when I was 15yrs old…before the internet.
TC got his shizz together and his peeps are returning in droves.. That and a solid script, fantastic physical stunts and BALLSY direction by the Birdman is why it’s going to be a very Merry Xmas for PP and TC. Also, wait till you see his work in ROA.. TC is gonna kill it!
Despite the great reviews, etc, I won’t see MI. I can’t watch Tom Cruise any more. Just. Can’t. Do. It. The damage has been done.
I just got in from “Young Adult,” and I was deeply disappointed. The trailer looked great, and the marketing made me aware beforehand that it wasn’t going to be a feel good, bad girl learns her lesson flick, but they completely missed the mark. The direction was flat and had no life, and the script was terrible. There was a great opportunity and story in there somewhere, but, as written and directed, it was completely not believable, therefore, not relatable. It’s a shame, because it really squandered a good opportunity.
I love the smell of astroturf on a friday night box office update.
That is pretty bad news all around. While I think Alvin might get to the mid-30s if it can hit 10 million for today and get a matinee boost, it seems like both of those films are opening below expectations. In addition to the release date, I wonder if not having an Avatar around hurts those two a little (both because they could get some extra business from Avatar sell-outs, and also because I feel a film that big energizes the marketplace in general), and unlike many other sequels that experienced drops in attendance this year, there is no 3D and/or IMAX tickets to help make up for some of the lost revenue on those two.
I also thought MI4 could go a bit higher after its midnight shows and it doesn’t seem like it will be among the biggest IMAX openings anymore, but I saw the film today and it is very entertaining and I expect it to have some legs.
It’s a bummer the box office is down, but on the bright side, Chipwrecked really deserved to underperform. I’m glad American audiences have more sense than they’re often given credit for. We’re in a recession, the holidays are approaching, people don’t need to be plunking down their hard earned cash for dreck like another Chipmunks movie. Also, this is a win for kids. They shouldn’t have their intelligence tainted nor should they be subjected to bootie shaking chipmunks and stupid toilet humor.
Agree movies are tanking cause they’re coming off disappointing previous installments. Audiences are sick of being screwed. Rather stay home.
No attention being paid to Young Adult tanking. 3.2 mil on close to 1000 screens means close to straight to VOD numbers. And those are the bigger and medium sized cities. I bet Mandate is soooo glad they’re doing that Diablo Cody directorial debut now. Maybe they can sell it to HBO. They seem to overpay for anything “quirky”.
“It’s early yet but audiences seem to be rejecting sequels and threequels. …”
Not at all. It’s not just the sequels and threequels. The economy sucks and there aren’t that many people who can afford to waste $10-15 a ticket on dreck that they can watch OnDemand or stream in another month.
This disconnect reminds me of Bush Senior in the grocery store, when he didn’t understand the price scanner. Hollywood is so out of touch with what people can afford it’s disgusting.
Wake up. It ain’t like you’d want it out there, and you’re going to need to adjust.
Spend less, charge less = more people in the theatres.
Otherwise, you’re just training the next generation to stay away from the theatre.
Then please explain 2009 when the economy was worse and Hollywood film uniformly exceeded expectations. You can’t keep trotting out films that audiences have no interest in and use the economy as an excuse. Hollywood needs to turn over almost every development person in town and get some people in their place who actually know the audiences they are serving.
I think that it is possible that in 2009 people were more optimistic about the future – they may have expected the worst of the recession to be over or may not have taken it very seriously at all and continued with their free spending life styles.
Bingo! We have a winner!
The most relevant comment on this thread.
That’s because once Avatar and Alice In Wonderland (Barf!) broke box office records, theatres went full retard and raised prices. My local bargain theater went up 50 cents because of this.
If Hollywood exceeded expectations, it was due to higher ticket prices. The percentage of the population attending films regularly is at an all time low, perhaps as low as 5% of the population.
The reviews thus far haven’t been stellar for the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and that is too bad. I was really hoping they could get a good script for this re-imagining of the character that looked so promising. However, its strong first outing is helping carry over to its current success (it may not be as good as the first movie, but it isn’t awful either). Robert Downey will get his when he stars as Iron Man again in next years Avengers (which by the way, is directed and written by Joss Whedon, that fact makes the nerd in me freak out just a bit).
