2009 box office review

While 2009 saw a pitched battle at the box office between the boy wizard, transforming robots and dinosaurs for overall honours, the year’s stand-out commercial victors book-end the year: the unexpected critical and commercial success of Slumdog Millionaire at the start and Avatar’s offensive on BO records at the end of the year.

Slumdog was the little film that could and did: an astounding £31.6m take in the UK (staying in the weekly top three chart for nine straight weeks!) helped it to an international take of $221m; this coupled with its US take of $141.3m put it in the top 15 worldwide. However, the only top 10 chart it made of the four below was the UK (in fourth).

Avatar has been posting ridiculous numbers in the fortnight since its release. Figures to 1 January 2010 put it second in the US on $308.8m, fifth in the UK with around £27m, fourth internationally on $525.3m, and fourth worldwide at $834.1m. By the time you read this, it will have passed the $1bn; the only question is how much further it can go. Avatar’s numbers have been helped by 3D and IMAX screenings, which command a higher ticket price than standard screenings. Indeed 3D and IMAX contributed significantly to most major hits this year: Harry Potter 6, Transformers 2, Ice Age 3, Up, Star Trek and Monsters vs Aliens to name a few.

Overall champion in the UK and worldwide was the boy wizard: £51m at home and $934m from planet Earth. It posted third in the US and ‘only’ second internationally behind surprise mega-hit Ice Age 3. The dinosaurs pic just beat its predecessor in the US, but elsewhere grew so much that its international take was up 50% on the previous instalment. It was second in the UK.

Transformers 2 was top in the US on $402.1m, and third worldwide on $835.3m. It was fifth in the UK and international markets as well.

Setting Avatar to one side (as a very special case), the two-best non-franchise, non-event movies were Up and The Hangover – two of the year’s best reviewed ‘original’ films.

Given its premise, Up seemed a hard sell, but the brilliance of the script and its execution created hugely positive word of mouth, helping it to third in the UK on £34.3m, fourth in the US, sixth internationally and sixth worldwide on $702.8m.

The Hangover was almost as unprecedented a hit as Slumdog, showing astonishing legs in the US to pull in £277.3m for sixth place, and it even made eighth in the UK (ahead of Star Trek). However, comedy never travels well in foreign markets, so its worldwide take was only good enough for ninth at $467.3m.

Star Trek suffered the same fate as The Hangover: well reviewed and massively popular (more so than any Trek film before it at $257.7m), it simply carries little weight abroad, outside of the UK (ninth on £21m), and thus did not cross the $400m barrier worldwide.

Illustrating the established importance of the international market are the performances of Angels & Demons and The Night At The Musuem 2. Both of these pix under-performed domestically compared with their previous instalments, but performed well enough to make the international top 10 list on $357.6m and $236m respectively.

The international market place also welcomed the fourth Terminator pic, generating $247m (nearly double its US haul). 2012, the disaster movie of 2009, skewed very heavily towards the international market: 78% of its worldwide take of $746.4m came from outside the US.

UK top 10
Harry Potter 6 £51m
Ice Age 3 £35m
Up £34.3m
Slumdog Millionaire £31.6m
Avatar £27m
Transformers 2 £27m
New Moon £26m
The Hangover £21.6m
Star Trek £21m
Monsters vs Aliens £21m

US top 10
Transformers 2 $402.1m
Avatar $308.8m
Harry Potter 6 $302m
Up $293m
New Moon $285.9m
The Hangover $277.3m
Star Trek $257.7m
The Blindside $200.9m
Monsters vs Aliens $198.4m
Ice Age 3 $196.6m

International top 10
Ice Age 3 $690.4m
Harry Potter 6 $632m
2012 $583.7m
Avatar $525.3m
Transformers 2 $433.2m
Up $409.8m
New Moon $391.3m
Angels & Demons $357.6m
Terminator 4 $247m
The Night At The Museum 2 $236m

Worldwide top 10
Harry Potter 6 $934m
Ice Age 3 $886.8m
Transformers 2 $835.3m
Avatar $834.1m
2012 $746.4m
Up $702.8m
New Moon $677.2m
Angels & Demons $486m
The Hangover $467.3m
The Night At The Museum 2 $413.2m