Nikki Finke quotes a studio executive talking about this weekend, where four R-rated films topped the box office, saying, “What a sad statement on movie-going humanity.” Hm, is this executive at Warner Bros., home of the R-rated, male-irresponsibility flick “The Hangover” or the violent, often grotesque “Watchmen”? Is he at Fox, distributors of the Franco-hating sex trafficking action movie “Taken” and the wildly historically inaccurate kids’ picture “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”? Is he at Sony, the company that distributed “The Ugly Truth,” where a ten year old boy rapes a woman with a remote controlled vibrator? Perhaps they’re at Paramount, makers of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” a movie so racist it makes “Coonskin” look like a Whit Stillman movie? Point being, this asshole is in the wrong profession.
New Line Cinema may be dead, but that hasn’t stopped the WB from exploiting the carcass, using a few NL projects to score at the box office. August has been good to them, first with “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” which will get to $60 mil.+, and now “The Final Destination.” The fourth film in the series opened to an estimated $28 million, easily higher than the series’ previous best, the third film’s, $19 mil. debut. This was likely goosed by the 3D surcharge, but one cannot overestimate the film overcoming competition for similar demographics this weekend. This is the second 3D horror film to hit this year after “My Bloody Valentine,” which did nearly $100 million worldwide, and after pricier 3D efforts like “Avatar” and “Monsters Vs. Aliens” fail to generate the massive grosses needed to turn a significant profit, maybe the future of this technology will lie in cheapie horror sequels.
“Inglorious Basterds” fell to #2 but posted a decent hold and can probably now be considered a solid home run. It passed the grosses of both “Kill Bill”s this weekend and has a chance of being Quentin Tarantino’s highest grossing directorial effort, a more-than-satisfactory success for the troubled Weinstein Company. It significantly dulls the sting of “Halloween 2” opening at #3. It looks like audiences wised up to the terrible last movie, or perhaps are showing significant disinterest in Michael Myers after, stylistic touches aside, this tenth (technically ninth) onscreen adventure of the masked killer ended up being not all that different from the previous installments, including an ending borrowed from part four. Still, lest we forget, Weinstein expectations aside, slashers are rarely blockbusters, and a $17 million debut, while significantly less than the last film’s opening period business, is considered phenomenal for this franchise. Rob Zombie and company kept the budget down to $15 million on this, so unless marketing was nuts, and unless the second weekend drops 80%, this can be considered a hit.
“District 9” fell to #4 in its third week, banging on the door of $100 million. Of all the season’s “hits,” Sony’s expenditures on this independent production likely tab the film as one of the year’s biggest profit-earners, with an unrated DVD still to come. “GI Joe” came in at #5, holding up modestly and actually on pace to be a $150 million+ hit- might Joseph Gordon Levitt be coaxed back into the hood as Cobra Commander again? Oh boy! Holding steady with the lowest percentage drop in the top ten is “Julie And Julia” at #6. It’s lapped similar competition to bring its gross to $70 million, with $100 not entirely out of the question, and like last year’s “Mamma Mia” Meryl Streep fans are proving to be those that don’t rush out in the first weekend to see her.
Opening and dying at #9 was Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock.” Terrible title aside, Focus Features advertised this as too hippie for the mainstreamers, and, without any actual musicians in the film, not nearly hippie enough for Woodstock fans (maybe they should have used Jackie Jormp-Jomp). Not sure what traction you’re going to get with a period piece starring Demetri Martin at the end of August, but we’re not in filmmaking, Focus Features is. For now. Fox Searchlight actually dropped their theater count for “500 Days of Summer,” but the film continued to do solid business outside of the top ten, tallying $25 million, though it looks like its run is winding down. It remains the season’s biggest indie, though it’s the type of film that would have been made in the studio system fifteen years ago, so, hollow victory, we suppose. Disney’s “Ponyo” looks like a winner in week three, and has already generated more than the $10 million by Hayao Miyazaki’s biggest American success “Spirited Away,” but, of course, the American box office doesn’t really matter for his films, since it was last summer when “Ponyo” was kicking “The Dark Knight”‘s ass in several international territories on its way to $184 million international.
