The Day of the Doctor Cinema Success
Reports Variety:
The 3D theatrical screenings of the special 50th anniversary episode of sci-fi TV drama “Doctor Who” earned £1.8 million ($2.91 million) at the U.K. box office, which is a European record for alternative content.
“The Day of the Doctor,” which was screened by 440 movie theaters in the U.K., was the third highest-grossing film over the weekend, after “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Gravity.”
The “Doctor Who” gross broke European records for alternative content, David Hancock, head of cinema at research company IHS Screen Digest, told the Financial Times.
“That’s the sort of number that’s going to get people’s attention, including other TV production companies,” Hancock said.
Alternative content in U.K. movie theaters will generate around £20 million ($32.3 million) this year, Rentrak said, which reps 2% of the forecast £1.1 billion ($1.78 billion) in U.K. box office this year.
More than 1,500 movie theaters worldwide screened the “Doctor Who” special at the weekend.
Similarly, the film was did big numbers in Australia and New Zealand:
The bigger news came in the form of the #3 debut of limited release of the The Day Of The Doctor. Showing on just 107 screens, the sci-fi celebration average an astounding $14,399 per screen (pretty much means every session was sold out) for a final take of over $1.5M. It’s a truly astonishing achievement, and one which could very well change the face of TV & Movies if it leads to further in-cinema releases of big ticket episodes.
It debuted even higher in New Zealand at number #2 making $187,029.
This follows big TV ratings in both the UK and America (The US broadcast was watched by an average of 2.4 million, a record for BBC America.)
