Well I won’t be bragging about my box office predictions this weekend, as virtually every film that I made predictions on underperformed, with the only exception arguably the flick that topped the chart this weekend. Here’s how the weekend turned out:
As predicted, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol topped the box office this weekend when it moved into wide release, earning $26 million, about $4 million less than I thought it would bring in. The film’s total gross so far is $58 million, so it does have a bit of a ways to make back its budget of $145 million. I’m curious to see if it can be done, how about you?
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dropped one spot to second place with $17.8 million, a little less than two million off what I’d predicted. The film was down 75% from its opening weekend, which pretty much ensures it won’t be the commercial hit that the first Sherlock Holmes was back in 2009.
Coming in third was Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked with $13.3 million. I hadn’t made a prediction on this one, as I thought the various new releases would push it out of the top five.
Debuting in fourth place with what I consider to be an anemic $13 million is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I had predicted a second place showing with $25 million, and wouldn’t have been surprised if I was off slightly, but colour me red with this debut. There’s no way this can be painted as a strong showing, based on the hype and the power of David Fincher as a director. Word of mouth is going to have to sustain The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo over the coming weeks for it to make more than $100 million, or else it could be one and done in what should be a three film series.
Another film debuts at number five with a poor gross. As I mentioned, The Adventures of Tintin has been doing great overseas, but in North America showed no interest in the film, with it grossing only $9 million. I got the placement right, but was off $3 million. This should fade from theatres pretty fast.
Finally, not many people bought a ticket to We Bought A Zoo. I had predicted a fourth place showing with $13.5 million, but it only managed to debut in sixth place with a disappointing $7.8 million.
So, to recap, here were our predictions:
1) Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol – $30 million
2) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – $25 million
3) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $19 million
4) We Bought A Zoo – $13.5 million
5) The Adventures of Tintin – $12 million
And here’s how the weekend turned out:
1) Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol – $26 million
2) Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $17.8 million
3) Alvin and the Chipmunk: Chipwrecked – $13.3 million
4) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo– $13 million
5) The Adventures of Tintin – $9 million
No major releases on deck for next weekend, so it will be interesting to see how these films hold up as 2011 comes to an end. Check back on Friday to see our predictions. Merry Christmas!
