Bulgarian Box Office Update - Weekend 2-4 December

Be happy no matter where you chart!

As none of the three new cinema releases in Bulgaria hasn't been heavy enough to set the box office on fire, Immortals takes the chance to reclaim the number one for a second time after its debut four weeks ago. Thus, the underdog of the 2011 movie business, sits comfortably at the summit with BGN 719,653 in total and despite a fall of just 36%.

At #2, last weekend's champion Arthur Christmas slips with passable 40% and BGN 180,415 for ten days of release. For the weekend the Aardman animation made BGN 58,139. This was slightly higher than its main competitor - Happy Feet 2, which starts with BGN 54,166. As Arthur is the far more superior film, no regrets here. The first Happy Feet closed its entire run with USD 62,000, which is to be surpassed by the second instalment and its 3D/inflation premium very soon.

The Twilight Saga continues to slide down, this time with 45% but already has BGN 465,290 in its accounts.

Jack and Jill, the second new proposal for the week, arrives at #5 with BGN 30,243, or BGN 45,276 including a week of previews. The result is suspiciously close to the BGN 30,145 first weekend of Just Go With It, the previous collaboration between star Adam Sandler and director Dennis Dugan. The only difference is that Just Go With It has the good 6.3 rating on IMDB, while Jack and Jill scores 2.9...

The strong performance of Operacia:Shmenti Kapeli goes on and the film already joins the prestigious club of movies that have crossed the 1m barrier. It's also the third Bulgarian title to do so in the newest Bulgarian cinema history after Mission London and Love.net. This week, the comedy falls by only 18% to #6.

Machine Gun Preacher, the third new release on December 2, comes in at #7 with BGN 23,146. Having in mind that it may pass as an arthouse movie and that it's not backed by a major studio (btw if it was, it would have never been released - a curious trend in the Bulgarian cinema policy), the result is more than welcome. However, we should not forget that Jerard Butler is among the stars that Bulgarians tend to like.

The rest of the top ten is occupied by The Son Of No One (a fall of 34%/ a total of BGN 60,105); In Time (a fall of 34%/a total of 530,626) and Tower Heist (a fall of 50%/a total of BGN 187,633).

This week the top ten is left by Midnight In Paris, which has the quite good BGN 95,045 so far; The Skin I Live In with BGN 34,778 - an explainable low result; and by Bulgarian title Kecove with the underwhelming BGN 252,599. The Kecove figures had been expected to be much higher due to its heavy promotion, young cast and good qualities. Still, a drama/comedy describing the absurdity of living in the country these days, was never going to be much of a hit. It's, after all, not something that the fans of the recently elected footballer of the year would appreciate. 

Compared to my last week predictions, Happy Feet 2 came below my BGN 85,000 forecast, Jack and Jill was somewhat close to my expectation of BGN 35,000 and Machine Gun Preacher met my target for BGN 22,000 (Bring forward the movie memorabilia now!)

Next weekend's predictions:

New Year's Eve - BGN 55,000

Anonymous - BGN 0 (oh, expect NO ANONYMOUS, ALVIN 3 and MORE IN BULGARIA soon!)

(BGN 1 = USD 0.69/EUR 0.51)