THE GREATEST SHOWMAN : Box Office

[jo]

Comments on the to-date international receipts for this weekend, per Deadline.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Twentieth Century Fox
Hugh Jackman’s legs have helped carry Fox’s musical to the $200M mark at the international box office. With $200.5M overseas, the global cume is now $361.3M. In 32 markets this session, the showbiz origins story added $7.7M. It held the No. 1 spot in Japan for the second week in a row, dropping just 8% for a $12.3M total to date and in the UK in its 9th weekend, it was flat at No. 2. The total there is $45.7M. Australia also jumped up a percentage point to cume $23.8M after nine frames. When it comes to international box office, a film can’t always be ruled out based on early play.

[jo]

THE OTHER SIDE ( of the pond) loves the movie as much as those where Barnum historically worked his impresario magic! It must be the Cunard Lines Atlantic crossings which initially inspired and cemented the bond for this semi-fictional look at the life of Barnum, The Greatest Showman!


www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/924765/The-Greatest-Showman-sing-a-long-box-office-UK-nine-weeks-unprecedented

The film had a 4% rise week-on-week at UK cinemas, achieving £2 million - putting it in second place behind only Black Panther.

For a movie that’s been out for nine weeks, that’s a remarkable achievement - and the last film to do better than that at this stage was Avatar way back in 2010, which pulled in £3.32 million in its ninth frame.



This news comes after the Official Charts Company announced that the soundtrack is on course for an eighth week at No1 on the album chart in the UK.

Currently it is ahead of its closest competition - Dua Lipa - at the half-way stage of the week, with the charts set to be finalised on Friday.

In fact its success is so encouraging that bookies have slashed the odds on it ending 2018 as the year’s biggest selling LP.

“The Greatest Showman On Earth has had the last laugh, despite receiving a lukewarm reception from the critics,” said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams.

Ironic that this was one of Hugh Jackman's potential blockbuster movies which did not hold a special premiere event in London! Did FOX fail to recognize that this movie could be doing better than its already outstanding performance at the Uk box office at close to $ 50 million! Top grossers for the genre are Beauty and the Beast at $ 90.5 million and Mamma Mia! at $ 89.9 million while third-place Les Miserables delivered $ 63 million... so there is very strong potential for movie musicals!

When you also think of it -- it was London which introduced Hugh Jackman to the international entertainment world via OKLAHOMA!


Jo

[jo]

Per Box Office Mojo, ESTIMATE for period ending March 4, 2018.

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $164,616,443 (43.8%)
Foreign: $211,234,343 (56.2%)

Worldwide: $375,850,786

Will the favorable exposure at the Oscars ( via the song performance of THIS IS ME and the Oscars audience reaction to it) -- see some late if relatively small surge in the box office receipts, despite the fact that the domestic screen count has already been cut down to only about 42% compared of its highest screen count ( 2nd week)?

Also, at this point the estimated Domestic Cume has reached $ 164.6 million ( which is only $ 6.1 million short to beat CHICAGO's domestic box office performance)...and the movie now needs $ 24.2 million to cross over to $ 400 million worldwide-receipts territory!

Jo

[carouselkathy]

Hope TGS can be allowed to stay in theaters long enough to reach that goal!

[jo]

Maybe at least before the release date of the movie on DIGITAL (March 20)...or if audience response is better than expected, hopefully till the movie is released on BluRay/DVD on April 10.

There are quite a few reports praising the Keala performance as the best one for the evening ( plus did you notice that when it was introduced by Zendaya, there were some scenes of Hugh dancing on the rooftop and dancing in the circus ring) --hopefully, those who have not seen the movie but saw the Oscars will now go and see it. The new FOX release ( Red Sparrow with JLawrence) did not perform as well as hoped for, so maybe FOX will not redistribute the screens from Showman to that movie.

Here's the ETOnline report --

www.etonline.com/the-greatest-showman-gives-show-stopping-performance-of-oscar-nominated-this-is-me-97622


And another one which reports on her performance and the social media reactions --


www.bustle.com/p/video-of-keala-settles-the-greatest-showman-performance-at-the-2018-oscars-slayed-us-all-8401344



And how can you not want to see this movie, if you see the reaction of the AMPAS crowd led by Viola Davis?

