Summer box office sees its worst Memorial Day weekend in 17 years

Blame the playoffs, blame the economy or just blame the movies, but this was a Memorial Day weekend that Hollywood would like to forget.

With new releases "Prince of Persia" and "Sex and the City 2" failing to generate big box office, total movie ticket sales for the four-day holiday weekend were an estimated $186 million, the lowest total since 2001.

(For details on the performances of those two movies and "Shrek Forever After" this weekend, see our initial post.)

Accounting for ticket price inflation, the numbers are much worse. The actual number of tickets sold -- about 23.4 million -- was the lowest since 1993, according to data compiled by Hollywood.com.

Movie studio distribution executives pointed to several factors that may have depressed this weekend's box office: the NBA and NHL playoffs that this year feature teams from major cities -- Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia -- and the Indianapolis 500 race. Another possible reason could be the improving economy, as more people have been going on vacation this year compared with last year.

There's no precise way to measure just how much of a factor was played by simple disinterest in the available films. Moviegoers who saw "Prince of Persia" and "Sex and the City 2" liked them better than did most critics, giving the films average grades of B+ and B, respectively, according to market research firm CinemaScore. But there's no denying that the level of excitement was far lower for the two films than for "Night at the Museum 2" and "Terminator Salvation" last year or "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" in 2008.

So far, the high-stakes summer movie season, which starts on the first weekend of May, hasn't been a good one for the entertainment industry. "Shrek Forever After" had a soft start, though it held relatively well on its second weekend, and "Robin Hood" flopped almost as badly as "Prince of Persia." Only "Iron Man 2" has achieved the blockbuster status that studios strive for with big-budget summer releases.

And despite a substantial increase in ticket prices, domestic box-office revenue for the first four weekends of May through Memorial Day is essentially flat with 2009, according to Hollywood.com. Movie attendance in that period is down a substantial 6.3% this year.

Still, studio executives are hopeful that pictures like "Shrek" and "Sex and the City 2" will hold on much better after their openings than did past summer movies. They also have big commercial hopes for several upcoming titles including "Toy Story 3," "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" and the Leonardo DiCaprio thriller "Inception."

"I'm not willing to say that the summer is going to be a problem just because we didn't jump out with the same numbers that we did last year," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.

Here are the top 10 movies in the U.S. and Canada, based on their four-day grosses. Percentage drops are based on three-day grosses. International grosses are through Sunday only.

1. "Shrek Forever After" (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount): $55.7 million on its second weekend, down 39%. $18.5 million overseas in 15 foreign markets. Domestic total: $145.5 million. International total: $53.5 million.

2. "Prince of Persia" (Disney): Opened to $37.8 million. $59 million overseas in 47 foreign markets. International total: $87.5 million.

3. "Sex and the City 2" (Warner Bros./New Line/Village Roadshow): $37.1 million for the four-day weekend, plus $14.3 million on its opening Thursday. $27.6 million overseas in 15 foreign markets. Domestic total: $51.4 million. International total: $27.6 million.

4. "Iron Man 2" (Marvel/Paramount): $20.6 million on its fourth weekend, down 38%. $6.8 million overseas in 61 foreign markets. Domestic total: $279.2 million. International total: $281.5 million.

5. "Robin Hood" (Universal/Relativity): $13.6 million on its third weekend, down 44%. $17.6 million in 56 foreign markets. Domestic total: $86.3 million. International total: $154.6 million.

6. "Letters to Juliet" (Summit): $7.3 million on its third weekend, down 34%. Domestic total: $37.9 million.

7. "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight): $2.7 million on its third weekend, down 50%. Domestic total: $18.7 million.

8. "Date Night" (Fox/Dune): $2.3 million on its eighth weekend, down 38%. $1 million overseas in 32 foreign markets. Domestic total: $93.9 million. International total: $52.8 million.

9. "MacGruber" (Rogue/Universal): $1.9 million on its second weekend, down 62%. Domestic total: $7.6 million.

