Dawn Treader hits $100 million

Yes, it’s officially true.  The weekend actual numbers were release within the last few hours, putting The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader firmly at $100 million in the United States.  It took 44 days, but it’s joined the less than 500 movies that has ever made over that amount in the entire history of film.  It is also sitting at $366 million worldwide.

It crossed the mark on Saturday.  Weekend totals have been consistently better than Prince Caspian‘s weekend totals over the last four weeks.  The first three weekends of release, it was doing a quite a bit less, though the third week was the first week that it started to do better than Caspian over each seven day period.

Looking at international box office, it’s closing in on Prince Caspian‘s foreign totals, and should top it when the film releases in Japan next month.

According to Box Office Mojo, it’s the first 20th Century Fox film to break $100 million since Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeequel, about 13 months ago.

There is more to take into account: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.  Paramount is moving forward with a sequel to G.I. Joe, whose budget was $175 million, and wordwide take was $302 million (half came from domestic U.S.).  The reason?  Merchandising.  G.I. Joe has been around for a few generations, and is a very recognizable property.  Hasbro and Paramount want to keep the franchise alive.

As for Disney’s Prince of Persia, it had a budget of $200 million and a domestic U.S. take of $90.  Worldwide it came in at $335 million, total.  It’s not going to get a sequel, however.  The merchandising for the movie didn’t do well outside of theaters, likely also on account of the very soft United States launch.

If you look at budgets, total box office takes and merchandising, then you can see where various properties sit pretty well.  Dawn Treader, unfortunately, didn’t have much merchandise for in-store branding.  During the Christmas season, the time when toy stores see more traffic than any other time of the year, they could have been in front of millions with incredible Dawn Treader displays and playsets with Dufflepuds, the Dawn Treader, a Serpent, a Dragon and more.

That said can be corrected now that there are three movies in the franchise.  If a fourth film is announced, a toy company can create an entire line of Narnian action figures and playsets covering all four films.  Personally, I think it’s made enough worldwide to give us hope for another Narnia film.  Especially when you take into account the budget of ~$155 million, which was at least $80 million less than the cost of Prince Caspian.

50 Comments

  1. I really hope they make a fourth film! With these numbers, I think it’s a great possibility. ^_^

    • YAY!!!!!!!! That is SUPER!!!!! I am soooooooo happy about that! I sure hope that they make all seven books. And I will take any role in any of them! 😉

  2. yes, Narnia has made more money than than tron legacy in the foreign box office.But narnia was also a “franchise film. the 3rd one…it had some help from the fist 2.Plus the narnia franchise is recent..tron legacy is a sequel from a 28 yr old movie.And tron legacy has made more than nanria domestically.

    comparing tron to narnia is not the best comparison.

    and any way you put it,narnia did really bad here at home…44 days to reach $100 million!?!?!? that just is not a good number.

    slso I don’t think VDT will make PC’s foreign numbers either….even tangled is doing better than VDT.

    plainly put,people(here at home at least) did not like or did not have interest in VDT..

    I personally would love a fourth(and the other 3) movies,but I don’t think it will happen.

    also, think about this. narnia is fox’s fist $100 million+ movie in 13 months..but I can pretty much guarantee 4th movie would break $100 million.They won’t want to put a $100 million + budget on something that won’t even break $100 million in the U.S

    • Cringe, as you can see, everything is down year 2010. Almost every movie in 2010 experienced lows, and Narnia is included… and certainly Tron:Legacy, too. And that is because of high-ticket prices. Adding to that is that Narnia is primarily composed of family audiences, who are the primarily affected by that price-raises. And going to movies really as a family will surely cost you. And we must remember, too, families have already spent much last June, when Toy Story 3 ruled, adding to that more movies that are aimed primarily toward families this year (Despicable Me, etc.). And December is a “spending month,” specially for families, and they must have chosen movies as “off” this year, and Narnia is not an exception.

