MONTREAL – The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn had a blockbuster opening weekend here, but that wasn’t enough to turn around Quebec’s slumping box office.
Ticket sales in the province were up big-time last weekend thanks to Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the famed Belgian comic books, with the overall box office increasing 48 per cent compared to the same weekend a year earlier.
The Adventures of Tintin pulled in $1.45 million on its opening weekend in Quebec, making it the No. 1 movie in Canada.
It hit the top spot even though it’s only playing in this province. (It opens in the rest of North America on Dec. 21.) The film handily dominated the competition in Quebec, taking 54 per cent of all ticket sales on the weekend.
But Quebec sales were down approximately 20 per cent during each of the previous two weekends.
The province’s box office is $12 million lower than at the same date last year.
That’s mainly because the 2010 results included the sales phenomenon Avatar, which was released in late 2009 but rang up $12 million in Quebec in 2010.
If you compare this year’s box office to the tally at the same date in 2009, ticket sales are down only $3 million.
Quebecers had snapped up $186 million worth of movie tickets as of Dec. 8 this year, compared to $198 million last year and $189 million two years ago.
Movie executives can breathe easier knowing the dip this year is almost entirely due to the lack of a megahit like Avatar, but there are still reasons to worry.
“There has been an increase in ticket prices,” said Pascale Dubé from Montrealbased box-office tracking firm Cinéac.
“So there are definitely less people going to the cinemas.”
In other words, even a $3-million drop is notable if you take into account the inflation of ticket prices.
That’s because the overall box office would have grown even if the number of tickets sold had stayed exactly the same, thanks to the price increase.
That increase – fuelled in large part by the expensive tickets for 3-D screenings – might be part of the reason fewer people are visiting the multiplex, said Dubé.
“If you have, say, a family with two kids, it costs a lot more to go to the cinema,” said Dubé.
“At $15 a ticket (for a 3-D screening), it becomes an expensive proposition. And that’s not including the popcorn. So there are less people. It’s not just a Quebec phenomenon.”
So far this year, revenue from ticket sales across North America is $9.57 billion, which is down roughly four per cent from last year, according to an Associated Press report.
A number of family films have underperformed, including Hugo, The Muppets and Arthur Christmas.
Variety reports that this past weekend was the worst at the box office in three years, partly thanks to a soft opening for the star-studded romantic comedy New Year’s Eve.
That film – which stars Halle Berry, Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Sarah Jessica Parker and Zac Efron – hit the top spot on the weekend even though it grossed only $13.7 million.
The Jonah Hill comedy The Sitter also underwhelmed, with ticket sales of $10 million for a second-place finish.
Over the past two weekends, the combined box office gross for North America was $158 million.
If you divide that by the average ticket price of $7.96, it means around 19.8 million people paid to go to the movies over the two weekends.
That’s 2.5 million people less than during the two weekends immediately following the 9/11 attacks.
But sales will likely pick up before the end of the year, with a lineup that includes Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
“I expect it to be a phenomenal holiday season,” Dubé said.
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