Home Alone Earnings on Opening Weekend $180

Name: ______

You are a Movie Producer for the Home Alone franchise. You want to be sure each movie makes a lot of money. To do this, you need to watch the earnings for each movie.

Your Challenge: How much money do the Home Alone movies earn in the United States?

LEVEL 1

As a movie producer, it is important for you to know how much each movie in the Home Alone franchise earned on its opening weekend. It can be easier to understand this information when you use a graph.

Home Alone Earnings on Opening Weekend $180

$160

$140

$120

$100

$80

$60 Earnings (millions) $40

$20

$0 Home Alone Home Alone 2: Lost in Home Alone 3 New York

1 Updated May 2015 © NextLesson 2015 Home Alone

1. Use the information from the graph to complete the table below. Hint: Remember that your units are in millions.

Home Alone Movies – Opening Weekend Earnings Movie Earnings on Opening Weekend Home Alone $17 million Home Alone 2: Lost in New York Home Alone 3

2. How much less money did Home Alone earn than Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?

3. How much less money did Home Alone 2: Lost in New York earn than Home Alone 3?

4. How much less money did Home Alone 3 earn than Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?

5. What is the difference between the movie that earned the most money and the movie that earned the least money?

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LEVEL 2

Successful movies earn millions of dollars in U.S. theaters. You already looked at how much money the Home Alone movies made on their opening weekends. Here is some information about the total amount of money earned by each film.

6. To make it easier to compare, round the numbers in the table to the nearest ten.

Money Earned in the USA Movie Money Earned in the USA* Rounded to the Nearest Ten Home Alone $286 $290 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York $174 Home Alone 3 $31 *Numbers shown are in millions of dollars

7. Which movie earned the most in the United States?

8. Which movie earned the least?

For the following questions, remember that the units should be in millions (e.g. $290 represents $290 million). Use the rounded values to compare.

9. How much more did Home Alone 3 earn than Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?

10. How much less did Home Alone 2: Lost in New York earn than Home Alone?

3 Updated May 2015 © NextLesson 2015 Home Alone

You are a busy movie producer. Having a graph helps you to see the information you need quickly and easily.

11. Create a bar graph that shows the movie titles and the amount of money each earned in the USA. Use the rounded numbers you found in Question 6 above.

Home Alone Earnings in the USA 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 Earnings (millions) 100 50 0 Home Alone Home Alone 2: Lost in Home Alone 3 New York

12. How much less did Home Alone earn than Home Alone 3?

13. Which movie earned more, Home Alone or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?

14. Is it easier to tell which movie earned more or less by looking at the numbers or by looking at the graph? Explain your answer.

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Challenge

There are many production costs involved in making a movie. Knowing how much each movie costs can help you to figure out how much it really earned.

The amount a movie really earned is the difference between its total earnings and its production costs.

Total Earnings in the Movie Production Costs* United States* Home Alone $286 $18 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York $174 $20 Home Alone 3 $31 $32 *Numbers shown are in millions of dollars

1. In the table below, subtract the production costs from the total earnings for each movie. If the production costs are higher than the earnings, write “LOSS”.

Earnings after Costs Movie (millions of dollars) Home Alone Home Alone 2: Lost in New

York Home Alone 3

2. a. After subtracting production costs, which movie earned the most?

b. Which movie earned the least? If any of the movies was a “LOSS,” count it or them as the least.

3. How much money do you think a Home Alone movie usually makes after subtracting production costs? Draw conclusions based on your investigation.

5 Updated May 2015 © NextLesson 2015 Home Alone

Finale

You could give students one of the following finale options or have them choose themselves.

1. You are thinking about the next movie that you will produce and want to plan for how much money you will spend. Prepare a report that shows the way production costs are related to the actual earnings a movie makes.

2. You think that you may want to produce another movie in the Home Alone series. Make an organized list that contains all of the reasons why this is a good idea for your company. You may also want to think about reasons why someone might think this is not a good idea and come up with responses.

3. Write a persuasive letter to the owner of a chain of movie theaters convincing them that putting your next movie in all of their theaters is a good idea for their business.

4. Prepare a short speech for the class that describes the pros and cons of using a graph instead of a table to show information about numbers.

5. Producers work really hard at their jobs. At the end of a long day, you are very tired. Write a journal entry that describes an important thing you did today to make the Home Alone movies successful and how you felt about it.

Glossary

Earnings - the amount of money something Opening weekend - the first two weekend makes. days that the movie plays in theaters.

Franchise - permission granted to an Production costs - the amount of money individual or group to sell a company's that was spent to make a movie. goods. Pros and cons - the positive and negative Movie Producer - someone in charge of points about something. making and usually providing the money for a movie (see also Job Background section).

Job Background

Movie producers fall within the category of Producers and Directors according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Quick Facts: Producers and Directors $71,350 per year

2012 Median Pay $34.31 per hour

Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience in a Related Occupation Less than 5 years

On-the-job Training None

Number of Jobs, 2012 103,500

Job Outlook, 2012-22 3% (Slower than average)

Employment Change, 2012-22 2,900

What Producers and Directors Do Producers and directors create motion pictures, television shows, live theater, and other performing arts productions. They interpret a writer’s script to entertain or inform an audience.

Work Environment Producers and directors work under a lot of pressure, and many are under stress to finish their work on time.

How to Become a Producer or Director Most producers and directors have a bachelor’s degree and several years of work experience in an occupation related to motion picture, TV, or theater production, such as an actor, film and video editor, or cinematographer.

Pay The median annual wage for producers and directors was $71,350 in May 2012.

Job Outlook Employment of producers and directors is projected to grow 3 percent from 2012 to 2022, slower than the average for all occupations. Some job growth in the motion picture and video industry is expected to stem from strong demand from the public for more movies and television shows, as well as an increased demand from foreign audiences for U.S.-produced films.