After the second Chipmunks proved that the franchise couldn’t pull off another shock by being decent; like they did in the first movie, audiences apparently knew better. I can’t blame the sells it has gotten so far though, I was honestly expecting it to bomb. I guess kids need their movies too (there is Hugo and Arthur’s Christmas people, you don’t need to go to the Chipmunks. Teach your kids about tastes early, otherwise they might watch shows like Jersey Shore and X-Factor when they get older).
As for MI:3, they have done wonders with the marketing, I really have avoided anything Tom Cruise over the years, but I want to see this. I don’t know what they did exactly either… perhaps its Simon Pegg. I like me some Simon Pegg, and not to mention the reviews have been very positive. Dammit, I guess out of the three movies discussed here, that’s the next one on my must see list. Freakin’ Tom Cruise.
Audiences aren’t “rejecting sequels and threequels”, as you put it. Ennui might save MI-1,000, but they won’t buy garbage, even when wrapped with pretty faces (3-Musketeers, Sherlock Holmes).
There’s enough plants on this thread to create a forest.
HAHAHA YES
There’s an awful lot of hyperbole on here, especially from people who can’t separate an actor from a role (but at the same time probably willingly enjoy movies made by people who have killed others).
Have to agree with Bill and getaclue, but want to add onto it:
1) World moves faster than ever. J Edgar feels like it came out an eon ago. If it’s not imperative to see the first weekend, and the Word Of Mouth isn’t extraordinary, you’re only a few weeks away from it showing up on Netflix – for next to nothing.
2) At the same time we’re teaching the audience that if you wait a few weeks you can see it for much less, we’re adding to the economic disincentive to go the first weekend with high ticket prices. For a teenage boy to take a girl on a date is ~$40, with drinks, popcorn, etc. For a family of 4, it’s a small fortune, if you’re doing a 3-D kids film. So why not wait for a month or so?
Bottom line: DVD’s/VOD/Netflicks have an effect on the first weekend, in the alternative they offer. Moreover, the economy is worse than it was in 2009: Two years ago, you might have thought things will get better quickly, and splurged on a film. In 2011, things haven’t gotten significantly better – and you’re not so willing to splurge anymore — unless it’s something with amazing must see word of mouth. (I suspect Mission Impossible or Batman may achieve this. But maybe not.)
Finally, there’s the Brett Rater-itis of the whole thing: Too many crappy movies — which reinforce all the other points. By the ninth time you’ve seen the shot of the city street blowing up, with the hero outrunning the cop car/bus tumbling towards the camera — you don’t need to pay to see that anymore.
Glad to see Mission Impossible pull in big numbers. Brad Bird’s live action debut and the Dark Knight Rises scene were great showcases of the IMAX format. The Dubai sequence was breathing in IMAX and far more impressive than any 3D presentation this year.
Speaking of 3D, I think we can officially call Hugo one of the biggest bombs of the year.
Sherlock Holmes looks terrible, I have no idea why anyone would pay to see it. Tom Cruise is kind of a freak show, but he has an undeniable movie star quality, so I’m not surprised to see that movie do well, especially compared to all the garbage that has come out lately. Hollywood is just like network TV, an outdated industry that is incapable of producing anything of quality, it’s amazing that anyone pays 12$ to see such crap.
Mission Impossible can be one of those Oscar movies that are doing great in limited release on 20 screens. Making huge money “per theater”. And then next week it goes wide for some 400 theaters and it dies.
Mission will get 12 millions. All Batman fans will see their precious prologue. And then it might die next week end. I don’t know about the budget of Mission Impossible but I think it needs at least $120 millions overall. And we remember how Real Steel opened “big” with $27 millions and then it died and finished with $83.
Slooooooooooow moooooooooooooooooooo, way tooooooo much slooooooow mooooooooooo. Slow motion of planned actions, then slow mo of the actual “action”… too much of a good thing is a bad thing Mr. Richie. The goal of maintaining suspended disbelief is up-ended when the story’s pace is supend by forcing the audience to endure endless overcranked and repeative “action.”
