Box Office Power Rankings: January 2-4, 2009

marley.jpgIn last week’s Box Office Power Rankings, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button finished two points ahead of Marley and Me. They were third and first, respectively, in overall box office, and one point apart in the per-theater standings. This past weekend, they were again third and first in box office, and again one point apart in per-theater average. Nothing opened wide. So how did Marley and Me catch Button to create a tie for this week’s crown? The distance between them was only two points, so it didn’t take much – just a few critics, in fact.

Box Office Power Rankings: December 26-28, 2008

benjamin-button.jpgAs 2008 exited, withered and old and tired, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was birthed into theaters, fully formed as a Best Picture favorite. Among the major contenders, it’s the only conventional Oscar bait to have been given a wide release at this point. (Ignore The Dark Knight and WALL•E, which are first and foremost popular movies that just happened to garner a lot of passionate praise, and hence Oscar potential after they were released.) So how did David Fincher’s latest fare in the final Box Office Power Rankings of the year? Well, it won, but not by much, challenged by the scrappy Marley and Me.

To Hell and Back: My 2008 Album

Kathleen EdwardsMy 2008 album begins in Utah and ends in (or near) hell. Whether you think the distance between the starting point and the destination is a lot of territory or not much, we do get to travel pretty far afield. There’s sunny California with the Botticellis, lovely inner-city Baltimore with DoMaJe, Iraq with the estimable Danny Elfman, and someplace sublimely absurd with Flight of the Conchords.

Box Office Power Rankings: December 19-21, 2008

slumdog-millionaire.jpgEarlier this month, I noted that no 10th-place-gross movie has ever won the Box Office Power Rankings title. That’s still true. But Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire – which expanded to 589 sites this past weekend and landed in eighth place in overall box office – could have finished in last place and still won this week’s crown.

Box Office Power Rankings: December 12-14, 2008

delgo.jpgIf you’ve heard of the animated Delgo, it’s most likely for its infamy. Opening this past weekend in 2,160 theaters, it barely grossed $500,000. Its per-theater revenue was $237, meaning that with an average ticket price of $7 and five screenings per day, a little more than two people showed up each time the movie was exhibited. Box Office Mojo notes that Delgo had the worst wide opening since at least 1982. The chart indicates that if you open in 2,000 or or more theaters, $2 million in ticket sales are pretty much guaranteed. So something went horribly wrong with Delgo.

Box Office Power Rankings: December 5-7, 2008

cadillac-records.jpgCadillac Records opened this past weekend with a respectable $5,023 per theater and got good reviews. It came in second place in this week’s Box Office Power Rankings behind only three-time winner Bolt, the unstoppable force that nobody cares about. But because it was only in 686 theaters, it couldn’t make a box-office splash, earning $3.4 million overall and landing in ninth place. And because it was in 686 threaters, it was too big to be one of those only-in-major-cities movies that generate buzz and huge per-theater numbers. (Think Milk.) If you believe (as I do) that perception plays a role in long-term performance, Sony/Columbia has done Cadillac Records a major disservice.

Box Office Power Rankings: November 28-30, 2008

milk.jpgNo movie has ever won the Box Office Power Rankings with a 10th-place finish in overall ticket sales. It’s certainly possible, but a film has to be perfect or nearly so in every other category to pull it off. In just 36 venues, Gus Van Sant’s Milk actually was perfect in every other category – tops in per-theater average and in both critical measures. And the bio-pic about gay-rights icon Harvey Milk still lost. Put simply, when you start by losing nine points off the maximum 40 at the outset, you need some help to come out on top, and Milk didn’t get much. —–
POOP:
Box Office Power Rankings: November 28-30, 2008

Box Office Power Rankings: November 21-23, 2008

bolt.jpgAs we all expected, Bolt ran away with this week’s Box Office Power Rankings … . Hmmm. Let’s step back a second. That Disney’s computer-animated dog won isn’t an upset, but its five-point margin is surprising. Even after I began plugging in the numbers, I was anticipating something close to a three-way tie between Bolt, Twilight, and Quantum of Solace. What I didn’t process was the effect of the bunching of critical scores – and the bunching of critical scores higher than we’ve seen for a few months.