I know that the huge chart below is bewildering, so allow me to explain.
I have essentially offered up a comparative analysis of the first nine weekends (or less, where applicable) of all the 16 films that have grossed more than $100m this year and were released in January or after. Each film's weekend gross was compared to those of all other films and is given as a percentage.
So, for example, Up's first weekend gross corresponds to 62.5% of Transformers' opening weekend, its second weekend corresponds to 104.29% of Transformers' second weekend. What this means is that Up had so good a hold in its second weekend that it managed to surpass Transformers despite having an opening less than two-thirds that of Transformers'. The films grow wider apart during the third weekend: Up's third weekend is 127% of Transformers 2's (or, conversley, Transformers 2's was 78.71% of Up's).
The point is the essentially the same that I made yesterday, which is that we have had several films this year that have held up remarkably well weekend to weekend. Consider The Hangover, whose opening weekend was only 41.28% of Transformers 2. Its second weekend was 77.49%, and by the third weekend, it had shot past Transformers 2, by having a weekend gross 110.49% of T2's. By the sixth weekend, The Hangover had more than doubled T2's correpsonding weekend gross! As impressively, Paul Blart and Taken each opened with, resp., 29.21% and 22.68% of T2's gross. By the fifth weekend, both were ahead of T2, at 135.19% and 121.41%.
Such figures are, I think, very important to keep in mind when assessing the dynamics at play between various films. 2009 has been an extraordinary year, and we have to account for the relationship between the various films and their performances to gain a proper understanding of it.
Sorry for the size of the font; Blogger resized it for some reason. For a larger version, go here.
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