Thanksgiving Weekend Studio Estimates - Thursday Now In!

[Jake Lipson]

Well, the Thanksgiving weekend is at last here, which means turkey leftovers, family get-togethers, and the most popular way to get OUT of a family get-together: going to a movie. Disney has two major wide releases vying for family audiences this weekend: the new Eddie Murphey ride-based starrer "The Haunted Mansion" and of course "Brother Bear."

Wednesday estimates are now in at Box Office Mojo. In its debut day, The Haunted Mansion scared up the second spot with $4,390,000 from 3,122 theaters, making it the highest-grossing new Thanksgiving debut. It was beat out only by Murphey's "Shrek" costar Mike Myers' turn as "The Cat in the Hat," which made $5,032,000 from 3,464 theaters. The other big competition for "Haunted Mansion" came from Elf, which made $3,950,000 from 3,202 theaters. The other new Thanksgiving openers opened softly, Timeline (#6, $1,983,000 from 2,787 theaters), The Missing (#7, $1,913,000 from 2,756 theaters), and the the Disney-distributed Dimension picture Bad Santa (#8, $1,743,000 from 2,005 theaters.)

With the plethora of family competition from "Elf," "The Cat in the Hat," and "The Haunted Mansion," "Brother Bear" fell out of the top ten (! ), taking spot #11 with $848,000 from 2,034 theaters; Warner Bros.' family bomb "Loony Tunes: Back in Action" came in at 12 with $398,000 from 2,135 theaters; and Sony's Oscar-hopeful family football drama "Radio" was #13 with $309,000 from 1,101 theaters.

The full boxoffice report can be seen <a href=http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?s ... -26&p=.htm target=blank>here</a>.

So what does this all mean?

In short, GO SEE BROTHER BEAR AGAIN! It needs our help! And go see Haunted Mansion too - let's help it beat that abomination The Cat in the Hat.

[Luke]

I guess the public likes flocking to "eye candy" movies in spite of overwhelmingly poor reviews, judging from #1 and #2. I'm glad to see "Elf" doing well, and hopefully "Brother Bear" will get a bit of a boost before the holidays. I did my part and saw it Wednesday.

[PatrickvD]

I guess the public likes flocking to "eye candy" movies in spite of overwhelmingly poor reviews, judging from #1 and #2. I'm glad to see "Elf" doing well, and hopefully "Brother Bear" will get a bit of a boost before the holidays. I did my part and saw it Wednesday.

I think Brother Bear is already doing better compared to last week. And with the weekend coming up, I think it'll do well and end in the 100 million . Hopefully thats enough for a special edition treatment. Im pretty sure it'll do well on dvd.

[poco]

Well, let's see. My brother is taking his girlfriend's daughter to see Brother Bear on Sunday. I hope that will help.

[indianajdp]

We will be taking all of our Lifeskills kids to see Brother Bear within the next two weeks

[Jack]

I saw Brother Bear once with 2 of my friends, and all 3 of us are going again with an extra person on Monday.

One of my friends is a Brother Bear fanatic, and believes that the movie is huge, and beat out Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo. I can't convince him otherwise. I made a bet that Haunted Mansion would rake in more than Brother Bear, but after the estimates, I'm not so sure of my wager as I used to be.

[Jack]

BTW, Thursday Estimates are in: http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?s ... -27&p=.htm

Haunted Mansion: $5.09 Million (+15.2%)
Brother Bear: $0.69 Million (-17.7%)

[AnimeFanBoy]

ON Friday's estimates, Haunted Mansion got 9 million and Brother Bear got 3 million, a 100% up!!!

[PatrickvD]

ON Friday's estimates, Haunted Mansion got 9 million and Brother Bear got 3 million, a 100% up!!!

I just read it, BB's total is now up to $ 74.87 million, It's sure to hit the 80 million by sunday night. This is great!

[2099net]

I wouldn't take much delight in the "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" takings. It will just be another nail in 2D animation's coffin.

First Dreamworks pulls out of traditional animation, now it looks like Warners will. You can bet Disney look at the figures for their competitors and come to their own conclusions. (Although being as Warners didn't even have the confidence to make a full 2D animated film in the first place I feel the comparisons will be unfair.)

So don't count on Brother Bear creating a change of heart at Disney, when the other 2D animated films are still "flopping". They'll just see it as the exception to the rule.

[Joe Carioca]

Way to go "Brother Bear"!
I saw the film yesterday, and it was great... I know this may sound corny, but a lot of scenes brought me to tears, because the animation was so powerful. The trasformation scene, specially... I can't tell you how great that scene was.
Brother Bear deseves to be a success. It is a wonderful little movie.

[Joe Carioca]

"Brother Bear" didn't reach 80 million this weekend, but it made more money than "Matrix Reloaded"!! Great!
BB Weekend gross: $4,900,000
BB Total Gross: $77,700,000

Let's hope it will reach $100 million soon!

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/ch ... =48&p=.htm

[Luke]

Here is the Top 10 for the 3-day weekend:

TW LW Title Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count/Change Average Total Gross Cost* Week #
1 1 The Cat in the Hat Uni. $25,555,000 -33.3% 3,467 +3 $7,370 $77,000,000 $109 / $40 2
2 N The Haunted Mansion Dis. $25,298,000 - 3,122 - $8,103 $35,026,000 - / - 1
3 3 Elf NL $22,175,000 18.5% 3,202 -179 $6,925 $130,140,000 $33 / $25 4
4 2 Gothika WB $12,710,000 -34.1% 2,382 - $5,335 $41,134,000 $40 / - 2
5 4 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Fox $12,700,000 -16.5% 2,703 -398 $4,698 $67,487,000 $150 / $30 3
6 N Bad Santa Dim. $12,486,000 - 2,005 - $6,227 $16,808,000 $18 / - 1
7 N The Missing SonR $11,700,000 - 2,756 - $4,245 $16,500,000 - / - 1
8 N Timeline Par. $8,475,000 - 2,787 - $3,040 $12,600,000 $80 / - 1
9 5 Love Actually Uni. $8,189,000 -5.3% 1,714 +24 $4,777 $43,240,000 - / - 4
10 7 Brother Bear Dis. $4,878,000 -8.8% 2,034 -851 $2,398 $77,712,000 - / - 6

[Matty-Mouse]

Nice to see Brother Bear holding on in their for another week in the top 10. And since its being released in the UK at the end of the week the internation box office takings can start to show how this movie will prove oversea's.

[disneyfella]

2099net,

what about all the flopped animation before? the failed "troll in central park", "swan princess", "thumbelina", "once upon a forest", etc.etc.etc. disney has always had a better animation department and therefore taken in better earnings. even with the ambitious dreamworks stuff like prince of egypt, spirit, sinbad,etc. disney still outdid them; why would they pull out because other people are? at least disney has been more successful. disney should NOT be a follower, they should be a leader.

[PatrickvD]

2099net,

what about all the flopped animation before? the failed "troll in central park", "swan princess", "thumbelina", "once upon a forest", etc.etc.etc. disney has always had a better animation department and therefore taken in better earnings. even with the ambitious dreamworks stuff like prince of egypt, spirit, sinbad,etc. disney still outdid them; why would they pull out because other people are? at least disney has been more successful. disney should NOT be a follower, they should be a leader.

wow, I agree 300%.. disney should be a leader, no follower, VERY well said

[Joe Carioca]

The said thing is that Disney is not the leader anymore, but the follower.