| Film | Weekend | Per | Total | |
| 1 | How to Train Your Dragon | $15,025,000 (-23.5%) | $4,100 | $178,021,000 |
| 2 | The Back-Up Plan | $12,250,000 | $3,735 | $12,250,000 |
| 3 | Date Night | $10,600,000 (-36.6%) | $3,218 | $63,471,000 |
| 4 | The Losers | $9,605,000 | $3,271 | $9,605,000 |
| 5 | Kick-Ass | $9,500,000 (-52.1%) | $3,100 | $34,870,000 |
| 6 | Clash of the Titans | $9,000,000 (-41.5%) | $2,751 | $145,639,000 |
| 7 | Death at a Funeral | $8,000,000 (-50.7%) | $3,253 | $28,449,000 |
| 8 | Oceans | $6,000,000 | $4,975 | $8,466,000 |
| 9 | The Last Song | $3,700,000 (-37.9%) | $1,324 | $55,398,000 |
| 10 | Alice in Wonderland | $2,200,000 (-39.8%) | $1,588 | $327,473,000 |
This just in: I hear Friendster is the new retro hotness. Like being into 8-tracks.
Often the first few months have residual heat from the Christmas pictures, and it used to be that Academy pictures would start expanding during the first months. But – for the most part – it’s usually a weak season until March brings the heat. This year we had Avatar, and so this weekend is the lowest grossing weekend of the year, and the first to not have the top ten cross into the nine digit territory. That’s better for theaters than studios in that they want a constant steady stream, whereas Warner Bothers still might take a loss on The Losers.
On that last point, it’s hard to say if either The Losers or The Back-Up Plan will turn a profit. Both were done for budgets, though The Losers has slightly more international potential, while The Back-Up Plan has better odds at playing longer. Neither did enough business to suggest anything more than that people went because it was new. Ultimately it doesn’t feel like much is at stake fiscally for either, though Sylvain White may have some heat off, and whatever’s next might not go as fast (I thought the movie might cause some director-jail time, but they didn’t have a lot of time or money), and CBS films – between this and “I already work around the clock!” – seems to exist to waste money.
How to Train Your Dragon is an audience favorite, and getting past $200 is not going to be a question since it should play into Shrek 4. Fox seems to have interest in getting Date Night to a good number, so I bet it gets past $80 or $90 for no apparent reason. Kick-Ass not dropping 60% is a miracle, though doing much over $50 is a dream. Clash of the Titans is still doing some business, so it could get its way to $170, but that’s about it. Chris Rock didn’t put the fun in Funeral, but doing a bit over $40 is looking like an endgame.
Next weekend Nightmare on Elm Street will open huge, and provide itself as an appetizer to what looks to be one of the worst starts of summer since 2007. Remember then, when Spider-Man 3, Pirates 3, and Shrek 3 came out and they were all mixed to terrible? The five big pictures of May are Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, Shrek 4, Prince of Persia and Sex and the City 2. Four of these pictures have screened and of the May titles I’m probably most excited about MacGruber.
16 comments
I didn't see THIS big a tank coming from the Losers. The really interesting thing about the last few weeks? After all of the crap people shove at Clash, and the "common wisdom" of "bad word of mouth" it dropped 50/40/40… indicative of good WOM. I'm always interested how people just extrapolate from their own feelings without evidence.
ROBIN HOOD and PRINCE OF PERSIA smell like major failures to me, but they're made by people I would rather not see fail. SHREK 2 and SEX 2, on the other hand, I'm actively rooting to see fail and die and burn. But they're probably going to rake it in, huh? Man, I dread summer movie season these days.
Robin Hood I can see tanking, but Prince of Persia no way. Expect an insane ramp in exposure for POP before release, its what Disney always does.
Aside from Toy Story, Inception, Iron Man and some others, this summer movie season looks like the pits.
I can't remember a worse-looking summer, although Dre brings up 2007, but it at least _looked_ like a decent summer, we didn't know it was awful (save for what? Ratatouille and what else?) until it came and went.
so are we to take it that Iron Man 2 is not that great?
