‘Dawn Treader’ Grosses $10.5m Over New Years Weekend
Happy 2011! The Voyage of the Dawn Treader grossed an estimated $10.5m over the holiday weekend. Box Office Mojo writes:
[Gulliver’s Travels] remained in eighth place and couldn’t top its 20th Century Fox stable mate The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which drew $10.3 million in its fourth weekend. With $86.9 million in 24 days, Voyage lost more ground to [Wardrobe] but it gained some on [Caspian].
The film has now grossed $86.9m domestically. Its worldwide total is up to $297.1m.
Still no word on another Narnia film being green-lit, but keep checking back!
Prince Caspian was rated M15+ here in Australia…
VDT certainly could have benefitted from being split into two parts- its episodic nature would have complimented that decision very well. However, LB is nothing like VDT; it has a beginning, complication, climax and resolution. It would not do well to be split into two.
Imagine how much better VDT could have been if it was split into two, though! They could have included all the islands and gone into more detail for everything without having to rush through everything so much. Man, Anhun, sometimes you have really good ideas!
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader grossed $13.3 million in its fourth week for a total of $89.9 million. While it has fallen short of its predecessors, it's a lock to become distributor 20th Century Fox's first $100 million movie since Avatar passed that mark in December 2009.
Hey this is good, right? I mean granted "Avatar" made almost 100 mil its first weekend but VDT has been consistent at least. I hope we get to see Puddleglum, Jill, and Eustace! Fox needs to come off some of that cash it raked in from Avatar and do SC right and just have a huge budget, just stay true to the book. Is that asking too much?
OH, the people who are responsible for the series, when would you answer us with a YES or NO? Please… SC… Anyway, I'm grateful that there're already three Narnian films. I'm ready to jump with the YES or stand with the NO.
No, I wasn't arguing against your position on LB, just going off on a tangent. When I read your list of all of the qualities that would make LB ideal for a single installment, I realized that VDT had none of those qualities.
I think that's asking an awful lot for a company to sink a ton of money in something that won't make it back for them.
@jag: What does that mean? You can't see it unless your 15, or you need a parent?
Listen to this: In the train sceen, the train is going, then it starts to giggle, then it flips over. (The camera is pointed toward the people on the platform) It then shows the people on the platform or where ever they are. Then the train is falling toward them. (Right now the camera is on the platform, facing up to the falling train) Then right before it falls on them, the kids are taken into Narnia.
What do you think? 🙂
I ment "jiggle: not "giggle" ! whoops! LOL
Ohh. Is the Lord of the Rings Christian based too (I mean, like the way Narnia is)? I've have wanted to see that and Indiana Jones for a long time.
They said in the PC commentary (I think. I might have heard in an interview somewhere else) that in LLW, the war sceen didn't get them a PG-13 becuase it was like they were fighting animals, and that's not to scary for children. But when they fight the Telmarines, those are men, so then it is too scary for children. Giving them masks made them seem more like robots then men. It dosen't really make sence to me either.
@Not of this World: lol on the "giggling." It could be a crossover concept: Narnia kids killed by Thomas the Tank Engine!
LOL Ha HA! Very funny
According to an article in the Guardian dated Jan 5(so more up-to-date than Box Office Mojo) VDT is doing better than PC pound-wise:
"Meanwhile Narnia flick Voyage of the Dawn Treader is cruising along steadily with takings up by 30% on the Christmas weekend and dead level with grosses from the 17-19 December weekend. Despite opening with a lacklustre £2.20m, the sequel has quietly amassed a total of £11.26m after four weeks. Including takings from Monday 3 January, its gross stands at £11.83m, already ahead of the lifetime total for 2008's Prince Caspian (£11.79m). Although clearly not destined for the lofty heights of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (£44.40m), Dawn Treader has at least arrested the steep downward curve for Narnia box office in the UK."
With all the underground sets I wonder if SC wouldn't be cheaper to make than VoDT? MAKE Puddleglum a man in a suit so there are no CG costs. I know that VoDT really fell short in the US and UK but I am still hoping they find a way to keep the series going. It would be great if the movie could get 100 million in the next two weeks. VODT was a fantastic film. When people see it on DVD and TV they will want to see SC.
