BG Boxoffice Update - Weekend 1-3 July

Blowing the BO in pieces

Expectedly, the 3D extravaganza that is Transformers 3 has swept the Bulgarian boxoffice this weekend with the more-than-welcome BGN 326,316, or BGN 350,572 including previews. It thus becomes the biggest opening weekend in Bulgaria for 2011, apart of course from Pirates 4 from May. Moreover, according to Forum Film, the distributor of Transformers, its premiere has been the biggest debut of a Paramount title in the country, beating Shrek 4's BGN 255,658 from last year. As records around the world are currently being smashed at every second (blame the cinema chain expansion for that) and since there is no official statistics in Bulgaria for the past, we cannot take the aforementioned statement as a definite truth. Still, this doesn't change the fact that the result is really monstrous.

Retreating to #2 this week, last week's champion Cars 2 slows down with 31%, bringing a total of BGN 308,731 in its trunk. At #3 Bad Teacher shows little signs for fading fast as the movie falls by a mere 23% in its second week. Seeing the more-than-stable performance of Hangover 2 over the last few weeks (this time falling by 13% only), it shows that Bulgarians are also embracing the R-rated comedy wave that stormed the global cinemas this summer. And, no, I won't mention Bridesmaids and Change-up again... (oops).

The other new proposal this weekend comes in at #5. Mr. Popper's Penguins, relying more on Jim Carrey's name, rather than any other hit potential, collects BGN 34,058 in its freezer (including previews). It's unremarkable, but in the face of Transformers, quite a good result. Expect the movie figures to be stable in the weeks to come.

This week the top 10 is left by Bulgarian title Lora from Morning Till Evening, which with its above BGN 75,000 earnings and in view of its modest budget can be considered a significant success. Another successful movie also says goodbye to the first ten in the face of The Tree of Life. The latter, with its BGN 107,642 so far, may be considered of one of the most profitable arthouse movies to receive a broad distribution on these shores.

Compared to my last week's projections, Transformers was close to my forecast of BGN 300,000 (FF - I should get a movie memorabilia now!), while Mr. Popper's Penguins came significantly below my BGN 55,000 expectation.

Next weekend projections (the start of the slow season):
Larry Crowne - BGN 25,000 (including previews)

(1 BGN = EUR 0.52 = USD 0.74)