It may or may not beat out Warner Bros. for the No. 1 global market share position for this record-breaking year at the box office, but when it comes to revenues, Fox is finishing out 2009 stronger than any other studio.
Going into Christmas week, Fox touted $1.34 billion in domestic theatrical revenue (with Fox Searchlight accounting for $263 million of that figure) and about $2 billion in international ticket sales.
Both performances were already up over 2008 with two weekends to go.
Just two weeks ago, the studio didn’t even seem to be in contention to finish No. 1 globally this year in terms of ticket sales (Warner has already locked up the domestic race with over $2 billion in revenue).
In fact, global supremacy also seemed firmly in the hands of Warner, which on Monday announced a projected year-end worldwide box office total of $3.99 billion, an industry record.
With one more weekend left in 2009, and “Sherlock Holmes” in the marketplace, not to mention a still viable “Blind Side,” Warner appeared poised to finish atop a landmark box office tally that will come in above $10 billion domestically for the first time ever ($10.4 billion is the official year-end projection).
But thanks to “Avatar” and the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” sequel, Fox is closing in fast.
The two films combined for $124.5 million of a massive $259.9 million Christmas weekend box office -- a record for a three-day weekend period.
With James Cameron’s 3D epic at $643 million globally through Tuesday -- while experiencing only a 2 percent week-to-week drop in North America last weekend -- Fox officials are predicting they’ll finish 2009 with $4.07 million in global revenue.
“I think we had some product at the beginning of the year that did decent business for us -- “Taken,” for example, was a terrific surprise for us,” said a Fox official, agreeing to speak to TheWrap without attribution. (Fox Film co-chairmen/CEOs Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman were not available for interviews.)
“But once we got our feet under us with ‘Wolverine’ and ‘Ice Age,’ we really got on solid ground,” the studio official added.
Fox’s rise to the near top of this record-breaking global box-office has been somewhat stealth compared to Warner, which had obvious breakouts, including “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “The Hangover” and “The Blind Side,” all of which should finish the year in the top 10 in terms of domestic b.o.
In fact, until “Avatar” came along (it now ranks seventh), Fox only had one film, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” rank in the top 10 in North America.
Looking closer, however, the hits were all over the place for the studio in 2009 -- and none of the misses lost a huge amount of money.
Released in the fallow movie-going month of January, “Taken,” a Luc Besson-directed parental revenge fantasy starring Liam Neeson as a retired covert operative who ventures to Europe to save his abducted daughter, took in $226.8
