The Muppets is now the top-grossing Muppet movie

[goldenstate5]

Arthur Christmas had an unfortunate bump being a Christmas movie the last week or so. Seems people are actually discovering Hugo much later on than the film needed, but The Muppets is doing well for itself, considering it's been out over a month and seemed to disappear from most theaters. Of course, I know places that just stopped running Puss in Boots, and that came out last week of October.

The second the 26th hit, Sony pulled Arthur. I guess we won't hear about it ever again until the DVD (quietly) hits shelves in November 2012.

The film is still in 1500+ theaters, I have to imagine it will drop to three digits in January, but that's still impressive. Probably will truly drop off the map in a month. If there's one keen policy Disney has, it's a fast turnaround. 90 days is the norm, and they usually don't exceed that greatly. So the DVD/Blu-Ray will be available to purchase in very early March, just after the movie finishes tying up its receipts in budget dollar theaters.

 

[Drtooth]

The second the 26th hit, Sony pulled Arthur. I guess we won't hear about it ever again until the DVD (quietly) hits shelves in November 2012.

The film is still about in a couple theaters... I know at least one that still has it anyway. Still, I felt that would be the strongest potential competition for the Muppets... I think it did a decent job taking some of the potential B.O. from that one, though... I'm giggling about how poorly the merchandise is doing (already on clearance, has been since before Christmas), especially when Muppet Plush from Disney has been impossible to find (at least most characters).

Still... what they go so far is very impressive for a slow box office season. I don't think any of the big films released the past 2 weeks will make budget for a while.

 

[goldenstate5]

Mission: Impossible probably the only safe bet on making its budget back, yeah. (oh and Chipmunks, but its laggard performance compared to its prequels makes it a non-issue)

 

[Drtooth]

Mission: Impossible probably the only safe bet on making its budget back, yeah. (oh and Chipmunks, but its laggard performance compared to its prequels makes it a non-issue)

Mission Impossible and Sherlock Holmes are doing quite well for themselves... but like I said before, Green Lantern made over 100 million... it was number 1 its first week, but because the budget was well over 300 million, it was considered a flop. Chipmunks, no doubt, is a cheap film. it will make its budget back in time, I guess... but still, like you said, it isn't making the money the previous films did. Can't say I don't blame them... must've watched the second film and had the same problems I had with it.

So far, Muppets... over 78 mil....

 

[Aaron]

Mission Impossible and Sherlock Holmes are doing quite well for themselves... but like I said before, Green Lantern made over 100 million... it was number 1 its first week, but because the budget was well over 300 million, it was considered a flop. Chipmunks, no doubt, is a cheap film. it will make its budget back in time, I guess... but still, like you said, it isn't making the money the previous films did. Can't say I don't blame them... must've watched the second film and had the same problems I had with it.

So far, Muppets... over 78 mil....

Where do you get your info? Box office mojo says over 85 million

 

[goldenstate5]

The 85 million refers to international gross, domestic (American numbers) is 78. Think of foreign grosses as extra sauce, while the domestic gross is the real meat that the studios want to flaunt in the end. The international gross of a movie has to be staggeringly higher than the domestic for the studios to pay any sort of attention, such as Disney's case with Brother Bear, which is why it got a DTV sequel despite a mediocre domestic gross.

DVD/Blu-ray sales matter more for a franchise, except for the unlikely scenario. Say "The Muppets" is a huge hit in Europe, more than doubling the domestic gross... the studios will be watching. Do I think that's going to happen? Probably not.

 

[terrimonster]

Where do you get your info? Box office mojo says over 85 million

Now I'm curious where you're seeing the international numbers, because I've been watching Box Office Mojo, and I have the same number as Drtooth.
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=themuppets.htm
"Domestic Total as of Dec. 28, 2011: $78,852,318"

 

[Drtooth]

I get my info from Muppet Wiki that gets its info directly from Box Office Mojo. International does count, but watching domestic is far more important.

The international gross of a movie has to be staggeringly higher than the domestic for the studios to pay any sort of attention, such as Disney's case with Brother Bear, which is why it got a DTV sequel despite a mediocre domestic gross.

