Steve’s Box Office Report: December 2010
Top 10 Films for the Month of December:
1. TRON: Legacy – $172,062,763
2. True Grit – $171,243,005
3. Little Fockers – $148,438,600
4. The King’s Speech – $135,453,143
5. Black Swan – $106,950,757
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader – $104,367,133
7. Yogi Bear – $100,246,011
8. The Fighter – $93,617,009
9. The Tourist – $67,631,157
10. Gulliver’s Travels – $42,763,879
Honorable Mentions:
1. How Do You Know – $30,212,620
2. Blue Valentine – $9,706,328
3. The Warrior’s Way – $5,666,340
4. I Love You, Phillip Morris – $2,037,459
December Winners: True Grit, Little Fockers, the King’s Speech, Black Swan, Yogi Bear, and the Fighter
We now come to the final month of 2010 and after what has really been a long year filled with ups and downs, we finally hit the end of the year and there were a lot of films coming out during this holiday season. After having most of the months not have a lot of winners in them, we have quite a great number of films that manage to make it into this category. The first film from this month that makes it is the western True Grit, a remake of the 1969 film of a farm girl who hires a lawman and a Texas Ranger to find the man who murdered her father. The film would receive critical acclaim from critics with many considering it one of the best of the year and it would make over $171 million which was one of the bigger success stories of the year. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the comedy Little Fockers, the third in the “Meet the Parents” trilogy that sees Greg and his wife struggle being parents while he also continues to deal with his father-in-law Jack. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who considered it an unnecessary addition, but it would end up making over $148 million even though it didn’t come close to either of its predecessors. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the drama film The King’s Speech, a film about King George VI working to overcome his stammer while becoming King of England shortly before World War II. The film would also receive critical acclaim and was also considered one of the best of the year, and the film would make just over $135 million which was a major success for the film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the psychological horror film Black Swan, a film about a ballet dancer who becomes overwhelmed with pressure and ultimately descends into madness. The film would also receive critical acclaim with most of the praise going to Natalie Portman for her performance, and the film would make close to $107 million which was a big success for the film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the family film Yogi Bear, a live-action adaptation of the classic cartoon where Yogi and Boo-Boo work with Ranger Smith to save Jellystone Park. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was unnecessary to turn the cartoon into a live-action film, but it would end up making just over $100 million even with all of the competition surrounding it. The final film from this month that makes it into this category is the biographical sports film the Fighter, a film based on the life and career of boxer Micky Ward and his relationship with his brother Dicky Eklund. The film would receive positive reviews from critics and was also considered one of the best of the year, and it would just miss hitting $100 million though making $93 million was nothing to shake at as well. Considering how flat some of the months from this year has been, this was a great way to finish off the year as a lot of films made a lot of money even despite the number of films that came out this month.
December Losers: The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the Tourist, Gulliver’s Travels, How Do You Know, and the Warrior’s Way
Even though there were a good number of films from this month that ended up being winners of the month, there were also quite a number of films that didn’t do well and ended up in this category. Given how many films were coming out this month, it was natural that a few weren’t going to make a lot of money and these films ended up getting the short end of the stick. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the fantasy film the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third in the franchise that sees Edmund and Lucy return to Narnia with their cousin to help King Caspian save the land from a great evil. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics and after the underwhelming performance of the last film, the downfall continued as the film would end up making just over $104 million and we will get further into it later. The next film from this month that makes it into his category is the romantic thriller the Tourist, a film about a man who crosses paths with a mysterious woman and he becomes entangled in a web of lies and deceit. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt the film wasted the star power and it would end up making $67 million, but despite this it would be featured in another category which we will talk about later. The next film that makes it into this category is the fantasy film Gulliver’s Travels, based on the novel of the same name where a man travels to a mysterious island inhabited by tiny people. The film would receive negative reviews from critics and it suffered having to go against more successful family films from this month, and it would end up making $42 million as it barely made the top 10 for the month. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the romantic comedy How Do You Know, a film about a former softball player who ends up in a love triangle. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt this film also wasted its star power, and it would make $30 million as it wound up being one of the bigger bombs of the year. The final film from this month that makes it into this category is the fantasy action film the Warrior’s Way, a film about a warrior who takes a baby he is asked to kill and moves to the USA where he raises the child as he must protect her from his former master. The film would receive negative reviews from critics and wound up making only $5 million which led it to being another one of the bigger bombs of the year. These films were clear losers as none of them were liked by critics and it resonated with the audience, but fortunately the winners did more than well enough to try and balance out how bad these films ended up doing.
The Surprise/Story of December 2010: Award contenders dominate as December ends 2010 on a high note
As I mentioned earlier in the review, the year of 2010 has been up and down with some films doing extremely well and others that did really bad, and going into this month you wondered how these films would end up doing. Obviously, there was no huge film like Avatar to dominate the month so you would think that the films would do well enough to balance out, and for the most part they did that as seven films from this month made over $100 million. With so many family films coming out this month, it ended up leading to the major award contenders to shine as True Grit, the King’s Speech, Black Swan, and the Fighter all did well with three of them making over $100 million and the other coming close to doing so. Coupled with strong performances by TRON: Legacy and Little Fockers, and the month ended up being a great month and would close out 2010 on a strong note while also giving momentum to 2011.
