..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

December 28, 2008 Weekend Estimates Domestic Market Share Top Domestic Releases Christmas Caroling with Marley The other Marley -- Marley and Me -- proved no Scrooge at the box office with an estimated $51.5 million gross that barked to the top of the box office charts for the four-day seasonal span. In what was technically a box office record-breaking frame, four other films bowed on Christmas day to primarily upbeat returns. A close race for second place pitted the family-pitched Bedtime Stories against the epic romance The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Bedtime appeared to have a $500,000 edge over the three-day weekend with roughly $27.7 million, but Button was unspooling at about 700 fewer theaters with a running time more than an hour longer than its competitor. Also off to a good start was the Second World War conspiracy thriller Valkyrie with $21.9 million for the weekend, but the adaptation of comic book classic The Spirit saw interest quickly evaporate to $6.6 million. Overall box office revenues exceeded $205 million for the three-day portion and strictly speaking that’s a record. The caveat or asterix to be applied relates to where the holiday falls on the calendar and how that reflects in holiday days that can run to five-day spans. The session also saw a handful of films debut in limited or niche fashion, including Bollywood thunderbolt Ghajini with Aamir Khan in the title role, which grossed $770,000 and appears headed for an opening week record in India. Among exclusives, the star-driven Revolutionary Road racked up a sturdy $64,000 average from three screens; there was more tepid response for Last Chance Harvey of a $15,720 average at six locations, and $6,650 for the award-winning Israeli animated documentary Waltz with Bashir from 11 venues. Following two weeks of box office declines, recent holdover movies buttressed the incoming artillery quite well with erosion levels generally in the range of 10% to 20%. The slew of toe-dippers hoping to be award contenders continued to expand their expansions, including Gran Torino, Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler and The Reader. Doubt was the only one of the group to step up nationally with the addition of 1,228 plydates and a $5.5 million box office. The concentration of new, commercial titles opening Christmas day ballooned ticket sales with revenues going skyward by 137% from last weekend. Compared with 2007 it was 11% improved, but there were no new national releases that premiered during that frame. Bedtime Stories had been pegged by trackers to rank at the top of the holiday list but gauging buying preferences for under-15s has been notoriously lackluster in Hollywood. Marley, the cute dog movie, proved to be warmer and fuzzier and should emerge as one of the year’s most successful entries on a cost-to-return basis. More problematic are the fates of Benjamin Button and Valkyrie, which opened well but need to sustain and perform considerably above domestic levels to sustain production and marketing costs approaching $200 million. The promotional campaign for Valkyrie has been oft-noted as vigorous and its opening salvo was several notches above expectations. - Leonard Klady Weekend Estimates - December 26-28, 2008 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume Marley and Me Fox 36.8 (10,570) - 3480 51.5 Bedtime Stories BV 27.7 (7,520) - 3681 38.3 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Par 27.2 (9.110) - 2988 38.9 Valkyrie MGM 21.9 (8,080) - 2711 30 Yes Man WB 16.4 (4,790) -10% 3434 49.6 Seven Pounds Sony 13.6 (4.940) -8% 2758 39.2 The Tale of Despereaux Uni 9.3 (2,990) -8% 3107 27.9 The Day the Earth Stood Still Fox 7.8 (3,260) -21% 2402 63.5 The Spirit Lionsgate 6.6 (2,640) - 2509 10.4 Doubt Miramax 5.5 (4,330) 705% 1267 8.6 Four Christmases WB 5.0 (1,980) -35% 2510 111.8 Twilight Summit 4.4 (2,360) -16% 1849 167 Slumdog Millionaire Fox Searchlight 4.4 (7,210) 45% 614 19.4 Bolt BV 3.5 (1,800) -16% 1923 102.7 Gran Torino WB 2.3 (26,900) 66% 84 4.1 Milk Focus 1.8 (5,880) 6% 311 13.6 Frost/Nixon Uni 1.5 (7,090) 284% 205 3.6 Quantum of Solace Sony 1.4 (1,580) -31% 891 164.3 Australia Fox 1.1 (1,500) -51% 711 44.3 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Par .91 (1,130) -42% 808 174.9 Ghajini Adlabs .77 (9,280) - 83 1.4 The Reader Weinstein Co. .62 (5,340) -33%- 116 1.2 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) - $200.50 - - - % Change (Last Year) - 11% - - - % Change (Last Week) - 137% - - - Also debuting/expanding The Wrestler Fox Searchlight .38 (21,330) 89% 18 0.9 Le Grand Depart Alliance .29 (3,710) 55% 78 0.6 Revolutionary Road Par Vantage .19 (64,000) - 3 0.19 Last Chance Harvey Overture 0.09 (15,720) - 6 0.13 Waltz with Bashir Sony Classics 74,100 (6,650) - 11 0.08 Domestic Market Share - To December 21, 2008 Distributor (releases) Gross Mrkt Share Warner Bros. (29) 1706.4 18.50% Paramount (16) 1522.3 16.50% Sony (26) 1241 13.40% Universal (22) 1087.7 11.80% Buena Vista (17) 943.9 10.20% Fox (23) 919.5 9.90% Lions Gate (20) 425.7 4.60% Summit (5) 214.1 2.30% Fox Searchlight (9) 203.5 2.20% Focus (7) 135.6 1.50% MGM (16) 119.5 1.30% Overture (7) 101.6 1.10% Paramount Vantage (11) 86.8 0.90% Miramax (10) 70.9 0.80% Picturehouse (7) 63.3 0.70% New Line (4) 61.8 0.70% Other * (318) 331 3.60% * none greater than 0.5% 9234.6 100.00% Top Global Grossers - To December 21, 2008 Title Distributor Gross The Dark Knight WB 992,583,849 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Par 786,558,759 Kung Fu Panda Par 632,367,299 Hancock Sony 625,872,147 Iron Man Par 582,178,590 Mamma Mia! Uni 572,523,780 Quantum of Solace Sony 534,032,111 WALL-E BV 506.407,681 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian BV 420,055,729 Sex and the City WB 410,684,724 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Uni 394,291,012 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Par 394,091,713 Wanted Uni 343,414,966 Horton Hears a Who Fox 295,162,019 I Am Legend* WB 270,507,723 10,000 B.C. WB 269,309,372 National Treasures: Book of Secrets BV 263,704,304 The Incredible Hulk Uni 262,559,844 High School Musical 3: Senior Year BV 237,591,939 Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis Pathe 232,616,489 Twilight Summit 232,558,981 Get Smart WB 228,847,674 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB 221,798,714 Jumper Fox 220,287,702 What Happens in Vegas Fox 218,207,559