ROTK pulls in $34 million
 

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/

that's not a bad start. Box Office Mojo says it's the biggest wednesday opening ever(passing EPI the Phantom Menace)

thats amazing considering how long the movie is too, less showings

Wow. The estimates (including mine) were much more conservative than that figure suggests...I think this movie could actually reach $400 million stateside if it doesn't decay faster than the last two at the boxoffice!

People are all over this one.

A) It has an ending

B) Supposedly the best action

C) The best reviews from critics we're probably ever seen.

it's still 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes......that's unheard of

The theater where I saw it was showing it on 6 screens! And they were selling out on most of the showings!

Don't forget that prices have also gone up since 1999. In fact, I saw the ticket price jump again when buying ROTK tickets.

no doubt, we went from $6.75 to $7.50 in a few months time. course they won't do it all at once, it's a $.25 at a time

I wish I could still pay $7.50 for a movie. $9.50 here.

I paid $5.50, but it was at 3pm :) but the theater I go to has been $8.50 for a while now, so they're due for a ticket hike soon...

Sound like it could be a pretty big weekend for ROTK, maybe even in the 80 million range. I hope that it outgrosses TTT and FOTR, thus continuing the trend of each film outgrossing the previous one.

Took $34 million on Wednesday. I expect $17 Million on Thursday, $24 Million on Friday, $29 Million Saturday, and $25 Million on Sunday.

5-day = $129 m
3-day = $ 78 m

I'm Guessing $135 million for the five day and $85 million for the three day.

Well, I guess the question of which series makes more money is answered between the 3 LOTR movies and the 3 Matrix movies -- now all that's left is the 3 LOTR flicks v. the 6 SW movies. ;)

I'm sad....



just because they didn't beat the record. How could they be behind Spiderman and The Matrix Reloaded?

It opened on a Wednesday where Spiderman opened on a Friday and Reloaded on Thursday and the run time is 3h20m compared to Spiderman at 2h1m and Reloaded at 2h18m so it did awesome to get so close.

Because the darn thing is over three hours long

Wonder how it did Thursday?

Official New Line numbers will be reported this afternoon I believe.

Expect a drop in the neighborhood of about 50%, typical of Wed. to Thurs. patterns. If it's less, that is freakin' amazing. It may mean that people may have either been shut out of the sold-outs yesterday and had to go another night, or demand is so high that there are no 'slower' days at the beginning of the movie's run.

My show was totally sold out Thursday night.

I paid $5.75 for an 8:30 pm showing, but it was a small, independent theater. Given how the studio profits are front loaded for these big event movies, I can't see how they're making any money.

In additional to the length and the fact Spider Man opened on a Friday (as Borst mentioned), keep in mind that both those movies opened in May, whereas this movie opened in December. Many people are frantically worrying about shopping, making travel plans, going to Christmas parties, etc. That's why December movies are usually "leggy", i.e. they don't open huge but stick around and make a big chunk of their money from Christmas to early January. The fact that King opened as high as it did is a huge testament to the popularity of the series.

Return of the King makes $17million Thursday bringing total to $51.4million

That is a great second day THursday figure...

Also pretty sweet as I hit it on the nose. Will be interesting to see if my other numbers work out...

Also of note is that the Wednesday figure is up from $34.1 to $34.4 with the official numbers....

http://boxofficeguru.com/121903.htm

Following its mammoth opening day, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King collected another $17,019,987 on Thursday, according to official figures released by New Line Cinema, to bring its two-day haul to $51,470,821. The drop of 50.6% from the first day was understandable when compared to Wednesday-to-Thursday declines for the previous films in the trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring fell 45% in its second day while The Two Towers dropped 47%. King enjoyed a much stronger opening day so the slightly larger decline seemed in line with expectations as seeing the films on opening day has become a priority for a growing number of people each year. King's $17M Thursday was up a healthy 22% from the $13.9M that Towers claimed in its first Thursday.

With more upfront demand, The Return of the King continues to perform at a somewhat more accelerated pace than the previous films. Fellowship entered its opening Friday morning with $27.9M in the bank representing 37% of its eventual five-day gross of $75.1M. Towers had banked $40M in its first two days accounting for 39% of its five-day bow of $102M. At a slightly quicker pace, The Return of the King still looks to find itself with a towering total of $120-130M by the end of the weekend.

Wow. :jawdrop: I wonder if it really could make it to $400 million...I predicted $375.

It has a very good shot at $400 Million domestic. And, with strong repeat business and some award show legs, I could see it squeaking past $450M. Using TTT numbers as a measure of comparison (a better comparison than FOTR as TTT showed the faster start), a final domestic BO of $439 is not unreasonable. We'll have a more accurate gauge once the weekend numbers roll in.

It will top $100M in just 4 days. TTT took five, FOTR took 8. These are some amazing numbers.

I'll tell ya, I very rarely go back and pay to see a movie in theatres a second time. With this one, I actually am leaning towards seeing it again. That proves to me how great this movie truly is.

I think it'll hit the high 300's for domestic total.

Box office mojo is reporting it made $22+ million Friday alone -- more than many films do in a single weekend! $73 million in just three days -- The record pace continues!

Wow, I would've thought it would've been more for Friday. Maybe like $28-$30 million.

Right on.

Box Office Mojo has a nice page comparing the daily numbers of the three films here: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/vs-lotr.htm

So far the three films have very similar paces, although the overall numbers increase with each film.

1 N The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King NL $73,600,000 - 3,703 - $19,875 $125,071,000 $94 / - 1

Wow, $125mil already.

that is awesome

I usually watch it once in theaters and i watch it a couple of times through a downloaded version.. with this one I have already seen it three times in theaters and plan on going a few more times before the end of the year. :D

wow - Jack is becoming a moviegoer instead of a downloader!