[jo]

[jo]

Mar 5, 2018 1:05:50 GMT -5 jo said:

Per Box Office Mojo, ESTIMATE for period ending March 4, 2018.

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $164,616,443 (43.8%)
Foreign: $211,234,343 (56.2%)

Worldwide: $375,850,786

Will the favorable exposure at the Oscars ( via the song performance of THIS IS ME and the Oscars audience reaction to it) -- see some late if relatively small surge in the box office receipts, despite the fact that the domestic screen count has already been cut down to only about 42% compared of its highest screen count ( 2nd week)?

Also, at this point the estimated Domestic Cume has reached $ 164.6 million ( which is only $ 6.1 million short to beat CHICAGO's domestic box office performance)...and the movie now needs $ 24.2 million to cross over to $ 400 million worldwide-receipts territory!

Jo

Final figures as of March 4, 2018 --

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $164,644,800 (43.8%)
Foreign: $211,491,947 (56.2%)

Worldwide: $376,136,747

[jo]

Mar 5, 2018 12:18:21 GMT -5 jo said:

[jo]

Check out responses ( click on the space where the original tweet appears) --

The movie does not need any official publicity -- the chain of replies is WORD-OF-MOUTH working

And no, it is not an App


PS: Ms Abrams is a Senior Writer for ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.

[jo]

Per Box Office Mojo : Estimate for cumulative period ending March 11, 2018, with screen count down to slightly less than a thousand --

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $167,475,401 (43.1%)
Foreign: $221,103,394 (56.9%)

Worldwide: $388,578,795

Domestic cume needs an additional $ 3.213 Million to surpass CHICAGO and become the 3rd largest grossing movie musical. It needs an additional $ 11.421 million to reach $ 400 million in worldwide receipts.

[jo]

On the international markets --

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Life under the big top got bigger again this weekend with a further $5.2M for the Fox charmer in 20 markets. That takes the international total to $221.1M and includes the UK passing $50M with $50.8M and landing the No. 2 slot in its 11th weekend of release. Japan has overtaken Australia with $24.9M after four weeks. The drop in that slow-burn market was just 7%.

[jo]

www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/930647/The-Greatest-Showman-shock-news-box-office-UK-up

The Greatest Showman shock: Hit musical just did something INCREDIBLE
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN has just pulled off yet another jaw-dropping feat at the UK box office.

It looks like it's been a great hit all throughout the British Isles -- so many song covers from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. After all, it was London which discovered the singing and dancing Aussie almost 20 years ago


Can't quite believe that this was almost 20 years ago from London --






Can you spot Hugh in this finale photo for that long ago Mackintosh tribute concert? Try second row -- right above the letters P R

www.cameronmackintosh.com/productions/view/hey-mr-producer


Jo

[jo]

Mar 11, 2018 18:01:44 GMT -5 jo said:

Per Box Office Mojo : Estimate for cumulative period ending March 11, 2018, with screen count down to slightly less than a thousand --

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $167,475,401 (43.1%)
Foreign: $221,103,394 (56.9%)

Worldwide: $388,578,795
<
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FINAL figures for cumulative box office receipts as of March 11, 2018

Total Lifetime Grosses

Domestic: $167,614,558 (43.1%)
Foreign: $221,295,439 (56.9%)

Worldwide: $388,909,997

*Needed to surpass CHICAGO : $3.073 million
*Needed to reach $ 400,000 : $ 11,090 million

[jo]

Using a new way to understand movie audiences, and partly relating data to the unexpected success of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN --


variety.com/2018/digital/features/hollywood-mobile-phones-data-1202724639/#article-comments

How Mobile Phones Are Giving Hollywood a Better Understanding of Its Audiences
By Brent Lang @brentalang


Fox had it wrong.

The studio thought that “The Greatest Showman,” a song-and-dance ode to circus impresario P.T. Barnum, would be a hit with the crowds who embraced musicals such as “La La Land” and “Les Misérables.”

But when executives looked at the data, they found that 75% of the people who viewed the trailer online bought tickets to “Beauty and the Beast,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Cinderella” and “Wonder.” “We had to peel it back and think, what is this all about?” says Julie Rieger, Fox’s chief data strategist and head of media. “What is the data telling us?”