      Besides, Narnia 3 is great, but I would say, it could be better. With a modest budget of $140-$155 million, just $100 million marketing budget, we couldn’t expect it to be more beautiful in presentation than LWW and PC, which had $180 million and $225 million budget respectively, and with obviously more marketing budget (PC reported to have $175 million, and LWW obviously did have more marketing than VDT). But Narnia 3, despite that, did better overseas, and passed the $100 million-mark (a first in 13 months) for Fox–which proved that it is indeed great, though could be better, I would say.

      Of course, for such a rich base book for a movie, one hour and more than half an hour isn’t enough. Disney is right when it made the first two movies two and a half hours. That is where Fox had gone wrong. But with its short movie plot and a relatively low budget, Narnia 3 is also relatively good, and even better, than Caspian.

      Tangled is a different issue too. It should make more than $100 million, because its production budget alone is $260 million, adding to that more marketing costs. So a domestic gross of nearly $200 million (currently) is needed, if not desperately. Adding to that, Narnia 3 is doing better overseas than Tangled (its nearly 9 weeks, but Narnia 3 grossed more than that [30 million more] in just 6 weeks).

      Tron Legacy, as you have said also, is a different issue. With a budget of $170 million, and obviously more marketing costs than Narnia 3, it really should do better. But now, though Narnia is just a week ahead of Tron Legacy, it had just grossed $180 million overseas, whereas Narnia already grossed $257.6 million already at that same amount of time.

      Narnia 3 will surely pass Caspian’s international gross. It has already grossed $265.8 million, and it’s opening yet in Japan. Remember, Prince Caspian’s gross internationally is $278 million, just $12.2 million away. (LWW’s gross in Japan was $57.3 million and PC’s gross there was $27.7 million. If VDT will gross just half of PC there, it would still exceed PC’s international gross by $1 million, and we are not still taking to account other countries’ grosses.)

      • Yeah,I would agree EVERYTHING was down in 2010.

        i see your points and would probably agree with most of them.

        but.you still must see that VDt did not do well here in the U.S…and that makes a lot of decisions about more movies(like prince of persia) I mean to have a movie open at $20 million when the predecessors did more than twice as much as that it does not reflect well on the movie….

        it took 44 days to get $100 million..and under two weeks for the other two…

        narnia has most likely done more over seas due to it being a “3rd” film,

        my thought on “Tangled”, was that it came out on thanksgiving weekend and it is still making bigger numbers than narnia is.

        I guess I just don’t want people to make it look like the film did better than it really did.:)

        • But it did do well, that’s the main thing. It wasn’t a failure. It may not have been a total smash hit, but $100 million is nothing to sniff at, because less than 500 movies has ever even made that much money in the history of film. We’re being realistic with the numbers from a ‘glass is half-full’ perspective, rather than what most media tends to do: ‘glass is half-empty.’

          • I agree with you, Paul, and Cringe, we should remember that US and Canada are not the only markets, and evidently the foreign markets are thumbs up for VODT.

        • And what is wrong with taking 44 days to get to $100 million? The final numbers are what matters, not the amount of time it takes to get to them. Treader has stronger legs than Caspian, it isn’t dropping off nearly as quickly. The opening weekend of Caspian accounted for over 30% of the final domestic gross; conversely, Treader’s opening weekend only currently accounts for less than 24% of its current domestic total.

          Comparing Narnia to the Matrix seems odd, but The Matrix saw its opening weekend only account for about 16% of the total gross because word of mouth helped the movie attract more viewers. The Matrix Revolution on the other hand saw more than 30% of it’s gross from the opening weekend.

          Ultimately Treader will have a slightly lower gross domestically than Caspian and potentially a higher foreign gross than Caspian. Seeing that the foreign markets accounts for the largest percent of gross revenue I’d say that is good.

  3. 🙁 VOTDT still hasn’t made as much as PC…

    VOTDT U.S: $100 mil
    VOTDT worldwide: $366 mil

    PC U.S: $141 mil
    PC worldwide: $419 mil

    But I want EVERYONE out there to buy VOTDT no matter what! I believe that if we get the price up a little more there will be a SC, and I can’t get this thought out of my head that they are going to learn some of their mistakes from VOTDT and make SC better!

