64th Portuguese Box-Office Analysis

A new week is starting, and a new analysis is ready. The first one i wrote in Portugal for a long time. It felt good.

.

Thew news are not much, though. We have the same number one for the second week and even number 2 is the same one. Only one new film at the top three and that means at number three. A animation movie. One more, that right. Feeling tired of always speaking of animation movies. We love them but they are starting to become boring. No more 3D animals, please?

We had 208582 spectators for the top ten movies, meaning a 21% drop from last Week. This was due to the lack of big openers and usually drops in the 35% area for each film already at the top.

So let´s check out the actual numbers.

This concerns the week between 2 to 8 of November.

1. The Devil Wears Prada
44
49550
1126
-32%
122095
2nd Week
2. Filme da Treta
32
32812
1025
-39%
219467
4th Week
3. Boog & Elliot
42
27724
660
+205%
36799
2nd Week

4. Children of Men
35
22093
631
-28%
52653
2nd Week

5. The Guardian
36
16369
455
-30%
114792
4th Week

6. Barnyard
33
15198
461
-37%
177534
5th Week

7. Marie Antoinette
15
10871
725
-37%
54072
3rd Week

8. Dead or Alive (D.O.A.)
18
10170
565
-
11912
1st Week

9. The Illusionist
9
9033
1004
-
9033
1st Week

10. Click
22
7902
359
-45%
134806
5th Week
.
.
.
14. Manuale D´Amore
7
4316
617
-
4316
1st Week
.
.
16. Paris Je T´Aime
6
3657
610
-
3657
1st Week

The Champion:

And for the second straight week we have the same new number one. It´s “The Devil Wears Prada” with 49550 spectators in it´s second week and a drop of 32%. A very good result for an opening so big last week. Generally big openers drop in the 40% category. But not this devil. Expect a very good result, very near the 250.000 as a total result. And the translation of the book to Portuguese some weeks before the opening must have helped a lot also. A very good marketing device, no doubt. One sells and it helps the other one.

The New Players:

“Dead or Alive”, another videogame adaptation in the B-Series area, is a decent entertainment but nothing more than that. After you’ve seen it, you will forget it almost instantly. It still made 10170 spectators for a 565 average, and got a 8th position place, a very under par result. Next week, expect it long gone. And it won’t come back. Good Riddance. I guess I am repeating myself.

The best average of the openers, with 1004 per theatre/Week, goes to “The Illusionist”, at number 9. The average is pretty impressive for a movie so discrete in terms of marketing. In just 9 theaters it managed 9033 spectators for the week. Edward Norton´s comeback to a big part and of course, the magical setback is pretty popular in Portugal. We just love Magic.

At number 14 and way off the top 10, we find the Italian success that was “Manuale D´Amore”. With 4316 spectators for an average of 617 it outdid most of Italian movies (except for the Roberto Benigni´s ones) that, for sure, are not very popular in this part. The neorealism is very far away from these parts. The golden age of Italian cinema is long gone and with it the full theatres it had in the 60 and 70´s in Portugal. Especially after the revolution in 1974. These are new times. And this ones don’t have spectators nor the quality of other days.

Finally, the last entry of the week, at number 16 is “Paris Je t´aime”, where 18 directors from very different backgrounds, give they’re love letter to the city of romance, Paris. It managed 3657 spectators in 6 theaters. A good result for 18 short films all put together in a big film. As in all short film collections there are strong and not so strong parts. Still one to look for, and since this works like a trip to all main Paris famous places, it’s a keeper if you want to visit the town soon.

The Winner of the Week:

With an almost identical average to it’s first week (1126) and almost 50.000 spectators, we have found a winner. And the fact it landed the number one spot for 2 times in two weeks is not bad either. It’s “The Devil Wears Prada”. Also a hit in Portugal, for sure.

The Looser of the Week:

For the second week, it’s yet again “Click”. A disappointing run, but one that was expected. People are tired of seeing the same film, over and over again. Adam Sandler´s needs to diversify the films he enters. It went down 45% this week for 7902 spectators. But he still makes 150.000 per film. And that is not for everybody. Literally…

Well, see you next week.
Good Night and Good Films.