Good grief. It does not work like that, in any fashion.
Moviecynic, I believe you are correct. 'The Silver Chair' could be made for less money, and still be a quality production. That brings up another potential problem, though. How will they present this, visually, when so much of it does take place in little to no light? The BBC production, which I love, is hard to use as a barometer because it's shot on video, and, well, even the best shots look bad.
They can do amazing things with make-up these days.
I would film susan in bed having a terrible dream, nightmare images swirl in front of her , then a loud crash makes her bolt upright in bed, shaking and sweating. she then gets a phone call with the terrible news.
it makes the killing more impersonal and less likely to feel sorry for them as a person, hence less upsetting.
or maybe that is a cover story because it was easier to computer replicate masked men, and they needed lots of them.
I LOVE the natural green-and-grey palette. One of my favorite places on the planet is Guilin. You can get lost in the somber beauty of it (In my case, I quite literally got lost, but that's another story, lol).
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/exploreamerica/17/1214960940/guilin-countryside-tour-91.jpg/tpod.html
Great british news indeed there mate!
From the Guardian (UK):
Meanwhile Narnia flick Voyage of the Dawn Treader is cruising along steadily with takings up by 30% on the Christmas weekend and dead level with grosses from the 17-19 December weekend. Despite opening with a lacklustre £2.20m, the sequel has quietly amassed a total of £11.26m after four weeks. Including takings from Monday 3 January, its gross stands at £11.83m, already ahead of the lifetime total for 2008's Prince Caspian (£11.79m). Although clearly not destined for the lofty heights of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (£44.40m), Dawn Treader has at least arrested the steep downward curve for Narnia box office in the UK.
Glum news on the box-office front. The trend from this week has continued into the weekend. VDT has basically fallen off the grid, to 11th place. While it is performing better than Caspian at this point, it dropped even more than LWW. 🙁
Jinx! 😀
Seems to me that, in most parts of the world where they used a broad marketing scheme, VDT is doing as well as or better than PC. Whereas, in parts of the world where they used a targeted scheme, it isn't coming close.
Not really.
Whats the Lord of the Rings about?
Looking at the numbers after 29 days, I think it will break $100 million, domestic, on January 17th, and finish with $112.5 million. Disappointing to many, I'm sure, but it's actually fared a bit better, bang-per-buck, than 'Prince Caspian'. $112.5 million would be about 80% of 'Caspian''s domestic take, but at less than 70% of its cost. That *is* moving in the right direction, I suppose.
Those of you looking for some hope, there's a tiny bit. It's better than a pokey thing in the eye, at any rate.
Just some updates. N3 cost 150M to make. The P&A (Print and Advertising) buget was 100M. I found a references below that gives this fact. With 65% coming back to Fox/Walden N3 will need to get very close to 400M world wide to pay back its investment. It will be a struggle to make it but it is possible. Keep your eyes on the totals. I think SC is by far the most visual and best story of all the books so far (including N1, but that is my opinion), problem is it will take more FX to make it well. This could be a problem and a huge risk. They really need to focus on the story this time. The story for N3 was very weak but the movie looked and sounded very beautiful.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-ct-narnia-20101203,0,1708261.story
I think they might be willing to settle for less than 400 million in the theatrical run if it looks like they'll make up the difference in DVD sales. I don't think 400 million is going to happen.
I don't think it would take as much FX to make SC, but that's just my opinion.
In Australia, it should catch up to PC by the end of this weekend.
I was sad to see that as well. I was hoping it would pick up on the weekend but it looks like families aren't going to the movies right now. It is all the adult films doing well, even the tourist. I just hope it can tick around for the mlk holiday in the us. Maybe it can pick up a bit then. It should still make a 100mil, but not much beyond that. It is rally up to the overseas total again to hopefully convince fox to do another one. Also, they did say vdt will be the first fox film since avatar to cross 100mil. Considering how poor the initial debut was, that is still quite a feat. I just wish it had made 120mil or something closer to pc to ensure we would get sc.
