Features
Headlines
Search
Archives
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.
Alright. “Clash of the Titans” is the number one film at the box office with a weekend take of $61.4 million. Is that a tally worthy of the Gods? Simply put, in my opinion, no. Let’s set aside the 3D for a second and just pretend that isn’t a factor. Three years ago, “300” was able to debut with $78.4 million in the wastelands of March with arguably less recognizable source material and no recognizable star power. On this very same weekend last year, “Fast & Furious” opened to $72.4 million, setting a new record for the month of April and proving that huge grosses can come on any weekend in any month.
The budget on “Titans” was huge and Warner Bros. spent a small fortune hastily adding 3D at the last minute to try and soullessly suck out a few more bucks. In the shortest of short term, this may have worked, but the word of mouth has been atrocious and a lot of it has to do with the 3D so I expect this to drop like a rock and barely finish around $125 million. With overseas markets, that’ll be enough and yet another lifeless remake earns its stripes thanks to you (if you saw it).
Far more impressive, is the $30.2 million start of “Why Did I Get Married Too?” Tyler Perry’s movies have been the height of consistency, with his Madea titles earning $30 million plus and his Madea-less dramedies earning in the low $20 million range. Now he’s bucked the trend and proved that he doesn’t need a fat suit to register huge numbers. Seriously, there’s nothing harder than opening a drama about adults to $30 million. And that is why Lionsgate is changing their name to Tyler Perry’s Lionsgate.
Miley Cyrus’s agent heard something about Nicholas Sparks being the new John Grisham and now we have “The Last Song.” Barely a month after “Dear John” milked the same cow for the same crowd, Miley still managed a solid $16.2 million weekend and $25.6 million five day opening for her troubles. With no bankable male star to help with the marketing, this is purely a victory for the Cyrus machine and proves she can have a career outside of her Hannah Montana persona, for a few years at least. I still wouldn’t count out a straight to video title with a topless scene in t-minus four years.
“How to Train Your Dragon” survived the potential cannibalization of 3D screens by dropping a slim 33% and upping its cume to $92.3 million in 10 days. Any fears over the soft debut can be wiped away, as this should play like gangbusters through the rest of April and could finish as high as $175 million. According to our commenters, it would be richly deserved.
Elsewhere, “Alice in Wonderland” crossed the $300 million barrier, passing “Batman Returns” in the process to become Tim Burton’s second biggest film ever, behind the first “Batman.” “Hot Tub Time Machine” fell a better than expected 43% to keep it respectable and “Greenberg” had another solid week in limited release.
I finally got out and saw a flick this week, plopping down $9.75 at the Landmark for “The Art of the Steal.” Another big disappointment, filled with every documentary cliché in the book and way too long and one-sided. Where are all the good movies at, 2010?
Here are the weekend’s top domestic grossers, courtesy of Exhibitor Relations:
19 responses so far
1 4-04-2010 at 8:48 am
Hans said...
I’m one of those who helped Clash of the Titans earn its stripes, simply because I had anticipated it for too long to not want to go see it. It was an enjoyable romp, nothing Oscar-worthy or anything, but I came out happy enough.
I will add my hat into the 3D complainer’s ring, though. At first it started off with a sequence in the stars, and I thought that was well done, but for the rest of the movie, I found it to be completely unnecessary. I took off my glasses at several points to discover that there wasn’t even much of a difference other than a few modifications made to background scenery to make it pop out. The glasses also made the movie simply too dark for me; without them, everything was bright and vivid, but when I put them back on, it seemed like half the scenes were taking place at dusk or nighttime.
2 4-04-2010 at 9:02 am
Chad Hartigan said...
Should note that the $65.0 mil figure on the chart includes Thursday evening grosses for “Clash”
3 4-04-2010 at 9:12 am
AdamL said...
“The budget on “Titans” was huge and Warner Bros. spent a small fortune hastily adding 3D at the last minute to try and soullessly suck out a few more bucks.”
I don’t get the pervading wisdom amongst film commentators that 3D is a cynical money-making scam rather than actually something audiences enjoy and are happy to pay extra for. Whilst the quality here is obviouly not Avatar or Alice level, these tired arguments were made about those two films as well. It seems planning to do a film in 3D is wrong as is retrospectively adding 3D due to phenomenal demand.