What Rieger and other Fox executives realized was that all of those films featured characters who were shunned by society — perhaps because of physical deformities or a lack of social cachet — and who ultimately found themselves embraced by certain communities. The same holds true for “The Greatest Showman,” a large part of which centers on Barnum’s efforts to build a show featuring bearded ladies, dwarfs and other people who were considered “oddities” in the 19th century. In response, the studio altered its advertising campaigns and leaned into a message of inclusion. The film has earned nearly $380 million globally.

That kind of granular insight into the composition of the audience for the Hugh Jackman musical wouldn’t have been possible at Fox even a year ago. But it’s becoming more common across the entertainment business as more content consumption moves to mobile platforms, which is enabling marketing executives to get a deeper understanding of the user base than other media afford.

For years, studios have operated with only a vague understanding of who’s buying tickets to their films even as their leadership has publicly claimed to have an indelible connection with consumers. Part of the ignorance stems from the makeup of the business. Movie studios have largely been wholesalers that ship their product to movie theaters and later, when their films premiere on home entertainment platforms, to digital and physical retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.
That arm’s-length relationship with consumers is beginning to change, however. In the process, a business that relied on instinct is becoming empirical; it’s a shift that’s analogous to the one baseball underwent when sabermetrics overtook scouting reports.

Fox, for instance, has put an emphasis on data collection. One of Stacey Snider’s big pushes after taking the reins as studio chief was to apply Silicon Valley know-how to an industry that was painfully behind the times. Since being upped to her present position at Fox a year and a half ago, Rieger has developed several proprietary data sets (most named after X-Men characters) that give the studio insight into 25 million moviegoers. These use various algorithms, but Fox is pushing beyond and has developed artificial intelligence, dubbed “Merlin,” that runs on Google’s technology. The studio believes Merlin will give it greater insight into whether or not its marketing campaigns are resonating with consumers.


“The machine is still getting smarter, but it’s ultimately going to help us understand if we’re going down the right path or the wrong path with our customers,” Rieger says.



Studios’ efforts in this bold new world of data gathering are being augmented by ticketing companies such as Fandango and Atom Tickets, a relative newbie on the block, having launched just over a year ago. The mobile ticketing app is the brainchild of Matthew Bakal, a former Lionsgate executive, and Ameesh Paleja, a former Amazon engineer. The two men believe that movie studios were flying blind, spending tens of millions of dollars on ad campaigns to bring customers to theaters and then going through the whole costly process a few weeks later when their next movie debuted. The problem, Bakal and Paleja argue, was that they lacked any data on their customer base.

“Consumers expect more now,” Bakal says. “They have preferences that we can track. We know if they saw the latest ‘Star Wars’ and what format they saw it in and if they bought a Coke and Junior Mints and invited friends.”
That gives Atom the ability to suggest movies that are similar to ones its customers previously enjoyed and to help them customize their experience (buying snacks ahead of time, for instance), so there are fewer steps along the way.
Fandango has fully embraced the phone-based world, not only by providing mobile ticketing options but by designing its apps to be more smartphone-friendly. The company has launched a Fandango functionality into Apple iMessage and Facebook Messenger, because it believes that’s how younger consumers are communicating with friends. It’s also streamlined its payment options by introducing Google Pay on its Android app.

“Mobile phones are allowing all of us to have an instant, always-on relationship with the internet and with content,” says Paul Yanover, president of Fandango.



A recent study by analytics firm Flurry reported that U.S. consumers spend five hours a day on mobile devices, and smartphone ownership has become widespread. Seventy-seven percent of Americans have smartp
hones, according to Pew Research Center, and ownership of these devices is nearly ubiquitous among younger consumers. Ninety-two percent of 18- to 29-year-olds own one, Pew reports.

“Consumers expect more now. They have preferences that we can track. We know if they saw the latest ‘Star Wars’ and what format they saw it in and if they bought a Coke and Junior Mints and invited friends.”

