UP Box Office

Pixar's Feature Films Up
#81

Like miafka said, the international box is going to come in slowly. In fact, the only 2 major countries outside of the U.S./Canada market to come in are Mexico and Russia! No Germany, no low countries, no France, no Italy, no Japan, and no Great Britain: those are the top 5. Up will beat Transf2 in all those countries, except possibly in Japan, but results are very preliminary. T2 already has an insurmountable lead worldwide in just 12 days, nearly topping $600M.

So where has the int’l box been coming from? Witness this post from late June '09:

Up in Venezuela. Bulletin: Early this morning the Venezuelan Minister of Culture, Hector Soto, held a press conference, at 6 am in front of his home, wearing pajamas and a robe with slippers:

“I am proud to announce that later today, the theatrical gross for the Pixar movie Up, which as you all know was made in or about our great country, will exceed $4,000,000 U.S. dollars and pass up the Wall-E movie from last summer . …And we hope that this is not the last we see of Pixar. Do not forget about us Pixar. Thank you.”

12 hours ago - El presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, aseguró que "la burguesía y el … de UP logró que esta película desbanque a otras joyas de Pixar como Toy Story, …

---->And don’t be fooled by the paltry weekend gross, Up made $8M in the 4 previous days to rake in $14.5M for the entire domestic week. Actually, all the movies went down on July 4th (US holiday), people were watching fireworks. That’s the biggest day of the week usually.

#82

I must admit…I never expected UP to do quite so well, certainly not the second highest grossing Pixar film of all time.

I was always hoping that it wouldn’t be a colossal failure more than anything, given it’s subject matter, and the media certainly liked to cook up a storm about people not being interested in main characters who are old.

I’m just glad that so far UP is the highest grossing non sequel/original film that has been released. It kind of proves that if a movie is good, people will go and see it. And with or without the price of 3-D showings I still think the movie would have grossed just as much in the long run because of its story more than anything else.

With that said, roll on October!

#83

Actually, me neither! I’m glad it’s been so successful, but I didnt expect it to become #2. It just didnt seem to me like the type to do that. That’s putting it down, that’s just the perception I got. But that’s great it’s been doing so well!

#84

I don’t know that I could have predicted anything before the movie came out, but once I saw it, I thought it had the potential to be really big - mostly because the audiences I was with seemed to love it so much, it had to be getting good word of mouth! I think Up really hits the sweet spot between appealing to kids, appealing to families, appealing to Pixar fans, and appealing to people who don’t usually go to animated films.

Edit - It’s Saturday afternoon, and I just came home from Trip #6. Apparently, the Big Drop Off has hit. We had a grand total of 7 people in the audience, including me. (Of course, this was the “noon-ish” show, and I know I’m one of the few people who actually likes going to the movies that early in the day.) For the record, my compadres were a middle aged husband and wife, older husband and wife, and mom with 5 (maybe?) year old boy. He seemed to really enjoy the movie and was not upset by it. There was one cute moment where [spoil]they’re in Muntz’s dining room and Muntz sees Kevin sitting on the house, and the little kid said, “Uh-oh!”[/spoil]

I need to eat some crow somewhere, and this thread is as good as any - I actually enjoyed seeing the movie in 3D today. I don’t know what was different, but it didn’t seem as dark and dim as my previous 3D trip, and I actually appreciated the effects. The main difference I can note: this was at the same multiplex where I saw the 3D before, but the first 3D viewing was in one of the big stadium theatres, and today it was in one of the small stadium theatres. I still find the glasses awkward and uncomfortable, and given the option, I would still choose the 2D, but I’m glad I had a more positive 3D experience this trip.

Oh, and one more thing I have to mention somewhere… May I just say that Muntz has really grown on me. :slight_smile:

#85

Up fell about 1/3 from last week. It has $270M as of Fri nite, and is making a little over $1M per day. If it has a normal drop off pattern, it can make as much as $25M more by October. Thank goodness the junk movie, T2, is finally moving down somewhat, my local DJ announced over the radio: it’s only good for dvd rental or cable channel, don’t listen to anyone’s positive advice, and don’t spend $10 hard earned recession bucks on it. HPotter comes out in a few days, 96% rating with 26 reviews, and this will affect the family market. Up fell a notch to between 7th or 8th this week, with the new Bruno release.

