Les Mis set to be highest grossing movie musical of all time.

[JP2]

Today’s overseas openings for Working Title/Universal’s Oscar-nominated Les Misérables pushes it past $200 million worldwide. Domestic grosses are currently at $109M and international grosses at $96.7M before it opens in four other territories this weekend: New Zealand, Netherlands, Cyprus and Vietnam. With tonight’s releases, Tom Hooper’s adaptedd musical is currently open in 22 international territories with 40 still to come over the next two months. Les Misérables had a record-shattering opening in the UK today, grossing an estimated $3.7M (£2.3M) for Friday alone. It is the #1 film in the marketplace by a huge margin with 46% market share.



http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/les-miserables-in-britain-opens-1-setting-records/#utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[jo]

Someone tweeted an update about the box office performance in South Korea so far. It is actually leading the international receipts, per Box Office Mojo.

>RussellMarkRodrigues?@russell_mark
'Les Mis' is the highest grossing musical movie in Korea w/ $33mil.(4.5 mil tix sold). Congrats!! @RealHughJackman @LesMiserables<<<

It looks like Asia is responding very well. Japan is also showing very strong receipts. International receipts updated as of January 6, 2013, except for Spain which is Dec 30, 2012.


http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=lesmiserables2012.htm

[sabrelady]

I do see it displacing Mamma Mia!. But not S of M.

[DAME]

"Today’s overseas openings for Working Title/Universal’s Oscar-nominated Les Misérables pushes it past $200 million worldwide. Domestic grosses are currently at $109M and international grosses at $96.7M before it opens in four other territories this weekend: New Zealand, Netherlands, Cyprus and Vietnam. With tonight’s releases, Tom Hooper’s adaptedd musical is currently open in 22 international territories with 40 still to come over the next two months. Les Misérables had a record-shattering opening in the UK today, grossing an estimated $3.7M (£2.3M) for Friday alone. It is the #1 film in the marketplace by a huge margin with 46% market share. "

Nice.

[theaternut]

Is A Hathway still doing the Judy Garland story?

[CarlosAlberto]

Gee I hope not. I see her playing a good Liza Minnelli though.

[DAME]

It was postponed. But in a Q & A a few weeks ago she said they are shooting to start production at the end of this year.
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2010/12/22/anne_hathaways_judy_garland_biopic_pos

[DAME]

"Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Front Row radio show, the actress says, "It's a very sensitive project and there have been so many stories told about her life that we're really trying to get it right. So we're taking our time with it. I know it seems like it's sort of an endless process but it's very, very slow incremental steps. I had a meeting about it a couple of weeks ago and we're all very motivated."

Hathaway also opened up about the struggles of playing Garland on the big screen, adding, "I certainly don't sing like Judy Garland... But I think people might cry murder if they don't get to hear Judy's beloved voice so the talk is for me to sing but I don't know if that's exactly what will happen."

Mind you..this particular interview was before LM.

[best12bars]

Les Miz just mizzed right by Hairspray (total US $118.8 million).

It now has grossed $119.2 million here in the states. Shouldn't be long before it catches up to Mamma Mia! and even (potentially) Chicago. It's a possibility now, especially with a nice share of Oscar nominations to help propel it a bit.

On a side note, Zero Dark Thirty opened wide this weekend in the number one spot, taking in $24 million. Whoa!


LINK

[jo]

Estimated worldwide receipts for Les Miserables are now $ 238 million, as of January 13. And there are many foreign markets which have not opened.

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lesmiserables2012.htm

With its Golden Globe wins for Best Musical/Comedy, Hugh Jackman, and Anne Hathaway -- who knows how much the box receipts will be boosted!

[ACL2006]

Les Mis will def. break any movie musical record with it's three big wins at the Golden Globes.

[ucjrdude902]

Trust me, someone is in an editing room right now making sure trailers say "And now, the winner of 3 Golden Globe awards".

