Twentieth Century Fox’s Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (official site) opened to an impressive $45.1M at the domestic box office this weekend - the biggest opening so far in 2008. The #1 box office opening was another big win for Blue Sky Studios (makers of Fox’s Ice Age pictures as well) which Fox owns.
Led by the voice talents of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, the film opened in 3,954 locations and averaged a healthy $11,406 per theater. The film generated the fourth best March opening ever behind 300 ($70.9M), Ice Age: The Meltdown ($68M), and the original Ice Age ($46.3M). Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! also landed the fifth largest opening in history for a G-rated film.
“It’s a who-mongous opening,” Fox senior VP of distribution Chris Aronson said. “Blue Sky has made a film that makes you feel like you are immersed in the pages of Dr. Seuss’ world. It is colorful and vibrant, and so true to his work.
The film, based on Dr. Seuss’ 1954 book of the same name, cost roughly $85 million to produce and marks Jim Carrey’s first starring voice role in an animated film. Industry insiders were are abuzz about the fact that the film nearly matched the opening of Ice Age despite its G rating. Generally speaking, G-rated films can be risky as older kids and teens sometimes see these films as being more for children. Horton, however, saw 47% of its audience come from non-family with teens being the largest segment of that percentage (40%) putting this Fox film on par with Disney/Pixar films.
Disney and Pixar, of course, have been the exception to the rule. Their films generally appeal to all audiences regardless of rating. Disney/Pixar, in fact, boasts the top four G-rated animated films in terms of opening weekend: Finding Nemo ($70.2 million), Monsters, Inc. ($62.6 million), Cars ($60.1 million) and Ratatouille ($47 million). All except Monsters, Inc., which debuted in November, opened in the summer.
Horton, however, couldn’t match the opening of the Dr. Seuss/Jim Carrey starrer Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which opened to $55.1 million in 2000. Horton did beat Mike Myers starrer Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, which debuted to $38.3 million. Neither of those two Dr. Seuss films were animated.