Matthew Bakal
“Mobile is where marketers need to turn their energy to,” Bakal says. “It’s where people spend the bulk of their time. You unlock your phone 200 times a day, and 92% of your day your phone is right there with you.”
Of course, digital players such as Amazon and Netflix have been scrutinizing user data for years, deploying algorithms to suggest shoes to buy and shows to stream. In the entertainment industry, the television business is far ahead of its film counterpart. But the process of catching up is under way, including on the exhibition side of the business.



Much of that push is being propelled by loyalty programs, such as AMC’s Stubs, which added 10 million members when it did away with membership fees, giving the country’s largest theater chain access to a massive amount of consumer data. It also allowed AMC to reach a different audience.

“We felt we’d gotten to a point where we’d sort of plateaued,” says Stephen Colanero, AMC’s chief marketing officer. “We were mostly attracting parents with families. Making the program free let us reach younger, single moviegoers. We were able to be more inclusive.”

The explosive growth of mobile devices is also reshaping media companies’ approach to programming and monetizing their content. CBS, for example, is putting its weight behind premium subscription offerings such as CBS All Access, a $5.99-a-month package that lets users view content in the Eye network’s programming library as well as exclusive shows such as “Star Trek: Discovery.” “It creates a more direct relationship with the brand,” says Jim Lanzone, chief digital officer for CBS.

It also gives CBS proprietary data on consumers it can use to tailor programming and advertising messages — allowing the network to know what devices customers are watching shows on, how long they’re engaging with content, and at what point in the day they’re tuning in. That’s a boon to Madison Avenue because it gives advertisers a better sense of who’s viewing their commercials and also allows them to better understand how effective their spots are in convincing people to buy their products.


Viacom chief data officer Kern Schireson says the level of insight is so precise that the company can tell automobile advertisers what percentage of some 10 million viewers exposed to a particular commercial will show up at a dealership and buy a car. “It allows us to demonstrate the link between the power of TV to shape hearts and minds and the point at which that influence delivers impact,” he explains.

Despite that kind of insight, most data gurus are quick to stress that technology can only take the content business so far. It’s not a substitute for a writer with a novel idea or a filmmaker with a unique vision.


“It’s not going to replace the instincts of a programmer,” Schireson says. “We’ve put our programmers in Iron Man’s suit to make them stronger. But Iron Man is only Iron Man because Tony Stark is underneath the metal. That’s where the genius comes in.”

The analysis seems a little simplistic. What brought on the multiple/repeat patronage should have been studied? Was it really the message of inclusion only?

Social media reactions and readers reviews ( Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, and Amazon...and even the New York Times survey responses) are very rich in insights that gives many clues into the reasons why the movie became a box office sensation.

Based on observations from the many messages, it seems that it was the musical score tying up to the storyline which won the hearts of many fans and even encouraged the repeat patronage. And the feeling of joy that was uniformly hailed in the many messages, more so than the feeling of inclusion and acceptance, was the most important emotional reaction -- so mamy messages saying how happy they were leaving the theatre, how they wanted to sing and dance on the way home, how they immediately downloaded the musical score. People also appreciated the outstanding triple-threat performances of the major cast!

Maybe if they read the fan reactions summarized on a thread here -- that will be a rich hunting ground for analyzing the factors that led to the unexpected fandom of the movie!

Jo

[jo]

Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com is still monitoring what's happening for The Greatest Showman boxoffice-wise!

Fox and Chermin's Greatest Showman grossed another $1.775m (-34%) in its 12thweekend to bring its cume to $167.475m. That makes it leggier than Back to the Future and the sixth-leggiest remotely wide opener (over 700 screens) and the fourth-leggiest 1,000 screen+ opener (behind Titanic, Top Gun and E.T.) in history. It should have just enough gas to push it past Chicago ($170.68m in 2002/2003) among live-action musicals. If it’s not over $400m worldwide, it’s awfully close.

[jo]

Written last February 27, this ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY article puts more meat into its analysis of the unexpected success of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN at the box office --

ew.com/movies/2018/02/27/greatest-showman-box-office-titanic/?utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

The Greatest Showman has almost Titanic-length legs at the box office: Here's why

The Greatest Showman features acrobats swinging from trapezes and lions jumping through flaming hoops, but the film’s greatest trick might be its own box office performance.

