“…my man, my man, what’s this thing with all these numbers?.”
–Chris Tucker (The Fifth Element)
April 15th, 2012
Another week of hungry audiences, as Lionsgate’s hit takes a fourth number one frame (a feat nobody’s pulled off since Avatar). Neither new major release really broke out, though you can kind of consider it a win that neither outright flopped either. Both were risky propositions and leftovers on one level or another, and both have Lockout to compare themselves to and sigh with relief.
1. The Hunger Games ($21.5 million)
[Total: $337 million | WW: $531m | Budget: $78m]
What’s there to say at this point? The female audience holds well, the rabid audience repeats, and the older/curious audience trickles in post-insanity. These are all factors that help a film like this hold strongly, and here the film has already manage to taper off its drops- it lost a mere 35% between this weekend and last. $400m is too far off on the horizon to be a real possibility, but it’s primed to cross $350 next weekend and anything after is yummy, delicious, Prius-buying cake.
The film has kept in the new lately too- since this financial success has been a backdrop for negotiations with director Gary Ross, who has packed his bags and left, claiming too tight of a mandated schedule. Sure thing buddy.
***
2. The Three Stooges ($17 million)
[Total: $17 million | WW: N/A | Budget: $30m]
Stooges managed the best non-Hunger opening this week, but even with a PG rating and the known-quantity source material, it did so only by a few million. Still, this is a very solid opening for a Farrelly Brothers film, and the budget wasn’t so exorbitant that it can’t even out and make some cash on video and overseas. It could even hold okay if “it’s not as shitty as you’d think!” narrative builds up around it.
From the start I thought this film looked like a very passionate, sincere version of a comedy I just simply don’t care to see, though I couldn’t help but chuckle at a few tight gags in the trailer. It’s not a popular film to be open-minded about in the geek world (this weekend especially), but a few critics have gone out on various limbs saying it’s a good time. That’s enough for me to give it a shot because, ya know, I like movies and stuff.
***
3. The Cabin In The Woods ($15 million)
[Total: $15 million | WW: N/A | Budget: N/A]
Ah, the big geek elephant in the room. I’m sure every horror nerd was crossing their fingers for a more solid debut, but come on- this is almost a miracle. The damn thing sat on the shelf for two years, it’s a meta-text horror flick, and they sold it on a pack of (boring) lies. Had everyone from the filmmakers to the blogosphere not had a giant, completely unnecessary spoiler rod shoved up their ass, they might have even pulled in some more dough! The film telegraphs its premise less than 10 minutes into the film, and anything else you could spoil is merely the same kind of natural plot progression as any other good film has. Seriously, the whole “just trust me, it’s awesome” line doesn’t trot well with consumers, especially when you’re asking for faith on what — at the surface — looks like a tired slasher.
So I’d consider this a win. Surely the budget has been so mixed up in MGM debt and cross-studio deals that even modest horror success is good news. It’s not like Whedon needs the heat, and Goddard gets mad street cred with zero financial blame. We get this great movie forever, the people behind it will make more, everybody wins.
***
4. Titanic 3D ($11.5 million)
[Total: $44 million | WW: $191m | Budget: $18m …. re-release only]
So this is coming up on the tail of Beauty & The Beast to be the 2nd most successful 3D re-release (despite a 3 hour runtime), meanwhile it’s smashing records in China and bringing its overall re-release total to nearly $200m.
James Cameron simply smiles.
***
5. American Reunion ($11 million)
[Total: $40 million | WW: $81m | Budget: $50m]
Oh shit! Yeah, this is a movie.
***
The Rest…
Funny that Titanic made $58m in its debut in China (an all-time record, “3D” and “re-release” notwithstanding), as Universal has debuted Battleship overseas where it has made the same amount. Still the film is doing well across the waters, and filling the bank up before it even starts its turn in the states. This is a studio that gets it- international drives giant blockbusters now, so catering to the world market and creating the narrative of a success first is a wise move. The film hasn’t opened in China yet, so we’ll see if it can unseat Titanic (might be tough!). Regardless, it’s already going to have a serious pile of dough a month from now wen we Statesiders see it.
On the indie end of things, Sony has two weird stories on its hand as the expansion of The Raid didn’t go so hot, and it’s faithless release of CHUD favorite Detention is so small that it’s hard to even parse an understanding of how its doing. The former has seen its per-theater average drop to $1,138 after expanding to just under 900 locations. It’s made $2.57m, which is nice for a movie that’s already being remade, but it pretty much shuts the door on anymore expansion. Estimates put Detention at something like $3k a theater, but such a small release with such unusual promotions isn’t necessarily going to be easily estimated across a weekend (Sunday could be atypically strong, for example). The real indication will be if Sony decides to hold it over. Cross your fingers they do, since you need to see the fuckin’ thing…
Thanks for reading!
Twitter
Comment Below
Message Board
Numbers (rounded off to nearest .5m) via BoxOfficeMojo
13 comments
Would Three Stooges maybe not have been drawing so much hate from certain corners of the Internet from the get-go if we DIDN’T know that it was supposed to have an A-List cast originally? I’m sure that most of the general public doesn’t pay much attention or care that it’s just a bunch of jobbers in the movie, but it certainly would have been more interesting with Carrey, Penn, and Del Toro. Good or bad, who knows, but definitely more interesting.
Speaking of James Cameron, I re-watched Aliens again last night, and I was thinking of how great it could be if (depending on how Prometheus is received) Cameron was brought back into the Alien fold to do a prequel to HIS Alien film, which could carry over from whatever story is started in Prometheus, and bridge the gap between Alien and Aliens from the Weyland-Yutani angle. This would of course almost certainly have to follow Avatar 2 and whatever project he’s probably working on right now at the bottom of the world. With Prometheus, X-Men: First Class, and Rise of the Planet Apes, I’m starting to think that Fox running all of those franchises into the ground in the first place was a blessing in disguise.
