Memorial Day movie attendance drops to 17-year low as ‘Sex,’ ‘Persia’ fail to grab big crowds

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Memorial Day movie attendance drops to 17-year low

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood fizzled over one of its traditionally busiest times as movie attendance for Memorial Day weekend came in at the lowest in 17 years.

Overall revenues for the top-50 films during the four-day holiday weekend came in at $192 million, the lowest since 2001. Factoring in today’s higher admission prices, about 24.2 million tickets were sold, the least since a 22.5 million head count in 1993, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

While “Shrek Forever After” finished first again, holding up well with $57.1 million from Friday to Monday, the weekend’s big new releases got off to so-so starts.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s action tale “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” came in second with $37.8 million. Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Sex and the City 2,” which many thought would debut at No. 1, wound up in third with $36.8 million.

“When you have a Memorial Day weekend down this much, it just tells me the movies in the marketplace are just not grabbing people the way they have in past years,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Domestic revenues over Memorial Day weekend last year came in at $221.3 million for the top-50 films, with movie attendance at 30.1 million. Memorial Day weekend attendance reached a modern peak of 39.6 million in 2004, when “Shrek 2″ was in theaters.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by Hollywood.com are:

1. “Shrek Forever After,” Paramount, $57,060,434, 4,367 locations, $13,066 average, $146,810,785, two weeks.

2. “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” Disney, $37,813,075, 3,646 locations, $10,371 average, $37,813,075, one week.

3. “Sex and the City 2,” Warner Bros., $36,835,353, 3,445 locations, $10,692 average, $51,043,450, one week.

4. “Iron Man 2,” Paramount, $21,076,239, 3,804 locations, $5,541 average, $279,076,239, four weeks.

5. “Robin Hood,” Universal, $13,424,540, 3,373 locations, $3,980 average, $86,144,405, three weeks.

6. “Letters to Juliet,” Summit, $7,492,524, 2,825 locations, $2,652 average, $38,195,942, three weeks.

7. “Just Wright,” Fox Searchlight, $2,835,702, 1,195 locations, $2,373 average, $18,833,220, three weeks.

8. “Date Night,” Fox, $2,307,657, 1,126 locations, $2,049 average, $94,005,365, eight weeks.

9. “MacGruber,” Universal, $2,024,110, 2,546 locations, $795 average, $7,674,445, two weeks.

10. “How to Train Your Dragon,” Paramount, $1,513,677, 825 locations, $1,835 average, $213,117,896, 10 weeks.

11. “A Nightmare On Elm Street,” Warner Bros., $1,127,395, 891 locations, $1,265 average, $61,906,422, five weeks.

12. “Alice in Wonderland,” Disney, $730,145, 341 locations, $2,141 average, $333,160,345, 13 weeks.

13. “Babies,” Focus, $642,273, 301 locations, $2,134 average, $6,090,771, four weeks.

14. “The Secret in Their Eyes,” Sony Pictures Classics, $577,670, 155 locations, $3,727 average, $3,452,774, seven weeks.

15. “City Island,” Anchor Bay, $532,862, 201 locations, $2,651 average, $4,862,137, 11 weeks.

16. “Hubble,” Warner Bros., $416,829, 48 locations, $8,684 average, $7,097,066, 11 weeks.

17. “Kites,” Reliance Big Pictures, $396,000, 236 locations, $1,678 average, $1,600,000, two weeks.

18. “The Back-Up Plan,” CBS Films, $359,677, 391 locations, $920 average, $36,594,990, six weeks.

19. “The Bounty Hunter,” Sony, $354,260, 287 locations, $1,234 average, $66,652,479, 11 weeks.

20. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” Fox, $335,000, 283 locations, $1,184 average, $62,769,868, 11 weeks.

Online:

www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney’s parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.