LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - By the standard box office reckoning, DreamWorks' ``Shrek 2'' won the summer box office derby with domestic ticket sales of $440 million. And Lions Gate's ``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' though a resounding success, was the summer's ninth most successful movie with a domestic gross to date of $119 million.
But viewed through a prism that suggests the beginning of a cost-vs.-earnings analysis, the summer tells a different story, with ``Fahrenheit'' vaulting to the second spot.
Eschewing the traditional approach of the end-of-summer scorecards, Entertainment Business Group -- a California business services, production funding and global sales company -- has compiled an alternative box office chart that measures each picture's opening-weekend performance against its production cost and marketing/distribution expenses. The study is based on Exhibitor Relations data, EBG's own industry analysis and information from the National Association of Theater Owners.$23.9 million represents 70% of its combined production and distribution costs of $34 million, the second-highest percentage among films coming out of the summer heat. It trailed only ``Shrek 2,'' whose opening weekend of $108 million, measured against its estimated production and distribution costs of $127.5 million, earned it a factor of 85%.
Speaking of ``Fahrenheit,'' EGB co-founder and CEO John J. Lee Jr. said, ``This picture's performance was driven by a combination of its trim $6 million production cost compared with its high earnings that were substantially amped by its extraordinary election year promotions.''
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-film-boxoffice-calculation.html