Second Friday Box Office Numbers for VDT
From BoxOfficeMojo.com: “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had a better second Friday percentage hold than The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Golden Compass and Eragon. The fantasy sequel dipped 57 percent to an estimated $3.55 million. Its $33.9 million tally in eight days was still below par.”
Meanwhile Tron: Legacy opened with an estimated $18 million.
A full review from this weekend and hopefully some overseas numbers will be available tomorrow or Tuesday.
Oh, I sure hope more people will go see the movie…Let us continue the making of Narnian films! For instance, I went go see it again with friends on Saturday. We, as Douglas Gresham said best, must bring our "friends and enemies"!
However, it is good news to hear VDT had a better second Friday percentage hold than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. How did that happen? Hmm, must mean this new film is very good…. 😉
Everyone I've talked to who has seen it has enjoyed it, both hardcore and non-hardcore fans. I myself have seen it and enjoyed it so I think word of mouth is getting around, and also I predict better numbers over the Christmas period as people take their families and are on break.
I wish I could share your optimism. The fact of the matter is, LWW had a very strong opening, so it could afford to drop 60%. VDT can't. It's first week was abysmal, so a 57% drop means we can kiss any hope of SC goodbye. 🙁
For whatever reason, nobody wants to go to the movies nowadays. Even the much-hyped Tron, which knocked all the other current films out of contention, isn't doing as well as Prince Caspian did back in May of 2008.
[lengthy side note]
I'm actually not all that broken up about not seeing Walden's SC. SC relies much more on character and plot development, compared to the fantasy/spectacle of many of the other books. Consequently, you don't need baffo special effects to make the film work, you just need three strong players in the lead roles. While I would like to see what Walden would do with SC, I think we fans already have an excellent adaptation in the BBC version. I mean, what little girl can't relate to Camilla Powers' Jill Pole? And who wouldn't want to sit around a camp fire with the hysterically funny Tom Baker?
The thing that kills me is that now I'll never see a film version of my favorite book in the series, HHB. [sniffles]
And so it eventually turned out the one entry that should've saved the franchise is the one that failed miserably after all. Does this mean the voyage has reached its end? Looks like SC won't get greenlit, not to mention the rest of the series.
see this movie! see Dawn Treader! it's amazing and awesome and we want to see more Narnia movies! 😀
these are just the US Box Office Numbers VDT is doing much better overseas it made $81 million lest week ho knows this week Fox and Walden aren't going to not make SC just because don't do that good in the US.
sorry i meant how knows not ho knows.
Wow, it doesn't even seem like its total will equal the first film's opening weekend. How sad.
RIP
Well, I found out at Box Office Mojo that Dawn Treader has made about $40,000,000 domestically. If the worldwide total can reach about PC's total, I think we can have the rest of the series greenlit. Keep in mind Caspian had a MUCH larger budget, both production and marketing wise. And for people who are saying The Golden Compass did well internationally but not domestically and the rest of the books didn't get greenlit, I would think that Fox/Walden would know that the economy is much worse than it was when Compass was released. Even earning $300 million nowadays would be nothing to sneeze at. This is all just my guess, and keep in mind I am a Narnia fan, and not a box office analyzer.
I saw it yesterday 🙂 I liked it (although would have liked it even better if it had stayed closer to the books), and I'd like to see it again, but we have to drive 45 minutes to get there, so I doubt I'll be able to. But I went with my dad, three of my sisters, and one of my brothers, so that's a little bit of money we gave 😀
American Narnia fans, please do watch the movie for the sake of your international counterparts. We're doing the best we can, but ultimately the franchise's future rests on your shoulders.
Dawn Treader's numbers are actually pretty good internationally. It far outpaced Tron and is on its way to profitability.
Talk of VDT sinking was and is premature. There just seems to be a double standard for this franchise. Caspien grossed over $400 million worldwide and is deemed a failure. That seems odd to me.
Tron is projected to make $67 million this weekend internationally, was more expensive to make than VDT and is deemed a success. Meanwhile, VDT made over $100 million internationally during its first weekend and we're hearing that it is a failure. Seems like fuzzy math to me.
