38th Portuguese Box-Office Analysis

After 6 weeks going up, now it´s the fourth week going down. And we can´t say that the films opening are any better but at least they have a greater buzz. So the answer we should be asking is, Why? I honestly don´t have a clue. Ofcourse some weeks agos we had Easter time and that certainly helped movie business. One ideia could be that we are nearing exam time in Universities all around the country. And we all know what is the biggest demographic when it comes to a cinema going audience. The right answer is students.

This week, in general, we have gigantic drops. And this means in the 50, 60 and even 70% area. There are some exception like anything in life and we will treat them with the comment they deserve.
This week the top ten films managed 219694 spectators, and a 15% drop in number. The other news is that we have a gigantic (predictable) new number one and only another film in the top 10.

Without further ado, let´s continue this with the charts.

We are considering the week between 4 and 10 of May

Legend

Position/Movie
Theather Count
Spectators (Week)
Percentage of Spectators Rise(+) or Drop (-)
Spectators (Total)
Week of Release (New Film)

1. Mission Impossible 3
70
113441
-
113441
1st Week

2. Scary Movie 4
48
23065
-62%
184791
3rd Week

3. Inside Man
45
22795
-58%
233802
4th Week

4. The New World
23
17137
-
17137
1st Week

5. Ice Age: The Meltdown
39
9027
-79%
469424
6th Week

6. Failure to Launch
25
8755
-63%
161182
5th Week

7. The Matador
15
6620
-17%
14595
2nd Week

8. Firewall
21
6546
-68%
48310
3rd Week

9. Basic Instinct 2
22
6306
-62%
146690
5th Week

10. The Wild
33
6002
-57%
78118
4th Week

The Champion:

As expected the new number one is "Mission Impossible 3". With 113441 spectators it rocked 70 cinemas all across the country. And i bet some of them got very disapointed with this new Mission. I was one of them and i bet lots of them follow my opinion. The film starts well and it stays well for 30 minutes, then it start´s going down very fast until the last scene that goes the border on ridiculous. Expect a big drop next week in the 40% area.

Opening at number 4 and underperfoming is "The New World", with 17137 spectators. I whould have hoped for a better opening since the discoveries are our main asset in History terms. Ahh, if it was the discovery of Brazil, but no it was about the Americas. And that is Spanish territory. The film altough sometimes erratical is one of the best filmed in the last years. And we have to thank the Poet of Images, Terence Malick. See you in 7 years, i hope.

Still making the top 20 is "Shooting Dogs" at number 19 with 1331 spectators. Only 4 theather and the lack of any sort of marketing in this full marketing on the summer blockbusters makes it go under the radar as many others. At least this one still appears, unlike the other 5 openers that didn´t made the cut.

The Other Players:

First we start on the down films of the week. And down film, this week, means, "Ice Age:The Meltdown", in number 5, that came down from 43428 to just 9027 spectators. That means a 79% tumble. I believe it´s the biggest since i started doing this analysis. Don´t expect Ice Age to get to 500.000 spectators anymore.

Also in the same path we find "Firewall" at number 8 and coming down 68%. Mr Harrison Ford, as i said before, You Need Something Big and Fast....er.

When there are bad news, there´s always good news attached. At number 7 and only dropping 17%, in a week of gigantic drops is "The Matador". The latest of Mr Bond, Pierce Brosnan, did warm up to portuguese hearts and had a strong second week. The 2 theather up count should have helped it too.

And ofcourse the oustanding perfomance of the week award goes to "Lisboetas", the portuguese documentary of foreigners living in Lisbon by Sérgio Tréfaut. With a 13% rise in one measly theather in all of Portugal it managed 2236 spectators in it´s third week. And this means two consecutive rises in this weeks. A very good time for Portuguese documentaries and for Portuguese cinema, that a movie this small makes it that big. Congratulations Sérgio.

Next Week we Will Have:

- "The Hills have Eyes" (Will make it to the top ten at number 4 with 18000 spectators)
- "Lassie" (The kids movie of the week will make the top ten at number 9 with an expected 6000 spectators)
- "Final Destination 3" (will make a tough fight with The Hills have Eyes". COuld get 10000 spectators and number 6)
- "Freedomland" (Will get a top 10 at number 7 probably with 9000 spectators)
- The rest won´t make the top 20, like "Grandma´s Boy" and "Innocence".

See ya next week.

Good Night and Good Films.