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click here for last week's report
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Studio Marketshare, year to date:
An interesting turn of events this year, as last year's marketshare champ Warner Bros.
has so far failed to stay in the top five (8.7% share, $313.8m sales) in 2002, while
Sony, buoyed by the juggernaut Spider-Man tops all studios with a commanding
$740.1m in ticket sales. Newline, which finished in eighth place in marketshare in 2001
has also seen marked improvement, thanks mostly to its $300 million monster Lord of the Rings.
| |
Studio |
Mkt. Share |
Gross
(in millions) |
|
1 |
Sony |
20.5% |
$740.1 |
|
2 |
20th Century Fox |
15.0% |
$542.4 |
|
3 |
Universal |
11.7% |
$421.3 |
|
4 |
New Line |
10.3% |
$369.7 |
|
5 |
Disney |
9.9% |
$357.1 |
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Ben Affleck's turn as Jack Ryan crushed a disastrous third weekend from two-week champ Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones,
as The Sum of All Fears topped the box office with a final tally of $31.17 million.
Opening in 3,183 theaters for a per theater average of $9,795, Fears was the biggest opening ever
for a Tom Clancy film-adaptation, surpassing previous record-holder Clear and Present Danger, which
opened to $20.3 million back in 1994. 1992's Patriot Games -- which also starred Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan --
debuted with $18.5 million. Though reviews have been mixed (critics polled by RottenTomatoes.com
gave the film a mediocre 63% "Fresh" rating), audiences polled by CinemaScore.com were more favorable,
as most demographics rated the film between a B+ and A-. Paramount reportedly spent $68 million
to produce the film.
Continuing to fall well below the pace set by 1999's Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,
Episode II - Attack of the Clones fell a dreadful 56% from last weekend (second worst in the top ten),
finishing with $21 million.
To date, the $115 million budgeted prequel has grossed $232.3 million. Comparatively, The Phantom Menace
fell just 36% in its third week of release to $32.9 million
and $255.7m cumulative, becoming the fastest film to ever reach $250 million (just 17 days of release, a record
now held by Spider-Man's 15 days). To be fair, though word of mouth and repeat viewers are apparently not
as strong as hoped for Clones, Menace in its third week never had to deal with
a $31.2 million action film debut. Still, at its current pace (and with more blockbusters looming ahead),
Attack of the Clones may have a hard time even reaching $300 million domestically.
After a remarkable five weeks in release, Spider-Man continues to break records, this time becoming
the fastest film to ever break $350 million -- just 31 days. That crushed the record previously held by
1999's The Phantom Menace at 40 days. Though the $14.3 million weekend marked the biggest drop (49.8%) for
the $120 million budgeted Sony release, its cumulative now stands at $353.8 million, just behind the fifth
highest grossing film of all-time Jurassic Park, which grossed $357.1 million back in 1993.
Undercover Brother, the weekend's only other debut, finished with a "solid" $12.04 million.
Budgeted at $25 million, the blaxploitation/Bond-spoof played in 2,168 theaters for a
healthy $5,555 per theater average. The film saw a Friday to Saturday spike in ticket sales
of 42.3%, due mostly to the Lakers vs. Kings NBA Playoff game on Friday that held off potential
moviegoers. Both critics and audiences were rather favorable to the film,
which stars Eddie Griffin and Denise Richards, and with a continued lack of pure comedies in the marketplace,
look for the film to perform well in the coming weeks.
DreamWorks' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron finished the weekend with $11.3 million, down 36.4%
from last week's opening, the lowest drop in the top ten. After two weeks in release, the $80 million budgeted
animated family film has grossed a healthy $38.7 million.
As for the box office, the NBA Playoffs, opening rounds of the World Cup, and simply a huge Memorial Day weekend,
forced heavy drops from holdovers, leading to the top ten films grossing $115.1 million,
down 4% from last year's comparable frame, when Pearl Harbor remained No. 1 with $29.6 million.
This was the first time in over four months that the weekend fell below last year's comparable frame,
evidence of just how hot ticket sales have been in 2002. With Minority Report, MiB2, and
Austin Powers 3 still on the horizon, the trend will likely continue.
Next weekend sees the debuts of Chris Rock's Bad Company and the book-adaptation Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Join us in the EInsiders.com messageboard to talk about
the weekend or how next week's slate will fare.
-Stephen Wong
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