Friday, August 17, 2012

'Brave' hits target at weekend B.O. - Chicago Tribune

Maintaining its perfect record for No. 1 domestic openings, Disney-Pixar's 13th animated feature to hit Stateside plexes, "Brave," scored an estimated three-day take of $66.7 million from 4,164 locations, the widest berth for the toon shop, as well as its fifth-highest opening domestically. "Brave" far outpaced the weekend's other new entries: Fox's R-rated "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" crept up with a modest $16.5 million, while Focus Features' "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" underperformed considerably with just $3.8 million from 1,625 locations. By comparison, Focus' "Moonrise Kingdom" tallied another $3.4 million from only 395 engagements in its fifth weekend. The specialty pic so far has cumed $11.6 million. Though "Brave" did most of the heavy lifting, it couldn't keep domestic totals from trailing last year by around 10%. Overseas, the Pixar toon grossed an estimated $13.5 million from 10 territories, a modest take considering it opened in major markets for 3D toons like Russia ($5.6 million) and China ($2.2 million). Playability on the mainland seems promising, however, since "Brave" marks the last foreign film to bow in China before the country's 30-day government-imposed blackout period. The weekend success for "Brave" -- only slightly better than Pixar's "Cars 2," which earned $66.1 million this same frame last year -- points to the consistent playability of Pixar pics beyond families. Pic marks the second-highest Stateside June opening for an animated film, behind "Toy Story 3" ($110.3 million). "Brave" has little-to-no direct family competition until Fox bows "Ice Age: Continental Drift" on July 13. "Abraham Lincoln," meanwhile, will compete for adult male interest as soon as next weekend, when Universal launches R-rated comedy "Ted." Mixed 3D bag The weekend's two widest Stateside releases saw disparate 3D results: "Brave" earned a poor -- even for lowered family-film standards -- 34% weekend 3D share, while "Abraham Lincoln" did somewhat better in stereo, with 45%. "Brave" in 3D did even worse than "Cars 2," which had last summer's opening 3D low point of 40%. Moreover, "Brave" had nearly 300 more 3D locations than "Cars 2." The poor 3D showing for "Brave" has Disney execs stumped, especially since the format seemingly had been gaining ground of late. "I don't have a line yet," admitted Disney distribution exec Dave Hollis, who added that the studio will be conducting exit polls specifically addressing the pic's 3D in repeat frames. "It'll be a wait-and-see thing for me." For comparison purposes, "Madagascar 3" earned 45% of its opening from 3D - though three weeks later the pic's stereo share dropped to 35%.

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