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*All historical figures are adjusted to today’s dollars
Paramount secured what is likely to be the last blockbuster opening of the summer with “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” this weekend. For a film that was plagued with bad buzz a few months ago and was withheld from most critics, a $56.2 million start is a fantastic result and on par with other kid-friendly action films like “Fantastic Four” and the early August start of “XXX.”
Of course, legs will be atrocious and a total gross of around $120 million is the likely tipping point, but Paramount will be more than happy to take that to the bank along with solid international grosses. It may not be a “Transformers”-like success, but the studo must have known Stephen Sommers is no Michael Bay. And Marlon Wayans is no Shia LaBeouf.
Sony’s “Julie & Julia” had a solid bow in the runner-up spot with $20.1 million on nearly half the screens of “G.I. Joe.” To be honest, I thought it would be bigger, but this is a film that could definitely play well through Labor Day. Reviews are good enough and older audiences are the only demographic left who don’t necessarily rush out on opening weekend. “Mamma Mia!” only debuted with $27.8 million en route to a $144.1 million finish, let’s not forget. Forget 3D, perhaps this was the film to usher back smell-o-vision.
It was another tough drop for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” losing 50% of its audience and bringing its cume to $273.8 million. As predicted, it’ll easily pass “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” but ultimately it will become the second-lowest domestic earner of the franchise. How many more of these do we have before we can get back to our lives?
“Funny People” lands way back in fifth place after a horrific collapse of 65% from an already anorexic opening weekend. Feel free to label this one a flop since the domestic gross will barely cover the salaries of everyone involved. Judd will be happy he signed his three-picture deal with Universal right before this one opened and don’t be surprised if there’s no Rogen or Mann in his next project.
Universal got a double dose of bad news as the opener “A Perfect Getaway” stalled out with $5.8 million and finished in seventh place. Originally an MGM film that was to be released in the Spring, I’m not sure what potential the studio saw in picking it up unless the fee was minimal. Or a date with Milla Jovovich was thrown in with the deal.
“(500) Days of Summer” finally enters the top 10 after a third expansion to 817 screens. A solid $3.7 million means that the film will join “Garden State” and “Napoleon Dynamite” as crossover successes for Fox Searchlight and find itself in the DVD collections of every guy that thinks his Blu-Ray player/Hi-Def plasma combo is a surefire way to attract the ladies.
My $10 stayed in my pocket this week because I’m broke as a joke. Lots of stuff out there that I need to see but at the top of the list is “Somers Town,” playing a week only here in L.A.
Next week is a something-for-everyone hodgepodge typical of late summer. “District 9” leads the way with a heavy amount of fanboy buzz that may or may not mean anything at the box office. In this case, I think it’ll translate to a solid $23 million opening.
“The Time Traveler’s Wife” seemingly uses science fiction to justify men ditching their wives whenever it’s convenient and somehow makes it appealing to women in the process so that should be worth $15-$17 million, I’d say.
Summit opens something called “Bandslam,” which nobody with a drivers license has even heard of. I know I’m woefully out of touch with the target audience but I still don’t see anything more than $5 or $6 million.
Paramount throws respectability out the window with “The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard” and opens it on 1,500 screens or so. Jeremy Piven hasn’t headlined a comedy since the “PCU” days, so let’s assume his box office clout is a little rusty and give it $4 million.
Finally, Disney gets aggressive with “Ponyo” by releasing it on 800 screens whereas the studio’s three other Miyazaki films all opened on less than 40. Each of them had trouble when they reached that kind of saturation so I think $4 million would be a good result here. Anything less will severely dent those Best Animated Feature chances in such a crowded year.
What do you guys think? Here are the weekend’s top domestic grossers, courtesy of Exhibitor Relations:
22 responses so far
1 8-09-2009 at 10:35 am
KBJr. said...
Loved ‘Julie & Julia’…disappointed by the weekend take. Not surprised (given when I went on Friday @ 9:55pm, 3/4 of the theater was empty)…
Hopefully it will spring legs and at least bank 70 million, because Streep as Child was fantastic!
G.I. Joe looked like a dud to me, and despite its solid opening, I think it’ll fall hard during the weeks to come.
2 8-09-2009 at 10:36 am
James D. said...
I saw (500) Days of Summer, which was surprisingly above average.
3 8-09-2009 at 10:52 am
Chase Kahn said...
I’ve argued with Chad on this already, but in my opinion, “500 Days of Summer” is one of those hipster-credibility films that, on the surface, looks quirky, annoyingly fresh and gimmicky with a soundtrack that everyone will buy and pass it around.
But underneath, I think there’s a lot going on that makes it better than it has any right to be.
4 8-09-2009 at 11:07 am
j said...
I’m guessing Julia will end up around 100. I think Time Traveler’s Wife will open about on par; it was #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for awhile; now #1 (and also #10) are Julia Child. Julie’s book is #33.
District 9 currently has an 85 on BFCA and 8.1 on RT. Bandslam…also has an 85 on BFCA.
Looking up $, while since he hit it big, Miyazaki’s movies have made over $700 million worldwide, they’ve made about $17 mil in the US. While Ponyo is slight in a cute way, it’s far better than most movies I’ve seen recently.
