Daytrip

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)

condorito

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

Jepthah

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!

PJsig08

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.

Daytrip

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

Bandoman

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

jarofclay73

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

Daytrip

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

Noonan

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

necros

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...

PalmerJoss

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.

wlmowery

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

apchrist

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

Moogz

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.

Engel07

I'm sad....



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

Borst

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.

Rivero

Because the darn thing is over three hours long

Seeker

Wonder how it did Thursday?

wlmowery

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

Jepthah

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.

The Antipodean

My show was totally sold out Thursday night.

Jason

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.

DRG

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.

Borst

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

wlmowery

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...