4 4-04-2010 at 9:35 am
Chad Hartigan said...
3D becomes an arguable matter of taste when it was utilized by the filmmakers from the beginning to tell their story. When it was added as an afterthought because previous movies did huge business, it is an inarguable attempt to make money.
5 4-04-2010 at 11:08 am
Craig said...
Fuck 3D.
6 4-04-2010 at 11:34 am
Andrew F said...
So, let me get this straight: it’s darker, muddier, more headache-inducing, and often poorly done. I’ll stick with 2D, thanks.
7 4-04-2010 at 1:30 pm
BurmaShave said...
Does anyone else think Fiennes looks vaguely like Paul Giamatti in that picture. It’s the hairline.
8 4-04-2010 at 3:05 pm
Cloy said...
“Why Did I Get Married” was on tv this weekend and….I just don’t understand. It was terrible.
9 4-04-2010 at 3:14 pm
ninja said...
““How to Train Your Dragon” survived the potential cannibalization of 3D screens by dropping a slim 33% and upping its cume to $92.3 million in 10 days. Any fears over the soft debut can be wiped away, as this should play like gangbusters through the rest of April and could finish as high as $175 million. ”
Ahem, $175 mio is not gangbusters for a movie that costed $165 mio to produce and who knows how much to market. I`ve been hearing about “amazing buzz” but 33% drop is nothing unusual for this genre especially when during the holiday. Dragon fanboys are becoming worse than Robsessed during Remember Me boxoffice fiasco defence weeks.
10 4-04-2010 at 4:46 pm
Chad Hartigan said...
$175 million is great business for that film. It will make just as much, if not more, overseas and be profitable before factoring in home video, television sales and merchandising. Facts.
11 4-04-2010 at 6:25 pm
Kevin K. said...
I saw How to Train Your Dragon this week. I knew I would like it. But I LOVED it. I teared up a couple of time and cried hard at the end. The animation was breathtaking, and the 3D was used extremely well. I’m of the opinion that 3D can be very effective when used well, such as with Up, Coraline, Avatar, or How to Train Your Dragon. So far, Avatar is the only live-action film I’ve seen to use it well, probably because it was shot in 3D, instead of the 3D being added in during post-production. Hopefully Toy Story 3 continues a good trend of effective 3D.
12 4-04-2010 at 8:49 pm
Chad Hartigan said...
Or because Avatar is essentially animated as well
13 4-04-2010 at 11:09 pm
Kevin K. said...
All I can really say about this week’s box office is that the only films I feel deserve to be in that top ten are How to Train Your Dragon and Shutter Island. I feel bad for Dreamworks that they had to compete with Titans during week 2. I really hope that they focus their Oscar campaign for animated feature on HTTYD and not another shitty Shrek sequel.
14 4-05-2010 at 6:12 am
Nel said...
Right does this mean that Sam ‘no range’ Worthington is a bona fide movie star , who can open a movie or is he still the go to guy if Matt Damon is busy?
15 4-05-2010 at 6:40 am
MovieMan said...
“Clash of the Titans” is absolutely awful. The 3D is barely noticeable, the action is about as exciting as two comatose old people racing in wheelchairs, and the dialogue is like some sort of a natural disaster.
“The Last Song” is unromantic hogwash. It’s not awful, but it’s overwrought and overcooked. Even the mediocre “Hannah Montana: The Movie” was more emotionally resounding than it.
16 4-05-2010 at 7:22 am
Guy Lodge said...
‘No range’ is a little unfair. Check out “Somersault.”
17 4-05-2010 at 7:40 am
Will said...
Not everything needs to be in 3d Clash of the Titans i think would have been better without it
18 4-05-2010 at 11:25 am
Nel said...
@ Guy – Confused and angry as witnessed in Somersault does not make range!!!! It is not like he is ugly either but rugged handsomeness, even in 3D will only take you so far in a movie.
19 4-06-2010 at 1:06 pm
Adam Smith said...
“I still wouldn’t count out a straight to video title with a topless scene in t-minus four years.”
Yeah, you know who else did that after her success in a Disney family franchise? Anne Hathaway. Excuse me, Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway.
You mean to tell me you see OSCAH in Ms. Cyrus’ future??!?!?
(I know I’m reaching, but you never know…)