Yeah, I knew you weren't arguing against my LB opinions, I was just reinstating my point so that the conversation had some *remote* relation to the original topic. 😀
As I think about it more, I begin to wish the filmmakers /had/ made VDT in two installments. If they had done that, perhaps they could have dropped that whole unoriginal 'evil mist' plot and made something a bit more believable. Perhaps the sea serpent could be the main enemy in the second half of the film, between the crew of the DT and Ramandu's Island? Once that was out of the way, the end of the movie could be focussed on the 'discovery' aspect, and they could focus on the spiritual climax, which is where Aslan comforts the Pevensies by telling them he lives in their world too by a different name, and that they must learn to know him by that name. Man, I love that part! 😀
Tolkein, the guy who wrote the LOTR books, was Catholic, so there isn't really a sound Christian emphasis obviously like Narnia, but there are allegories and other things that make it feel a bit like it is Christian.
Oh wow, you will have to read it for yourself to answer that question. Basically, in a few sentences, it is about a creature called a hobbit who is given an evil Ring that was made by the evil Lord Sauron, whose life and power basically depends on the Ring. The hobbit then goes on a journey to destroy the Ring and ultimately end Sauron. You really should read the books, they are some of the most amazing and brillant pieces of work. I recommend reading The Hobbit before the LOTR, though: The Hobbit is basically a sort of prequel to LOTR and it helps introduce you to the world of LOTR before you read that series. And DON"T go and see the movies BEFORE you read the books…I partially did that and rather wish I hadn't now. But DO see the movies AFTER you read the books, they are stunning.
It won't break even at the box office. It doesn't have to. It will lose considerably less money than the previous film, and should reach profitability sooner, once additional revenue streams are applied. The numbers aren't great from a public relations perspective, but, they're good enough to provide a rational basis to argue for another film. That wasn't the indication a month ago. The ball is in Walden's court now. Not only to decide about whether there *is* another film, but to decide how to make it much, much better than this recent effort.
silver chair shall be made!!!!
it seems that many people's favorite book out of the narnia series is sc, so i think many people will watch it, right?
do you think the profit of the movies depend on how much people like the book?
(like lwd, many people liked it so they earned a lot of money. some people didnt really like pc so they earned less money)
Check out the dvd sales for N2. About 70M. that compares to about 350M for LWW. Of this, Walden/Fox would get about 1/2 at best (I guess). That does not help a lot. For this one it needs to happen in theaters or there is little chance. … As to FX for N3 — read the book again … giants, gnomes, snake witch, underwater city, it would look pretty silly if not done right.
You're assuming that DVD sales for VDT would be similar to PC. Given that legs that VDT has compared to PC, and the fact that they're releasing it on DVD sooner, it should do better.
Okay! Thanks!
Like your idea for part 2. 🙂 Here's my proposed plot for the first part CoN: Dragon Island (calling it Pt1 would seem too HPish).
Everything starts out like in the movie. Then they arrive on Felimath, and things progress like they did in the book. Caspian, Bern et al. free the kids in a fight like they did in the movie. He turns the slave traders in to Gumpas, who is shocked! shocked! to hear that slave trading is going on around here. Caspian thinks all is well, so the gang sail off from Bernstead.
They arrive on Dragon Island. I liked the idea of making Deathwater and Dragon Island the same in the movie. Eustace goes and finds the dragon treasure while the rest go down to the death waters. Other than that, the episodes unfold like in the book, except Eustace show his name in the burning rocks. Now, everyone is sorry for Eustace, so they decide to double back to Lone Islands to find a magus or whoever one goes to to get undragoned.
They return to Bernstead, Bern's wife tells them that Gumpas is in league with the slavers, that they plan to ambush Caspian, and that Bern is in prison for his loyalty. Caspian then takes on Gumpas' men in a ruse like in the book. He confronts Gumpas in his office in that memorable scene. He frees Bern and makes him Governor.
They find a magus in the town, but he tells a tearful Dragon-Eustace that nothing can be done, "Only Aslan himself could free you from this curse."
Things end with Dawn Treader and Dragon sailing off into the sunset.
