Last night I went to the New Beverly to see the double feature of Mondo Cane (pronounced Kahn-Nay) and Zulu. Joe Dante introduced each film, Quentin Tarantino laughed his way through Cane, and Edgar Wright not only introduced Joe Dante, but stuck it out all night. Tonight promises Joe Dante, Jon Davidson, Dick Miller, Johnathan Kaplan, and others for Hollywood Boulevard and Truck Turner. Though Robby the Robot is such a diva, it’s hard to know whether he’ll come or not (fingers crossed). Truck Turner has a handful of my favorite lines ever in it. And if you can’t make Friday, Saturday the late show is a triple bill with Gremlins 2: The New Batch, with Joe Dante in attendance. This is what’s great about Hollywood.
HORROR FILMS: CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?
The short answer is name branding, ad buys, and off-season successes, but my question is this: Why are so many not scary horror movies successful? Prom Night opens this weekend and should outgross (handily, at that) The Ruins. And yet I have no doubt which one is the better horror film. Audiences have, for the most part, rejected torture porn, and its success may have been a fluke more than actual interest in gore. but if you watch any of these films, from When a Stranger Calls, to The Messengers (sorry Mark), to – likely – Shutter and One Missed Call, you’re dealing with a lot of cat scares and non-dead teenagers.
It used to be that these would partly be date movies, drive-in films, et cetera, but the steady business of the Friday the 13th films has been replaced by the steady business of the PG-13 remake. These films are background noise, usually at best. And yet people turn out. This, though, will partly be essayed in an upcoming May DDBO. Look for it soon. This is going to be extra short. I’m sorry about that, especially if work is dragging on a Friday, and you’re looking for anything to fill that hole. But this weekend is boring at the BO. But I would love to hear people’s thoughts in the comments below why they honestly think these films do the business they do, while effective horror films tend to struggle.
BUT IT WASN’T A PREDICTION, IT WAS A PREDICTION LOBSTER!
This weekend you’re better off either going to the New Bev, or creating your own, personal, film fest. There are three films going this weekend, with Prom Night the most well known, and should be entirely dreadful. And not in a good way. It’s PG-13, you see. That’s grade A bullshit. Street Kings is being let the fuck go, and I’d be interested if James Ellroy hadn’t intimated that his story had been given the business. Then again, it also sounds a slight rehash of Dark Blue. Sans Kurt Russell, I can understand why he might want a remake. Then again, Kurt is awesome in that film. Smart People is going little over 1,110 screens, and if it was good, it’d be sold the fuck out of. Ellen Page is coming of an Oscar film, and a $100 plus hit. If it were anything, it’d be something.
Warm it up Kris. I’m about to Warm it up, Kris. That’s what I was born to do:
1. Prom Night – $15.7 Million
2. 21 – $11.2 Million
3. Street Kings – $9.5 Million
4. Nim’s Island – $7.5 Million
5. Leatherheads – $7.2 Million
And then on Sunday we’ll do what we gotta do. We’re gonna do what we gotta do.
12 comments
Nice write up. I'd argue there's not much changed in the horror game. The Friday the 13ths and Tourist Traps then arent all that much different from the When A Stranger Calls and Prom Nights now. Just tits shown & better kills. The slasher flick was always crap; the genre ghetto. As you said, there purpose was to give you an excuse to hold your date tight. (You'd hope the movie was just scary enough to get her hot & bothered, not scary enough to make her run home tramatized and screaming!) The classics of horror are rarely embraced by the masses right away(At least in our modern times (with one or two exceptions) ,I'll grant you back in the day twas a different story- the depression kids really loved their Frankenstein) Don't know if I'd call The Ruins a new classic. But it does what it does well. It's got spirit & a bit of balls. The Descent and Hills Have Eyes,(the only other quality, non-torture porn, recent horror hits I can think of) are the exceptions. It's box-office failure, if not par for the course, disappointing, yet not suprising? **The predictions look strong. A hard fall for 21? Hopefully George can pull a come from behind suprise!
god do i hate you. Just for the experience.
The public who will make Prom Night the number one movie this weekend isn't made of film lovers. It's comprised of the same idiots who made The Hills a success. They are the ones who are still talking on their cell phones when the movie starts. They are the ones who leave the theater before the end of the film to get to their car first.
These people aren't going to a horror movie to be terrified and disturbed. All they want is an excuse to get out of the house. They want a few cheap jump-scares to remind them they're still alive and a plot simple enough that it can fit in a text-message.
People will go see Prom Night instead of The Ruins just like they'll go to Applebee's instead of a good restaurant. They don't want surprises, they don't want to feel anything new. Gotta keep that routine!
Prom Night is absolutely dreadful. The acting is all amateur hour and the kills are almost all afterthoughts to the writers or whoever deciding to try to add a "message" about how you lose all of your friends after you graduate high school and move off to college, never to see them again. Too bad the whole thing sucks. –Now, Street Kings is better, and you can see the Ellroy in the story. (Good cops and bad cops, the hero is a cop in the middle. Cops join forces to find out the truth, some cops die.) Really, the movie almost feels like LA Confidential 2: The New Generation, just with Keanu and Chris Evans, so lesser actors. The real problem with the movie is that the scenes just play out, not really connecting anything together.
You are killing me here. It is a slow Friday and I was hoping for one of your always interesting stories.
Also, I'm very jealous of you and the Beverly.
Can't wait to see the wrap up.
Prom Night is gonna do 15mil1?!?!? What, is some new teen sensation starring in it or something? I would have geussed more in 10mil range seeing as how the far superior THE RUINS just had a debut 8mil $ weekend.
Still don't understand … why must you pass judgement on movies as being garbage just because it is not to YOUR tastes? Genre ghetto? "Rarely embraced by the masses right away?" Come off your high horse! Some people actually ENJOY trashy horror flicks (I am one), and that makes me no less a fan of movies than anyone else! Oh, that's right, I have to always enjoy the high-falootin' stuff that the "critics" and seven other people around the country enjoy. Why is it a shame when something becomes popular?
OPIE AND ANTHONY! O&A PARTY ROCK! XM 202!
The Ruins was marketed poorly, looking like Touristas 2. And the lack of advanced reviews stopped me from going. Prom Night, I think, has those teeny bopper stars in it and is all tricked out like MTV's Sweet 16, the kids'll eat it up.
Hey Del. Did you see Vern's parody of these box off predictions? It's hilarious. Go to his page, click on the April fools link and scroll down.
I love Vern's parody. But I also think, as I've tried to show in how I write about BO, the numbers don't interest me as much as the trends. My approach tries to be macro. If Vern was critiquing me (I doubt it), I get the hate for BO guestimates. I kind of hate them too, but I view them as weather reports. But more on this soon.
Nice write up. Hope noone ever threw a milkshake at you! ("You got the BO wrong for Doomsday! Damn yous to hell!") What's the last horror flick you dug?
Prom night did 10 mil on Friday.
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