Weekend Predictions -- The Help Leads the Way, while other catch up.

Editors Note: Weekend predictions is a new article branch that wouldn't always be available, or shown online. Sometimes they will be available other times no. Don't expect continuous weekly weekend predictions.

None of the four newcomers hitting theaters this weekend will be able to dethrone The Help. With a a 93% approval rating from more than 16,000 Flixster users, The Help is poised to gross over $100 million. As of 4 p.m. PT, Fandango.com is reporting that The Help has 31% of daily sales. Expect it to gross over $21 million.

Lionsgate's Conan the Barbarian looks like the strongest newcomer. Fans of the Expendables, which made a massive hit last August, would be pleased by Conan the Barbarian but critics think other wise. Conan the Barbarian is outpacing The Expendables on Facebook, but it is behind on Twitter. Fandango is reporting that Conan the Barbarian has yet to crack the top five sellers list. Chances are online sales will pick up on Thursday as more Conan fans plan for the weekend.
Conan the Barbarian should manage $16-17 million from 3,105 location


Without any interesting news from Fandango.com concerning Spy Kids 4, look for All the Time in the World to grab $15.5 million from around 3,000 locations.

Fright Night​ will try to win some audience after the disparaged and besmirched reputation from Vampire Movies- Twilight saga. Males wouldn't be interested any more, but may catch some disturbia fans due to the similarities.There's no sign of Fright Night on the top ten daily sellers list on Fandango.
Fright Night aims at $14.8 million from around 2,900 locations.

Newcomer One day hasn't entered much spot light, starting with critics castigating its lack of  emotion, depth, or insight of its bestselling source material to little sales on Fandago. But there may still be hope as 82% on rotten tomatoes wish to see it. Expect it to gross $6.2 million.


 This week

Title	Weekend Gross	CHG %
The Help	$21,100,000	-19%
Rise of the Planet of the Apes	$16,400,000	-41%
Conan the Barbarian (2011)	$15,900,000	new
Spy Kids: All The Time In The World	$15,500,000	new
Fright Night (2011)	$14,800,000	new
The Smurfs	$9,100,000	-34%
Final Destination 5	$8,250,000	-55%
30 Minutes or Less	$7,100,000	-46%
One Day	$6,200,000	new
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II	$4,800,000	-37%
Crazy, Stupid, Love	$4,500,000	-36%

North American Box office Analysis

Even after high ticket pricing(3D), the total revenue of individual films remain low throughout recent years. With many new theaters and screens opening, film revenues are supposed to increase. Moreover, only 5 films in the past 6 years have passed the $400 million mark, and 2 of them benefited from 3D revenues and 4 of them were sequels. So whats happening?

The 5 films are Avatar(3D, 2009), The Dark Knight(2008), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest(2006), Toy Story 3(3D, 2010), and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen(2008). Only 2 of these films passed the $500 million mark, being Avatar and The Dark Knight, which grossed $760.5 million and $533.3 million respectively. Now, another film also passed the $500 million mark to be the 2nd highest grossing film of all-time in North America--Titanic--which is directed by Cameron along with Avatar. The Dark Knight, POC2, and TF2 were all sequels which were boosted by their previous recognition and renown.

Higher ticket-pricing along with greater theater numbers should lead to higher gross revenues but it still remains ineffectual. In 2011, the sequel packed year, no film was able to gross over $400 million, even the last Harry Potter film(3D), which broke many record including Biggest opening weekend($168.4 million). In North America, many people are fed up from 3D leading to only 43-60% of total grosses to be from 3D unlike Avatar's high percentage. Such drops won't put 3D in better light. 3D has lost its vibe due to the glasses, bad 3D conversions, and the darkness that comes with glasses. So even though there are many boosters what is the reason for the drops?

Throughout the years more and more films are being showed and made, which means there is a lot more competition. With more competition and films, comes the option of variety. This means that there are more choices of films to pick at the cinemas. Before, the choice was much less which would mean that more people what the same thing. Many sequels also bring more vicissitudes in to the cinematic market since usually they would have original buffs to depend on while newcomers suffer. But soon sequels would have to battle it off.

Sometimes the marketing also has a great effect on the success of the film, as seen with Super 8 and Green Lantern. Both of which didn't clearly illustrate the antagonist/problem in the story which resulted in bad results at the box office.

Often times the newcomers can be promoted by the industry(Marvel), novel, director, and actor As seen with comics(Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America), Harry Potter, Inception(Christopher Nolan), and Johnny Depp

Although there are many boosters, films still perform below expectations since with boosters come downers.

Edward Ghazaley

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 total review

The finale of the renowned lucrative Harry Potter franchise came to an end on July 13/14 2011, as devoted fans waited for 10 years. Now, after 10 years of filming, the franchise is the highest grossing franchise in North America, in the foreign market, and worldwide--grossing over $2 billion in North America, and $7 billion worldwide. Its quite a feat, considering that such numbers rose from only 8 films--one of which is still playing at theaters. Currently, Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is the 3rd highest-grossing film of all-time worldwide and internationally. It stands behind Titanic and Avatar, both directed by James Cameron. Thus, making Harry Potter the HIGHEST-GROSSING non-Cameron film of all-time.

An action-packed, thrilling, and somewhat emotional ending for the famous Harry Potter franchise. The film was phenomenal but something was missing in it; it lacked a start and some parts of the film needed a touch of feeling from the score(an emotional one/action rising). Nonetheless, the film, shortest Harry Potter film, was well paced and had a satisfying ending.

It broke box office record both in North America and internationally, starting with opening weekend($169.2 million) domestically to Highest-grossing 2011 film($1.180 billion). It took a few records from The Dark Knight and Avatar, the most notable being Highest 3-day gross and Fastest to $900 million respectively. Although, it matched Avatar in the league of fastest to the billion dollar milestone(19 days), it didn't gross similar to it.

Its the first and last film in the series to be shown completely in 3D, albeit 3D didn't account to much of the domestic gross, only 43%, compared to other 2011 films like Transformers 3(60%). Nonetheless, it had a a good increase to revenue, but more of which came internationally where it grosses a massive $901 million, and staying number 1 in Japan for 4 weeks to gross $108 million.

Total Gross Prediction
As of August 24, 2011, Harry Potter has already grossed over $368 million domestically while grossing over $901 million internationally, for a total of $1.269 billion. Harry Potter biggest foreign market is none other  than the UK, grossing over $102 million as August 7, 2011. Deathly Hallows- Part 2 newly opened in China achieving the 3rd Highest-grossing opening weekend($29.7 million)in only 3 days.

Now for its final gross, it should gross around $382 million domestically and $1.00 billion internationally, for at total of $1.382 billion. Although its quite a stretch that it will be able to gross over $1 billion internationally, it should easily gross over $920 million. Domestically, its also hard to gross that much considering the competition but it should easily bring about over $370 million. It would be truly nice to see Harry Potter to be the 2nd Highest-grossing film, but the variation is insurmountable. But who knows,"nothing is impossible"

Edward Ghazaley
August 14, 2011

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