In addition to power lines and beach shacks, Irene also blew the box office down, as the weekend gross was the second lowest for the year (only Super Bowl weekend was worse). But leaving Irene's temper aside there wasn't much to entice the folks to flock to the local cinema.
The Help (Disney/DreamWorks) won highest honors for the third week running with a $14.3 million gross and a total - not too shabby - take of $97 million over its run. Now, no matter how much you like a good, old American drama, The Help isn't the kind of film that distribs or exhibs want to see as #1 three weeks in a row and it has no international appeal.Colombiana (Sony/TriStar) at a weak $10.3 million was the best any of the week's new comers could muster, as Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (FilmDistrict) was a distant 3rd placer with a "horrible" $8.7 million take. The friendly chimps of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (which have been around so long they are almost pets) took 4th spot with $8.6 million and has racked up over $140 million domestically. In 5th place, was another newbie,
Our Idiot Brother (Weinstein Co.), which you had to be to see this movie, grossed a dumb struck $6.6 million. Oh well, at a $23 million cost maybe there are enough idiots around to make up the difference via pay-per view and rentals. The top 10 films could only gin up a weekend gross just shy of $70 million - pretty lousy for a summer weekend, Irene or not.
 |
| Don't Be Afraid of the Dark |
YTD the U.S. box office now stands at $7.1 billion or approx. $450 million or 6% behind 2010. With weekends like this last one the odds of catching, never mind surpassing, last years results appear rather slim.
On the Road With CTC
Starting this week Cinema Mucho Gusto will be coming to you from Singapore. Cinema Training Central (CTC) is on the road and will be conducting training seminars and workshops for Cathay Cinemas Group during the next several weeks. I will continue to blog with the emphasis on the question as to why the U.S. cinema is declining in both admissions and box office while the international cinema is flying high and will account for over 70% of the global box office this year.
Created 12 years ago, CTC has trained over 1000 individuals and remains the one and only place to obtain hands-on and industry certified management and technical training for the cinema exhibition industry.
The next several years will be tumultuous ones for the cinema exhibitor as the Cinema of 2015 will operate and look much differently than it does today. CTC and the other consultancy services Entertainment Equipment Corp. (www.gotoeec.com) offers can and will assist cinemas in this transition.
Cinema Training Central
The one and only training center devoted to
cinema exhibition
www.cinema-training.com
Best and Happy Movie Going !
Jim Lavorato
No comments:
Post a Comment