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DEAR JOHN Knocks AVATAR off #1 Spot

The numbers are in. "Dear John" knocks "Avatar" off it's #1 spot.

Variety is reporting that Sony/Screen Gems scored a touchdown pass this Super Bowl weekend at the domestic B.O. with its Nicholas Sparks lit adaptation "Dear John" opening to an estimated $32.4 million, tackling 20th Century Fox's holdover phenom "Avatar," which landed in the No. 2 spot with $23.6 million in its eighth frame.

The weekend's other wide opener, Lionsgate's John Travolta-starrer "From Paris With Love" launched in the No. 3 spot with a disappointing $8.1 million at 2,722 playdates. Pic is estimated to see a steep drop Sunday with its core male aud staying home for the game.

Source: Variety

Warner Bros. Studios Number One Studio Summer 2009, Paramount is Second Place

THR reports that Warner Bros. wins as best performing movie studio this summer (2009.

Hollywood's summer ends Labor Day, but already it's clear that Warners again will top distributor market-share rankings with $957 million in domestic grosses since the season began May 1, according to Nielsen EDI.

That's down from the studio's "Dark Knight"-fueled $1 billion tally last summer. Still, Warners sits well ahead of the domestic distribution pack year-to-date and is tracking 3% ahead of its industry-record haul from a year ago with $1.47 billion and counting.

The studio's seasonal performance has yielded an industry-best market share of 23%. Paramount copped the season's silver medal with $874 million so far and a 21% share; Disney is third with $604 million and 15%.

All told, summer boxoffice will finish north of summer 2007's record $4.16 billion when receipts are calculated through Labor Day. But with 3D upcharges driving a big rise in average ticket prices, there's scant chance of beating summer 2004's admissions record of 642 million tickets sold after accounting for inflation.

Meanwhile, Warners brass says the studio's best is yet to come.

"We have 10 films to release by the end of the year, so it looks to me that we're going to break our record again," Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman says. "But we'll have to take it one picture at a time."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

"Harry Potter 6" Breaking Records at the Box Office

I think a lot of this record breaking is due to the fact that Warner Bros. delayed the opening of this film from November 2008 to July 2009. This made a lot of fans very anxious. The same thing happened when "Star Trek" came out a couple months ago.

Reuters reports that the latest "Harry Potter" movie cast a $104 million spell over worldwide box offices during its first day in theaters, setting a new record for the boy wizard, distributor Warner Bros Pictures said on Thursday.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth in the film series based on the popular books by J.K. Rowling, grossed $58.18 million in North America and $45.85 million overseas on Wednesday, the Time Warner Inc-owned studio said.

The U.S.-Canadian tally, which includes a record $22.2 million from midnight showings, marks the second-biggest Wednesday opening domestically.

Source: Reuters

"Bruno" #1 Movie in America, Despite Huge Saturday Drop-Off

 

Variety reports that "Bruno" weathered a dramatic Saturday fall-off to win the domestic B.O. race with $30.4 million, putting its worldwide debut at a fashionable $55.4 million after scoring $25 million internationally.

But "Bruno" -- which pushes the bounds of the R-rating -- will need svelte legs to match the box office performance of Baron Cohen's previous film, "Borat," which didn't see the same sort of decline on opening weekend.

The dino-sized performer at the international B.O. was 20th Century Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which grossed $98 million in its second frame for a foreign cume of $327.1 million. The 3-D toon made life difficult for "Bruno" in several key territories.

Nor was "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" that far behind "Bruno" domestically, grossing $28.5 million and jumping the $100 million mark for a domestic total of $120.6 million and a boffo global cume of $447.7 million in just its 14th day in release.

Source: Variety

"Transformers 2" Boosts Theater Chain & IMAX Stocks

Good news for movie theater chains according to a report from THR:

Since Paramount's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" debuted Wednesday, stock in companies that benefit from hefty traffic at movie theaters has outpaced broader markets by a crushing margin.

The three big publicly traded U.S. theater chains -- Carmike, Regal and Cinemark -- have seen their shares climb 10%, 7% and 6%, respectively, since Wednesday, while the Dow Jones index is up 2.5% during the same frame. Additionally, shares of in-theater advertising company National CineMedia have climbed 9%.

Shares of Paramount parent Viacom have risen 6% since "Transformers" opened, closing 4% higher Monday at $24.71. Viacom was the largest gainer Monday among media conglomerates.

The biggest beneficiary of the success of "Transformers" -- in terms of rising stock, at least -- might be Imax, shares of which have rocketed 19% since Wednesday.

That is ironic considering that some Imax shareholders seemed to be selling off the stock this month upon learning the company was obligated to show "Transformers" through most of July, meaning it would cut into the time Imax could show Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." "Potter" opens wide July 15 in regular theaters but will not open wide in Imax theaters until July 29 because of "Transformers."

A few weeks ago, Imax stock dropped 4% during a single day when Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold opined that the timing of the two high-profile releases was not favorable for Imax.

Shares of Imax, though, have recovered and then some, and Wold is whistling a different tune now that "Transformers" earned $200.1 million domestically during its first five days, with 7.2% of the tally coming from 169 Imax screens.

The per-screen average for "Transformers" on Imax screens was $85,200, compared with an also-impressive $47,255 per theater on regular screens.

Wold previously predicted that Imax would generate $59 million in boxoffice receipts during the second quarter, but he upped that figure Monday to $75 million, based on the strength of "Transformers," and said his prediction still could be short by $5 million.

Wold on Monday also upgraded his opinion on Regal shares from "neutral" to "buy," writing that the sequel's boxoffice performance "was more than meets the eye." The analyst now has "buy" recommendations on Imax, Regal and Carmike.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

"Star Trek" Will Become the Highest Grossing Film (U.S.) of 2009 This Week!

"Star Trek" is about to take the number one spot as the highest grossing film in the U.S. for 2009. It is now at an estimated box office gross off $191 million as of May 25, 2009. Only one film is ahead of "Star Trek", and that is "Monsters vs. Aliens", which totals at $193 million. "Star Trek" is expected to take the spot as the highest grossing U.S. film of 2009 in a matter of days. So far, "Star Trek" has pulled a worldwide gross of over $267 million. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" are expected to be the only other films this summer to fight "Star Trek" for this number one chart position....but then again, there may be some surprises.

"Star Trek" also holds one of the highest ratings on Rotten Tomatoes so far this year. The "Star Trek" franchise is officially in good hands. With this new film, "Star Trek" has gained new audiences and fans that will only grow over the next decade, cementing it's place after this new genesis. Paramount has already greenlighted a sequel. The writers expect to have a script completed by December 2009. The untitled "Star Trek" sequel should hit theaters Summer 2011.

If you haven't seen "Star Trek" yet, catch it before it leaves theaters. "Star Trek" chronicles the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members. Get the latest movie showtimes via Showtime City.