The movie musical made a dismal $8.8 million its first weekend — a veritable death sentence for a big-budget film at a moment in the industry when studios rely on wide releases and big openings. But then something strange happened: In its second weekend in theaters, The Greatest Showman brought in $15 million, nearly twice as much as it had the previous week. The film continued to bring in audiences, and since its release on Dec. 20, The Greatest Showman has grossed more than $160 million domestically, making it the fourth most successful movie musical of all time — just below Chicago, and above La La Land, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia, and Enchanted.

A shorthand way to measure a film’s word-of-mouth staying power is its multiplier — the number you get by dividing its box office total by its opening weekend. (Because it’s a ratio, it conveniently makes inflation irrelevant.) As The Atlantic explained it: “A solid multiplier for a film that opens wide is around 3: Beauty and the Beast, one of 2017’s biggest hits, opened to $174 million and made $504 million over its entire run, or 2.9 times as much. A very good multiplier for a blockbuster is 4 (in 2017, Wonder Woman and Coco are good examples), which indicates an extremely positive audience reaction and a lot of return viewings.”

Titanic is famous for its massive multiplier, the largest in history. The film ended up with a domestic gross of $600 million after a $28.8 million opening weekend, which gave it a multiplier of 21.


The Greatest Showman’s multiplier is currently over 18 — and it’s still in theaters. All that is without even mentioning that the film has already grossed more than $200 million internationally, for a global total of $361.2 million. In less than a month, on March 20, it’ll hit VOD and it’ll be released on DVD and Blu-ray April 10, making its cultural impact even greater.

But here is the strangest thing: Unlike Chicago or Titanic — both of which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture — The Greatest Showman is a profoundly average film, critically speaking, with its current score on Rotten Tomatoes at a “rotten” 55 percent. Meaning: Explaining its incredible box office legs as a word-of-mouth phenomenon becomes slightly more complicated.


So here’s why it might have managed its death-defying feat:


Karaoke-ready music

he Greatest Showman’s music — poppy numbers by Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — has been a tremendous factor in its staying power. The soundtrack hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart in January and stayed for two weeks, after debuting at No. 71. Now, two months after the film’s release, it’s currently the top album on iTunes.

The songs’ lyrics are simple (the opening line of “Rewrite the Stars” is “You know I want you,” which has also been a sentiment uttered by Pitbull), as they were on “City of Stars” (“Are you shining just for me / City of stars / There’s so much I cannot see”), the song for which Pasek and Paul took home the Oscar for La La Land, a feat they’re hoping to repeat. Showman‘s “This Is Me” (notable lyrics: Look out ’cause here I come / And I’m marching on to the beat I drum”) already claimed the Golden Globe earlier this year for Best Original Song.



Zeitgeisty marketing

Twentieth Century Fox has capitalized on the soundtrack’s popularity, sponsoring videos from YouTube influencers covering the songs and putting sing-along screenings of The Greatest Showman in theaters.

he Greatest Showman’s music — poppy numbers by Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — has been a tremendous factor in its staying power. The soundtrack hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart in January and stayed for two weeks, after debuting at No. 71. Now, two months after the film’s release, it’s currently the top album on iTunes.

The songs’ lyrics are simple (the opening line of “Rewrite the Stars” is “You know I want you,” which has also been a sentiment uttered by Pitbull), as they were on “City of Stars” (“Are you shining just for me / City of stars / There’s so much I cannot see”), the song for which Pasek and Paul took home the Oscar for La La Land, a feat they’re hoping to repeat. Showman‘s “This Is Me” (notable lyrics: Look out ’cause here I come / And I’m marching on to the beat I drum”) already claimed the Golden Globe earlier this year for Best Original Song.


Super-fans. Teenage super-fans.

Like Dear Evan Hansen, the musical has captured the adoration of a massive teenage fanbase, who have flooded Tumblr with memes and artwork devoted to the film (which, aside from Hugh Jackman, stars millennial favorites Zac Efron and Zendaya). Repeat viewers — stans who see the movie two, three, 20 times — also account for its box office longevity.


No other decent movies to take the kids to

The Greatest Showman and Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle were both released before Christmas, opposite Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and both smashed expectations. Superhero and Star Wars films have become grittier over the past decade; Showman and Jumanji were both prime options for families, especially families with young children who may not be ready for the Kylo-Rey sexual tension and full-on lightsaber massacres afforded in the most recent Star Wars film.


