Movie News

© Katy Perry / AP

Phil Gallo
Billboard

"Katy Perry: Part of Me" attracted enough paying customers in its opening weekend to make the top 10, but it missed crossing a threshold that makes concert-based biographies a viable genre.

Opening the day after a national holiday, Paramount's 3-D Perry film grossed an estimated $10.2 million over four days on 2,730 screens, the studio said. Its weekend gross was $7.1 million.

Bing: What Katy Perry's movie reveals

Those numbers pale in comparison to Paramount's release last year of "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," which pulled in $29.5 million the weekend before Valentine's Day. It would go on to make $73 million, making it the top film in the genre, according to data collected by BoxOfficeMojo.com.

"Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds" is the biggest opener among all concert films, grossing $31 million on a mere 683 screens in February 2008. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," with a $23.2 million opening, and "The Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience" ($12.5 million) also bested Perry's opening tally. The Jackson and Jonas films, however, opened on more than 3,000 screens each.

Most of these films have a shelf life of about five weeks and -- at best -- drop about 50 percent each successive week at the box office. The Perry film will likely end up in the $16 million to $19 million range, placing it between "Madonna: Truth or Dare" at $15 million and the $19.2 million the Jonas Brothers film eventually grossed.

The Bieber film also grossed $23.9 million in DVD sales, according to figures tallied by TheNumbers.com. The Jonas Brothers film did $9 million.

Perry's film did $2.3 million in foreign territories, BoxOfficeMojo reported, but did not break down any specifics. At best, non-domestic grosses of concert films represent 25 percent of pop-star films' take.

Costs associated with these films are, by moviemaking standards, low: The budget for "Part of Me" was a reported $12 million, and "Never Say Never" was $13 million.

If the Perry film is a warning sign, expect more concert-bio films focusing on teen and preteen sensations rather than acts with a bit of history and success on the charts. Sony is expected to put a One Direction film in theaters before Thanksgiving, which would have a draw similar to Bieber and Cyrus.

Metallica are the next rock band heading into the concert documentary world. They will be filming their shows in Mexico City in August for a theatrical release.