Another batch of +$100 million budget movies is coming up. This week we’ll see ‘Wall-e,’ the highly anticipated new $120 million Pixar animation. ‘Wanted,’ the teen-oriented, action driven, testosterone powered, Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy featuring $65 million spy movie. And the week after, anti-hero, rehab going and $150 million ‘Hancock’ will storm theaters early July 1^st.

Tracking for ‘Wall-e’ is good. Compared to ‘Ratatouille’ last year:

Awareness: 84% (compared to 82% for ‘Ratatouille’)
Definite Interest: 41% (to 38% for ‘Ratatouille’)
First choice: 10% (to 8% for ‘Ratatouille’)

Very early box office estimates would put ‘Wall-e’ around a $70 million opening weekend.

Continue reading Tracking numbers: ‘Wall-e,’ ‘Wanted’ and ‘Hancock’ strong

I still owe you the final weekend box office numbers. The studios set ‘Get Smart’ as the clear winner. And I think it’s fair to say ‘The Love Guru’ bombed, hard. It was beat by last week’s ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and the two week old ‘Kung Fu Panda’ by +$7 mill – you can go here for the Friday and Saturday box office.

‘Get Smart’ with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway ended with a decent $39.1 million, considering its $80 million budget. ‘The Incredible Hulk’ was last in our post-weekend box office drop last Wednesday and dropped even worse than expected during its second weekend. It ended with $21.5 million, a 70% drop. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ did slightly better and had a great third weekend with another $21.7 million. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ now has a domestic total of $155.5 million and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ now stands at $96.5 million in the US.

‘The Love Guru’ ended the weekend with a shameful $14 million. It wasn’t a spectacular weekend in terms of numbers, only in terms of bomb. And what a bomb ‘The Love Guru’ was.

It’s a painful weekend for Mike Myers. It might be admirable when you create a new character, while you have many the people love – ‘Austin Powers’ and ‘Wayne’s World.’ But it’s also very damaging for your career when it goes horribly wrong. Well, at least he didn’t directly damage the ‘Austin Powers’ franchise (yet) and he has enough future projects, with ‘Shrek’ 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. But this weekend is turning out to be a disaster. ‘The Love Guru’ only made an estimated $4.7 million this Saturday, down from the official $5.3 million Friday. If you add another (low) $4 million for Sunday, the (un)funny movie won’t end above $14 million this weekend.

The final Friday number for ‘Get Smart’ was a slightly lower than expected $13.4 million. Saturday seems to be up a bit to $14.5 million. Add a low $10 mill for Sunday and you’ve got a ‘Get Smart’ weekend total slightly below $40 million.

‘Kung Fu Panda’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ will both end the weekend above ‘The Love Guru’ with about $21 million per movie.

I’ve been staying at a no-internet zone for a couple of days, so I’m sorry for the slightly lower update frequency. This also caused the delayed roundup, but it’s an interesting one nonetheless.

1. The Incredible Hulk: $74,919,370 ($150 million budget)
2. Kung Fu Panda: $50,218,801 ($130 million budget, second week)
3. The Happening: $40,267,349 ($57 million budget)

Continue reading The delayed last week’s box office roundup

Mike Myers is a big name in Hollywood. But just how big? The first ‘Austin Powers’ in 1997 opened with $9.5 mill, the last in 2002 with $73 mill. But can he carry a new movie (character) into the twenties? The Friday box office numbers for the $62 million ‘The Love Guru’ don’t say so. It made an even lower than expected $5 million this Friday.

Steve Carell is a totally different story. He began to make a name for himself just a couple of years ago. He starred in some hits (‘Little Miss Sunshine’) and some mild flops (‘Evan Almighty’). But most of his movies didn’t flop as hard as ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ by his weekend competitor Myers. The first numbers for the $80 million TV adaptation are good though. Carell opened with about $14.5 million in ticket sales this Friday.

The last numbers indicate a good weekend for Carell and a low point for Myers. The final estimates for the weekend box office are a meager $14 million total for ‘The Love Guru’ and a decent $40 million for ‘Get Smart.’ Based on its budget + marketing, this isn’t looking good for Paramount (‘The Love Guru’). Time for another ‘Austin Powers,’ maybe?