Something to think about other than the news

The Greatest Showman also offers the promise of Old Hollywood-style escapism. Once zap-and-punch-’em superhero movies have begun to more broadly incorporate political themes like imperialism and the military-industrial complex, for better or for worse, The Greatest Showman asks for no moral deliberation. Cheerfully ignoring the unsavory elements of the real P.T. Barnum’s life, the movie is a story about a determined ragamuffin who dreams big and wants everyone to feel special. In many ways, the film itself a perfect meta-representation of Barnum’s work: a falsification meant to delight and distract.

Fans appreciate a film like The Greatest Showman in a way critics don’t, or can’t. It channels the voice of its own naysayers into the mouth of the newspaper critic character James Gordon Bennett, pre-empting those who would call the movie lowbrow or frivolous and giving the opportunity for Jackman to defend his circus — and movie — with charm and a megawatt smile. Come on, the movie seems to say, are you really going to be the grouch who can’t enjoy a good old song and dance?

I think the article missed one major factor -- the excellent cast which delivered as true triple threats! They also underestimated Hugh Jackman's ability to deliver a musical, and extraordinary talent and versatility and full-on charisma!

Its analysis of the power of the lyrics is too simplistic, where the article says that the lyrics are said to be simple. That is not true for The Greatest Show -- those lyrics are unusually descriptive ("runaways running the night", etc). The Other Side is a very sophisticated conversation ( " whiskey and misery", etc). Come Alive is deceptively stunning ("eyes wide open"). From Now On may have simpler lyrics but its message of redemption is not ... and it drives the ending of the movie to its old-fashioned ( in a positive way) conclusion for a family-friendly movie. But without its fantastic choreography and acting from Hugh ( his facial expressions change from downheartedness to sheer joy), the song will fall flat in a karaoke bar.

There were many powerful messages - whether in the lyrics or in dialog. Those added to the powerful appeal of the movie, as these have often been quoted in social media reactions.

Its conclusion that it is the teenage market that may have been the key fanbase is not proven ( the writer is simply making an assumption). Based on the IMDB demographic analysis from the almost 80,000 fans who submitted their overall ratings, it is the desired demos ( 18-44 age range) which delivered in an overwhelming way. He should have looked at the user reviews ( IMDB/RottenTomatoes/AmazonReaders/NYTimes survey, etc) and analyzed social media reactions ( Twitter feeds/Facebook messages/others). The appeal is across ages/gender/borders!

Can Hollywood follow the same formula based on EW's analysis on what drives box office success for a movie musical ( still considered as a risky genre)?

Two upcoming 2018 releases are Mary Poppins Returns and Mamma Mia :Here We Go Again.

Jo

[jo]

The BBC analysis of the unexpected success of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is more like it -- more depth and it has the numbers to prove it. THE GREATEST SHOWMAN has tallied $ 51 million in the UK since its release immediately after Christmas! It also recorded an amazing increase in the last weekend!

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-43385034

Entertainment & Arts

How The Greatest Showman defied the critics to become an enduring smash
By Lucy Todd
Entertainment reporter, BBC News
38 minutes ago

Hugh Jackman stars in The Greatest Showman as circus promoter PT Barnum



Being panned by some critics hasn't stopped Hugh Jackman's infectious movie musical The Greatest Showman from becoming the most enduring film hit for a decade.

While Black Panther continues to dominate the box office rankings, raking in more than $1bn worldwide in four weeks, another movie phenomenon has been slowly unfolding.



Last weekend, The Greatest Showman posted a huge 26% upturn in its takings in the UK and Ireland compared with the previous weekend.

That's in its 11th weekend on release, taking its total to £37.3m - and giving it a longevity that's virtually unheard of in the normally fast-moving world of here today, gone tomorrow popcorn fodder.

The musical extravaganza was met with mediocre reviews when it was released just before Christmas.

The Telegraph declared it "completely and utterly bibbly bibbly quack-quack insane", while the Evening Standard called it "a load of big top baloney".

Its opening weekend saw the film take £4.75m in the UK, putting it in a respectable third spot behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.



