2009 Box Office Review - Brazil- Part 2
Posted by Ethan on Thursday, April 15, 2010 in 2009 Global Box Office • South America • (0) Comments • Permalink •
DISTRIBUTION
Fox took the crown from Paramount this year to become top distributor with 23 films earning R$256.5 million for an almost 27% market share compared to Paramount’s 27 films with revenues of R$131m for an 18% market share. Fox’s theater share was 19% and they had the top three releases with “Ice Age 3,” “If I Were You 2,” and “Avatar.” Fox’s was the number one distributor at the box office for 20 weeks of the year.
Sony came in second this year with a 16% market share and revenues of R$155 million from their 23 releases and earned the number one spot for twelve weeks. ”2012” and “Angeles and Demons” were their top performers but “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” (R$13.4m) and “The Ugly Truth” (R$13m) also made it to the top 20 for the year.
Warner’s 11.7% market share was third, down from their 13.6% and the second highest market share last year. Warner had two releases in the top ten of their 15 title slate here to earn R$112.6 million. Titles “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (R$18.7m) and comedy “The Hangover” (R$15.8m) were the next best performers for the studio.
Disney also released 23 titles, none of which made it in to the top ten, and earned R$90 million for a 9.4% market share. “Up,” a top ten finisher in most of the rest of the world finished 12th here with revenues of R$19.4m but was number one for four weeks.
Paramount and Universal, independent distributors Paris Filmes and Imagem all share more than 6% of the market. Paramount had the fewest releases of the pack at 15 while Imagem had the most at 40 titles. Paris had the best performance of the bunch with “Twilight New Moon,” which had an opening weekend of R$13.7m for a R$43K theater average. Universal’s “Fast and Furious” earned R$20m for an eleventh place finish for the year.
Playarte had the next largest market share with 4.7% but other domestic distributors Downtown Filmes and Europa Filmes hovered just under 2% with revenues between R$17.5-R$18m. Downtown’s five film release with earnings of R$18m looks quite good though in comparison to Europa’s 16 releases for a cumulative gross of R$17.6m.
GENRE
With three of the year’s top ten releases, science fiction fantasy contributed R$176m across only eight releases. The largest release came from “Avatar” with 739 theaters though “2012” with 629 theater release had the best theater average at R$14K.
There were 22 animated releases here though “Ice Age 3” blew all of the others away beating second place “Up” by more than four times it take.
There were 70 comedy releases accounting for R$259 of the overall box office for the year. “If I Were You 2” more than doubled its next best competitor of “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” both Fox releases. “If I Were You 2” had an R$18k theater average for its opening weekend beaten only by Imovision’s “Mid-August Lunch” which opened to a R$21.6k theater average and grossed only R$390K by the end of the year.
Revenues of R$145.5 million captured the action genre’s 25-film performance. Fox had the top one in this category as well with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (R$27.4m) followed by Universal’s “Fast and Furious” (R$20m).
Drama is most often the genre with the most entries and with 103 titles for earnings of R$160m, the majority of those titles don’t make any noise. Only five grossed more than R$5m at box office led by “Twilight New Moon” and followed by Warner’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (R$18.7m), Europa’s “Slumdog Millionaire” (R$13m), Fox’s “Valykyrie” (R$10m) and Imagem’s “Always at Your Side” (R$6.2m).
“Angels and Demons” handily beat out Playarte’s “Paranormal Activity’ (R$9m) by a margin of more than three to one in the horror genre. Paris Filmes’ “Knowing” was third with R$8m.
Next: An analysis of local product and looking forward
Ellen Pittleman, http://hybridentus.com, is a veteran studio executive based in Los Angeles. Most recently, she served as SVP, International Co-Productions and Worldwide Acquisitions for Paramount Pictures. She also launched the DVD Premiere group there, with films including Jonathan Demme’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold” and the sequel to the $100MM+ “Save the Last Dance.” Working from a marketing and distribution perspective, she consults on strategic planning, deal negotiation, acquisitions, film library valuation and feature development with clients from Rio to London to Beijing. She’s also currently developing a feature on George Foreman’s comeback years, among other projects.