I like the title.
5 8-09-2009 at 11:07 am
James D. said...
I agree with you, Chase. I had already pre-hated the film before I entered the theater, expecting another Garden State or Juno, but I was very pleased. I think it owes a bit too much to Annie Hall, but that does not make it any less enjoyable. I freely admit to squealing with joy when they were listening to Carla Bruni’s Quel’quen m’a dit.
6 8-09-2009 at 12:05 pm
davidraider88 said...
Chad might be the youngest curmudgeon I’ve ever seen…
7 8-09-2009 at 12:17 pm
red_wine said...
Whats the point of withholding a movie from critics. I think it has been obvious this year and specially after Transformers 2 that general audiences don’t give a shit about what critics say. Everyone knew that G.I.Joe was gonna be slaughtered, I think it just amounts to false pretensions by the studio, delaying the slaughter by a few days.
8 8-09-2009 at 12:20 pm
Amanda said...
Really liked Julie/Julia. I enjoyed both stories. I dont think I could have watched just the Meryl part for 2.5 hours though as some people have said. It would have started to annoy me. It was good balance of both.
9 8-09-2009 at 1:04 pm
Chad Hartigan said...
red_wine- By your rational we could just as easily ask, “What’s the point of showing a movie to critics?”
10 8-09-2009 at 1:19 pm
red_wine said...
I was actually saying the opposite, show the movie to the critics and be done with, it won’t affect your box office at all.
Film criticism is extremely important but with little effect on business.
11 8-09-2009 at 1:26 pm
Jonathan Spuij said...
No, this was a smart move from Paramount, it payed out. It couldn’t have been better, only worse.
The movie will fall though 60-70% in its second weekend perhaps like it should. I certainly hope it does!
12 8-09-2009 at 1:31 pm
Matthew said...
(500) Days of Summer wasn’t even quirky really. I loved the movie, one of my favorites so far in the year. I never really understood people labeling it quirky. They all seem like normal people in the movie. Could someone please explain why it’s apparently quirky?
13 8-09-2009 at 1:43 pm
James D. said...
Matthew, the “quirky” title probably comes from the music choice, indie queen Zooey Deschanel, and the color scheme in the promotions. It screams Juno and Garden State.
14 8-09-2009 at 1:48 pm
Chad Hartigan said...
I’ll agree that the term “quirky” has lost its specific meaning and is used as a general pejorative (at least by me) but in this case, it’s the filmmaking that’s the culprit, not necessarily the characters. Musical numbers with animated birds, illustrated interstitial title cards, narration etc.
15 8-09-2009 at 2:04 pm
Georgie said...
James D. is right, it looked surface quirky but it wasn’t at all. Like Garden State and Juno are great meditations on how life hurts [and I will love them despite the fact that it is becoming very popular to hate them because of the soundtrack], but (500) Days of Summer was just brutal in dealing with love. I had heard that guys would hate Summer but I didn’t hate her… and then she was back at the park.
I also loved the little ‘music video’ quirks that Marc Webb threw in.
Away We Go and (500) Days of Summer have both suffered from Juno backlash and I think that’s rather unfortunate…
16 8-09-2009 at 2:06 pm
Chase Kahn said...
Of course “500 Days of Summer” is quirky. It has hand-drawn titles, a funny-sounding narrator, split-screen, a musical number, the characters look like they all shop at Urban Outfitters, Tom’s little psychologist sister, etc, etc.
It doesn’t make it any less of a good film, but it’s definitely quirky.
17 8-09-2009 at 2:08 pm
Chase Kahn said...
Well, I’ll go there with “500 Days of Summer”, but “Away We Go” — despite being really funny at times — is a very convoluted, phony and sentimental film. I can’t defend that.
18 8-09-2009 at 2:16 pm
Georgie said...
The definition of quirky for a lot of people is IT’S LIKE JUNO THEREFORE IT’S HIPSTER/PRETENTIOUS AND THEREFORE IT SUCKS… that’s why I defend it as not quirky.
But yes, it is quirky… and I loved the split screen and the musical number.
19 8-09-2009 at 3:57 pm
Hans said...
Half of J/J’s $20 million MUST have been at the theatre where I work. The elderly of my county descended EN MASSE to watch this, nearly selling out every show. Except the late shows, of course.
20 8-09-2009 at 4:51 pm
Kyle said...
Saw Julie and Julia this weekend, as well as The Hurt Locker…sadly, I enjoyed neither…
J&J was completely lifeless when Meryl Streep wasn’t on the screen, and The Hurt Locker just did very little to hold my interest.
21 8-09-2009 at 6:30 pm
BobMcBob said...
Sienna Miller + Rachel Nichols = 4 nice butt cheeks
22 8-09-2009 at 8:45 pm
Joel said...
Saw G.I. Joe over the weekend and really liked it, but I’m the guy who found Transformers 2 one of the best films this year. I loved the spirit of G.I. Joe’s action sequences above everything else.
Saw (500) Days of Summer tonight finally and was astounded. Everything about it was perfect. Reminded me of Elizabethtown in that respect, or Penelope.