Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Doggy Bounces

Now with vitamin-packed, life-affirming Add Ons.

Bolt surges Friday to Friday.

Not that you wouldn't expect it, what with the white shepherd's fan base out of school for the holidays. But still in all, the Disney flick is now nipping at Twilight's heels as Vince Vaughn and Resse Witherspoon lead the parade with Four Christmases. (America does love those holiday comedies, no matter what the reviewers say.)

Down in the fifth position, Madagascar 2 makes off with $5,750,000 and zooms past the $150 million mark. DreamWorksAnimation has another nice little money maker on its hands.

Add On: More analysis of the Turkey Day weekend here.

Family fare surged on Thursday. Disney's 3-D animated toon "Bolt" was up 150% over Thursday, grossing $10.8 million on its second Friday for a cume of $51.1 million. Film was up an impressive 54% over the previous Friday, when it opened.

"Bolt" tied with Summit Entertainment's "Twilight" for second place on Friday ...

DreamWorks Animation/Paramount's "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" placed an impressive No. 6 on Friday. Entering its fourth sesh, toon grossed $5.5 million from 3,709 playdates for a cume of $150.3 million. "Mad 2" was up a whopping 154% over Thursday, and 50% over the previous Friday ...

Glad tidings for the holidays, hmm?

Add On Too: And the doggy lands in second overall ... and third on a per-theatre basis. $67 million (rounded) after two weekends.

And in the sixth position, our animal friends from Mad Deux take in $14.5 million, for a grand domestic total that nudges against $160 million (again rounded).

(The L.A. Times and Deadline Hollywood offer their analyses here and here.)

It is a good thing to be in the animated feature business, yes?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's unfortunate that Bolt and Po are categorized together as "family fare." I walked out of the theater amazed as the quality story telling and animation of Bolt. Then I decided out of duty as an animation fan that I should rent Kung fu Panda. I had watched the opening credits on the internet and decided to skip it in the theater based on the trite humor of the monologue. Now I know I was right in doing so. The animation is mediocre. For example, the tigress had such great character potential but she looked like they rigged her with iron instead of plush. The color palate was often so over the top that it hurt my eyes to see China (and Chinese art) redecorated by My Little Pony. And Jack Black . . . why!?

Here's hoping that Bolt increases its first weekend by a significant percentage and proves that America is still interested in quality movie making and that hysteria is not the only ruling the box office.

Anonymous said...

hen I decided out of duty as an animation fan that I should rent Kung fu Panda. I had watched the opening credits on the internet and decided to skip it in the theater based on the trite humor of the monologue. Now I know I was right in doing so.

Obviously this person has zero knowledge of what great work is when he sees it. I recommend you not bash Kung Fu Panda, because its hands down the best animated film this year. Here's hoping it will get the oscar over Wall-E. Bolt is no where near this race.

PO

Anonymous said...

Oh, good grief ! Could you people stop with the Kung Fu Panda stuff already ?

(either the ridiculous unnecessary bashing of KFP on the one hand or the clutching it to your bosom and weeping tears of joy over what "great work" it is on the other. KFP was fine. It's a pretty good movie, neither junk nor pure gold. But can we talk about Bolt or Wall-E or whatever on their own merit and not drag the darn Panda into it again ? )

Anonymous said...

Wall-e is a great movie but overrated

I just came from Bolt and I was amazed at so many levels, I'm so happy to see Disney back on track, the final renders looks really amazing, and the story is way better that the non sense of meet the Robinsons and chicken little.

Kung-fu Panda, is the best animated movie of the year...

Anonymous said...

I guess nobody can just enjoy these great animated films without turning it into a pissing match.

Bolt deserves to do better at the box office than it's doing. Good to see it'll actually make more this weekend than the weekend previous. Them's good legs.



But what a great year for those of us who love the cerebral, the slapstick, the heartwarming, the spiritual, the futuristic, the legendary, the action, the artistic, the technical and the talking animals. Can't we enjoy this moment as artists and lovers of animation? How great that we have these wonderful movies that are all so very different from each other?

Anonymous said...

Kung Fu Panda is the greatest animated film ever created by mankind.

Anybody who thought WALL-E was better than Panda is obviously a fanboy. Bolt's going to be lucky to cross $100m and Pixar is going down and their next film won't even sniff $100m, all of this just because John Lasseter's grubby little fingerprints are all over it - the guy is overrated and knows absolutely nothing. Katzenberg is the real animation genius.

Prepare for the age of Dreamworks Animation, everybody.

Anonymous said...

And may I further add that Steve Hulette is the studmuffin of my dreams, his lithe body slathering over me like a thick vanilla custard. Steve, I want to make beautiful children with you--and I'm not even a woman.

Anonymous said...

Well that last statement alone should disqualify your opinion.

But those whoppers about Lasseter knowing nothing? What planet do you live on?

Bolt not making a 100 mil? It'll have pulled in almost 70 by Sunday night so I'd say it's got a real good chance of going over a hundred.

And you think Up won't do a hundred either? I'll bet you think 911 was an inside job too. I'll see you in Vegas, my odds are better than yours I'll wager.

Anonymous said...

Remember : Do Not Feed the Trolls.

Steve Hulett said...

And may I further add that Steve Hulette is the studmuffin of my dreams, his lithe body slathering over me like a thick vanilla custard.

Uuuh. So who is this Hulette person? Tom Cruise and Bulwinkle Moose all rolled into One?

Anonymous said...

gordon's reason - I believe that was sarcasm.

Justin said...

I agree with the poster that mentioned what a great year for animated movies. In Wall-E we get a deeper thinking movie that brings back sci-fi. In Kung Fu Panda we get a fun Kung Fu movie with its gorgeous backgrounds. We have Madagascar 2 and its slapstick humor. Finally we get Bolt with its heart warming if predictable story and some of the best action sequences in animation yet. I certainly enjoyed the movies this year.

Anonymous said...

I'm a big fan of Bolt, and I agree that the action sequences are some of the best ever animated (some of which I worked on).

But I feel I do need to give some due props to my brothers and sisters over at DW for the action in Kung Fu Panda. If for nothing else but the pure comedy poetry of the "you are free to eat" sequence. That was the best action sequence ever animated. If our action sequences are great, IMO we still come second to that.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Justin.
Gordon: 9/11 ACTUALLY WAS an inside job... Enjoy your "accidentally perfect economy" with the new afro-american puppet... and keep looking for “Mr.Bean Laden” hurry up!....NAIVE

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