This article titled “Doctor Who: Day of the Doctor takes m at the box office in three days” was written by Mark Sweney, for The Guardian on Wednesday 27th November 2013 14.14 UTCDoctor Who’s 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor has made more than m (£6m) in box office takings in its first three days being aired in cinemas around the world.
Digitally The Day of the Doctor has also raced to the top of episodes purchased on Apple’s iTunes in the US and Amazon’s television chart. Based on the first day of sales it is set to be the most downloaded episode of 2013 for the BBC on iTunes.
The BBC launched the The Day of the Doctor in 3D in cinemas in 15 countries from Russia to Ecuador on Saturday, and by the end of the day of Monday fans had forked out .2m (£6.25m) to watch it.
In the UK box office revenues from the anniversary edition – which featured three doctors, Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt as well as a cameo by Tom Baker – came to £1.8m in its first three days.
This was good enough to rank it third after Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Sandra Bullock’s space survival film Gravity.
The BBC said that in the US the film took .7m on Monday night alone, selling 320,000 tickets, which made it the second biggest film of the day after Hunger Games.
In terms of average revenue per screen the BBC said it was number one in the US on Monday, with 650 cinemas airing the 75-minute anniversary edition for an average of ,155. Hunger Games, on much wider release in 4,163 cinemas, made ,623 per screen on average.
More than 70,000 Australian fans made it to the cinema to watch Doctor Who on Sunday.
“We organised the global cinema events to give the fans an opportunity to get together and enjoy a unique moment in Doctor Who history as one,” said the BBC Worldwide chief brands officer, Amanda Hill. “It also gave those same fans who didn’t have 3D TVs a chance to see the special in its biggest and most amazing form. We had no idea that there would be such a demand at the global box office. This demonstrates how huge the show remains in the UK and how far it’s come internationally over the last few years.”
The anniversary episode is also being screened in cinemas in countries including Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.
The Day of the Doctor also attracted the biggest ever audience on the BBC’s US cable channel, BBC America, averaging 2.4 million viewers. This was despite being aired at 2.50pm on the US east coast (11.50am in California) well outside of a primetime evening viewing slot. A primetime repeat attracted a further 1.2 million viewers.
The BBC is also claiming a Guinness world record as “the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama”, with episode aired in 94 countries.
The most anticipated episode since the show was regenerated in 2005 attacted more than 10 million viewers to BBC1 on Saturday night, the most popular edition outside Christmas and new year holiday specials.
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