Opening weekend stats for TF4
The opening weekend is still yet to end in America, but the stats have been coming in from around the world, and it seems that all those millions of dollars promoting the movie non-stop have succeeded in getting people into theatres.
So far globally, AOE has been estimated to have made US$300 million, which would mean it has made back its budget already.
A third of that came from America, while another third came from the market that Paramount was targeting this time - China. After tapping out as much of the Western market as possible with the previous ones, Paramount had to focus on new markets if they wanted to improve their bottom line this time.
And it worked.
But much of the increase came from the more expensive 3D screenings, which was heavily promoted as the "only" way to see this film. (in other words, it doesn't take as many people to earn more at the box office)
In North America, the totals for the first weekend...
F 27th June - 41.6 million
S 28th June - 32.2 million
S 29th June - 26.2 million
Those figures kind of suggest that the overly heavy marketing did its job of getting people in once, but word-of-mouth and repeat viewings are not materialising once people actually see it.
I'll have to see how the previous ones did over their first weekends, to see if the takings increased or decreased over the first weekend.
Other significant markets noted were Russia and Korea... and apparently Australia did fairly well too, at about US$4 million.
The article notes that TF4 cost US$210 million to make, which is above the US$165 million original budget. Considering how much Bay gets for free, and the amount of money earned from product placements, the movie is certainly one of the most costly ever made.
On a side note, at least this movie will put Frank Welker back on the top of "greatest earning movies" listing again, as Samuel L Jackson had just snuck above him after the recent Avengers Movies.