Can it beat the $300M mark? It will come close, but could pass it up if there is a followup media blitz. It would sure be nice. I looked at the box profile for Titanic and it jumped up oddly 7 months after release! Titanic was released Xmas of 1997. It jumped on a certain day, Friday July 17th 1998, and then passed the $600M mark. It would not have made it without that promotional bounce. So if Disney wants the $300M mark, they will have to move right after HPotter weekend. It’s expected to finish around the 31st something biggest grossing movie of all time, but not in # tickets.

Edit: Transf2 is down to 19% on the meter. It is the worst critically reviewed blockbuster film of this generation. Meet the Fockers is the previous low of all $250M blockbuster films at 38%. Alvin and the Chipmunks and Pearl Harbor are in the mid 20’s for the group between $193-250M.

Further edit: Up to $275M sometime Tuesday July 14th, HPotter being released tonite at midnight. (The Half Blood Prince isn’t all that great, beyond the extremist devotees who will claim it is)

Edit: $277M by July17th. Limping along, at its current rate it can expect only $17-25M more, still there is 6 weeks left of summer, a whole month more than Wall-E had. There are too many big family movies out now, and in addition to them, The Proposal and The Hangover are holding on fast.

Edit: $280M thru Tues July 21st, so that was 11 days to make over $10M. It doesn’t look like it’s going to make it. My guess a full month ago was that it would end up at $292M and now I can revise that to about $294M by Labor Day, the first weekend in September. Still, it’s holding at #8 film with 1,706 screens. Potter seriously cut into its take, and it’s fallen well below the #6 and 7.

Edit: 3 more family/kids oriented movies are coming out in the U.S.A. before Labor Day: G-Force, Shorts, and one just before the holiday. Each will cut deeply into any animated film around. G-Force is already out, then Shorts next weekend. GI-Joe comes out the weekend after that. Then until Labor Day, few big films will be released. Fortunately, these releases may either be silly or bomb, and won’t wipe out Up receipts, which are already withering from the Big 3 smashes on top of the heap. $282M thru Thursday.

#86

They better. Potter is good, but I think there’s a lot more quality in Pixar films. Plus, they’re not deriving from a book… I really hope it hits 300, they deserve it.

#87

Yah definitly 300 would be pretty awesome, though unlikely… they still need another 25 million or so for that and are only getting about in the 700 thousands this week and it’ll keep going down… THEY’LL GET PRETTY CLOSE THOUGH :smiley:

#88

-Plz read my last post for current domestic info.-

Latin American gross as of 7/5/09: $33M. And that’s probably around $40M+ updated to today. It will be several weeks before we hear from the next big markets: France and the Low Countries.

Oh, and has this been linked to elsewhere?, it was a treat to read:

hollywood-animated-films.suite10 … ypixars_up

Note that he screwed up majorly with Ratatouille and Wall-E also. He’s the type of person who seems to perennially force Lassiter to explain this odd ‘quality’ angle that Pixar has going.

#89

I have to concur with several other people on here, that although I thought Up would do reasonably well, perhaps placing somewhere in the middle of Pixar’s film rankings in terms of the box office, for it to have made so much money has surprised me.

Oh, and thanks for linking to that article, DarkHandOfSigourneyWeaver! It’s great when someone like that, who seems to think he knows everything, is proven wrong. :laughing:

#90

It’s Sunday; who has an update? I see Up is out of the Top 10 now; still curious about the total at this point.

#91

Be patient, we usually wait till Monday, after the weekend is done, to post the whole shebang. Anyways, a trio of movies, led by G-Force, knocked Up out of the top10, to #11 (preliminary totals, since I’m posting this at dark on Sunday night in California with hours of box still open, not including Alaska). There was a large % fall off, only made less dismal because Transf2 dropped badly too. Est. $283.7M thru Sunday. There are two main reasons, the biggest is the #screens went from 1,706 to 1,070. The second was mentioned earlier, too much family fare competition. The dollar take per screen per day is holding around $500, and the daily take is around $550,000. So, as predicted, it won’t hit $300M. It couldn’t even get to $285M this weekend.