No, that's only among fans of the book series, which are a small percentage of the movie-going public. VDT is, by and large, just as popular as SC and it didn't do very well. You have to remember LWW is popular and well-known even among people who haven't read the whole series. LWW has actually sold twice as many copies as the rest of the series put together.
Since it was just released in some countries, the worldwide total should reach $400M, which should be enough for Fox to greenlight SC. By that point, it would've made just over twice as much as the production budget, which should be just fine for a studio that's not as overly ambitious as Disney. Plus, you have to keep in mind that the budget for PC was WAY too big and that's why Disney considered the earnings as disapointment.
This Weekend's Estimates:
Depending on the source, VDT is either at #10 or #11. It dropped 53% from the weekend before to gross $4.7 million for a total of $94.6 million.
http://boxofficeguru.com/weekend20.htm
@Gem, sorry, but you have been mislead , catholics ARE christian, they are the ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS that were around for 1500 years before luther started changing doctrines and throwing books out of the bible. that is why the book prince caspian refers to the kids being gone so long. do not listen to wild distortions of catholicism, that is not what the catholic church actually teaches. www. catholic.com refutes the misstatements you have been taught.
We all knew it would go down, but that's just pitiful.
not to mention try advertising it if you want people to show up-
Shelly, don't. Gem has a history of flaunting her ignorance. She doesn't have to be talking about Catholics. Give her a topic, any topic. I don't talk to her when she behaves that way, and I would caution you against engaging her as well. You're "feeding the troll" as they say.
lol, thank you, anhun.
VDT will make over 100 million domestic perhaps even by the end of next weekend. After the dismal opening weekend of 24 million, I don't think anyone in the know would have believed it would surpass 100 million. It's closing in on 310 million worldwide. China, Japan, Argentina, Venezuela and a few others could add another 40 to 50 million or more. With this and the remaining days to play in all countries, it could get close to 400 million which would be more than enough to merit SC; certainly at a 130 million or so budget. For perspective Golden Compass only made 70 million domestic but cost 25 million more (a difference of AT LEAST + 55 million in favor of VDT); When it'a all said and done PC may have made a total worldwide of 20 million more BUT cost AT LEAST 70 million more (a difference of AT LEAST + 50 million in favor of VDT).
Sounds good. A friend of mine had this fantastic idea for the beginning of the movie (before it came out) that one of the Pevensies- probably Edmund, as he has less patience with Eustace- narrates the beginning: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." etc. I thought that was a great idea, because it's humourously introducing the Pevensies' situation the same way the book does. Just a thought…
So for CoN: World's End (or something like that, I don't know, it sounds more like an apocalypse movie if that's its title) I reckon that Eustace should get changed back to human form /before/ they confront the sea serpent, maybe on Magician's Island. It would be more exciting anyway, if there was no huge dragon to help them. Eustace can then show how much he has changed in the period he was a dragon by being willing to help (and breaking Caspian's best sword… he he…). Dark Island should stay how it was in the book, where the albatros/Aslan guides the crew with Rhoop out.
Wow, I just realised how carried away I got there… I'm acting as if this movie is actually going to get made. *sigh* My bad. Oh well, we can always dream! Maybe Peter Jackson will one day stumble upon this thread and decide 'I have to make a movie out of this!'
Ha ha just kidding, but it would be awesome if in 10 or 20 years time he decided to make another set of Narnia movies!
Shelly, there are two ways to be "Catholic". True Catholics, the ones you are probably reffering to, are not Christian, because they believe that you have to perform acts or do a certain amount of good to get into heaven, that leading a good life to please the Trinity is your salvation. Christians believe that God sent his Son Jesus Christ to take away the sins of the world so that us humans could believe in Him and live an eternal life of love instead of pain. Christians believe this is the way you get into heaven, not by good deeds. Now there are some Catholics who follow the traditions to some extent of the Catholic church and therefore call themselves Catholic, but they believe in salvation the way Christians do. I'm not an expert on this stuff and certainly not Catholicism, but I do have some very long-time close friends who are Catholic and some other close friends who are born-again Catholics. And seriously, come on! Of course a website is going to try to make itself sound good. But trust me, Catholics are NOT the same things as Christians.
