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PoA puts June past $1 Billion -
Summary:
Thanks to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the June Box Office was pushed past $1 billion
Article:
Thanks to Reuters
Quote:
Temperatures sizzled at the box office in June as the total for the month crested the $1 billion mark for the first time, reaching a staggering $1.03 billion.
Led by the magical mischief of Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," June's national box office and admission tallies soared to record heights, consequently giving the lucrative summer moviegoing season its strongest launch in history.
The new June record was a hefty 14% better than the previous high of $906.6 million racked up just last year when Disney's "Finding Nemo" was netting some pretty buoyant returns. Of course it didn't hurt last month's total when Sony's "Spider-Man 2" kicked in a stunning $64.3 million after opening June 30. (Projections for box office and admissions come from The Hollywood Reporter's exclusive national survey, which this year reflects the four weeks ending July 1.)
The box office growth in June has been rather dramatic during the past few years. Prior to last year, the national total for the month had never hit the $900 million mark. The box office tally for June 2004 is an impressive 37% higher than the comparable period in 2001, when $755.2 million was collected.
Even better, more people also went to the movies. Estimated admissions were a record 163.5 million -- up nearly 8% from the 151.6 million recorded in June 2003, which was the previous high for the month. As compared with the 134.8 million ticket units tallied in June 2001, this year's total is 21% higher.
This past June marks the second time this year that both box office and admissions have advanced to new records during the same month. Thanks to the surprise blockbuster from Newmarket Films' "The Passion of the Christ," March also rang up record totals in both box office and admissions.
While it's still early in the season, with five weeks under its belt, summer 2004 is off to the best start ever recorded. This summer has registered an all-time high $1.33 billion in receipts through July 1, up 16% from the record pace of $1.15 billion set just last year. But perhaps the best news is that summer admissions are also up. A count of 211.1 million ticket units translates to a 10% increase as compared with the total for the first five weeks of last summer.
But back to June. The month's blistering pace was fueled primarily by new product, as only two of the 10 highest-grossing films during the period were holdovers. The aggregate box office for the month's top 10 films was $810 million, up nearly 7% from last year, but that increase is primarily because of slightly higher ticket prices.
Conjuring up a charmed $217.2 million in U.S.-Canadian box office, "Azkaban" easily nabbed the top spot, followed by DreamWorks' "Shrek 2," which includes $125.7 million of the film's stellar $402.3 million gross to date, and 20th Century Fox's "The Day After Tomorrow," which warmed up last month $76.9 million of its $177.5 million total.
Fox's' surprise hit "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" ($76.3 million) was fourth, "Spider-Man 2" was spinning its web in the fifth slot, while Fox's "Garfield: The Movie" ($60 million) was shedding in the sixth spot.
Rounding out the top 10 was Universal's "The Chronicles of Riddick" ($52.8 million), Paramount's "The Stepford Wives" ($51.2 million), DreamWorks' "The Terminal" ($46.5 million) and Lions Gate's "Fahrenheit 9/11" ($39.1 million).
Reuters