That's kind of a bad example. Only because, at the time, Disney was making DTV sequels of absolutely everything.

I have no doubt the movie will hit it big once Europe gets it, but for now, it's done alright for itself here. These might be meh numbers in the summer, during huge blockbuster season... but it's definitely above Fall sleeper hit movie gross. And its budget was made back at the domestic level. Granted, it was a low budget, but like I said before, Green Lantern didn't even make its budget back despite opening the top in the weekend it was released and getting well over 100 million dollars. From that perspective, the Muppets are a hit.

 

[Scooterforever]

I get my info from Muppet Wiki that gets its info directly from Box Office Mojo. International does count, but watching domestic is far more important.

That's kind of a bad example. Only because, at the time, Disney was making DTV sequels of absolutely everything.

I have no doubt the movie will hit it big once Europe gets it, but for now, it's done alright for itself here. These might be meh numbers in the summer, during huge blockbuster season... but it's definitely above Fall sleeper hit movie gross. And its budget was made back at the domestic level. Granted, it was a low budget, but like I said before, Green Lantern didn't even make its budget back despite opening the top in the weekend it was released and getting well over 100 million dollars. From that perspective, the Muppets are a hit.

As a comic book fan, and former Green Lantern fan, it hurts my soul to be reminded of the Apocalyptic disaster that was the GL film. I think it hurt the character in the same way the Jonah Hex film hurt the character of the same name, which is to say, badly.

Anyway, yeah, I really hope The Muppets did well enough for Disney to follow through with another movie, or a even a new Muppet show. I've been to two Disney stores in the last month, and both only had a minimal amount of Muppets stuff, I don't now if that reflects on the film's success at all, but it sure doesn't make me happy. Again, I've seen the movie in theaters 5x, so I feel I've done all I can to support the Muppet cause.

 

[Drtooth]

As a comic book fan, and former Green Lantern fan, it hurts my soul to be reminded of the Apocalyptic disaster that was the GL film. I think it hurt the character in the same way the Jonah Hex film hurt the character of the same name, which is to say, badly.

Like I said... I wonder why DC has to try to get all these movies out when they've only had success with Chris Nolan's Batman movies as of late. I didn't think the movie was too bad, but I never cared much about the character... so that kinda helps. If that sequel gets made, I hope they take the hint and make it a little less "Brocom." But then again, that tedious bro stuff was the only time you had a breather. They might as well have hired John Moschitta Jr. to narrate the story of the Green Lantern corps, it was that much crammed into a movie. till, I don't think anyone wanted to watch Johna Hex. He's pretty obscure outside of the in the know comic crowd.

But from a perspective, it made twice as much as the Muppets did, but with the huge budget of GL and the small budget of The Muppets, The Muppets was more of a success for bringing in more than it made, even though it didn't bring in as much as the other film.

Plus, I'm guessing the 3-D prices helped for GL's BO. Muppets is running on 2-D only. And that only helped their cause. Everyone's sick of 3-D and it only really works on animation anyway.

Anyway, yeah, I really hope The Muppets did well enough for Disney to follow through with another movie, or a even a new Muppet show. I've been to two Disney stores in the last month, and both only had a minimal amount of Muppets stuff, I don't now if that reflects on the film's success at all, but it sure doesn't make me happy. Again, I've seen the movie in theaters 5x, so I feel I've done all I can to support the Muppet cause.

While I think Disney feels that it doesn't need to make Toy Story money, I still think they kinda underestimated how well merchandise would do. I already discussed that somewhere else, but it seems they didn't know if they wanted to hit up the older nostalgic fans, or the littlest of kids who are said nostalgic fans' children. There wasn't much of an older kid market, and that makes all the difference. Still, the fact that toy companies would rather gamble everything on a one time movie success than a long standing franchise speaks volumes about everything right now... I can only take comfort that the minimal Muppet stuff is selling, while the Arthur Christmas and Happy Feet junk already went on clearance at TRU. And STILL untouched. Plus, the Chipmunks don't have much beyond a couple plush lines, a kid's meal promotion, and a cheaply made dance off video game. Smurfs stuff just about surprised everybody. And there wasn't anything for Puss in Boots either.