Pixar Animation Message Board

To: Linda Kaplan who wrote (2139)	1/20/1999 9:11:00 AM
From: Jim Illo	Read Replies (1) of 3260

Thanks for the info Linda. The actual numbers are finally in. It looks like we lost about 700 screens (from 2500 down to 1815). We ended up being number 12 for the 4-day weekend (15-18) with 4.55M, with the total box office being $148.5M. These numbers were actually much better than I expected. With three of my local theaters losing ABL, I thought we would be lucky to bring in $3M last weekend. Even with the good numbers, I don't think it's very likely we'll see much more than $160M for the domestic run. Disney has to make room for "My Favorite Martian" which opens in Feb. 12. I'm looking for a domestic take of $160M-$165M, unless we get multiple Oscar nominations. ABL will have a nomination for Randy Newman for Best Original Score (IMHO), and perhaps a technical nomination, but it would be great to see a Best Picture nomination. With all the animated movies coming out the Academy should have a Best Animated Picture category. And we know who would win that! Oscar nominations could give ABL a second wind, pushing it past $175M. By the way, did anyone notice that we've blown past Merill Lynch's "low estimate" for worldwide box office? We're now at $189M worldwide, $3M above Merill's low estimate of $186M, and we haven't even opened in Europe yet!