UPDATE, THURSDAY, 10:13 AM: Interstellar may have achieved liftoff, though Big Hero 6 is hot on its vapor trail. Interstellar, which opened Tuesday on 250 screens, collected about $ 2.7M Thursday in expansion, while Hero secured a strong $ 1.4M, underscoring parental interest in the animated extravaganza.
After trickling out on 250 screens Tuesday and Wednesday, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi opus may have hit the afterburners. If estimates hold, a $ 2.7M Thursday take would put the Matthew McConaughey-Anne Hathaway pic well ahead of Gravity, which did $ 1.4M in its Thursday run. Inception captured $ 3M in its Thursday run, while World War Z did $ 3.6M, but those were summer releases. The movie earned $ 1.35M in the first two days of its limited run, and Paramount will count the $ 2.7M in Thursday’s theaters into today’s grosses.
Under the radar but no less potent, Disney’s Big Hero 6 got off to a strong start from the gate. The animated bonanza’s $ 1.4M Thursday bow was better than Frozen’s $ 1.2M Tuesday preview before Thanksgiving, and well ahead of The Lego Movie ($ 400K). Disney has to be ecstatic over the Thursday night returns, as kids and families usually flex their box office muscles on weekend days. More updates as numbers come in.
UPDATE, THURSDAY, 10:13 AM: Interstellar hasn’t quite broken through box office’s gravitational pull. The Christopher Nolan sci-fi opera, which opened on 249 screens before a 3,500 screen invasion Friday, took in less than originally Paramount originally reported in the first two days of its limited opening.
The pic collected $ 1.35M over the first two days, distributor Paramount reports this morning, re-adjusted from yesterday’s gross of $ 1.5M+ for Tuesday night/Wednesday day. That’s about $ 5,400 per screen and slightly less than the studio reported originally, prompting many to drop the three-day forecast from $ 55M-$ 60M to $ 52M-$ 55M.
Still, with a running time of nearly three hours, the studio has framed the Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as a long-distance runner, not a sprinter. And Fandango reports that its outpacing pre-sales of Gravity, which took off to $ 55.7M on its way to $ 274M. The picture bowed on election night Tuesday.
Noteworthy: Open Road’s Nightcrawler is now a little over $ 600K ahead of Universal’s Ouija during mid-weeks to climb to the top of the heap going into the weekend.
PREVIOUSLY, WEDNESDAY, 3:30 PM: One of the year’s most enticing box office showdowns occurs this weekend, but the tete-a-tete is between Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi opus Interstellar and Disney’s animated smorgasbord Big Hero 6 — two very different films which are vying for the No. 1 spot this weekend. In one corner is Nolan, a modern-day Kubrick among fanboys who is one of the few directors who outshines his stars on the marquee. Over just eight films, he’s grossed more than $ 3.5B worldwide.
Fitting, then, that the IMAX devotee will get the largest rollout ever for the oversized format: 760 theaters worldwide (369 domestically), including screenings at some of IMAX’s museum-based theaters, a rarity for a commercial film. The film began with a trickle into about 5% of overall theaters Tuesday — Paramount didn’t release its numbers until late today and reported Tuesday nights and all day Wednesday together for a $ 1.5M-plus estimate which they are saying represents roughly 5% to 8% of the total box office weekend. We heard that it grossed only around $ 500,000 last night (Tuesday nights are soft anyway and this was election night) but nevertheless, they are downgrading earlier estimates of between $ 55M to $ 60M to a readjusted $ 52.5M to $ 57.5M. It expands to 3,500 screens on Friday.
Paramount says it would be happy with $ 50M, a likely low threshold for a helmsman whose movies average more than $ 203M in domestic revenues. Fandango is reporting that it’s outselling Gravity (which opened at $ 55.7M last October), Nolan’s Inception ($ 62.7M in the summer) and Prometheus ($ 51M in June of 2012) in the same point of the sales cycle. It goes wide internationally this weekend with the exception of China (Nov. 12) and Japan (Nov. 22). China was both Gravity and Inception’s No. 1 market. Expect this one to make about 63% of its total gross from the international marketplace as Gravity grossed 61% of its worldwide total and Inception 64%.
Studio estimates put the budget of Interstellar at around $ 165M but others have it pegged much higher. One of the biggest challenges for this well-promoted film (they even have banners inside airport terminals and also landed the Time magazine cover) could be the film’s run time; at nearly three hours long, exhibitors will have fewer screenings than its weekend foe, Hero. Paramount is handling domestic distribution for Interstellar and WB international. Will be interesting to see how the previews will affect the three-day grosses.
Interstellar, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, is rated PG-13 and is tracking strongest with males 35 and older. The movie is earning solid-if-not-stellar reviews, amassing a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s running behind in the female demo compared to Gravity (but that one had female fave Sandra Bullock as one of the leads).
With better reviews, Hero has taken something of a back seat to Interstellar mania but doesn’t mean it isn’t standing toe-to-toe. One advantage it has is that it appeals to young girls who often travel hit the theater in packs. Like Guardians Of The Galaxy, the Don Hall-Chris Williams directed Hero follows the antics of first-time crime fighters and, like Guardians, could be moving under the radar in Interstellar’s wake as the family audiences are harder to track. With a larger release of 3,700 screens, Hero, too, appears headed for a $ 55M-$ 60M bow.
Hero also is scoring stronger reviews right now, an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, which could be good for its multiplier, which runs higher with kids and families. According to Fandango, Hero is currently outselling previous Disney hits, Tangled (which opened to $ 48.7M during Thanksgiving 2010) to and Wreck-It Ralph ($ 49M in Nov. 2012). It opens Thursday at 7 PM in 3,761 theaters.
Regardless of derby winner, this may mark one of the few weekends when the silver medal will do just fine. Lincoln, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Bridesmaids never held the No. 1 crown, but cruised well past $ 160M domestically. Last year, Brad Pitt’s World War Z fell to another animated entry, Monsters University. The zombies still collected $ 202M. And the showdown should continue fall’s robust rebound, which is running 5% ahead of fall last year.
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