Box-office prognosticators love to scrutinize why audiences don’t turn out for a movie, citing familiar theories like “franchise fatigue” or tossing around the notion that everyone is staying at home watching Netflix. Sometimes, the truth is as simple as moviegoers being able to smell a turkey from a long way off. It would certainly explain what happened to two big studio pictures opening this Memorial Day weekend.
Disney‘s $230 million-costing sequel “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” (32% on Rotten Tomatoes) opened with $62 million domestic, which on paper, certainly sounds like a nice figure. Unfortunately, it’s the worst debut of any film in the series since the original, and $30 million off the pace of previous entry “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” Whether or not this will be a franchise killer remains to be seen. Disney will be looking abroad to balance the bounty of ‘Pirates,’ and in China alone, ‘Dead Men’ launched with $67.8 million, bringing the international total to $208 million. It’ll be interesting to see how this film legs out, given a very competitive summer season ahead — it’ll have to get to $654 million just to match the worldwide haul of the first movie. For Johnny Depp, the result is at least a minor step up, especially considering his last blockbuster for Disney, “Alice Through The Looking Glass,” was a gigantic flop, but one wonders whether or not his once considerable star power is waning. Hollywood doesn’t seem to think so, with Universal landing the actor for their Dark Universe monster movie series; however, perhaps Depp and the mouse house will take a break for a while.
Even the charm and social-media encouragement of Dwayne Johnson couldn’t spur ticket buyers to jump in the water for “Baywatch” (19% on Rotten Tomatoes). The film opened to a dismal $18 million, well off early tracking which started at $40 million, and then softened to $30 million before the start of the weekend. The narrative that The Rock is an unstoppable box-office machine took a big hit with this movie, which marks the worst opening for the actor since 2004’s “Walking Tall” (it should be noted, “The Rundown” even opened to better numbers than this). No matter how you slice it, the film bellyflopped, and you can bet it’ll be a wake-up call to Hollywood suits who’ve been eager to give Johnson big properties like candy.
Speaking of franchises tacking a tumble, “Alien: Covenant” experienced the worst drop in the top ten this week, losing 70% of its audience from week one, taking in a paltry $10.5 million (down 36% from where “Prometheus” was in week two). I can’t imagine this series, at least as far as it concerns Ridley Scott, is anything but cooked. While he spent the promotional run of the film proclaiming the followup would get in front of cameras within 18 months, I don’t see any responsible suit at Fox giving it a greenlight without some serious consideration first.
In box office milestones, “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” hit $783 million after only four weeks in theaters. The film was #2 at the domestic box office this weekend hauling in a very impressive near-$20 million total. At this point you can pretty much guarantee ‘Guardians’ is hitting $1 billion. Domestically, it’s the second highest film of the year in the U.S. trailing the box office monster that is “Beauty And The Beast” ($1.2 billion). “The Boss Baby,” which is getting a sequel, is at $476 million and still could hit $500M. “Logan” has cracked the $600 million mark making for the third highest grossing ‘X-Men‘ film worldwide after “Deadpool” and ‘Days Of Future Past.’
At the arthouse, things were quiet, with only “The Berlin Syndrome” (a dreadful $932 per screen average) and the documentaries “Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story Of The Grateful Dead” and “Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan” going into release.
1. “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” — $62.1 million
2. “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” — $19.8 million ($333.2 mil.)
3. “Baywatch” — $18.1 million
4. “Alien: Covenant” — $10.5 million ($57.3 mil.)
5. “Everything Everything” — $6.1 million ($21.5 mil.)
6. “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” — $4.4 million ($13.5 mil.)
7. “Snatched” — $3.9 million ($40.1 mil.)
8. “King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword” — $3.2 million ($33.8 mil.)
9. “The Boss Baby” — $1.7 million ($168.9 mil.)
10. “Beauty And The Beast” — $1.5 million ($500.5 mil.)
I could see Fox willing to do one final David movie with Ridley Scott to close off the trilogy IF he keeps the budget at around $70-80 million – something he could do since he works fast & keeps budgets relatively low (Covenant final budget came in at like $20 or $30 million below original projected because of how fast he works). Otherwise they risk losing Scott as a mostly in-house creator for Fox. If he stops working with Fox they could lose future business deals with Scott Free Productions who produce them like 4 or 5 films/TV shows a year.
I think as long as the overseas box office is decent there could be one more movie. A closer.
But I really enjoyed Prometheus & Covenant and want to be an optimist.
I could see Fox giving Ridley the same budget merely out of respect and gratitude alone.
The man has made a lot of money for Fox over the years. Allowing him a budget they could recoup over an opening weekend (including international sales) sounds like a nice gesture to a veteran director looking to explore his most popular franchise …
Even if he’s doing to Alien what Lucas was doing to Star Wars!
Ridley Scott is one of my favorite directors. He knows how to tell a story like no one else and he does fantastic spectacle. But enough already with the Alien franchise. We’ve grown up. It’s time to move on. And as a fan of the original Michael Fassbender is no Ian Holm.
I would have loved more Blade Runner but Ryan Gosling? Seriously? This is the worst choice for a lead since Orlando Bloom in KoH. I’d rather watch fungus grow in a public restroom than watch this guy for 2 hours. I hope it makes a ton of money for Ridley, but I’ll be skipping it. Not happy to find Harrison Ford will be returning either because it kills one of the key mysteries of the original film. If he’s young, then Dekkard was a replicant. If he’s not Dekkard was human. I don’t want to know that.
If aging was a tell for the “more human than human” replicants, then they could have skipped the whole Voight-Kampff test and just called a dermatologist.
Good one… and thank you!
That almost ruined my ability to enjoy the sequel before it’s even arrived. Thanks again!
Things like “franchise fatigue”, staying home with Netflix, and moviegoers being able to smell a “turkey” aren’t so much theories as they just plain observations. We’re all tired of pirates, zombies, and Transformographagizers!
… now they’re trying push live-action remakes and “comedies” based on old TV shows?
Perhaps, we’re surrounded by too many screens, too many stories, too much whining.
Maybe studios depend too much on old ways whereas times have and are changing.
I liked Salazar’s Revenge…not reviewing it here.
I can easily visit bigger movies where I live not minding the money much. But if I had to, why would I pay up near 20,- for a movie when I can view TV for much less and see more, the convenience of my home, seek better story-lines and zap out if I so desire? (I miss videostores)
The price-tag of a film is not the consumers’ business. The tags of the cinema are.
Without awareness, without concentration, nobody enjoys a movie.
Get Out was hyped as cultural phenomenon. It was a must-see if you wanted to appear culturally
openminded. It’s all about appearances now. It’s all that’s visible on a screen.