Did you know “The Hangover” is still playing at a theater near you? The fratboy comedy steadily continues to do more than $1 million per weekend, hitting $270 this session, while “Up” crawls up on $290 and “Transformers” stalls at $399. Of course, these films are still playing to way more fans than your favorite independent movie- still, the week’s best per-screen average still belonged to a much smaller film. The documentary “The September Issue” averaged $40k per theater in six locations for $240k worth of audience members still entranced by the reputation of Bram Stoker’s memorable creation Anna Wintour. “Big Fan” opened on two screens to $26k, just above the two screen take of “Still Walking” ($21.5k). Support your local indie theater, people.
1. Final Destination 4: The Last Final Destination. 3D.- $28.3 million
2. Inglorious Basterds- $20 million ($74 mil.)
3. Halloween 2: You Asked For It- $17.4 million
4. District 9- $10.7 million ($91 mil.)
5. G.I. Jack And The Revenge Of The Snake People- $8 million ($132 mil.)
6. Julie & Julia- $7.4 million ($71 mil.)
7. The Time Traveler’s Wife- $6.7 million ($48 mil.)
8. Shorts- $4.9 million ($14 mil.)
9. Taking Woodstock- $3.7 million
10. G-Force? I Hardly Knew Her!- $2.8 million ($112 mil.)
All the feedback I've been reading/hearing on FD4 has been very negative, even from die hard fans of the series. I think it'll take a big dump next week in terms of viewership. Though I wonder if they took a page out of the Fast and Furious series how to name a sequel handbook.
I read Rob Zombie's next project following H2 is a remake of The Blob… ugh.
$20 million weekend for Inglourious Basterds (47% drop, pretty good). I think TWC owes Tarantino a lot for his constant promotion of the movie. I saw some news clip on tv and the hostess mentioned Tarantino as a "man of the people" during one of his promotion stops at some public event. His constant talking of Basterds and anything else that came to mind (GI Joe script, James Bond) was a big plus; I'd say more so than Pitt being in the film (even though that's a big factor).
well done on the first image. Exactly what the audience looked like teetering out of… most big releases of Summer 09.
"…after pricier 3D efforts like "Avatar" and "Monsters Vs. Aliens" failed to generate the massive grosses needed to turn a significant profit, maybe the future of this technology will lie in cheapie horror sequels."
Yes, it's a pity Avatar hasn't turned a profit, nearly four months before its release… 🙂
Tense issue. I fucked up, sorry people. Original point: "Avatar" will have to be a preposterous monster at the box office to generate profit. Also, your mother eats diapers.
Just 2 blog entries today? Something interesting must be coming our way Monday morning.
Porn.
Get your priorities straight, guys. The 30 mio. "District 9" was proclaimed a hit after opening with 37 mio. The 15 mio. "Halloween 2" not so with 17 mio. WTF? Well, even if "H2" drops 80 percent on the second weekend (quite likely), it's still gonna make money, after having been sold to every single country in the world. Actually, it's already in the black as of this writing, because it doesn't really matter what the movie makes overseas – the Weinsteins already got paid. That's the problem of the distributors in said countries from now on. So, a disappointment compared to "H1"? Yes. A failure? Nope. Cheers, Thomas
If Inglourious Basterds was co-distributed by TWC and Universal, and thus has the revenue split between the two, does that mean the production cost of $70mil was split between the two studios?
@SK, yes.
Yes, that studio exec is absolutely right, it's too bad that everybody going to movies isn't an easily-led fourteen-year-old boy and that some grown-ups like to see movies made for grown-ups. Okay, I know that most R-rated movies are just rated for violence or gore, not especially adult topics or themes, but still. We're a disgrace for not wanting to see movies made for children? Sorry, fella.