    PRAY THAT THEY MAKE SC AND THEY MAKE IT AWESOME!

    • I plan to buy it!!!!! And…the soundtrack…the posters…and anything else that will make them make SC!!!!!!!!

  4. I think they’re going to beat Caspian’s worldwide totals. Domestically, I’m thinking they’ll get about $110m, but worldwide, I would go for 430 or 440. It’s been out for less than a month and a half, and its Japan launch is still waiting. Considering it’s grossed about $12 million in Korea, and that Japan’s probably just as apt to appreciate a movie like this and has three times the population, I’d guess it’ll bring in more than $30 mil.

    As for the Silver Chair, I’m really looking forward to it! I think it’ll fit perfectly with the slightly darker, grittier feel of the movies. I also think it’ll fare much better critically than this film.

  5. Yay 🙂

    I hope the foreign totals end up being a bit more than Caspian to make up for the lower domestic gross of Treader.

    Still, passing $100 million is great

  6. Great news….. And they better make SC….. I’ve went and dragged my friends to go see the movie 10 times+ over……. (Not that I’m complaining….. Thanks, mom, and dad for paying for the tickets).

  7. Sure $100 million isn’t a world beating number, but it takes an incredible word of mouth to recover from a disastrous $24 million opening weekend. Nice recovery Dawn Treader!

    • Word of mouth definitely helped carry Narnia farther. By comparison both Golden Compass(lol) and Eragon had opening weekends that were similar.

      Eragon’s opening weekend comprised 31.0% of its total domestic gross
      Golden Compass’s opening weekend comprised 36.8% of its total domestic gross
      VDT’s opening weekend currently comprises 23.9% of it’s current total domestic gross.

      Excuse me for bringing up The Golden Compass all the time when comparing box office totals. It’s clear that I am not comparing quality, just the raw numbers of similarly budgeted fantasy films. Anytime I get an opportunity smack His Dark Crap…. err I mean Materials around I like to take it.

  8. I think its doin well…i mean the budget is much less than PC…and therefore its grossing more profit than PC…that shouldn’t be too bad for them…and we can’t expect VDT to gross worldwide like LWW…LWW is a popular book where as the rest of the books isn’t as popular as LWW…but what i am confuse about is that i have heard VDT is the most favourite book of the narnia series(correct me if i am wrong)…if this is the case than why wouldn’t this film do better,….maybe its the changes in scenes or possible the lack of marketing…but i think the foreign totals would be over 300M…and domestically maybe around 110 like others have stated!!!

    • LWW is really the most popular book of the series, because I only knew the other six till recently when I got a big book having those seven. And then I discovered, what a bunch of masterpiece! All are enjoyable to read, can engage both children and older ones’ minds!

      VODT has been a favorite of many, but LWW surely is more popular. As for me, I admire, like, love all of them. Every one of them are written uniquely and beautifully.

  9. I was really disappointed at Fox for not having at least a miniature Dawn Treader. Come on, people! We could have Dufflepuds, we could have the ship, the new characters of Eustace and even Gail, Lucy all grown up, some crew from the Dawn Treader, and there’s a friggin golden dragon!!! How could they not take advantage of any of that? argh!
    Maybe even a partnership with Lego… that would be fun, too.

    But no. 🙁

  10. i think that the movie is great but i really really miss susa and peter..narnia is my favrite movi but the music used for the third one did not brng me lik the last 2…they should hav used the same i mean by harry gregson stuff

    • Caro, I would agree with you. Most people who liked Narnia also liked the music made especially for the first.

      So on the third one, though the music is still good, and I would say, equal to the first musical score, the familiarity is somewhat lost, which may have turn off more people to watch. You know, they’re already familiar with a Disney start, and a soothing music played when they were on the train and more like that.

      they may kind of expecting the same look and feel on the third one, which was somewhat lost; but still, I will say it’s still a great movie!

  11. I would LOVE a Dawn Treader model.
    I bought the fancy box set of LWW just to get the Lucy and the door figurine.

    One big reason the movie didn’t get a big opening weekend were the horrendous storms and blizzards hitting a lot of the US. People couldn’t even get out of the house, let alone go to a movie.

