"The Producers": Over $5.26 million for the 4-day New Year's weekend!

See how this movie is starting to hold up? It was the only major movie to go up in its grosses this past saturday; the other movies dropped up to thirty percent. The box office has been really consistent. This sunday was down only 12.8% from last Sunday, which was its first day of this allegedly "wide" release of 975 theatres. The per-theater average was $5,380 for the weekend, quite comparable to other movies out right now, if a little below average.
I know people are sick of Producers box office threads, but since this is an encouraging sign, I thought "why not?" and it's not as if this is as bad as that not-so-long-ago time when five million Wicked threads were being created per minute.
track the daily box office here:
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=producers.htm

It will probably make more than Rent. I predict about a $50 million total gross. It will probably pick up.

The Producers only went up because it expanded to a lot more theaters than it was playing at the last week. Those numbers are far from encouraging. Once it gets nothing at the Golden Globes and it is snubbed at the Oscars for any major award then it will die.

It can't even crack the top ten? That is not so good.

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Janruary 13th?

That's my birthday!

I knew my birthday had to do with The Producers this year...

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I'm afraid the B.O. data is being used rather oddly here. $5,000 per screen is hardly promising for a first week, and suggests very minimal interest, at least initially, beyond a core niche audience. Comparing it to KONG or NARNIA is way off base, since they are in approx 3500 theaters each, and have been out for weeks. The better yardstick would be immediate limited-release competition MATADOR and MATCHPOINT, which had per screen averages of approx 23,000 and 64,000 (Woody's best opening in years). Or perhaps BROKEBACK, which opened in 69 theaters with 100,000 per, and even on 260 screens is pulling $17,000 per. Keep your eye on MATCHPOINT, which costs far, far less than the bloated PRODUCERS budget of 45 million (which I personally couln't see on the screen). The PRODUCERS producers are likely very nervous about big profits at this point.

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But CHICAGO had across-the-board raves, a higher profile cast and had become an Oscar forerunner at this point. Plus, it had Miramax behind it, not the incompetent marketing heads of Universal.

I have a feeling these packed houses are in New York, which is where I'd expect THE PRODUCERS to do best. I don't know whether this film can be sold to middle America, though.

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I saw it on Christmas Day in the middle of nowhere - and I mean the middle of nowhere, Middle America. The theater only took cash, if that's any indication. I honestly don't even know how or why it was playing at this particular venue.

In any case, it was almost sold out at the first showing (save for 10 seats) and I enjoyed it even more than I did on B'way. Nathan was in top form, and Matthew delivered. Even Will was perfect. Then again, I was in the Springtime For Hitler audience, so I'm a little biased...

<< I have a feeling these packed houses are in New York, which is where I'd expect THE PRODUCERS to do best. >>

I am in CT and had to find a theater where it was playing, and BOTH times, different theaters, different parts of the state, it was sold out, or close to it.

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I would love to see THE PRODUCERS film be a runaway success, but the fact is, it's not doing well at the box office. So don't accuse me of wanting the film to fail: I was just pointing out that the numbers don't look as good as suggested.

It's true that box office revenues only account for a percentage of total profit (the percentage varies depending on the type of film), but usually a movie needs to at least make its budget back in worldwide box office revenues in order to break even overall. It'll be interesting to see now if THE PRODUCERS has long legs past the holiday season, and how well it can do in international markets.

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Updated On: 1/3/06 at 04:49 PM

Reporting accurately -- i.e. with some knowledge of what box office figures actually mean -- does not constitute "wanting it to fail." This is a board where opinions on broadway shows, and the films made from them, and their relative success, will be debated and analyzed. Looking for pie-eyed reactions to comparably low numbers is rather silly. We don't have to post gaga fan reports to be invested in the outcome of any film from a play.

I would love to see movies made from many broadway musicals, but we've had three back to back that seem hard to launch: PHANTOM, RENT, and now THE PRODUCERS. Please, let's hope things improve for PRODUCERS -- it may make the difference in the next green-lit musical -- while not ignoring the real-world financial prognosis.

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