Movie Box Review

Power Ranger Samurai Deker Action Figure (Toy)
By Bandai

Buy new: $19.73
35 used and new from $11.00
Customer Rating:

First tagged by 3busybeez
Customer tags: christmas gift idea, samurai, action figure, christmas, power rangers, power rangers figures, christmas idea, samurai megazord, action, gift idea

Review & Description

The articulated 4 inch evil villain allows kids to recreate the epic Good vs. Evil scenes from the popular live action Power Rangers Samurai TV series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5243 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Power Ranger Samurai
• Model: 31514
• Dimensions: 8.25" h x 5.50" w x 1.50" l,

Features

• Deker can battle any Ranger but considers the Red Ranger his ultimate opponent
• This 4" figure comes equipped with his sword to demonstrate his excellent swordsmanship
• The articulated evil figure allows fans to recreate the epic Good Vs. Evil scenes
• Deker is seen on the popular live action Power Rangers Samurai TV series
• Collect all the villains.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: I'm Dreaming of a White Ranger [VHS] (VHS Tape)
By Paul Schrier

Buy new: $9.93
16 used and new from $2.45
Customer Rating:

Customer tags: mighty morphin power rangers(3), power rangers(2), christmas(2), tv series, christmas movie, martial arts, fantasy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93414 in VHS
• Released on: 1995-09-12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, Live, NTSC
• Original language: English, French

Box office volume came back down to a normal level on Tuesday, with the top 10 films grossing a collective $45.5 million (up slightly from the $40-42 million for the December 27 date when it also fell on an early weekday in 2005, 2006 and 2011).  The torrid pace on Monday has been adjusted down to $61.8 (from an initial estimate of $67.8 million), still a very impressive number however. 


                DAILY TOTAL GROSS of TOP 10 MOVIES
           2011        2010        2006        2005
Dec 21  $27.5 Wed   $22.0 Tue   $17.8 Thu   $20.5 Wed
Dec 22  $24.8 Thu   $31.1 Wed   $39.6 Fri   $22.8 Thu
Dec 23  $37.1 Fri   $33.5 Thu   $43.3 Sat   $36.4 Fri
Dec 24  $22.1 Sat   $23.6 Fri   $20.1 Sun   $20.2 Sat
Dec 25  $54.5 Sun   $52.5 Sat   $49.4 Mon   $41.4 Sun
Dec 26  $61.8*Mon   $48.8 Sun   $49.5 Tue   $55.2 Mon
Dec 27  $45.5 Tue   $41.6 Mon   $41.9 Wed   $40.1 Tue
Dec 28        Wed   $41.6 Tue   $39.9 Thu   $37.8 Wed
Dec 29        Thu   $41.7 Wed   $48.5 Fri   $38.1 Thu
Dec 30        Fri   $43.1 Thu   $51.5 Sat   $45.1 Fri
Dec 31        Sat   $41.7 Fri   $34.1 Sun   $35.8 Sat
Jan 01        Sun   $57.1 Sat   $41.0 Mon   $42.6 Sun

*-Mon Dec 26 adjusted down from $67.8 million

NOTE: Top films: 2010 (Little Fockers, True Grit, TRON Legacy), 2006 (Night at the Museum, Pursuit of Happyness, Dreamgirls), 2005 (King Kong, Chronicles of Narnia, Fun with Dick and Jane)

In this week between Christmas and New Year's, when a weekday generates box office returns similar to a normal weekend daily number, Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol remains the movie to beat.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a very respectable second place, and both films at the top exhibited a fairly normal drop from Monday to Tuesday.  Films with a sizable kid audience (Alvin, Tintin and We Bought a Zoo) had much lower than average declines from Monday to Tuesday, but the latter two are not setting the world on fire.  Interestingly, War Horse had the biggest drop on Tuesday.  Because of its late release date (Sunday, December 25), War Horse has a lot of ground to make up compared to the other films and it really needs to do better than $4.3 million on a day like Tuesday (ranking 7th on the day, after ranking 3rd Monday) to stay relevant.

Domestic Box Office (millions)   MON-     MON     TUE    TUE
                                  TUE    Dec26   Dec27  vs MON
Mission: Impossible 4    (Par)   $24.2   $14.6   $ 9.6   -34%
Sherlock Holmes 2         (WB)   $18.1   $10.8   $ 7.3   -32%
Alvin & Chipmunks 3      (Fox)   $13.8   $ 6.9   $ 6.8   - 2%
Girl with Dragon Tattoo (Sony)   $11.4   $ 6.7   $ 4.7   -31%
War Horse                (Dis)   $11.2   $ 7.0   $ 4.3   -41%
Adventures of Tintin     (Par)   $10.0   $ 5.4   $ 4.6   -15%
We Bought a Zoo          (Fox)   $ 9.5   $ 5.2   $ 4.3   -18%
New Year's Eve            (WB)   $ 3.5   $ 1.9   $ 1.7   -12%
Darkest Hour             (Sum)   $ 3.5   $ 2.1   $ 1.5   -30%
The Muppets              (Dis)   $ 2.1   $ 1.1   $ 1.0   -10%


Top 10                                   $61.8   $45.5   -26%

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After generating only $22 million of box office on Christmas Eve this past Saturday, the top 10 films increased their collective gross to almost $55 million on Sunday and a projected $68 million today, Monday, December 26.  How typical is this pattern?  Basically, the December 25 number is a relatively normal bump from the Christmas Eve low, but the projected December 26 number (if it holds) is extraordinary.   