Harry Knowles reportedly saw Iron Man at a private screening, and he says it kicks ass.
It's the only direct word I read online. On other sites like S/film there's a reference to it, in the sense they're saying Scarlett Johansson is great in it and got good buzz, so overall the buzz on the movie should be good.
I'm not saying anything about quality. Who cares about Shrek 4 or Sex and the City 2 (with those you're either in or out), Persia screened at show west, and didn't get any good buzz. Iron Man reviews should start popping shortly, Robin Hood probably closer to release date. But in terms of excitement, I'll see Iron Man 2 at some point, and MacGruber opening day. I don't care about most of May, which is unfortunate.
Iron Man 2 will be huge, whether it's "good" or not. It may well be good, but I'm not going to take Harry Knowles' word to the bank. That guy's easier to buy than dirt weed from a teenager. Robin Hood will bomb, Prince of Persia won't do too well, either, but Sex and the City 2 and Shrek 4 are going to be monstrous.
The beginning of the summer movie season in '07 was the first one I remember when you had so many movies making so much money, but people just not caring so much. As mentioned, the movies weren't so good, and it didn't help that Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2 were super well-recieved, so the third installments seemed even THAT much worse. Holy shit, remember when a Transformers movie seemed like something new and refreshing? WHile I enjoyed it at the time, I'm wondering if it didn't also benefit from the early summer feeling like such a disappointment, because after seeing it again recently, I didn't really get anything out of it. Anyway, as far as this summer is concerned, I think the lack of sequels (while not necessarily a bad thing) sure makes it look pretty lackluster, as I don't see too many sure things outside of Iron Man and Shrek. Prince of Persia is this season's Bruckheimer film for better or worse, Robin Hood could likely end up being the same non-competition to Iron Man that Speed Racer was in '08, Toy Story will clean up, Grown Ups will do the usual Sandler summer business, and most of the rest of what's out there (including Airbender) looks like a bunch of question marks. Oh God, I just remembered fuckin' Eclipse *shudder*
So apparently it's now hip to hate on Iron Man? God the idiot train travels fast through the chud offices.
My manager saw Iron Man 2 at an IMAX promo thing in Vegas….said it was amazing and we were gonna get raped by it….but technically he has terrible taste in movies…..but even a broken clock is right twice a day….
You know?? On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the titles I've seen listed for this summer.. I think it really does boil down to the fact that the internet in general is simply too overly critical of movies and often can be the death of movies, whether there good or bad.. I'd say IRONMAN 2 is probably critic proof if that's what it's being alluded to as being bad or mixed..
Summer doesn't look too bad I suppose, at least each month has one release that I'm really psyched about (Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, Inception, Scott Pilgrim) and there are a handful of movies that I'm at least mildly interested in being released as well (MacGruber, Get Him to the Greek, Cyrus, Splice, The Other Guys).
I finally saw "Kick-Ass" last weekend, and went in wanting to love it. I've decided that an enthusiastic review from Devin is about as reliable as Harry Knowles's reviews. (10 out of 10!? More like 5 out of 10.) Big Daddy and Hit Girl were pretty good, whereas the titular character was a whiny cunt.
There goes Jeffrey Dean Morgan's career.
It's a shame that "Losers" didn't perform better, as it was pretty fun and I thought it was a lot more enjoyable than "Kick-Ass", which itself isn't doing so hot, at least in terms of living up to the hype. I don't think any of the "Losers" actors are going to be hurt (Evans has a little WWII film coming up that you may have heard about, Morgan's been getting tons of work lately, Zoe's been having an otherwise good year), and the director, who did fine on this particular film, is someone I don't really care too much for. Speaking of the "Losers" cast though, it's a shame they aren't a little lower-rent, as it could have continued quite nicely with the same cast as a TV show, like something in the vein of that other team that everyone seems to compare them to that has a film coming out as well. Something something, starts with an A…
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