Bulgarian Box Office Update - Weekend 2-4 March

We need something stronger than tea to celebrate now...

In a surprising change atop the Bulgarian box office chart, the re-release of Beauty and The Beast in 3D proves a clever move for the distributor (Lion King should have been released too). Thus, the animated classic draws BGN 61,369 and claims the first place. We can look for its success in the fact that it's a beloved movie and as a whole Bulgarians do like animation in 3D. Oh, and we should not forget that the title was actually never released in Bulgarian cinemas before.

The second new entry of the week comes in at #4. The too-hyped Bulgarian title attracts BGN 51,939 for the weekend, which compares to BGN 112,178 for Tilt and BGN 108,030 for Shmenti Kapeli. It's still better than Lora From Morning Till Evening or The Island. As a whole, however, the result of Rapid Reaction Corps can be considered as a disappointment, having in mind the heavy promotion everywhere, the (almost) familiar cast and the fact that it's a light stupid comedy which Bulgarians in principle love. Still, I expect the film to be able to find its feet in the weeks to come.

Proving that the local audience is still interested in the Oscars, The Artist manages to raise its weak result from the last weekend and this time goes up 33%, having BGN 33,421. It's still a tiny figure but the Oscar exposure has definitely helped. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that the other nominated movies register any positive trends or that Descendents will not flop massively next weekend. Local cinema goers are too smart to be lured to go and watch good movies just for a change. 

Surprisingly for a movie starring Nicolas Cage, his latest offering Seeking Justice flops at #8 with the dismal BGN 11,425. Its timing was actually quite bad in view of Ghost Rider 2, which debuted the previous weekend. Perhaps Bulgarians have had too much of his Cageness lately. 

	movie	Change w/w	Result for the weekend (in BGN)	Total result (in BGN)
1.	Beauty and the Beast	-	61,369	61,369
2.	Journey 2	-21%	61,212	386,949
3.	This Means War	-33%	52,899	238,961
4.	Rapid Reaction Corps	-	51,939	51,939
5.	Ghost Rider 2	-57%	17,514	107,110
6.	Safe House	-30%	12,640	219,188
7.	The Artist	+33%	12,290	33,421
8.	Seeking Justice	-	11,425	11,425
9.	War Horse	-40%	7,697	58,623
10.	The Vow	-39%	6,747	98,058

This week the top ten is left by The Ides Of March. The excellent George Clooney-directed pic drew only BGN 27,362 in its two-week run. Watch it while it is still in cinemas. The re-release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has boosted the result of the movie by the rather good BGN 124,232 so far. Puss in Boots is also finally out and with BGN 1,302,738 is officially the second most successful animated title in Bulgaria after Ice Age 3. Last, Man On A Ledge has not only disappeared from the top 10 but from the entire top 20. Last time around the movie had the respectable BGN 150,846 tally.

Compared to my projections, Seeking Justice matched only half of my BGN 25,000 expectation. Beauty and the Beast was two times higher than my BGN 32,000 projection, while Rapid Reaction Corps came on target with my BGN 58,000 forecast.

Next weekend's projections:*

John Carter - 132,000

The Descendants - 17,000

Ave (Bulgarian) - 15,000

(1 BGN = USD 0.68 = EUR 0.58)

* Just mentioning that I was first to come up with this feature for Bulgaria ;)