Thank you so much for saying that, Joe! I've been thinking the same thing, about the double standards. I think that (this is just my opinion) a lot of critics don't like the movie because of its Christianity, so they purposely bash it/ignore all the good parts of it.
going to see it again with the kids this week for the second time…cant wait!
The problem with Prince Caspian is that it cost a fortune to make. Basically, they took it for granted that PC would be a mega-hit like LWW, so they spared no expense, even expenses that did little to add to the overall quality of the film. Yes, compared to the rank and file of movies, PC was popular and grossed a lot of money. But, with it's overblown budget, it would have had to make almost as much as LWW to make a profit. Hence the double-standard.
narnia movies are obviously being attacked and negatively reviewed because of christianity, you can read it right in their vicious reviews and cutting remarks about God, etc.
overseas willl save it, i predict
I forgot to add: most pundits agree that if VDT, with it's significantly smaller budget, does as well as Caspian in the box office, it will be a success. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will happen.
plus, walden has spiritual motives to keep going-
One other thing I forgot to mention was the fact Narnia is Walden's highest grossing franchise. It is not going to give Narnia up unless it REALLY flops worldwide( if it made $24.5 million worldwide, Narnia would be over). Also to mention the current total box office worldwide is $166,420,000, surpassing the production budget alone. If it can make $250,000,000, I think we are in the safe zone.
Lots of factors to consider here. Yes – the economy plays a part, and you have to understand that it did open at #1 – even if #1 in 2010 doesn't equal #1 when LWW came out. In a purely 'greedy' sense, doesn't this still mean that money can be made with the franchise?
By the way – saw the film and really liked it. I think that Lewis made the book to be very episodic, which works well if you're reading it to your kids before bedtime but creates a cinematic challenge. A film-goer looks for a storyline with a beginning, crisis, and resolution – not a series of episodes. I think that's why the end packs so much more of a punch than the film as a whole – it has a sense of climax to it. Difficult problem – a very well-made film, but a story that had too many episodic elements….. If we were still in the days of film serials this would have blown our socks off!
Just because it is there most successful franchise doesn't mean they won't drop it. Dawn Treader cost $250 million to make and market. So even if it does gross $250 million at the box-office it would still be seen as a failure considering movie theaters get about 40% of the film's gross.
A $350 million gross would be needed for Walden to at least consider making Silver Chair, and even then 20th Century Fox might still drop out. Then which studio would take a franchise that won't turn a profit?
The thing is not all studios look at the whole picture. Most look at domestic #s only even BOM does that.
Yeah, the studio's cut of the takings is a lot bigger for domestic films than it is for foreign. In a manner of speaking, foreign box office is the icing and domestic is the cake.
Thanks for the correction, guys. This was done by a less than 14 year old. 🙂
I went again on Saturday and I took my niece and parents. We went to a 12:30pm showing in Houston and our theater was packed! We had to split up to find seats. Everyone after the movie was talking in the hall about how good it was and how they couldn't wait til Silver Chair. Heres hoping!
I really appreciated this movie. It was fun and entertaining with an excellent message. With all the filth in Hollywood these days, it's a breath of fresh air to have watched a movie like this one. I was sorely disappointed in the sexuality in Harry Potter 7, which wasn't even in the books and I have become more and more disappointed in the movie franchise. But Chronicles of Narnia teaches lessons on morality as well as bringing in that fun fantasy world. I really do hope they continue to make these films. My family and I will certainly appreciate them. Great job to the director for doing such an excellent job!
I really like the Narnia films and am not even Christian, I'm a huge Harry Potter Fan, and I really like fantasy. I don't get how books/films like the Twilight Saga generate more interest when there is no Good story behind them. If you really wanted to read a book that has vampires and has a good storyline, you should check out the Vampire Academy series. so much better than Twilight.
Anyway Love Harry Potter and loving Ben Barnes in both the Narnia films he's been in.
Thank a lot!!! I need the encouragement. Tron was less of a hit than Narnia!!! How awesome!!! Silver Chair here we come!!!
I agree Anhun. I was aghast at the wastefulness revealed in the dvd extras. How they spent so much money diverting a river! and building a whole castle! and setting scenes so high on mountains they had to use helicopters to get there! if they had kept the budget down PC would have been considered a success and disney woulnd't have dropped it. what a shame.