Sometimes a well-placed R-rated boys’ club comedy can do some serious damage in blockbuster land. Word of mouth has to be the culprit, explaining how “The Hangover” is somewhat mimicking recent frat-like R-rated fare like “The Wedding Crashers” with a second straight weekend at #1. Tracking-wise, the film is even crossing over to women, so with $105 million in the kitty after two weeks, it has to be considered a massive breakthrough for WB. Inches away from out grossing their other war horse “Terminator Salvation,” “The Hangover” recorded a $33.4 million gross, which is a audience loss of only 25%- that’s near-heroic.
The movie was able to best close challenger “Up” again, despite the Pixar toon showing its own solid momentum. The Disney blockbuster pulled in $30.5 million, a loss of a little over 30%, and is at $187 million, days away from surpassing “Monsters Vs. Aliens” and, our guess, two and a half weeks from becoming the year’s highest grossing film. Debuting softly at #3 was “The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3,” which did a modest $25 million- it’s a serious film targeted at adults, so there’s a chance it could have legs, but industry experts had the gross pegged at $30 mil or so. R-rated movies that aren’t comedy or high-octane actioners tend to struggle during the summer season, but this had the benefit of box office studs, so if a 50%-or-greater fall occurs next week, Sony will be dining on humble pie.
“Night At The Museum: Battle At The Smithsonian” and “Land of the Lost” rounded out the top five, with “Lost” running up a two week tally of $35 million- if Universal can get it to $60, they can breathe easily, with the hopes that DVD can put a respectable face on what can only now be considered a huge miscalculation. Debuting at #6 was the Eddie Murphy kiddie romp “Imagine That” with $5.7 million, slightly higher than last year’s “Meet Dave”- we’re guessing Murphy’s done wading into the kiddie pool (“Beverly Hills Cop IV” greenlight?), though it probably wasn’t his fault this time- Nickelodeon wasted millions and made a kids’ movie about an executive who gets stock tips from his daughter. Guess we’re not in a recession after all.
At #7, “Star Trek” again experienced a 30%-ish dip in audiences, as Paramount tries to milk their breakout hit as much as possible- it’s currently at $232 million and counting. “Terminator Salvation” is slowly shedding screens as it closes the weekend with $114 million in sales and “The Hangover” breathing down its back, while “Angels And Demons,” at $123 million, is looking to have grossed nearly $100 million less than its predecessor.
The week’s biggest indie was “Away We Go,” which expanded to 45 screens, but it only finished at $554k, an average of $12k per screen, which isn’t what Focus Features was counting on with a genial Dave Eggers-penned comedy directed by an Oscar winner. “Easy Virtue” crossed the $1 million mark, and “The Brothers Bloom” is at $2.5, while the biggest indie debut goes to “Moon.” With only eight theaters, the Sam Rockwell-starrer brought in $145k, a decent-but-not-spectacular showing, one that can undoubtedly be improved upon if further expansion is greeted with a heavier advertising presence, though Sony Pictures Classics isn’t known for that sort of largesse. The highest per-screen average this week was “Food Inc.,” the doc that generated $63k in three theaters, an average of $21k per screen. Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro,” meanwhile, collected $31k on only two screens, heavily outperforming Coppola’s last self-distributed feature “Youth Without Youth” in per-screen average.
1. Reckless Drinking Is Ok, Kids!- $34 million ($105 mil)
2. Danny Deckchair Sucks It- $30.5 million ($187 mil)
3. Humble Bald Man Vs. Fu Manchu White Guy- $25 million
4. Night At The Musezzzzzzzzzzzzz- $9.6 million ($143 mil)
5. Land Of The Lost Profits- $9.1 million ($35 mil)
6. Imagine That People Wanted To See This- $5.7 million
7. Star Trek: The Eleventh Movie- $5.6 million ($232 mil)
8. Terminator Dinner Theater- $4.7 million ($114 mil)
9. Angels And Lamberto Bava’s Demons- $4.2 million ($123 mil)
10. Drag Me To Hell- $3.9 million ($35 mil)
who cares?
Well, there's no simple answer to what's a very relevant question. Obviously, movies are a business, an industry first and an art second, and money, both grosses and profit, dictate what the American people respond to and what types of films will be made by major studios in the future. Especially in a post-Bush and recession-era America, its interesting to see what the country does and does not respond to. There is sociological precedence to all this box office blather.
ok, that makes sense