Okay, everybody, calm down, hold your horses all you prophets of doom. It’s still a week until Christmas when Hollywood still has a chance to redeem itself. But if the ridiculously overcrowded cluster of blockbusters does indeed result in each overhyped, overpriced film cancelling each other out, take heart and take a lesson from what happened during the Depression (the one from the early 1930s, not the current one). One movie palace was ailing from such poor business that it offered its patrons an added bonus: Dish Night. Every Friday night, each patron would receive a utensil eventually adding up to a complete set of dinnerware. On the first Friday, the delighted moviegoers were each given a gravy boat. The next Friday, the theater manager apologized to the crowd that the advertised tea kettles hadn’t arrived and that they would instead be given another gravy boat that they should bring back with them the next Friday in exchange for the much-coveted tea kettle. So the same bunch of movie lovers, armed with their gravy boats, returned the next Friday and when the theater owner began to deliver his apology, the crowd stood up en masse and hurled their gravy boats at him. Reportedly, he escaped injury, but the silver screen behind him was demolished by that hurricane of flying crockery and the theater closed down indefinitely. There’s a moral to this story and all of today’s studio heads should take note: Keep on giving your paying moviegoers a steady supply of gravy boats (or, today’s equivalent, lousy movies) and eventually they’ll turn on you like the ungrateful swines you deem them to be. Happy Holidays!
“People actually really liked the first Sherlock Holmes. Not loved, but liked.”
Ah, but that is also the difference between a front-loaded two-weekend wonder and a pix/franchise with legs, no?
Sherlock Holmes was a hit because Avatar was sold out.
Those are the facts.
That’s insane, hipster. Stick to discussions about skinny jeans.
Maybe movie studios need to invest in theaters themselves, like they did during the old “movie palace” days in the 1930′s and ’40′s. Going to the movies in those days often meant visiting sumptuous, beautifully-designed buildings that made movie-going seem like a grand occasion and offered a physical as well as visual escape from the everyday. My, things are different now. I seldom go to movies anymore because, frankly, my own home system gives me a better movie experience: more comfort, better visuals and certainly better sound than I get at an average movie theater. Most theaters I do visit are just concrete boxes with no pleasing decor and dirty screens and cheap sound systems. Why should I wasted my time and money on that?
time to up the dosage…
sorry, the comment was meant for the previous poster. talk about crazy. scary..
IT’S TOO EXPENSIVE TO GO TO THE MOVIES!! Did ya’s ever think of that? There are few disposable $ in Obama’s America.
go away Alex, and please take your political nonsense somewhere else.
Yes, go away. Ugh, who are these people who pollute Deadline’s comment stream with off-topic political jabs?
Looks like Alvin hurt The Muppets more than it did the other films. The Muppets deserves so much more attention than it’s gotten.
Amy Adams doomed that movie. She is an old woman still pretending to be a young woman and it is gross. Watch her next in Man of Steel, where she pretends to be a 20 year old, even though she is really closer to 40 years old. Gross.
The only redeeming thing about your comment is how peculiarly specific it is. For some reason, at this one moment in time, you just had to share with the world your obvious distaste for Amy Adams. Mission accomplished, I guess.
Congratulations on a comment that is both wrong and offensive on so many levels.
But it’s completely factually right. Why Adams takes age inappropriate roles is a mystery. Being a decade older than her leading man isn’t helping her case either. She is beginning to smell of desperation.
Tom Cruise has been a decade older than all of his female co-stars for years? What’s your point?
Have any of you SEEN Henry Cavill?
Guy looks like a 50-year-old. Could even pass for Adams’s grandfather if lit incorrectly (it’s a Snyder film after all).
Well that’s depressing. I thought for sure things would pick up this weekend. Mediocre results for proven franchises are not encouraging. And Batman and IMAX charges likely did boost the MI:4 take somewhat. Hope things improve, but I’m not betting on it…
Look, the week before Xmas is a truly unpredictable time to open a movie. You can’t point to the opening until you get to the end. Sherlock opened just like Tron did last year and Tron was the #1 movie of the holidays when all was said and done. Yogi opened to 16 but got to 100. You can not judge the opening – you have to look at the multiple during Christmas. Sorry that you can’t instantly condemn something – but it’s true.