New Box Office Math Boosts 'Fahrenheit'

[Khephra]

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

[Toucano]

1. That's kind of tricky

Because Fahrenheit went much wider in weeks 2 and 3. Shouldn't they factor in the number of screens?

[AP]

2. The longer the film is in the theaters, the higher % of the box office...

...goes to the house.

So this is a measure of what the studios make on the film, which is best captured by opening week numbers.

There is so much variation among exhibition agreements that if you go past the first week, you really start getting confused numbers and the movie-to-movie comparisons become more meaningless.