Bulgarian Box Office Update - Weekend 11-13 May

There was no way for this crowd to be a winner

As around the globe, The Avengers continues its impressive performance in Bulgaria as well and spends a second week on top despite a drop of 54% (the last weekend figure included previews, so the drop is not representative for the true performance of the title). Thus the Marvel superhit has managed to draw BGN 679,270 so far and most certainly will become the biggest movie based on a comic on these shores. 

The first new entry comes in at #2. Staying in the shadows of The Avengers and the somewhat dark premise (and the lack of any memorable promotion), Dark Shadows stumbles with just BGN 34,142. The movie has no chance to even reach half of what Alice In Wonderland drew in its entire run. It will however finish higher than the USD 48,000 made by Sweeney Todd.

Mel Gibson's latest pic How I Spent My Summer Vacation also drew a little interest and though finishing at #4, it had made just BGN 14,119 for the weekend. A far more stupid movies have made a far more bucks. 

Though expected, it always hurts to see a great movie, which audiences around the world are flocking to see, to be totally ignored in Bulgaria. The same fate suffers European smash hit Intouchables, which has managed to draw the miserable BGN 9,021, or BGN 13,047 including previews. I've written many times why there is no audience here for such movies and it's not only Internet piracy to be blamed....

The top 10 in full:
 

	movie	Change w/w	Result for the weekend (in BGN)	Total result (in BGN)
1.	Avengers	-54%	157,522	679,270
2.	Dark Shadows	new	34,142	34,142
3.	Safe	-28%	26,092	193,750
4.	Summer Vacation	new	14,119	14,119
5.	American Reunion	-8%	12,326	429,344
6.	Pirates!	7%	11,891	220,006
7.	Intouchables	new	9,021	13,047
8.	Bel Ami	-18%	8,387	61,326
9.	Battleship	-24%	7,986	254,080
10.	Wrath of the Titans	-29%	5,578	685,298

This week the top ten is left by The Foreigner. Though failing to reach blockbuster levels such as those of Love.net and Shmenti Kapeli, the latest Bulgarian title can be deemed success with its box office of BGN 345,156. The same could also be said about Hunger Games, which despite not played in one of the two cinema chains, has collected the respectable BGN 356,860. Far more successful than the two however is the performance of the re-released Titanic. With the attracted BGN 257,433, the James Cameron picture continues to be loved by Bulgarians.

Compared to my projections, both Dark Shadows and How I Spent My Summer Vacation missed my respective BGN 75,000 and BGN 23,000 forecasts, while Intouchables was close to my BGN 18,000 prediction.

Next weekend's forecasts:

Act of Valor - 28,000, including previews
Parada - 17,000, including festival screenings
The Dictator - 47,000

(BGN 1 = USD 0.67/EUR 0.51)