10. "How to Train Your Dragon" (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount): $1.5 million on its 10th weekend, down 44%. $4.7 million overseas in 62 foreign markets. Domestic total: $213.1 million. International total: $243 million.

-- Ben Fritz

RELATED:

First look: 'Shrek' wins weekend as 'Sex' disappoints and 'Persia' flops

Top photo: Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon in "Sex and the City 2." Credit: Craig Blankenhorn / New Line Cinema. Bottom photo: Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton in "Prince of Persia." Credit: Andrew Cooper / Walt Disney Studios

Comments

[Susan]

People flocked to movies during the Great Depression. Blame the craptastic movie offerings

[Tre]

It's all about the product. If there's a product that people know that they will get a cinematic experience, then they'll come to the theater in droves. Just look at Avatar. Even with the 3D surcharge, nobody expected it to make 750mil in North America alone.

People are just being selective for the most part. If they know the movie is of good quality, they proved that they would be willing to pay the high prices. Just watch for a certain movie opening on 6/18 to tear the box office.

[Jim]

Toy Story 3 is the only movie my entire family is going to this Summer. We know it will be great and will actually have things that are foreign to movies nowadays, like plot, depth, and substance. based on Pixar's track record, it's going to be a quality film that I won't feel the 100+ dollars I spent is wasted.

[Jeremy]

Iron Man 2 was the first movie I have seen in months. Part of the reason lack of funds, and that I have Netflix and pay less per month then I do for a single night out for a movie for two and dinner. And lack of good movies.

I only go to movies is there is something I really want to see. Last movie worth seeing besides Iron Man 2 for me was Sherlock Holmes.

[anon]

The studios blame major cities playing in the NBA and NHL finals and the Indianapolis 500? But isn't this true for EVERY Memorial Day weekend?

[Jeff Davis]

It would probably be a very good idea indeed if the film industry stopped measuring success in gross dollar amounts and started measuring it by the number of tickets sold. Tickets sold, not squishy gross sales amounts, tells the real story of a movies success. I could easily be mistaken, but I believe that "Gone With the Wind" is still the most successful movie if you count the number of people that actually purchased a ticket to see it. At the least, I would be interested in seeing the two figures always shown together, i.e., "Sex and the City 2" made $27.6 million gross but only 15 people actually bought those grossly overly-inflated tickets world-wide. I exaggerate for effect (I hope).

[mplsmom]

Blame the ticket prices and the lousy movies. But mostly blame the ticket prices. It's become prohibitively expensive to go to the movies.

[LA_MEL]

Well, 15.00 per ticket is pretty steep... and overpriced concession stand. Why is the film industry soooo shocked?

[Obama]

people don't know how to act in theaters, even though they have that announcement about turn cell phones off and no talking or texting during the movies, people still do. On top of that these movies are 10.50 and the popcorn and soda are overpriced. Instead of 2 people going to the movies its cheaper to buy a movie on blu ray! If blockbuster made their DVDs $4 for 2 nights and blu ray $5 they would be back on top. Theatres are getting ridiculous especially now with a lot of movies coming out in 3d and costing $13. That is more than what a lot of moviegoers make per hour at work. The reason actors and athletes make so much money is because we spend so much of our hard earned money to support them. It's time the viewers and fans got a break

[Hypatia]

Who bothers to go to the movies anymore? It's overpriced, the concession stands charge insane prices for junk and someone behind you or in front of you spends the whole film on their cellphone. Not to mention your feet sticking to the floor!

I used to live less than a block from the Chinese and went to the movies all the time. That stopped years ago when they raised the price of tickets beyond a reasonable 7.50 for adults and decided they were doing me a favour by shoveling me into a seat and throwing a box of 12 dollar Milk Duds at me.

The hell with that! I can netflix or watch online. And wait until the first run movies get to dvd sales---that's measured in weeks now.

[dn]

The ticket prices are a problem, but as has been mentioned, Avatar's success at getting people to pay more for 3-D in the theater proves that people will show up if they want to see the picture. Similarly, Shutter Island had unlikely success as an R-rated movie in February due to its year long marketing, a positive side effect of being delayed.