But over the course of three months, Jackman & co have sung and danced their way into our hearts - and our wallets.
It's now in second position in the UK box office chart - a "remarkable" performance, according to Tom Grater at movie trade publication Screen International.


"Normally a film is expected to see the numbers of cinemagoers drop off by as much as 50% after its opening weekend," says Grater.


But The Greatest Showman only fell by 7% in week two and hasn't suffered the usual weekly major drop-offs. "It has even had an uptick," Grater says. "That basically never happens.

"Last weekend, it went up by a massive 26% - which is huge. No film since Avatar [in 2009] has been posting these kinds of numbers beyond week nine - and Avatar was a massive draw because everyone wanted to see the new 3D technology.
"It's just been incredibly consistent over its 11-week run."


How The Greatest Showman compares with last year's biggest film hits

Top 5 films of 2017

Film
Opening weekend
11th weekend
Drop
1.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
£28,010,841
£15,016
99.9%
2.
Beauty and the Beast
£19,700,000
£61,289
99.7%
3.
Dunkirk
£10,023,720
£147,268
98.5%
4.
Despicable Me 3
£11,154,904
£380,436
96.6%
5.
Paddington 2
£8,260,160
£271,836
96.7%

The Greatest Showman
£4,754,049
£1,567,366
67%
UK & Ireland box office. Source: BFI/ComScore



Another surprising fact is how widely the film is still showing.

"Of the 766 cinemas in the UK, The Greatest Showman was still being shown in 579 as of last Friday. That's enormous." says Grater.

For comparison, Black Panther - which was released just a month ago - is playing at 594 sites.
"It's cinema programmers reacting to what people want - they put films on that run and run."



So did the film critics get it wrong?

Anna Smith is the president of the Critics' Circle Film Section. "I thought it was an efficient mainstream musical," she says.
But the film "whitewashes some of the darker aspects" of the personality of circus promoter PT Barnum, played by Jackman, she explains. "That is the problem I had with it - and perhaps why some of the critics weren't so keen on it.


'Nice, comfortable viewing'

"Obviously Hugh Jackman is a big draw - so it didn't particularly surprise me it's done well. What's surprising is just HOW well its done."

Smith puts the success down to word of mouth recommendations and people making multiple trips to the cinema to see it.
"The repeat business is key," she says. "People want to go along and take their family and friends to see it and sing along.
"It's the familiarity of the songs. And it's nice, comfortable viewing."


Grater agrees: "It proves word of mouth can have results, compared to huge marketing budgets.

"It's almost unprecedented for a film to have made this amount of money after such a soft launch."
The sing-a-long sessions have become events in their own right and have helped its continued success.
Grater says: "Cinemas have done a good job of promoting the sing-a-longs - it's the sort of thing you can imagine working equally well as a girls' night out, or for teenagers or families to go to. The appeal is huge."


How The Greatest Showman compares with other hits of the last 20 years
Film
11th weekend takings
Avatar (2009)
£2,260,319
The Greatest Showman
£1,567,366
Titanic (1998)
£1,504,551
Mamma Mia (2008)
£708,489
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
£698,571
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
£581,682
UK & Ireland box office. Source: BFI/BBC research



The popularity of the soundtrack has also undeniably fed the snowballing interest.

The big number, This is Me, may have been passed over for an Oscar last week, but The Greatest Showman album has spent nine weeks at the top of the UK's Official Albums Chart.

It now matches Ed Sheeran's Divide as having the second longest unbroken run at number one for the last 20 years - behind only Adele's album 21.

Michael Hann, writing in the Guardian, says Tony and Oscar-winning songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have a "way with a chorus".

"Subtlety be damned - these are refrains configured to flatten everything within a 50-mile radius; you can almost feel the shock waves from the massed voices," he wrote.

"It's music designed to take you from ennui to euphoria in the fastest possible time, with the least possible complication. And there will always be a market for that.



Anna Smith agrees that the film is "a slick, well-produced package of pure escapism".

But the apparent disconnect between what critics make of a movie and what hits the right buttons for the film-going public is not concerning her.

"Its rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 55 - which is by no means bad," Smith says.

