Coming off reaching the billion-dollar mark in international box office sales last weekend, Paramount Pictures has now also crossed the billion-dollar milestone on its domestic gross sales, making it the first studio to accomplish this feat this calendar year and besting last year's billion-dollar record by nearly three weeks.
This marks back-to-back years of firsts for Paramount Pictures and five consecutive weeks of holding the Number One spot in domestic market share. The studio also set a new first as of this weekend -- having the Top Three grossing films of 2008 at mid-year.
The half-year got off to a strong start with JJ Abrams' thriller CLOVERFIELD earning $80M. Paramount was further buoyed by the blockbuster successes of Marvel Entertainment's IRON MAN ($305M), Lucas Films' and Steven Spielberg's INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL ($291M) and DreamWorks Animation's KUNG FU PANDA ($156M -- which this weekend surpassed DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO! to become the year's third top grossing film to this point).
"It has been a wonderful year so far," said Paramount Chairman Brad Grey. "As we look towards the rest of 2008, and into 2009 -- when we will have TRANSFORMERS II, JJ Abrams' STAR TREK, G.I. JOE and NOWHERELAND starring Eddie Murphy, among others -- we are as excited about the future as we are by reaching this milestone."
Paramount's forthcoming openings this year include DreamWorks' TROPIC THUNDER starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black (August 15, 2008), Paramount Vantage's AMERICAN TEEN (July 25, 2008), DreamWorks Animation's MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA (November 7, 2008), DreamWorks' THE SOLOIST starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. (November 21, 2008), Paramount's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (Christmas Day) and DreamWorks' REVOLUTIONARY ROAD starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio (December 26, 2008).