    I had wanted to go the day after Christmas, but here in NYC we got hit with over 2ft of snow.

    I hope the powers that be take this into account when they decided to go forward or not.

  12. 100million is good. It’s not great like LW&Wardrobe. But it’s good. I know a lot of people will see it on dvd and wished they would have seen it on the giant screen. I happy with the numbers. I would have liked more, but oh well.

  13. Great!! Good news. Hope it goes even higher. It’s a good film, and I hope they’ll make the SC.

    Let’s continue to support the film worldwide!

  14. VDT tiene una buena recaudacion para lo que se esperaba pero Harry Potter 7 siendo una septima parte recaudo el triple (o casi) de lo que VDT recaudo.

    • Harry Potter is not close to Narnia at all. Harry Potter is easier to market because the same actors are in it and they are usually a year apart. Unlike Narnia movies that have different actors and are made two to three years apart.

      • Harry Potter is also a phenomenon of recently released books. The Chronicles of Narnia are over 50 years old and even though the series is an established classic it just doesn’t have the buzz Harry Potter had over the last 10 years.

        • yo no he dicho que Harry Potter sea mejor que Narnia, yo solo he querido decir que me sorprende el poco exito que Narnia 3 a tenido en US mientras que Harry Potter lleva 7 peliculas y todavia mantiene muy buenas recaudaciones, independientemente de los años que tenga cada saga.

          • Veo lo que está diciendo, pero Narnia 2, casi destruyó la franquicia por lo que es bueno que Narnia 3 pasará Narnia 2 extranjeros y posiblemente en todo el mundo en función de cómo lo hace en Japón.

  15. thanks elijah for supporting me i want another narnia and jus hope there will be the music of the first two one from wer are u? i am from maritius and i adore narnia for me its a real country

  16. I think VODT was a great movie, but I think what hurt the movie most of all was that a lot of the sites or screens it played on was in 3D and with the extra cost taking a family to it would be greatly expensive, the first two were not in 3D therefore more familys could go. So I think a lot of potential viewers decided to wait for the dvd to come out.

  17. I can’t wait for them to make SC into a movie! It’s my favorite book of the 7. Hopefully Fox listens to the fans and go ahead with the series.

  18. You know, I think the numbers aren’t that bad at all. I’ve actually been watching it week after week to see what’s been coming in. The budget was 140-155M which is 75-85M less than Price Caspian. Price Caspian made a total of 194M without considering what was put into the marketing And with this movie sitting at 367M and costing 140-155M the total is 212-220M+ and it’s yet to be released to I believe two more countries which will bring in a nice bit extra.

    I really hope that a 4th movie will be made and from there the 7th book, 5th movie. There’s so much that could still be made and I think the fans would be happy to have them come out.

    2010 was uneasy for a lot, but things seem to be turning around, and with that in mind there’s still a chance a 4th could be decided and put into production. I bought the VDT Blu-Ray DVD right when it came out for pre-order and I plan on buying a few other things.

    If we’re comparing the 1st movie to the 3rd. The 1st movie was amazing. The music, all 4 actors, Aslan, the magical feeling. There was nothing to complain about that movie. It was SO close to the book too. I was actually annoyed when there were random NOT book scenes in this 3rd movie, but I still loved it.

    The fact is, the 1st movie was better and back in 2005 the economy was not as bad as it has been these past few years.

    I just hope everyone buys the DVD and with enough people interested in a 4th movie I think it could happen. I know for myself, I want it to happen SO BADLY.

    Well, we’ll see!

  19. I love the movie it was so awsom i hope i will get the dvd of it i already have the first one and the second one they all are awsome and funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  20. I got a feeling that updates regarding the domestic gross are going to be fewer since it is now being shown in fewer theaters with weekday grosses around $50,000. Still hoping that Narnia can break $110 but it is slowing down.

  21. What made people stay out of the cinemas here in Europe was the fact that everywhere it played in 3D and so many of us are plainly tired of everything being advertised as “the ultimate 3D expedience.”
    Anyway, fingers crossed for pt 4!

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