"It's simply that, if you're paid to watch a film and think about all of its flaws - quite rightly, the critics will point them out.
"And it's not the job of awards ceremonies like the Oscars to necessarily reward films that are commercially very successful. It's an award in its own right to do really well."


As for the success of The Greatest Showman, is there an end in sight?

"I've been predicting it to tail off for weeks," admits Grater. "Last week's massive surge was possibly due to people going back to the cinema after they couldn't make it out in the snow.

"Mother's Day may also have had an effect, so I would definitely be surprised if we saw any more upticks."

But as Jackman's character in the film says: "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else."

Maybe Hugh should sail across the pond and join some of the sing-alongs

.

[jo]

Are these three the real main attractions from the movie ?

[carouselkathy]

Locally, TGS has dropped to one showing late in the evening, which isn't very family friendly. A WRINKLE IN TIME and THE BLACK KNIGHT are taking up most of the theater screens. I'm surprised that it's dropped to a late showing. It would still do well if there were 2 or 3 afternoon weekend showings. Kids love it.

[israruth]

According to Boxofficemojo. TGS has reached $390,000,000. Does it still have a chance of reaching $400,000,000?

[jo]

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $168,145,461 (43.1%)
Foreign: $221,986,017 (56.9%)

Worldwide: $390,131,478

I am a bit more confident on the domestic side that they just might surpass CHICAGO's $ 170.7 million...although FOX has been cutting the screen count rather sharply ( the past weekend saw a theatre count of 952 screens compared to the previous week's 1407 screen count). Assuming that the rest of the week and next week gives the movie the additional $ 2.7 million ( to beat Chicago) even if screen count will likely be cut this weekend as well as next weekend ( if the movie stays that long), then maybe we can bank on the domestic side to reach $ 170.8 million.

Then the foreign side ( which has been somewhat disappointing with the exception of the UK and Australia...and hopefully Japan) will have to reach at least $ 229.2 million for total receipts to reach $ 400 million. The foreign receipts will need to generate an additional $ 7.2 million. Only major remaining source would be Japan and maybe a bit more from the UK. If the movie remains open till end of next week ( March 25), maybe there's a fairly good chance?

The digital release is one March 20 while the release of the BluRay/DVD is on April 10. We don't know what Fox's policy is when it comes to ending the theatrical run when the video releases are imminent.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Jo

[jo]

I am hoping that the popularity of the movie will allow the video sales to hit excellent or very good numbers. I think that is what will ultimately yield the really big boost to net profitability of the movie.

We only have numbers on the domestic side for the ESTIMATED sales of DVD/BluRay discs, per The Numbers --

Mamma Mia! $ 151 million
Beauty and the Beast $ 85 miilion
Les Miserables $ 81 million
La La Land $ 16 million

Logan $ 47 million


It looks like VERY well-received movie musicals by audiences ( not necessarily by critics) do get huge numbers from home video sales. We do not know to what extent the current level of piracy will affect the sales of home videos for The Greatest Showman, though. But it is widely reported that the sale of home videos has slowed down ( although we do not know how much have gone into digital release sales instead...or replaced by streaming services )



We also don't know how much FOX shares in the soundtrack album sales.

[jo]

Per Box Office Mojo --

Early estimates for DOMESTIC box office as of March 18/Foreign Box Office as of March 13, 2018 --

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $169,744,618 (43.3%)
Foreign: $221,986,017 (56.7%)

Worldwide: $391,730,635

Hopefully, this coming week's box office will deliver the receipts to allow it to overtake CHICAGO ( it needs approx. $ 943 thousand to do that).

On the foreign side, assuming the rest of this week brings in $ 3 - 5 million, we need next week to generate an additional $ 5.3 - $ 3.3 million to reach $ 400 million.

Unfortunately, theatre count in the USA is now down to 737. It looks like the possibility of surpassing Chicago still has a slightly better chance of being achieved than reaching $ 400 million worldwide. But who knows ? The Greatest Showman seems to be a miracle worker

Also, we do not know if the Digital release due on March 20 will affect the current theatre count everywhere.


Jo

[jo]

A special Thanks to UK fans!

Over $ 50 million in box office receipts!

Soundtrack album on 10 consecutive weeks as # 1

[jo]