The movie-going public was in the mood to see a classic Hollywood horror archetype over the weekend: zombies. Yep, the walking dead, made popular by George Romero so many years ago, were feasting in darkened theaters across the country. According to Box Office Mojo estimates available at the time of this writing, Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Zombieland made the most money at domestic theaters over the past weekend, taking in $25 million.
Sony also captured second place with its computer cartoon, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. That film is on its way to a total haul of over $100 million. At the moment, it has better than $80 million in the bank. Shareholders of Disney (NYSE: DIS), however, had their own computer cartoons in the marketplace as well. The double feature of Pixar's Toy Story and Toy Story 2 came in third with $12 million. To be honest, I thought the idea of running those two back-to-back would be too much to take for the attention spans of the younger crowd. I know it would be way too much for me to take.
But it seems the 3-D aspect helped to sell a bunch of tickets, I'm sure. Everyone's talking 3-D these days. I couldn't care less about the format, but it does seem to be the wave of the future. Studios are hoping that the premiums attached to admissions for such projects will bring in more patrons and increase returns. Although execs at Disney would have loved to have beaten Sony's Meatballs cartoon, Toy Story's per-theater gross was superior to the food-driven fantasy. From that angle, a victory was achieved.
The Toy Story brand beat the two other new flicks in the market, Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Invention of Lying, which was number four, and News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Whip It, which is ranked right now in sixth place. Whip It could change spots with number seven picture Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore's satire of Wall Street, since both entries are currently in a tie in terms of gross.
While the Toy Story performance is admirable in a relative sense, I thought the movies would gross a higher number. In the end, though, this release is mostly a marketing exercise. The Mouse wants to reacquaint consumers with the franchise, and get everyone ready for the third Toy Story, which will be out in summer 2010. If you look around retail channels, you'll notice that the toys are truly back in town. All kinds of merchandise is being pushed. Disney's consumer products division will hopefully benefit this Christmas season from a renewed interest in Buzz Lightyear et al. Shareholders are counting on the famous characters to extract a premium from cash-strapped consumers looking for cool gifts. And the media conglomerate is relying on the special engagement to help drive its DVD business as well. The idea would be for some synergy to take place with a new generation of kids. Perhaps they will want to investigate other Disney franchises after they witness the magic of the iconic Pixar properties.
When it comes to investment ideas from this weekend's box-office results, I still find Time Warner shares interesting on a pullback. That stock has seen momentum recently, and my gut is telling me that the strength might stick around. Be careful, though, of any bearish sentiment creeping into the market. And also be wary of the $30 price level, as Time Warner seems to be resisting that value.
Disclosure: I own Disney; positions can change without notice.
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