An overview of 2009
Originally posted on January 4, 2010. Written during the previous week.
2009 was a good year for Hollywood. While the overall calibre of the year’s films on the whole is largely debateable, as per usual, there being nothing particularly good to watch at the local Cineplex is no longer quite the deterrent for movie-going it once was. In fact, there’s nothing quite as recession proof as movies and video games, it seems. Well that’s not entirely true; I suppose the most recession proof activity would be reading and philosophizing as long as you return your library books on time, but vegetating in a cushy chair while admiring the superstars whose lifestyles you wish you possessed amuse you for two hours by means of celluloid is still the predominant form of passive entertainment, especially when one stops and ponders the logistics of it all.
Analysing the box office is a fickle business that I personally have been trying to wrap my head around for as long as I’ve frequented RottenTomatoes and IMDB. It’s relatively easy to understand how films will perform individually on opening weekends, and then extrapolate how much they’ll gross by the time they’ve completed their theatrical run. However comparing multiple sets of data against one another, placing it in a 365 day context, and then comparing those years, is less of a skill and more of an art. Perhaps we’ll start from the end, then work our way down.
The best opening weekend of 2007... (with $151,116,516)
$10,531,100,000 (over $10 billion) was accumulated between January 1st, 2009 and December 31st, 2009. This is the gross from holdovers from 2008 still in theatres up until the year’s final night at the theatres, meaning that some of this $10 billion is Slumdog Millionaire/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button money, and a large portion of what Avatar has left to rake in will be counted towards 2010′s total. This is the largest total in recent memory: 2009 took in 9.8% more than the year of The Dark Knight, 9.4% more than the year of Spider-Man 3, 14.9% more than the year of Dead Man’s Chest, and 19.7% more than the year of Revenge of the Sith. This is the first year where over $10 Billion was accumulated and, save for the 0.4% decline between 2007 and 2008, continues a healthy upward trend.
This year in North America, 29 films earned more than $100 million, 7 films more than $200 million, 2 films more than $300 million, and 1 film more than $400 million. These figures are more or less identical to 2007 and 2008′s, except the former year only had 28 films make over $100 million. In 2005 and 2006, only 19 films cracked the $100 million threshold, yet in considering these five years, between 6 and 11 films pushed well into $200 million.
In terms of opening weekends, the weakest of the top 10 openers (Sherlock Holmes) made over $62 million, while the highest (New Moon) made over $142 million. The spread for 2008 was between $57 million and $158 million. Between $58 million and $151 million, $40 million and $135 million, and $47 million and $108 million, were the spreads for 2007 down to 2005 respectively. Keep in mind these are three day Friday to Sunday openings, so Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s over $200 million from Wednesday to Sunday in June is adjusted to reflect only the weekend numbers. Many movies since 2005′s Revenge of the Sith, in fact, have been released on Wednesdays and Thursdays to help swell the numbers, so such statistics for high profile movies tend to be nuanced reflecting midnight screenings and early openings, or have those nuances removed, thus further amplifying contention between the numbers.
... 2008... (with $158,411,483)
There’s a definite spike from 2006 onward, especially since that was the first year to crack the $9 billion threshold, making 4.2% more than 2005. The reasons for this shouldn’t be all too surprising. The remarkably well received Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, Dead Man’s Chest, seemingly over-compensated for the lack of a Harry Potter Sequel, while X-Men: The Last Stand was the year’s flashy superhero movie. The Da Vinci Code stirred up a whole whack of attention and Pixar movies have generally been cash cows since Finding Nemo in 2003. The fascination with comic properties, Pixar’s continued utter dominance of the animation realm, and the promise of sequels enabled box office longevity, even if certain properties, such as Casino Royale, initially slouched out of the gate.
2007 had three third instalments, Spider-Man, Shrek, and Pirates of the Caribbean, round out the top openings, and The Bourne Ultimatum wasn’t far behind at #8. Transformers also struck gold, while Harry Potter’s fifth adventure struck gold again. The Dark Knight made a killing last summer becoming responsible for nearly 5% of the entire year’s total on its own, and the only other immediate smashing sequels of the year were Quantum of Solace and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Iron Man and Twilight also made stellar transitions to the big screen opening at #3 and #4, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made for the year’s second best opening.
