Steve’s Box Office Report: December 2012
Top 10 Films for the Month of December:
1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – $303,003,568
2. Django Unchained – $162,805,434
3. Les Miserables – $148,809,770
4. Silver Linings Playbook – $132,092,958
5. Jack Reacher – $80,070,736
6. Parental Guidance – $77,267,296
7. This is 40 – $67,544,505
8. The Guilt Trip – $37,134,215
9. Monsters Inc. 3D Re-Release – $34,043,006
10. Playing for Keeps – $12,512,862
Honorable Mentions:
1. Amour – $6,739,492
December Winners: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Silver Linings Playbook, Jack Reacher, Parental Guidance, and This is 40
We come to the end of the year 2012 with the month of December and this year for the most part has been a tremendous year, and now it all comes down to these films to end the year on a strong note. Coupled with the films that came out back in November that were still doing really well, and there was no question that the year was going to end well and this category will best reflect that. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the first in the Hobbit trilogy, An Unexpected Journey which sees Bilbo set off on his journey with a group of dwarves to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who felt it was a fine film though didn’t merit a trilogy due to the source material, and it would finish with over $303 million which was a great start and showed that the LOTR universe still had some juice. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the Western film Django Unchained, a film which sees a bounty hunter employee a former slave and helps him in his quest to save his wife from a brutal slave owner. The film would receive critical acclaim from critics who felt it was one of Quentin Tarantino’s best despite some controversy with the violence and language, and it would finish with over $162 million which was a strong showing for the film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the musical film Les Miserables, based on the show of the same name which sees Jean Valjean try to survive and raise his adopted daughter Cosette during the June Invasion in France. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who felt it was a faithful adaptation of the classic musical, and it would finish with over $148 million which made it one of the most successful musical films in history. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the romantic comedy film Silver Linings Playbook, based on the novel of the same name of a man who agrees to join a widow in a dance competition if she tries to help him reunite with his estranged wife. The film would receive critical acclaim from critics who considered it one of the best films of the year, and it would finish with over $132 million which was a major success for the film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the action film Jack Reacher, based on the novel “One Shot” that sees Reacher investigate a mass shooting involving a former military sniper. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who felt the film was carried by Tom Cruise, and it would finish with over $80 million which was a pretty good haul for this film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the comedy film Parental Guidance, a film about a couple who are asked to watch over their grandchildren. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was too bland and predictable, but despite that it would finish with over $77 million which was a major win for the film despite the reviews. The last film from this month that makes it into this category is the comedy film This is 40, a film about a married couple who deal with the stresses of their relationship as both prepare to turn 40. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics who felt the film was lacking something despite having good momentums, and it would finish with over $67 million which was a nice haul for the film. The films that made it into this category all did extremely well and made a lot of money over their runs, and with how well they did it is no surprise that the year ended on a major high note.
December Losers: Monsters Inc. 3D Re-Release and Playing for Keeps
Even though the month of December was for the most part a successful month, there were still a few hiccups from this month that prevent it from getting to the upper tier alongside some of the other months from this year. While there were only two films from this month that makes it into this category, they were still poor enough that it does make a very small impact for the month. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the 3D Re-Release of Monsters Inc., a film that sees a world of monsters run a company based on scares until a human girl stumbles in. The film would receive critical acclaim when it first came out and still had the positive reviews, but it finished with over $34 million which was a weak showing and I will delve more into that later. The other film from this month that makes it into this category is the romantic comedy film Playing for Keeps, a film about a former soccer player who struggles to find work while trying to build a relationship with his son. The film would receive scathing reviews from critics who considered it one of the worst of the year, and it would finish with over $12 million as it was completely crushed under the weight of the other films from the month. While these films weren’t bad enough to completely drag the month down, they were bad enough as I said to keep the month from reaching the top tier of the year along with other months from this year.
The Surprise/Story of December 2012: Middle-Earth rules once again as the first Hobbit film “An Unexpected Journey” dominates December 2012
In December 2001, the world took their first trip to Middle-Earth with the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, “The Fellowship of the Ring” and the following two years, “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King” would follow in the success and make it one of the most successful trilogies in cinema history. Now almost 12 years later, the novel that was written before the LOTR trilogy, “The Hobbit” was ready to be adapted as a film and despite it only being one book, the decision was made to split it into 3 films which was seen as a risky move with many considering it overkill and it could’ve worked with 2 films at the most. Despite this, audiences were keen to return as “An Unexpected Journey” ended up finishing with over $303 million and while it still finished behind the 3 LOTR films, the fact that it came close to them showed that there was still some steam left in this franchise. Now the question becomes if the other two can match the same success or if fatigue will start to set in by this point, but “An Unexpected Journey” does its job and finishes at the top of the month despite some strong competition from other films.