[jo]

Cameron Mackintosh must be over the moon now! A Golden Globe win for his maiden filmmaking effort!!

[DAME]

On it's way.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

If my blu ray could give me a version without "Suddenly" I wouldn't be mad.

[CarlosAlberto]

The movie has it's flaws but in spite of them many people are enjoying the film and its obviously ( a) receiving great word-of-mouth and (b) getting repeat business....especially from the hard core Les Mis fans...and that's not a bad thing...it's cool seeing an entirely sung thru film really kicking ass at the box office. It's an unqualified success. No one can negate that.

[best12bars]

I don't know that Golden Globe wins add much to box office.

But hey, it couldn't hurt! And it definitely helps the momentum.

The biggest thing from the GGs is that it won more than any other film (yeah, okay, that's three), but still with any news item rolling out from last night or this morning, that means it gets mentioned in the first sentence.

"Les Miz led the way with wins for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress ..."

That sort of thing.

[madbrian]

I think the fact that the GG show is getting such good press may help, if only a little. Fey & Pohler were outstanding, and clips are being shown on morning cable shows.

[ggersten]

I don't see Les Mis beating Mamma Mia's worlwide gross of 610M. It may outgross Mamma Mia's US number (144M), but the foreign number is gigantic to overcome.

And I think Les Mis has too far to go to catch Grease's unadjusted domestic total of $189. (Grease's unadjusted total including foreign is $394M) The big opening and viewing season has some and gone It's hard to compare, though, to Chicago- as although Chicago opened around Christmas, it didn't go wide for 43 days, when it went from 623 screens to 1841 and a week later to 2268. Les Mis opened on 2800 screens. Chicago reached 2700 screens at its height.

[ACL2006]

Les Mis still has yet to open in many other countries. I think it's entirely possible for it to beat out Mamma Mia's worldwide gross of $610 million.

[newintown]

Serious question - why would anyone without a financial investment in the film care how much money it makes?

Any film that sells a lot of tickets will make more money today than those in the past simply because of inflation.

No one really thinks ticket sales (and prices) are the same thing as quality, do they? Is the argument "my love of this movie is justified by the amount of money it collects?"

[CarlosAlberto]

No one really thinks ticket sales (and prices) are the same thing as quality, do they? Is the argument "my love of this movie is justified by the amount of money it collects?"

I agree with this. If you put things into perspective a movie makes 600 million - yes it sold a helluva lot of tickets and got butt into those seats - but really, how many of those who brought a ticket truly enjoyed what they watched?

It would be very telling if there was a system to gauge this. Imagine a blockbuster movie with a total domestic take of say $144 million and only a fraction of those ticket buyers enjoyed it while the majority of them didn't care for it at all.

[Wildcard]

People are invested in how much Les Mis makes because its success would pave the way for more movie musicals to be made (with Miss Saigon as its most immediate result). That way, we'll have something new to complain about once casting is announced, clips are previewed and dissected and performances lambasted.

[DAME]

Yeah but what you guys are really being is bitter sour pusses. Quality and what you thought of the film is just a matter of opinion. I think the Hobbit is a piece of boring crap.. but other people love it and it has made a lot of money. Despite of what you thought.. why are you so intent on diminishing the obvious success of this film?

[CarlosAlberto]

I'm not being a bitter sour puss. I have no financial stake in the picture. So it really doesn't affect me in the least how this movie fares at the box office. I am actually quite pleased and impressed.

Hence my post at 7:51 this morning:

The movie has it's flaws but in spite of them many people are enjoying the film and its obviously ( a) receiving great word-of-mouth and (b) getting repeat business....especially from the hard core Les Mis fans...and that's not a bad thing...it's cool seeing an entirely sung thru film really kicking ass at the box office. It's an unqualified success. No one can negate that.

I'm just curious about stuff like this. It certainly isn't my intention to piss on anyone's parade.

[DAME]

Well good Carlos. I was not aiming that at you.