Bulgarian Boxoffice Update - Weekend 15-17 July

On top but magic-less...

So, as most of Bulgarians stand simply above such childish and muscle-free flicks as the Harry Potter movies, the last instalment of the lucrative worldwide series arrives here with the non-magical BGN 147,171 over the weekend, or BGN 227,288 including two days of previews. Its results are nowhere near the BGN 350,572 debut of Transformers 3 or the BGN 600,539 weekend of Pirates 4. Of course, the facts that Harry Potter has swept records around the globe or that is one of the most well-reviewed films of the year do not count. This reminds me of Toy Story 3, which perhaps the best movie of the last year was, let's face it, a total flop only in Bulgaria. What is worse for HP is that the first non-3D part of Deathly Hallows debuted with BGN 182,707 last November, without any previews (or at least I don't remember any). And whether the decision to release the final movie only in 3D in Bulgaria, unlike the normal countries where there are plenty of 2D screenings, was the best, only time would tell. 

And here is some statistics for the final results of the previous Potter movies in Bulgaria (in USD):

The Philosopher's Stone: $300,078

The Chamber of Secrets: $212,412

The Prisoner of Azkaban: $207,460

The Goblet of Fire: $252,160

The Order of the Phoenix: $284,191

The Half-blood Prince: $343,007

Deathly Hallows Part 1: $422,072

As Harry Potter was obviously no huge event in Bulgaria, the other movies in the top 10 register relatively good holds and some of them even rise by an inch. Thus Transformers 3 loses 47% and stands at #2 with BGN 810,440 so far, heading towards the 1bn threshold - a mark which HP8 will have difficulties to even come close.

Pixar's critic failure Cars 2 falls just 32%, showing once again the good legs animation has in the country. The Mater adventures have collected BGN 476,461 so far.

Further down the chart, Bad Teacher goes down by just 22%, Larry Crowne fares even better with a decrease of 18%, while Mr. Popper's Penguins goes up 1%. Hangover 2 slips by only 6%, while Fast Five advances by 8%. No logic in a non-logical country... (but let's stay focused).

The top 10 is left by X:Men: First Class, which despite its glowing reviews is about to end its run just shy of BGN 300,000 (it has BGN 240,487 so far). 

Compared to my projections, Harry Potter came below my (already deliberately reduced) BGN 350,000 forecast. 

Next weekend's forecast:

Winnie The Pooh  - BGN 25,000  

(1 BGN = 0.50 EUR = 0.74 USD)