…Anyways, I agree with lizardgirl about Up being a bit of a surprise at the box. What I haven’t figured out is, she supposedly hasn’t seen the movie yet, and won’t soon unless she chunnels it over to France on July 29th. Up won’t get the overall critical reviews that Rat and Wall-E got, but it’s more accessible to the masses and I believe that it’s nearly as good a film as Nemo. It was very lucky to have been released when it was, and I expounded on that earlier in this thread… so it had a breather of a few weeks where it nearly was the #1 movie for 3 weeks!

Edit: 3 of the 8 top falling movies fell even more than Up did, including the overrated Potter. Potter might not pass Up on its 3rd week. Clearly, its first few days were skewed by devotees.

Edit: Up falls to #15, its just past $285M now. It’s still playing on a lot of screens, but will lose many of these next week with this poor box, then it will fall even more with the fewer screens! It’s really falling hard now, cuz of all the other family summer releases.

#92

Very insightful post DarkHand, it really was a good time for the release, and I’m really pleased with where it is in comparison to Pixar’s other films, it deserves it. It just falling short of 300M is a bit frustrating, but still a very high number. Pixar did it again, of course!

#93

Sorry, patience is not my strong suit. :slight_smile: I’m not surprised there was a big drop in screens this week. It would have been nice to see it reach 300 million, but any way you look at it, Up has done very well.

#94

Up “la-haut”, or literally “Up There”, debuted yesterday in France, Northern Africa, Spain, Israel, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with Singapore coming next week:

CARTON PLEIN POUR LE NOUVEAU PIXAR.

PRES DE 260.000 Entrées France/1er jour pour “Là-haut”.

Translated this: "Full Box for the new Pixar. Nearly 260,000 French admissions / first day for “Up” "

“As in 2008, with Wall-E out on the same date, Up had mixed results around Paris and its periphery because of the extensive vacations (August is vacation month thruout much of Europe, especially northern France). In the provinces, standing room only for this masterpiece. Given the initial results 3 million will be exceeded”

I’m not sure if he meant 3 million euros from Wednesday, or 3 million admissions will eventually come to pass, as happened with Wall-E. Because the movie was shown at the Cannes festival previously, it is expected to do quite well in France alone, where Wall-e pulled in nearly $28M. Where will all these Parisians be if not in Paris? Probably on the Riviera or Spain, Italy, or Northern Africa, most of which have the movie as of this week. The box office from these countries will be about as large as that of Latin America and Russia, which have provided almost all of the take so far.

Translation: (Relaxnews) - According to the box office cinema Relaxnews, the animated film Up (Disney) has attracted 259,214 spectators during its first days of operation in France. Projected on 718 screens, film studio Pixar achieves a better score than its predecessor, Wall-E, which had registered 190,002 admissions on 30 July 2008.

So Up is doing about 1/3 more the box than Wall-E. This could mean a $40M take for France alone, and you can expect spillover into Germany and other neighboring countries with this “buzz”.

A French review posted within the past 24 hours. Note that they again call the movie “…a masterpiece!” :

cinefeed.com/index.php/2009/ … es-sommets

— Not listed yet anywhere is a report that Up did $403,000 at 49 screens in Israel, a record for Pixar there, it was reported, but not yet confirmed. Edit: Israel’s total is over $1M now, and will probably end up around $2M.

Also, the figure of $48M over at boxofficemojo may not be right, another source says $56M foreign before the French release…

#95

Well it’s likely to pass 300M at this rate, but I don’t think that was ever an issue. Still, nice to know that it’s doing well overseas! Hope it keeps a steady stream of spectators.

#96

Bad news. In its 10th week Up continued to fall, making only $2M this past week and limping just over $286M overall. It’s #16 now. Potter, continuing its dive, didn’t even come close to passing it up in its 3rd week, and will have to do well next few weeks to become the 2nd biggest movie of the year, passing up our high flying friend. Transformers2 is faltering badly too and will take some effort to pass the $400M mark. Up is down now to 706 theaters in the U.S. Hopefully the movie will still be around some places in September for those who like multiple viewings.