Overachiever of December 2012: Silver Linings Playbook
When looking at the slate of films that came out this month, almost all of them did as well as what was expected so trying to come up with an overachiever was a bit of a challenge. However, looking deeper into the numbers, Silver Linings Playbook popped out to me as it had been released on a limited basis the previous month and was released on a wider range this month. This film was one of the perennial award contenders for the year as it was carried by the star power of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, and even in the face of the blockbusters that came out this month it ended up finishing with over $132 million which was a major success for the film. Because of that, there is no doubt that this film deserves to be the overachiever of the month and honestly, it might have a chance to be the overachiever of the year though that might be a challenge given the other overachievers that came out this month.
Underachiever of December 2012: Monsters Inc. 3D Re-Release
Back in September 2011, “The Lion King” was re-released in 3D to commemorate its upcoming release on Blu-Ray and to the shock of a lot of people, it ended up overdelivering in a big way by finishing with close to $100 million which is unprecedented for a 3D re-release. Because of that, Disney decided to re-release several other films in 3D to capitalize on that including “Beauty of the Beast”, “Finding Nemo”, and now “Monsters Inc.” this month. However, it turned out that Lion King’s success was an anomaly as the films from that month were fairly weak, and throughout the year we saw diminishing returns from the other films and it caps off here as Monsters finishes with just over $34 million. Not only that, but Beauty and Nemo both ended up being the underachievers of their months and we hit the trifecta here as Monsters is also the underachiever of the month, and now it is obvious that Disney will move on from this experiment and try to do something else.
December 2012 Awards Watch: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Silver Linings Playbook, the Guilt Trip, Playing for Keeps, and Amour
As we usually do, the month of December sees the bulk of the award contenders come out and that holds up here as we have 7 films from this month that make it into this category. It also appears that we have more Academy and Golden Globe nominees than Golden Raspberry nominees, but we will see if that holds up. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which was nominated for 3 Academy Awards (Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects) though it didn’t win any which ends the streak of LOTR films winning awards. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is Django Unchained which would win 2 Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay) while being nominated for 3 more (Best Picture, Best Sound Editing, and Best Cinematography). The film would also win 2 Golden Globe Awards (Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay) while being nominated for 3 more (Best Picture – Drama, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor), and it just shows how successful this film ended up being. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is Les Miserables which would win 3 Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actress, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling) while being nominated for 5 more (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Original Song, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design). The film would also win 3 Golden Globe Awards (Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, and Best Supporting Actress) while being nominated for 1 more (Best Original Song), and again this was another film that was very successful. The next film that makes it into this category is Silver Linings Playbook which would win 1 Academy Award (Best Actress) while being nominated for 7 more (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing). The film would also win 1 Golden Globe Award (Best Actress – Musical or Comedy) while being nominated for 3 more (Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, and Best Screenplay), and if anything this was more of a coming out party for Jennifer Lawrence who had a tremendous 2012. The next film that makes it into this category is the comedy film the Guilt Trip, a film about a man who goes on a road trip with his mother as they try to repair their relationship. The film would receive negative reviews from critics and finished with over $37 million, and it would be nominated for 1 Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Supporting Actress) though it wouldn’t win. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is Playing for Keeps which was nominated for 1 Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Supporting Actress) though it wouldn’t win. The last film from this month that makes it into this category is the romantic drama film Amour, a film about a woman who suffers a stroke and her husband cares for her. The film would receive critical acclaim from critics and finished with over $6 million, and it would win one Academy Award (Best Foreign Film) while being nominated for 4 more (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay), and it would also win one Golden Globe Award (Best Foreign Film). This might be one of the most successful months that we’ve done in quite a while as almost every film in this category won at least one of the big 3, and with a few being multiple winners it just goes to show how well the films ended up doing.
Overall Thoughts of December 2012:
Overall, the month of December for 2012 ended up being a pretty great month that ended the year on a high note, but it just wasn’t enough to reach the upper level that we saw from a few months this year. As we have seen a few times in previous years, December can in essence make or break the year depending on how well or how poor it does, and this December falls in the latter with how well it did. We had 4 films from this month make it over $100 million with the top film making well over $300 million, and the remaining films from this month were pretty much solid with only a few duds mixed in though they weren’t enough to kill the momentum. 2012 ended up being a great year with a lot of major successes and very little failures, and we will see if the momentum gain sustain going into 2013. As for the month of December 2012, it is a really good month that ends the year 2012 on a high note.
Final Grade: B+
