Fireproof is a movie that exceeded expectations at the box office opening weekend. With a production budget of only about a half million dollars it managed to clear upwards of $6.8 million according to Box Office Mojo. That’s exceptional by any standards –  a 1,360% return. Even if you figure that the marketing budgets for most films generally are about equal to the production budget, getting nearly 7 times your money back in three days is good for business.

To put it into perspective, the highest grossing opening weekend of all time to date is The Dark Knight (the latest installment in the Batman franchise. If The Dark Knight had the same kind of return, it would have made about $2.5 billion (yes with a b) on opening weekend instead of the record $158 million of its $185 million production budget.

Then figure that most successful movies get released in upwards of 4 times as many theaters as Fireproof was this weekend. The Dark Knight was over 5 times as many.

However you slice it Fireproof is a financial success. [Read more…]