Dawn Treader’s Fifth Week at the Box Office

Now that kids are back in school, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (along with other family films) took a steep dive domestically at the box office, dropping 55% from last weekend. It made another $4.6 million bringing the domestic total to $94.5 million.

Dawn Treader continues to perform well overseas. In addition to opening number one in China last weekend, the movie placed 5th overall in foreign markets, bringing in another $17.7 million. The Foreign Total is now approximately $242.9 million.

Worldwide, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has made $337.7 million (est.) in its fifth week at the box office.

Our forum is abuzz with speculation surrounding the box office numbers. wolfloversk has been posting weekly graphic updates comparing all three Narnia movies’ box office results. narnian1 has been comparing individual country totals between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which you can check out here. And FriendofNarnia2 has been sending me updates for our Box Office page.

But along with all of this analyzing, one major question still remains — now that the worldwide total has over-doubled its production budget, is that enough to greenlight the next movie? It’s very difficult to say, honestly. A few weeks ago I did some research because for all my time at NarniaWeb, I’ve never been able to find a solid answer on how much of the worldwide profits make it back into the studio’s hands. But here are some of the closest numbers I was able to find. (Please keep in mind that this is a GUESS only and NOT confirmed fact.)

On opening weekend, the studio gets 70-90% of the movie’s profit (sometimes even more than that), but every weekend after that, the percentage decreases to where the theater gets more and the studio gets less. By the fifth or sixth week, the studio is only getting 35%. The shorter the time the movie is in the theater, the more goes to the studio and less goes to the theater.

At the end of the run, depending on how long the movie sticks around in the theater, the profits are probably split about 75% to the studio and 25% to the theater.

For foreign box office numbers, it’s a good deal less. I found one article that said in 2006, American Studios averaged about 40% profit of overseas ticket sales.

So, with these guesstimate numbers, lets take a look at how much profit Fox and Walden have made back on Dawn Treader.

Foreign Total = $242,900,000 * 40% = $97,160,000
Domestic Total = $94,806,410 * 75% = $71,104,807

Fox/Walden’s Guesstimate Profit = $168,264,807

So if these approximate numbers are anywhere close, Fox and Walden have made back their $150 million production budget. However, another $100 million was spent on marketing according to The-Numbers.com, so there’s still a ways to go before they’ll break even.

Thanks to everyone who sent in these links!