We missed this one at The Playlist, but Paramount was somehow able to get a major wide release for their esoteric-to-us toy-based adventure film and score $56.2 million at the box office, hitting number one in Sarah Palin’s Real America. Paramount was reticent to screen their esoteric-to-elites “The Adventures Of GI Jones And The Rise Of The Cobras” for critics and left the promotional push for flyover territories instead of major cities, and the results were pretty solid. The movie, which apparently depict a series of globe-trotting adventures our types could NEVER relate to, still has a ways to go for profitability- the opening is in the realm of “Watchmen” but that was strongly disliked after the opening weekend and sputtered to $108 million. Theoretically, it could be compared to “Fast & Furious” which courted a similar fanbase, but that opened to $70 million and still only topped out at around $150, which is a number Paramount cannot afford to do. Suits at the studio are throwing out $300 million worldwide as an ideal number to reach, but they’re also banking on massive holiday DVD sales and a giant toy push. Maybe they should have marketed it to smartypants types after all.
Opening at number two, albeit softly at $20.1 million, was chick flick counterprogrammer “Julie And Julia.” Sony was hoping for “The Devil Wears Prada” numbers, and while this is lesser, “Prada” did have legs, with the Meryl Streep performance attracting strong word of mouth. That might be the case here, as well, because Sony does not want to lump this one in with “No Reservations.” Tagging along at #3 and #4 were kidflicks “G-Force” and “Harry Potter.” After some discouraging initial returns, “G-Force” looks likely to surpass the $100 million mark, while WB is probably hoping to nail “Potter” into a $295 million slot, where the film would narrowly outgross all other installments of the series save for the first one, a nice feather in the cap before the final two films. The damn thing is already at $500 million overseas, so who really cares at this point?
In a summer of precipitous drops, Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” seems to be one of the more painful. Sliding out of its #1 perch, “Funny People” took only 35% of its audience with it, collecting $7.9 million for a total of $40 in two weekends. Box office analysts are still trying to figure this shit out- a big opening means either marketing is savvy and/or the previous film in the series/of its type was well-liked. A second weekend dropoff means the word of mouth was poor, right? Or does it mean the studio gave up on advertising? Does it mean that no one wanted to see it in the first place if the opening was already a bit lukewarm? The pet Playlist excuse is… drumroll… Universal was gunshy about the cancer subplot, but didn’t know how to market the humor specifically because the humor was fairly blue. Look for Judd Apatow to possibly work PG-13 next. Also, it was Twitter’s fault. Also it rained in some parts of the country. Also, black audiences don’t like Leslie Mann.
Finishing behind “Funny People” was far less enlightened R-rated comedy “The Ugly Truth,” which will crest $70 million and likely finish around $90 million. While “Funny People” probably puts Judd Apatow on a leash, “Truth” director Robert Luketic is free to do his asinine, adventure-heavy “Barbarella” with a $100 million budget even though he couldn’t direct traffic on a fucking one-way street. While people were upset about the disturbing consensual rape scene in the obviously intentionally-disquieting “Observe and Report,” where are they to complain about the moment in “Truth” where a ten year old with a vibrator seems to rape Katherine Heigl? Pick your spots, assholes.
Rogue Pictures dumped “The Perfect Getaway,” even though having two stars from big franchises (Milla Jovovich, “Resident Evil” and Tim Olyphant, “Die Hard”) and being from “the director of ‘Pitch Black'” should have attracted more attention. Brighter was the news for “500 Days of Summer,” the indie hit of the season cracking the top ten with $3.7 million, a total of $12 million so far. The summer’s two biggest hits finally exited the top ten, with “The Hangover” at #11 and “Transformers 2” at #12. “T2” has enough juice to get to $400 million in the next two weeks or so, while “Hangover” is at an improbable $262 million, possibly curbed at $270 or more. What made more money? Obviously the giant robots. What was the bigger hit? The drunk dudes. Perspective.
Indie debuts included “Paper Heart,” which opened fairly softly in 38 theaters with only $206k, while “Cold Souls” generated $63k in nine locations, its $9k per-screen average the week’s best behind “Joe.” “The Hurt Locker” continues to slowly add theaters but bleed audiences, taking in $1.3 million to bring its total to a shade under $9 million, or essentially what “GI Joe” made before lunch Friday. “The Cove,” meanwhile, had a 52 theater expansion and grossed $158k while Fox Searchlight put “Adam” in wider release to $104k- both are expected to get bigger pushes in the next few weeks.
1. GI Joe: The Rise Of Hasbro- $56.2 million
2. Female-Geared Counterprogramming Model X329- $20.1 million
3. G-Force- $9.8 million/$86 mil.
4. Harry Potter And The Rockin’ Keg Stand- $8.9 million/$274 mil.
5. Vaguely Humorous People- $7.9 million/$40 mil.
6. Robert Luketic’s Fifth Cinematic Hate Crime- $7 million/$69 mil.
7. The Perfect Studio Dump- $5.8 million
8. Aliens In The Attic- $4 million/$16 mil.
9. Orphan- $3.7 million/$35 mil.
10. 500 Days Of Twee- $3.7 million/$12 mil.
I wouldn't say Funny People is a failure. Getting to $40 million in two weeks is solid, but because it had a budget of $75 million everyone will be disappointed by its performance. When you have comedies like The Hangover (an anomally, but still), The Proposal, The Ugly Truth and even Julie and Julia, that are each made for less than $40 million with star power in the cast it is hard to give a shit about Funny People's lackluster performance.
Some of the movies that come out have no reason costing as much as they do to make, even with the stars in the cast. The expectations just get pushed way too high. I mean, what's Seth Rogen's asking price?
Will Apatow get a leash for his next picture? I agree that he will, but it'll be in the form of a lower budget and not necessarily the subject matter of the film.
And as for the issue of marketing to Heartland or Fly-over states as they're called, it's pretty demeaning and also poor strategy by the studios to assume they'll like something because they're in Missouri for example. It probably failed in the case of GI Joe because I'll bet a good portion of its $56.2 million was from Blue States. This must be a myth that everyone keeps believing in for some reason.
GI Joe marketing didn't ignore the Blue states. It was pretty much everywhere. I read your post on about the LA times article and I never understood why Paramount would do this and make it seem like some strategy. It didn't work, and it doesn't work. They found out $150 million dollars later. Someone in California will be as likely to see it as someone in Louisiana.
Keep up the good work with these reports and the humour that the box office numbers often deserve.
Thanks, SK.
no you're not.