Night Owls

Dead right, mate. Deadline's even saying it might break even by Sunday night, which is barmy! But once everyone's back at their desks and the screens go back to normal hours, the real test starts. Looking forward to seeing the proper Monday figures roll in.

kookaburra99 wrote:hope you and your grandson have the best time today punchcard, can't wait to see the numbers monday

Thank you, young lady. We have just returned home, and while my old knees certainly felt every minute of that three-hour running time, watching my grandson's face made the whole excursion well worth the stiffness. The cinema here in Toronto was packed to the rafters, though entirely orderly.

Regarding the trade reports of a possible break-even by Sunday, that is certainly an impressive achievement for the studio's ledger. However, financial recovery over a single weekend driven by round-the-clock screenings and massive advance bookings is one matter; building the steady momentum required to challenge a record like Avatar's is quite another.

As quasistatic noted, satisfying sixty percent of your audience through advance sales means an enormous amount of early demand is being cleared off the books immediately. When theatres return to standard opening hours and patrons have ordinary workdays to contend with, we shall see whether casual walk-up business materialises. Let us wait for the audited receipts next week before drawing grand conclusions.

glad you two had such a lovely time punchcard! monday's numbers will definitely show the real story.

Glad to hear you and the lad had such a great outing, Punchcard! That is what going to the pictures is all about... You are dead right about that early ledger rush, too. Once the clock strikes nine on Monday and everyone is back on the job, we will see how many casual folks actually line up.

Sysop_Kev wrote:Mind you, Friday alone doing over 150 million stateside is fairly wild, whether it's advance bookings or not.

Actually, the Friday figure of 156.7 million dollars includes the sixty million from Thursday night previews, which strictly means Friday itself generated 96.7 million. Punchcard is entirely correct regarding the ledger. Clearing that volume of pre-sold attendance across a single weekend creates a statistical cliff once standard working hours resume.

OffByOne wrote:Actually, the Friday figure of 156.7 million dollars includes the sixty million from Thursday night previews, which strictly means Friday itself generated 96.7 million.

Fair point on the accounting, OffByOne, but 96 million for plain Friday trade isn't exactly small beer either.

Sure look, we'll see soon enough how steep that cliff is once the working week kicks in.

Reminder again to keep any plot talk firmly off the board.

-- Kev (mod)

OffByOne makes a good point on the arithmetic... once normal hours return, that cliff will show up.

Thank you, gents. Back in '74, our operations manager tried running the card sorters overnight to clear a month-end backlog, but Monday morning still arrived with the usual steady queue. A temporary burst of throughput simply shifts the volume forward. Once the projectionists return to ordinary timetables tomorrow, the audited ledger will show us the true rate.

Punchcard wrote:A temporary burst of throughput simply shifts the volume forward.

Small correction: PostTrak recorded 62 percent of opening-weekend patrons purchasing advance tickets online, not simply 60 percent. That distinction matters. With over three-fifths of footfall front-loaded into pre-sales, Monday's audited returns must necessarily drop off sharply. A temporary surge in throughput never compensates for the lack of casual walk-up trade.

OffByOne wrote:Small correction: PostTrak recorded 62 percent of opening-weekend patrons purchasing advance tickets online, not simply 60 percent. That distinction matters.

Two percent hardly rewrites the ledger, yer man.

Disney are already calling 350 million domestic for the full weekend, which is staggering by any measure. Still, catching Avatar takes months of grind, not just one huge blowout. We will see what happens when the working week begins tomorrow.

A margin of two percent across millions of admissions represents a substantial quantity of front-loaded receipts. The weekend estimate of 350 million dollars simply confirms how thoroughly the existing fan base was processed at once. Tomorrow, when standard office routines resume, that absent pool of remaining viewers will demonstrate why Avatar's final total remains unreachable.

OffByOne has it spot on, a 1.2 billion opening is mad but that cliff edge is coming tomorrow.

Over 1.2 billion globally in five days is ridiculous money, no matter which way you slice the percentages. Still, Punchcard has the right of it about the daily grind. Avatar was built on casual punters turning up week after week, so tomorrow's normal trade will show if it has legs or just burned through the lot.

sorry if this is dumb lol, but reckon the rush is over now everyone's back at work today!!

Strictly speaking, Russian cinemas only opened today, but general weekday returns will contract predictably without the pre-sale cushion.