In Contention

Tag: A Nightmare on Elm Street

  • SUNDAY CENTS: The ‘Iron’ is still hot

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    “Iron Man 2” landed with a softer than expected $133.6 million to easily win the weekend. Now, is it even possible for $133.6 million to ever be disappointing? That’s the ninth biggest opening weekend of all time for crying out loud. Plus the film has already racked up more than $300 million worldwide so there is no danger of it not being extremely profitable for Paramount. Still, I think this just about the bare minimum it could have possibly made without raising some eyebrows. The original film opened on the same week two years ago to $109.2 million, which at the time made it the third biggest debut ever for a non-sequel.

    Being as popular as it was, a bigger debut for the sequel was an absolute requirement. Films in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Shrek” franchises took enormous leaps from the debuts of their first film to second, but to be fair, those original films both opened with much more modest numbers than the first “Iron Man.” With “Spider-Man 3” proving that you can open in the beginning of May and earn more than $150 million without breaking a sweat, there’s really no reason why “Iron Man 2” shouldn’t have done the same.

    There’s certainly no competition. They brought back all the ingredients that made the first film likable (except no one will mind if we replace the black guy, right?). Some might be quick to say the lack of 3D hurt it, but that’s nonsense. Whatever the case, I’d now say that surpassing the $352.6 million of the original is not a foregone conclusion and ending the summer as the number one film is also unlikely. Your move, “Twilight!”

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Steady Krueger

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    26 years ago, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” opened to $2.9 million on 165 screens and enjoyed healthy word of mouth to reach $55.5 million total, putting Wes Craven and New Line Cinema on the map in the process. Now New Line is owned by Warner Bros. and Wes Craven is back to milking a different old cash cow, but Freddy Krueger has made his way back to the silver screen. Jackie Earle Haley takes over for Robert Englund and audiences showed enough interest to cough up $32.2 million to check it out.

    That’s better than the $29.2 million of “Halloween,” but not quite as good as the $35.5 million of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Word of mouth is almost guaranteed to be poisonous and it may as well not exist when “Iron Man 2” opens next week so I’d consider it a success if the film can make $60 million total. That should still be profitable for Warner Bros. and ensure at least six or seven sequels.

    The only other new release was “Furry Vengeance,” which took fifth place and $6.5 million. It’s too depressing to even dedicate a few minutes trying thinking of a joke for this movie. I actually think “Cruel Intentions” and “Just Friends” are better than they should be so it’s a shame to see Roger Kumble fall so far. He was probably my favorite hack director, but now he’s lost me.

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  • FRIDAY FORECAST: Your worst ‘Nightmare’

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    The summer movie season doesn’t officially start until next weekend, but Warner Bros. aims to get a jump on things by releasing their high profile horror remake, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” before the storm. By all accounts, it should work, as horror audiences have proven time and again that they’ll fork over their money to see any movie they previously liked redone with slightly darker lighting, slightly less imagination and infinitely more budget money.

    I once thought that this particular remake was doomed because unlike the Jason or Halloween franchises, the iconic central character was tied to one actor and fickle audiences might not respond to any recasting. Of course, this was ridiculous thinking on my part and this film will be bigger than either of those other reboots. At least on opening weekend. “Friday the 13th” made $41.4 million on its opening weekend last year, with the help of Monday being a holiday and I think we can look for something similar here. And hundreds of lazy hipsters who already own striped red sweaters have locked down their Halloween costumes.

    I think the next horror flick to get a remake should be “April Fool’s Day.” That thing scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. Or “The Peanut Butter Solution,” which isn’t a horror film but something that still haunts me to this day. His hair just grows and grows!

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  • Revamping ‘Elm Street’

  • The intersection, nay, collision of art and commerce

    (from left) David Fincher and Sigourney Weaver on the set of Alien 3This morning has been quite the disenchanting read on the internet.  Everywhere I turn, it’s all the same content: “Nightmare on Elm Street” set visit reports, ogling nothing images released from “Iron Man 2,” Comic-Con preparations with the requisite trappings, “OMG, Sam Raimi’s gonna direct ‘World of Warcraft,’” etc.  Bleak indeed.  It seems to be an ever-growing symptom of the net as studios, more than ever, understand how to use various outlets as an extended mouthpiece.

    That mini-rant out of the way (apologies for that), I was nevertheless excited to stumble across — shock and awe — some intriguing exclusive content.  Over at Filmonic, the discussion of the economy’s affect on studio decisions has reared its head in the form of a retrospective on David Fincher’s trials and tribulations putting together “Alien 3” at 20th Century Fox.  It’s a nice summation of what went down (for the most part), with particular emphasis on the lingering anxiety over how today’s environment will hinder some of the talented new filmmakers in our midst.

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  • Take the money and run, part two

    Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las VegasJust a few days after I bemoaned the fact that an actor of Jackie Earle Haley’s calibre must resort to headlining a retread of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” comes even more depressing news.

    Almost fifteen years after collecting an Oscar nomination for a performance that most actresses would find to be career-making, poor Elisabeth Shue is reduced to starring in Alexandre Aja’s remake of “Piranha.” In 3-D, mind you.

    Shue’s career trajectory, post-“Leaving Las Vegas,” has long been a mystery to me: beautiful, well-liked ingenue with a decent commercial track record finally gets a chance to show her serious dramatic chops, is duly recognised for her efforts, and then … nothing, save the obligatory Woody Allen ensemble slot, some window-dressing in a few flop action flicks, and now the chance to work with the creative force behind “Switchblade Romance” and “The Hills Have Eyes.” (The remake, of course.) Lucky lady.

    Somebody stop the madness. Or the remakes. Whichever comes first.

  • Take the money and run

    Jackie Earle Haley in Little ChildrenJackie Earle Haley’s recently resuscitated career is a textbook example of how true the banal platitude “the nomination is the reward” can sometimes be. Prior to 2006, the former child star hadn’t made a film for 13 years; one devastating performance (in Todd Field’s undervalued “Little Children”), a smattering of critics’ awards and a richly deserved Oscar nomination later, he’s a steadily working character actor with a reasonably high-profile slate of projects to his name.

    Sure, “Watchmen” may not have panned out all that well, but it was a pretty amazing get for a 47 year-old non-star — and his performance is deemed by many to be the embattled film’s brightest spot. And getting to work with Scorsese in “Shutter Island” is none too shabby either, I would imagine. So when people say that awards are inconsequential, I’m sure the likes of Haley might beg to differ.

    So it was with mixed feelings that I read the news that Haley is taking on the role of Freddy Krueger in New Line’s upcoming reboot of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise. On the one hand, it’s nice for the thesp to get to be the centrepiece of a project for a change, and a potentially profitable one at that; on the other, surely yet another remake of an iconic horror title is good news for precisely no one else. When will this particularly lazy trend run out of steam?

    I understand that an actor of Haley’s age, appearance and profile probably doesn’t have a wealth of tempting projects to choose from, but it’s a little grim that a gifted actor has to resort to this. Here’s hoping there are more  Fields and Scorseses in his future yet.