Edit: Week 11: added only about $1M, shedding 300 theaters. Potter will pass it up in about 2 weeks.

Elsewhere, great news!:

Spain box office–>

“The new Disney-Pixar film, Up, yesterday raised a total of 930,000 euros in its first day of exhibition, making it the animation with the best debut of the year. More than 142,000 people came to one of the 625 rooms in which the film was projected. The film directed by Peter docter oscarizado (Monstruos SA) has made 530,000 euros in 484 conventional rooms and 400,000 rooms in 141 operating in 3D format. The latter figure exceeds by 24% to the result achieved by Ice Age 3, which now holds this record.”

"Up collects € 5,565,000 in Spain
Written by Editorial Noticiasdot.com on August 3 2009

“Up,” the new film from Disney / Pixar has achieved € 4,640,000 during its first weekend, making it the best opening of an animated film from Disney / Pixar in Spain, beating “Finding Nemo.” The film has been released with 625 copies, leads collected since its premiere last Thursday, the amount of € 5,565,000. More than 800,000 people have come to the cinema to enjoy this masterpiece of animation.

The figure obtained during its first weekend, making “UP” to get the third biggest opening of Disney films in Spain, second only to "Pirates of the Caribbean. At the end of the world “and” Pirates of the Caribbean.

Obtained by raising the “Up” in the 141 rooms in which are displayed in 3D is € 2,270,000, representing an average of € 13,290 per copy. This figure represents 41% of total revenues."

and witness this French exploitation! —>

Top 10 most popular films this weekend: “Up there” goes before “Harry Potter 6”

(Relaxnews) - According to the box office Relaxnews from 29 July to 2 August 2009, the animated film Up here (Disney) took the lead with 1,021,029 entries recorded in its first week of French exploitation. The film passes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner), which was attended by 564,025 spectators.

#97

Up beat out Harry Potter? And almost DOUBLED it?! That’s amazing! Holy cow!

Oh, and if Up is still in theaters in September, you bet your behind I’m getting to 30, maybe 40

#98

Hahaha…like I always said: The old man rules!

It’s gonna be the biggest movie of 2009. Believe me. I’m positive.

#99

Up got $33M in Latin America by July 5, but is only up to $37.5M there now, with only Brazil not reporting in yet, and if it follows neighbor Venezuela, it should make $10M there. Why did it drop like a rock? The reasons may be that L.A. countries don’t have the multiplex style market, they have to rotate in new films quickly to maximize profits. But the most likely reason: Ice Age 3, which has been a huge, phenomenal box office smash, just not here in the U.S. where its done only a tidy $184M and will finish around $215M or so. Elsewhere on this website fans have been gasping at some of the takes: $44M in Russia, where it will finish with about 3x Up’s receipts, and $36M in Brazil, and going!

So, the Disney people would rather have released Up worldwide in late May/ early June or about a month after IA3, which is exactly what they are doing in France, Spain, Taiwan, Israel and South Korea. I guess it’s not summer down under, so that explains their date, and then there is England with the late October date, hmm, in the U.S., that’s the start of the holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving, but you can scratch that latter American holiday for the old country.

Up will finish about 27.5% ahead of last year’s Wall-E in the U.S, and much higher in most of the L.A. nations, except Mexico, where perhaps some other film intervened. Russia is the only other major country so far reporting less for Up, and we see here that IA3 is a major reason for that exception. Since Up is doing so well in Spain and France, one might predict it will follow this pattern thruout most of Europe this fall. But with so many non-summer dates, it’s really hard to say…

The U.S. is usually around 40-45% of the world take for Pixar films. With the pattern we see so far, Up could finish beyond $650M worldwide, past last year’s $535M for our gizmo friend.

Note: Nemo was $865M worldwide. IA3 has already surpassed this in foreign receipts, and possibly might do it overall to become the biggest animated eurobuster EVER. Will it become the biggest animated feature of all time? It’s possible… it’s going to be close, IA3 has $733M now with 5.3 weeks into release.

#100

As usual, thanks for the Up-date DarkHand, kind of disappointing to see Up fall below IA3, but I guess it’s just different overseas. Nice to see it keeping good numbers in France and Spain.