If there’s a downside to a record-breaking year at the box office, it’s the need to meet or surpass it in 2010.
And in 2009, the movie business got out of the gate fast, on its way to over $10.6 billion in domestic ticket sales.
“Everything was over-performing,” noted one studio distribution president. “The only stiff in the first quarter was (Disney’s) Jonas Brothers movie.”
Indeed, January 2009 alone featured three sleepers that each grossed more than $100 million domestically, with Fox’s Liam Neeson revenge fantasy “Taken” ($145 million in North America on a $25 production budget), Sony comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” ($146.3 million on a $26 million budget) and Warner Clint Eastwood film “Gran Torino” ($148.1 million domestic off of $33 million budget) all beating expectations by a lot.
The rest of the first half of the year was strong, too, with Paramount/DreamWorks’ “Monsters vs. Aliens” ($198.4 million), Universal’s “Fast and Furious” ($155 million) and Fox’s “X Men Origins: Wolverine” ($179.9 million) all helping the 2009 domestic box office outpace 2008 by about 6 percent through the first two quarters. (It ended up over 10 percent for the year).
Still, with the domestic market up about 23 percent over the first two weeks of last year, a number of studio executives think they’re already on pace to break the 2009 international and domestic box-office marks.
“It’s going to beat it,” said Warner Bros. distribution president Dan Fellman. “You’ve got ‘Avatar’ in there banging away at $40 million a week.”
Here’s a look at some of the highlights on each studio’s slate in the first two quarters:
WARNER BROS.
The volume leader, with nine films slated for release in the first half of this year, Warner actually plans to put out “one or two” fewer movies this year than the 24 it bowed last year, according to Fellman.
The studio’s 2010 kicked off on Martin Luther King weekend with the poorly reviewed Denzel Washington sci-fi epic “The Book of Eli” taking a respectable $38 million. Next up, on January 29, will be Mel Gibson’s return to on-camera movie work in “Edge of Darkness,” a “hey, you killed my daughter!” revenge flick ripped right out of the “Taken” playbook.
On Feb. 12, the studio will release the Gary Marshall-directed “Valentine’s Day,” which features one of more robust ensemble cast in motion-picture history, with Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Robers and Taylor Lautner making appearances, among other well-knowns.
On the way to big spring and summer franchise hits like “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” Fox enjoyed a few nice sleeper hits in the first quarter of 2009, with not only “Taken” yielding surprisingly strong numbers, but also “Bride Wars” ($114.7 million in global box office).
Sony gets its year started Jan. 22 with the release of Screen Gems horror film “Legion” starring Dennis Quaid.
Hunter,” which pairs Gerard Butler with Jennifer Aniston (released March 19); African-American-targeted comedy “Death at a Funeral” starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan (April 16); crime-thriller “Takers” starring Hayden Christensen, Matt Dillon and Paul Walker (May 14); a remake of “The Karate Kid” starring Will Smith’s son Jaden in the Ralph Maccio role (June 11); and the Adam Sandler-written ensemble comedy “Grown Ups,” which stars Rock, Kevin James and Salma Hayek, among others (due out June 25).The Feb. 19 release calendar cleared out when Paramount officials pushed the $50 million-$60 million P&A costs needed to launch the fourth pairing of director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, “Shutter Island,” from last fall to the first quarter of this year.
“It’s hard to tell how big this will be,” said one rival distribution official, noting the confluence of bad press surrounding the movie and Scorsese and DiCaprio’s joint pedigree.DISNEY
Last Song” (April 2); Jerry Bruckheimer-produced adventure epic “The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ben Kingsley (May 28); and the Pixar-produced “Toy Story 3” (June 28).
