In overseas markets, we've seen some head-to-head battles (Germany: TS3 vs. Inception, HK: Ip Man 2 vs. Iron Man 2, Avatar vs. New Moon) but I think this is the first real head-to-head in North America. What is your take on the idea of 2 big movies going up against each other opening weekend?

I like it. It's really interesting to see if both can co-exist with each other or if one is relegated to the backburner while the other shines in the spotlight. Also, the drops for the holdovers is something to watch for. It raises questions such as how will this affect existing films whose demographics is being targeted by a new release? Or for films that aren't as affected by the new movies, how much will screen loss play into their drops for that weekend? In smaller overseas markets such as HK, they don't have the screens to accommodate the holdovers as well as 2 big new releases so usually, drops over 70% are common with some in the 80 or even 90% range (regardless of subject matter/demographics).

Then, there are more questions after the opening weekend including how frontloaded are the two movies? And how they will affect movies that are opening near them?

In the future, I really hope studios do this again. It would be fun to see Batman go toe to toe against Spiderman or Harry Potter taking on Twilight opening weekend.

Things obviously turned out differently than how (everyone) expected, but don't forget New Moon and The Blind Side opened on the same weekend. That's two $250M+ grossers on one weekend.

Oh come on, that happened many, many times, just a few examples right out of my head:

1978: JAWS 2 vs. GREASE (both broke the opening weekend record)
1984: GHOSTBUSTERS vs. GREMLINS
1989: BATMAN vs. HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS

But they were two different beasts. One ran a sprint and other a marathon. I think bluebomb is asking for new mega openers over the same weekend.

mark, those happened in a not so frontloaded era. I wonder if we would ever see 2 potential 100M+ openers in the same week.

Let me rephrase that for you guys. I am only talking about recent movies that are both expected to have a HUGE OW. When I mean huge, I mean like capable of opening over 70-80m OW. For example, sequels or those that are expected to be a top grosser.

Something like Shrek 2 vs. The Day After Tomorrow.

You want more recent examples?

2009: NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 vs. TERMINATOR 4
2005: MADAGASCAR vs. THE LONGEST YARD

No, I am just asking your opinion on what you think of these types of opening weekends...whether Hollywood should do this more often, etc. It's meant only for debate.

HORRIBLE BOSSES VS ZOOKEEPER
COWBOYS & ALIENS VS CRAZY STUPID LOVE
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES VS CHANGE UP
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS VS MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4 VS SHERLOCK HOLMES 2

The last one is your answer and with this evidence 1 will definitely flop.

Not a great idea. They're better off just having one big blockbuster open on a weekend. Unless it's Christmas of course, then there's plenty of money to go around.

I think some of the match ups listed are not what Bluebomb had in mind. Im sure he means two pre-ordained megablockbusters as opposed to one bigger and one smaller film (sleeper). For example - Blind Side was a sleeper so its only big in hindsight.

It ususally works if an animated or comedy film is one of the films - as seen in this thread. But its rare that both are huge 'blockbuster' type films - maybe Ghostbusters/Gremlins is the best example of both succeeding. I was a kid but both films were mega hyped.

I do recall Minority Report Vs Lilo and Stitch in 2002 - they were neck and neck which was bad news for Minority.

It definitely makes box office more interesting and will increase legs and just sheer number of popele visiting the theater.

It's still a huge risk though like this weekend, where parents are likely going to the theater themselves to see The Hangover II instead of taking their kids out to Panda, just because The Hangover II has been made to be such an event film this weekend.

In the end though, studios are making less and less movies nowadays so I don't think we'll see a lot more of this except near big holidays where there's extra tickets to be sold.

They might be making less and less movies, but they seemingly cramp all of the big ones in a short period of time.