Pardon what may appear to be an insanely stupid question but does the “WW” number include the “Total” amount or is it separate? Like, should I add the two together to get the overall grand total? Just wondering.
“Seriously, the whole “just trust me, it’s awesome” line doesn’t trot well with consumers,”
Huh? I’m pretty sure that’s been the backbone “WoM Success” for a number of hits. And the spoiler camp on this have been seriously aggressive. So it’s not really a rod-up-their-ass situation at all. It’s been remarkably malignant – on top of all the bad luck that’s seen this movie shelved/delayed for years. To view it as a regular case of online spoilerphobia is total bullshit.
Anyway, weren’t you going on about spoilage yourself regarding some movie last year? While you were still doing the videos here. That first Muppet trailer wasn’t it? Why the change in tune? Do you see yourself in the pro-spoiler camp regarding Cabin in the Woods?
This isn’t about Detention is it…? Do you feel Cabin is getting all the online chatter to Detention’s detriment or something? Calling it a Geek Elephant and Horror Nerd deal is kinda fuckfaced of you.
Lockout hardly gets a mention? Didn’t see it this weekend (heard it sucked), but went and saw the Raid instead. Very happy with it, and glad to have seen it before it’s ousted from theaters to make way for the 4 screens of Battlesh!t.
I disagree about the Three Stooges(and saying this I haven’t seen it yet either , but I plan to) . I thought YEARS ago that Will Sasso would have been a perfect Curly , & I’ve heard that the actor that did Moe was perfect, as was Hayes . ANY of those A-list stars would have been pre-judged , to the detriment of the movie , and probably NOT as interesting (I’m thinking of Nixon, where the script was perfect ,made you feel sorry for the bastard, but I kept thinking that Hopkins just didn’t get the essense of Nixon, & the movie suffered ).
I guess I understand what you mean, as the personalities and outside factors involved could have overshadowed the actual performances and the movie itself as a 90-minute self-contained thing. In the case of Nixon, it was at a time where many saw Hannibal when they saw Hopkins, and not much else, he didn’t really look the part, and there had already been decades-worth of Nixon impersonations, which certainly tainted things I’m sure, whether the performance was good or bad, accurate or not. I’ve noticed that when it comes to remakes, bio-pics, adaptations of comics or TV shows, etc., I tend to enjoy them more on second viewing, because I’m not looking for things to NOT like that may have influenced what I thought of the first viewing, whether it’s casting, how strictly it sticks to the source material, or any other number of things.
Calm your shit, Nardo. This is EXACTLY what I’m talking about.
I gave the movie a 5/5. I’m quoted on the website calling it an instant classic. I love the fucking movie. The spoilerphobia is totally out of control, and is doing a disservice to a movie that doesn’t rely on any more spoilable characteristics than any other good movie. It’s a better movie than the twist film it’s being portrayed as. It’s exactly a rod up the ass situation. That’s not even getting into the twitter conversations I’ve witnessed as film critics shame other film critics for not tweeting about it more, specifically call each other out, pick over each other’s reviews with fine-tooth combs, and otherwise engage in obsessive, borderline studio-mouthpiece behavior.
And no, “just trust me, it’s awesome” is not the backbone of word-of-mouth. Water cooler chats and exciited conversations are the backbone of WOM success. People don’t literally drag each other to the theater, telling them to shut up if they ask any questions. Especially not non-film geeks.
And yes, I was quite vehement about asshole sites spoiling a very funny, easily ruined *gag in a trailer.* It was not an obsessions focused on an entire movie- it was trying to maintain some people’s opportunity to enjoy a funny joke before it was ruined by a facbeook post or a click-baiting headline.
And it IS the geek elephant in the room, and that implies absolutely NOTHING negative. It just means it’s the big obvious conversation waiting to be had.
Jesus, get the fuck out of my face with your Fox News 20-questions and falsely contextualizing bullshit. This kind of allegiance-demanding, conspiratorial bullshit is exactly what I’m referring to. We can’t just all be happy to have an amazing movie doing pretty decently in theaters, we have to tear down even the slightest whiff of dissension (even if it’s completely made up).
“Kinda fuckfaced” of me… please.
Refers to Worldwide total- so it refers to the whole shebang. I’ll make a note of that next time, because there are probably others confused too.
Thanks!
Yeah, Lockout is DTV nonsense. Not worth the digital ink spilled. You did much better by seeing The Raid!
It depends on who the “just trust me, it’s awesome” is coming from though. If the guy that only watches horror is telling you that a horror movie is awesome, it might not really get your attention, but if your friend who doesn’t ordinarily watch horror says “just trust me, it’s awesome” thinks it’s awesome, that might make you a little more curious. Sure, your friend might not know shit about horror, but just the fact that he gave it a chance and liked it must mean something, right? Hell, my MOM liked Scream when it was out, in a rare case of my parents seeing something before me (I was in basic training/tech school during it’s run). Judging by what Cabin made this weekend, I don’t think it really attracted anyone outside of the people that check out whatever horror movie is out in any given week anyway, so the word of mouth is probably pretty self-contained. At my theater, it did below average business and didn’t attract the usual Friday night “I’m really here to just be a d-bag and fuck around with my friends, which reminds me, when’s there gonna be a Devil Inside 2?” crowd. Sure, the words “smart” and “intelligent” in the ads probably scared folks off, but I think “different” is really what did it in.
That was to the first guy, not to you, Renn. Looks like we were writing about it at the same time.
Nardo seems like a cunt, Renn. You’re too good a writer to waste words on a cunt.
Cabin: definitely 5/5. Nardo: definitely cunt/cunt.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.