I’ve spent most of the day putting together the CHUD Friday Wrap-up Video that’s focused on Green Lantern, which is of course the big story of the week. With a budget and marketing total that some estimate in the neighborhood of $300m (though that might be a bit inflated for the sensation), it’s obvious this was an expensive production with a capital E. Despite growing optimism as the campaign’s gone on, things have bottomed out with the shoddy reviews. From where I sit it’s kind of taking a beating that Thor should have gotten, but there’s not a lot to go out and defend either. Nick and I hashed all of that out.
So with a ton of screens, 3D, huge promotion, bad reviews, kid-friendliness, and an untested character, how will things settle out? The midnight numbers were decent and non-geeks seem to like it, so it will likely land a bit north of X-Men and a bit south of Thor. The Super 8 hold will be interesting, and one hopes it can defend against Penguins. I do feel like the Carrey vehicle will do a bit better than the tracking has indicated though.
Keeping it simple, so let’s get to it.
Numbers!
Green Lantern ….. $56,000,000
Super 8 ….. $19,000,000
Popper’s Penguins ….. $17,000,000
X-Men: First Class ….. $12,500,000
Kung Fu Panda ….. $10,500,000
Come back Sunday to wonder what the fuck I was thinking with me.
5 comments
I predict that Green Lantern is going to do just as well as Speed Racer.
I wish X-Men made more money
I’ve got a gut feeling that Poppers Penguins will get to #1. The Green Lantern’s negative word of mouth and bad reviews will destroy all chances of it getting over $100M domestic
I really hope X-Men sticks it out to 2nd. It really is the best thing so far this summer in or out of the genre. Fuck penguins.
When have bad reviews stopped anything? “Hangover 2” reviews have been pretty venomous, and it’s the biggest film of the year so far (for a little while longer at least). When a movie does badly and the reviews are bad, or when a movie does well and has good reviews, it’s probably more of a coincidence than anything else. I think in the case of a limited release they might be more important, when you have to draw people to wherever the film is, but when you have these films that roll out for your convenience on 4000 screens, people will either see it or they won’t. It’s not a matter of whether they’ll make the effort to seek it out because someone on TV said they should, because it’s already there.
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