Ummm…Anhun, I really don't feel like commenting back on someone who seems to have the maturity of a kindergartener, but when you write stuff like you did you just kind of make yourself look bad. And I'm sorry if you think I've been ignorant in the past, I try to get my facts straight, but sometimes-because, duh, I'm human- I get things wrong. But more likely than not, you were just mad about something I said because my opinion was different from yours and therefore, you saw me as ignorant.
This is sad. I knew it would go down, but I did not expect it to drop from 5 to 11. It may have to do with the fact that a lot of theaters, at least by me, only have it on 1 screen and it is in 3d. I honestly think more people would see it if it was in 2d. It is hard to justify spending so much money on a repeat viewing.
There are five large theatre complexes in my city currently showing 'Dawn Treader'. Not a single one of their screens is showing it in 2D. I can't believe that there is no option for me to see it as Dante Spinotti and and Michael Apted originally intended me to. Well, other than waiting until the Blu Ray release. I don't know if I would have liked the film any more, but it certainly would have been less annoying. The compromises they made for the sake of the 3D conversion process made it look drab, out of focus, and lifeless.
I'm thinking the second installment could be called Voyage of the Dawn Treader, like the book. Hey, there's no harm in fantasizing. I loved the movie for what it was, an appetizer sampling of the book's depth and brilliance, but it would have been nice if they had the screen time to explore the different islands (and their associated themes) in depth.
I'm wondering if Yogi's superior performance is related to the fact that it seems to be more widely available in 2D. At least it is in my area. Everybody seems to hate Yogi, whereas a fair percentage of people really like VDT.
Disney/BV so brilliant? Not so fast. Financially, relatively speaking (production cost to worldwide revenue), VDT is doing better than both Tron and Tangled; especially when looking at the worldwide numbers. Tangled cost 260 million to produce or 105 MILLION MORE than VDT !!! Tron cost 15 million more than VDT. It looks like VDT will beat both films handily in worldwide revenue. I saw the original Tron … ok fun, but have 0 interest in the 2nd. I saw Tangled and enjoyed it very much BUT had no idea, until a bit ago, that it cost 260 million to produce !!!
That's a good way of putting it. 😀 I don't think that anything on screen would ever quite be able to tell the story of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader as well as my favourite book does, but it gives us a nice little taste that captures the heart of it, which is a lot better than what I could say of PC. Saying that, it's nice to dream of a near-perfect adaptation that will come out some time in the far-ish future. 😉
Using worldwide revenue as one lump sum number as a comparative basis for actual performance is NOT mathematically valid. I don't know how many times this has to be said. 'Tron' is doing significantly better domestically than 'Dawn Treader'. Even with the latter's slightly smaller budget and deceptively gaudy international numbers, the two films are pretty much a wash, performance-wise. 'Dawn Treader' will lose much less money at the box office than 'Tangled', this is true. But, 'Tangled' is also the kind of film that Disney knows how to sell a billion copies of on DVD/Blu Ray, from now until the end of time. Its long-term prospects are better than that of 'Dawn Treader'.
So, I don't know how 'brilliant' Disney are, but I wouldn't use either of those cases as examples of poor decision-making, per se. Poor management in terms of 'Tangled', assuredly, but, ultimately, they've still produced a very valuable commodity that will pay off for them for decades.
Disney bailed on the Narnia franchise in a very panicky and weaselly fashion, I agree. But, you know, it was nothing personal. If they thought they could make more money investing in these films, they would have. It's just business. Let's move on.
Yes, and please bear in mind that one of the reasons that Golden Compass failed was that New Line had sold the rights to the foreign markets before the release to be able to make a sequel right away. They counted on superior numbers domestically, which of course didn't happen. New Line didn't earn money on the film's international gross. I don't think this is the case with Narnia.
BTW: I have to doubt the widely aknowledged P&A-budget for the movie. 100 mill. sounds excessive. Normally a movie will use around 40-50 % of the budget on P&A. I have a hard time believing that they they used 100 mill. for a movie with a production budget of 125 mill. Having studied a lot of similar numbers the last couple of years that doesn't really seem to add up.