
The box-office results are in, and I don't think there's any surprise concerning which film took the top honors this Memorial Day. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, distributed by Viacom (NYSE: VIA), took in $126 million over the four-day weekend at domestic theaters, according to Boxofficemojo. Taking into account Thursday showings, Skull has so far grossed about $151 million. These aren't record numbers as far as I know, but they certainly were high enough to displace Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Prince Caspian flick from the number-one position. The movie captured about $28.6 million at the multiplexes, good for second place; up to now, the Narnia sequel has a total tally of around $96 million.
Which is completely unacceptable to Disney shareholders (I'm one of the disappointed, and I wrote about my disappointment last week). Consider that the Memorial Day weekend is done, and that this is the second weekend for the project. To not crack $100 million domestically for a movie brand that was supposed to be strong considering the business that the first Narnia did back in winter 2005 should be troubling to Bob Iger.
At least Iron Man is around to cheer me up. The Marvel (NYSE: MVL) masterpiece is still in the top five at number three and has now enjoyed a $257 million take. I own shares in Marvel, so I'm glad the picture is offering some balance to Disney's relative flop. News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) What Happens in Vegas and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Speed Racer took up fourth and fifth place, respectively. I suppose I shouldn't complain; Time Warner shareholders must put up with the fact that Speed Racer hasn't even cracked $40 million yet. Maybe that's the true bomb of the summer.
So, Indy is back, no one cares about Speed Racer, and the Narnia franchise is no Lord of the Rings. The summer box-office is just getting interesting, folks...
Disclosure: I own shares of Disney and Marvel; positions can change at any time.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-26-2008 @ 8:35PM
kenneth said...
I think Narnia should have shown more clips of the special effects in the movie. It seemed to me like they underestimated Ironman like most of us did.
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5-27-2008 @ 12:13AM
Kent said...
This movies goes to show what the American public wants. It's a wakeup call for Hollywood. Pure adventure with no moral, political overtones or high-thinking messages. That's why I stick to Bond and Indiana Jones franchise movies if I ever do go to the movie theater.