The table below looks at the daily total box office (of the top 10 films) for late December in recent years when Christmas Eve fell within the weekend.  The most comparable year is 2005, when December 21 also fell on a Wednesday.   The total box office volume for December 21-24 this year was very similar to 2005 and fairly close to the other recent years.  December 25 was much higher than 2005 but only a touch higher than 2006 and 2010.  However, the December 26 number is enormously strong.  Volume will probably fall back to Sunday's level this Tuesday-Thursday (following the 2005 pattern) -- and if it stays around $50-54 million per day this week, the year would actually end relatively decently.  


                DAILY TOTAL GROSS of TOP 10 MOVIES
           2011        2010        2006        2005
Dec 21  $27.5 Wed   $22.0 Tue   $17.8 Thu   $20.5 Wed
Dec 22  $24.8 Thu   $31.1 Wed   $39.6 Fri   $22.8 Thu
Dec 23  $37.1 Fri   $33.5 Thu   $43.3 Sat   $36.4 Fri
Dec 24  $22.1 Sat   $23.6 Fri   $20.1 Sun   $20.2 Sat
Dec 25  $54.6 Sun   $52.5 Sat   $49.4 Mon   $41.4 Sun
Dec 26  $67.8 Mon   $48.8 Sun   $49.5 Tue   $55.2 Mon
Dec 27        Tue   $41.6 Mon   $41.9 Wed   $40.1 Tue
Dec 28        Wed   $41.6 Tue   $39.9 Thu   $37.8 Wed
Dec 29        Thu   $41.7 Wed   $48.5 Fri   $38.1 Thu
Dec 30        Fri   $43.1 Thu   $51.5 Sat   $45.1 Fri
Dec 31        Sat   $41.7 Fri   $34.1 Sun   $35.8 Sat
Jan 01        Sun   $57.1 Sat   $41.0 Mon   $42.6 Sun

NOTE: Top films: 2010 (Little Fockers, True Grit, TRON Legacy), 2006 (Night at the Museum, Pursuit of Happyness, Dreamgirls), 2005 (King Kong, Chronicles of Narnia, Fun with Dick and Jane)

In addition to tracking the fortunes of this year's holiday movies throughout this important week, we will keep an eye on total box office volume on a daily basis as the year draws to a close.

Based on actual results for Friday, December 23-Sunday, December 25 and studio projections for Monday, December 26, the four-day holiday weekend continues to look dominated by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, soft openings for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Adventures of Tintin and We Bought a Zoo.  However, War Horse is showing promise in its limited run so far (opening Sunday), while The Darkest Hour (also opening Sunday) is doing very little business, another attempt at the curious strategy of opening a horror-themed film on Christmas Day.

Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (the fourth M:I film) is looking like $46.2 million Friday-Monday, with $78.6 million to date domestically.  

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (the second Holmes) is looking like $31.8 million from Friday-Monday and $90.6 million to date domestically.

Christmas week is one of the least-viewed weeks of the year -- and one of the most difficult to program.  But thanks to a Sunday Night Football game, a Christmas Eve tradition of airing It's a Wonderful Life, and a Christmas-themed SNL clip special, NBC will take the week of December 19-25 and will be the only network averaging over a 2 rating for the holiday week.

      Adult 18-49 Rating
      Primetime week of
      Dec 19-25, 2011


      NBC     2.2
      FOX     1.7
      CBS     1.4
      ABC     1.2  

Last night, NBC averaged a preliminary 6.6 Adult 18-49 rating for the Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers game, which started at 8:30 pm ET.  After time zone adjustment, we expect the official national rating for the game to rise to a 7.5 rating, a solid but not spectacular Sunday Night Football game rating (given the games have rated over a 10 rating in some weeks).  But for a Christmas night, this is an excellent performance.

On the other networks, the only other significant viewing in primetime Sunday night was on ABC from 7-8 pm ET, when the overrun of the NBA Chicago Bulls-Los Angeles Lakers averaged a preliminary 3.3 rating.  (This number should rise to a low- to mid-4 rating after LA and the rest of the West Coast is properly counted in the official  nationals.)  The classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas animated special scored a 1.7 from 8:00-8:30, while the 2000 Jim Carrey movie version of the Dr Seuss book averaged a 1.1 from 8:30-11:00.  Repeats on CBS and FOX Sunday stayed at a 1.0 rating or below.

On Saturday night, NBC's traditional Christmas Eve broadcast of Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life (from 1946) won the night with a 1.4 rating.  The movie started slowly in the 8:00 pm half hour with a 0.9 rating but continued to build throughout the night to a 1.9 rating from 10:30-11:00.  FOX was second with a two-hour Terra Nova repeat (1.0 rating) from 8-10 pm, and ABC finished third with a 0.9 rating for 1965's The Sound of Music.  CBS averaged a 0.8 rating Saturday night with repeat series and news magazines. 

###

Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), the two sequels opening wide this weekend are not doing the business generally forecast, and they are under-performing the preceding movies in their series.  As a whole, the weekend is looking like $111 million for the top 12 films, down 13% from the same weekend last year.

After three very rough weekends, this weekend should be very solid at the box office.  We expect the top 12 films to gross around $145 million, up sharply from the $128 million the same weekend last year.  The second Sherlock Holmes film should lead the way with over $60 million this weekend, followed by around $35 million for the third Alvin & the Chipmunks.