This year’s top opening weekend spread, not surprisingly, treads safely and is dominated by usual batch of instalments on well established properties. Twilight, Transformers, Harry Potter, and X-Men rank #1 to #4 in terms of best openings respectively. Pixar asserts itself once again with Up at #8, people were willing to give a sleek and shiny new Star Trek a shot at #6, and apparently quite a few people out there still have a fondness for Vin Diesel since Fast and Furious opened rather well with $70 million coming in at #7, before promptly sliding down to #15 at the end of the year. Sherlock Holmes is all but guaranteed a lucrative franchise thanks to its 10th best $62 million opening, and 2012 managed to do $3 million better. Avatar sits pretty at #5 with a $77 million opening, followed promptly by a jaw-dropping #75 million second weekend; a scant 3% dip where most blockbusters tend to plummet after everyone’s already been exhausted the first time around. Now all that’s left to do is predict on which weekend Avatar hits $1 billion, and celebrate by watching it again.
... and 2009. (with $142,839,137)
While no single movie this year initially soared to the heights to which Batman and Spider Man are quite accustomed, the average between the top 10 is the highest it’s yet been. The reason for this is that high profile movies were quite evenly spread over the course of the year instead of clamouring for the narrow May through July typical blockbuster frame (although it should be said that there’s plenty of that too). November is increasingly becoming a hot month for box office spectaculars (New Moon and 2012), and Fast and Furious, if nothing else, demonstrates that big releases can score big even as early as the first week of April. Two of the year’s biggest releases, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, are just a couple of weeks young and doing remarkably well at a time when families should be coming together instead of going their own separate ways at the local multiplex. Even Taken and Paul Blart: Mall Cop managed to outperform both Angels & Demons and Terminator Salvation, blockbuster budgets and prime release windows seemingly doing nothing to help their theatrical runs.
May was a particularly congested time of year for blockbusters, which perhaps explains why two of them, Angels & Demons and Terminator Salvation, fell by the wayside. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1st), Star Trek (May 8th), Angels & Demons (May 15th), Terminator Salvation (May 22nd) and Up (May 29th) were all released in the same crowded period. Marvel properties have virtually claimed the first Friday of May for their blockbusters since Spider-Man 3 in 2007 and Iron Man followed suit in 2008 (and will again in 2010), so there’s no shock at Wolverine’s success despite its almost offensively poor quality, while Star Trek’s glowing reception made for strong competition throughout the rest of the month. But with these two giants going head to head, Angels & Demons and Terminator Salvation had nowhere to fit in. In North America, they both soon fell off the radar underperforming, managing only slightly to edge out Star Trek’s North American total combined. At least they did well internationally though, which is great news for the immaculately realized Angels & Demons, but terrible for the thoughts of yet another Terminator travesty.
Where would Angels & Demons and Terminator fit in, then? Surely one of them could’ve claimed the first weekend of June to take advantage of the three weeks until Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and there was really only G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with which to compete in August. Admittedly, I would have to agree that Terminator Salvation is resigned to functioning chiefly as a summer event, but surely Angels & Demons could succeed at any time of year. Whatever the case, poor timing seems to have kept these two titles from reaching the success their mammoth budget would typically entitle them to, and a year less congested with high profile titles would have certainly seen them place better domestically with overseas success being a nice addition.
Avatar broke $1,000,000,000 internationally in just 17 days. Currently has made $352.1 million in North America.
Films on less impressive scales, scopes, and budgets also did very well, cleverly created to highlight strengths of actors and production teams rather than flaunting how much cash was involved. Stephen Soderbergh, typically associated with Ocean’s 11 through 13, brought us The Girlfriend Experience at the beginning of summer and The Informant! at the end of it, these being rather experimental films deliberately created on bizarre schedules under bizarre circumstances regardless of financial consequence or public reception. Moon was as much a science fiction landmark as Avatar is a technological one, a comparison made to highlight that such influence can as easily be done with $500 million in production and marketing as can be done with only $5 million. There’s also The Hurt Locker, a movie chock full of such intensity and grace that it’s saddening to know it just barely recouped its $11 million budget. And of course, Paranormal Activity became the most profitable movie ever made, created on a mere $15,000 and accumulating over $100 million.
While I’m hesitant to say that it’s $10 billion well earned, there’s no doubt that 2009 had $10 billion curiously earned. Most of the blockbusters did their part, while the smaller films scattered throughout the year generally did quite well. New Moon is certainly a land mark, if only for the simple fact that a chick flick managed to open better than any amount of mechanical testosterone and warp speed nonsense in the world, while the other 28 films managing over $100 million certainly did their fair share. Who knows? Perhaps if Avatar opened in the summer and certain key blockbusters were better advertised and released, Hollywood would’ve made an extra billion dollars this year. Yet whatever the cause for such stellar earnings, one thing’s for sure: 2010 certainly has its work cut out for it.
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