Ted sees strong pre-release weekend of $4m
A new film by the creator of animated TV series Family Guy has opened strongly in a pre-release weekend at the box office.
The film Ted, about a 30-something named John and his life-long companion Ted, a foul-mouthed teddy bear, was written and directed by Seth MacFarlane.
The film, distributed by Universal, made $4.383m at the box office in a pre-release weekend taking an impressive $18,000 screen average across 243 screens, or 199 locations from Friday to Sunday.
David Collins, sales director for Universal told Encore: “The numbers exceeded our wildest expectations. We did a pre-release of Bridesmaids and it did $2.2m over four days, but these numbers suggest it might be bigger than we expect.”
Collins said the film would open in another 30 locations, bumping the screen count to 350 as of Thursday 5 July.
Melbourne-based VFX company Iloura delivered over 500 shots for the film which animated the bear off of captured movements from MacFarlane who also voiced the character.
Glenn Melenhorst, VFX supervisor at Iloura said: “Seth has had a long career in animation and he understands it intricately. He also understood Ted’s character perfectly and clearly communicated his vision to the Iloura team. He was really encouraging of our work and he trusted us and gave us latitude in the staging of the performance and timing of the gags. We thoroughly enjoyed the process. It was a great lesson for all of us to learn from Seth and his years of experience.”
Overall Ted was second at this weekend’s box office results behind Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, distributed by Fox which opened across 490 screens, taking $4.895m for a $9,990 screen average.
The animated film took previously took $1.368m in pre-release screenings taking the box office total to $6.264m.
In limited release, Indian film Jatt & Juliet, directed by Anurag Singh and distributed by Indies took $164,000 across 9 screens for a strong $18,238 screen average.
Painted Skin: The Resurrection, directed by Wuershan and distributed by Incubus took $102,000 across seven screens for a $14,624 screen average.
Where do We Go Now?, directed by Nadine Labaki and distributed by Eone/Hopscotch took $88,583 across 24 screens for a $3,691 screen average.
The 2011 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize winner Polisse, directed by Maiwenn has finally seen distribution from Curious Films. The film took $29,430 at the box office across nine screens for a $3270 screen average.
Call me closed minded, but I can’t bring myself to watch a grotty movie about a bong-smoking teddy bear.
Turns out thousands can though, so congrats Universal & Iloura.
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I’m closed minded too Renee. And glad to be if not watching this movie means I have to take that title. I can’t seen anything that appeals in this, the whole concept seems horrid. Although the guy hasn’t made anything good since the early season of American Dad so no wonder this seems stale.
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awesome film
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I think it’s going to be a nice take on the classic teddy bear. I had a teddy bear as a child that I would’ve loved to have come to life, so it will be really interesting to see what else they do with the concept.
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Really pleased Mumbrella bring it to my attention, otherwise I might have risked going to see this ‘vulgar for the sake of being purile’ rubbish!
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It’s wrong, it’s offensive and I loved it.
Thanks to Iloura for hosting the event last night.
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