Certainly under expectations, no question, if these numbers hold...remember the budget is $200+ million not counting advertising and such...plus they were hoping for $100 million over the weekend, which ain't gonna happen, either...not bad news for NARNIA, which should increase over the weekend with matinee shows.

King Kong 14.3
Narnia 9.0
Family Stone 4.1
Syriana 1.6

Will update later (these are from a Hollywood Stock Exchange post, sometimes reliable) if the numbers aren't corect.

Maybe it'll pick up if they retitle it Return of the Kong?

To be honest, the figures - around $60m worldwide in 3 weekdays - aren't especially bad if you overlook the LOTR factor and the overinflated expectations: it simply depends on how well or otherwise the picture holds up. So far it's certainly no Stealth, Domino or The Island. As with The Hulk, Universal had probably already recouped most of their budget just with the toys and tie-ins.

Carlson2005 wrote:Maybe it'll pick up if they retitle it Return of the Kong?

To be honest, the figures - around $60m worldwide in 3 weekdays - aren't especially bad if you overlook the LOTR factor and the overinflated expectations: it simply depends on how well or otherwise the picture holds up. So far it's certainly no Stealth, Domino or The Island. As with The Hulk, Universal had probably already recouped most of their budget just with the toys and tie-ins.

It's no DOMINO?? C'mon Trevor, that is not exactly glowing praise Nobody even knew that movie was being released, much less cared about it...

You're right, it's too early to call it anything. I just, after having seen it, doubt it's going to have anywhere near the word of mouth going for it to make into the kind of success they were hoping for. $200 mil domestic may be a real stretch...but we'll see after next weekend.

Well, no bomb after all - a $50m US weekend and a worldwide 5-day total of $146m, with business increasing each day.

Carlson2005 wrote:Well, no bomb after all - a $50m US weekend and a worldwide 5-day total of $146m, with business increasing each day.

Not a bomb, but not anywhere near what they were anticipating in this country at least. Next weekend wil be interesting...

So far it seems to be closely following the Shrek 2 pattern - a disappointing midweek opening leading to a strong but not record-breaking opening weekend. It just depends on how strong its legs are.

Carlson2005 wrote:So far it seems to be closely following the Shrek 2 pattern - a disappointing midweek opening leading to a strong but not record-breaking opening weekend. It just depends on how strong its legs are.

Exactly. I've read the SHREK 2 comparison a lot -- but this isn't SHREK 2. I doubt repeat business will be anything close to resembling that (and personally I didn't like SHREK 2 at all, but it appealed to the kiddies big-time...I don't see that kind of phenomenon happening here).

As a possible sign of lowered expectations, Ubisoft today discounted the KING KONG video game, dropping the price 50% on all consoles (save the Xbox 360)...never a good sign when that happens, either.

Curiously, over here the price for that has more or less remained the same (although it was heavily discountesd from day one), while almost everything else has been discounted 40% because the stores are having such a lousy Christmas they're having to start the sales early.

Biggest drop (over 60%) of the Top 10 on Monday...which isn't a good sign, either.

1 King Kong $5.6 million
2 Narnia $4.6 million
3 Family Stone $1.7 million
4 Harry Potter $.8 million
5 Syriana $.7 million