Overachiever of December 2010: True Grit
Looking at this month, there were actually a few choices that deserved to be named the overachiever and they were mainly the award contenders which you usually don’t see, but this month had a few of the contenders do very well and even better than expected. In the end, I wound up going with True Grit because it seemed like there was a small market for it being a western, but given the star power in it and also the positive reviews it was getting you would believe that perhaps it can surprise people. Ultimately, it did end up doing very well as it nearly took the top spot for the month and only missed it by just under a million, and it would end up playing very well over the holidays and continued to do so when 2011 started. As a result, True Grit is more than deserving of the title of overachiever of the month and it will be interesting to see how it ranks up against the other overachievers from the year.
Underachiever of December 2010: The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Way back in 2005, the first film in the Narnia series was released with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and it was well received while also being the third highest grossing film of the year, and the anticipation for a potential franchise was pretty high when the sequel Prince Caspian was announced. When the film came out in 2008, it did pretty well though it didn’t end up matching the first one and the reviews for it were more mixed, but due to the success it did have it ensured that a third film would come out. Sure enough, we have Voyage of the Dawn Treader which is released here to match the 5-year anniversary of the release of the first film, but unfortunately it couldn’t regain the momentum that it started losing with the last film and the bloom quickly came off the rose. It would finish with just over $104 million and didn’t even come close to touching many of the other films from this month that did better nor its predecessors, and as a result you could pretty much see that any hopes of keeping the franchise going was dashed and it ends with a whimper. Therefore, not only does this film end up being one of the losers of the month it is also the underachiever of the month and you could argue that it has the possibility to be the underachiever of the year.
December 2010 Awards Watch: TRON: Legacy, True Grit, Little Fockers, the King’s Speech, Black Swan, the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader; the Fighter, the Tourist, Gulliver’s Travels, and Blue Valentine
As we come to the end of the year, we now start seeing the award contenders come out and to be honest, this month might have one of the highest number of award contenders in recent memory as I don’t recall the last few Decembers having this many contenders come out. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the sci-fi film TRON: Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 film where Flynn’s son Sam enters the Grid to help his father and an algorithm prevent a malicious program escape into the real world. The film would receive mixed to negative reviews from critics who felt it didn’t live up to the legacy of its predecessor, but it would receive one Academy Award nomination (Best Sound Editing) which it wouldn’t win and it was a good nod to the film to get at least one nomination. The next film that makes it into this category is True Grit which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design) though amazingly it wouldn’t win any of them which is a testament to the other films that were nominated. The next film to be included in this category is Little Fockers which would win one Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Supporting Actress) while being nominated for two more (Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Screenplay), and it was a fitting cap to this film and ending the franchise with a thud. The next film that makes it into this category is the King’s Speech which would win four Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay) while being nominated for 8 more (Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing). The film would also win one Golden Globe Award (Best Actor – Drama) and was nominated for 6 more (Best Picture – Drama, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score), and this solidifies its standing as one of the best films of the year. The next film that makes it into this category is Black Swan which would win one Academy Award (Best Actress) while being nominated for four more (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing), and it would also win one Golden Globe Award (Best Actress – Drama) while being nominated for three more (Best Picture – Drama, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director) as this was more a showcase for Natalie Portman than the film itself. The next film that makes it into this category is the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader which was nominated for one Golden Globe Award (Best Original Song) which it wouldn’t win, but it was still a good nod for a film that otherwise underwhelmed. The next film that makes it into this category is the Fighter which would win two Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress) while being nominated for five more (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay). It would also win two Golden Globe Awards (Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress) while being nominated for four more (Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Drama, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director), and this was a good showing for this film amidst other big nominees. The next film that makes it into this category is the Tourist which was nominated for 3 Golden Globe awards (Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress – Musical or Comedy), and there was some controversy given the poor reception of the film and the fact that it was nominated for the awards it was. The next film that makes it into this category is Gulliver’s Travels which was nominated for one Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Actor) which it wouldn’t win. The final film that makes it into this category is the romantic drama film Blue Valentine, a film that focuses on a couple shifting from their burgeoning relationship to them breaking up. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who considered it one of the best of the year, and it would be nominated for one Academy Award (Best Actress) which it wouldn’t win and it was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards (Best Actor – Drama, and Best Actress – Drama) though it wouldn’t win either. Clearly, this month was loaded with a lot of award contenders mostly for the Academy and Golden Globes with only a few being nominated for the Golden Raspberries, and this might go down as one of the more loaded months in recent memory.
Overall Thoughts of December 2010:
Overall, this month ended up being a pretty great month and possibly one of the best months of the year. There is no doubt that 2010 has been quite a year in terms of successes and failures at the box office, and there was a lot of hope that December would end the year on a high note and I think it did. As mentioned, there was no film from this month that was going to come close to matching Avatar the year before, but because of that this month feels a lot more balanced between the films that did well and the ones that didn’t. 2010 has been an interesting year as I mentioned that we had some tremendous highs and some pretty dismal lows, and as we now head into 2011 we will see if the box office can build on the momentum that they had when this month ended. As for this month, it is possibly the best month of the year and ends 2010 on a great high note.
Final Grade: A+
