By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/27/2016
From THR, the victory that WB so desperately needed after a fairly bleak 2015 has come, as the studio reports that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be raking in an estimated $170.1 million dollars this weekend. Snyder’s film, which currently stands at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, defied its critics with the #6 all-time […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/17/2016
We're talking comic book movies on this week's Podcorn Podcast!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/19/2015
After a painfully long production process, Marvel’s smallest big-screen hero has finally arrived, and according to studio estimates (which could see some adjustment by Monday morning) Ant-Man is looking at about a $58 million domestic haul.
For what it’s worth, that’s the second lowest debut for a Marvel Studios picture, just shy of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk opening to $55 million and on the low end of Marvel’s projections for the property.
Ant-Man was always a bit of a dicey proposition for Marvel; he’s a little-known “C-list” hero, and while I doubt most members of the general audience know Edgar Wright from Edgar Bergen, there had been a certain level of tough buzz surrounding the production of the film due to Wright’s storied exit just before shooting was to begin in Atlanta.
Strangely enough, Guardians of the Galaxy was seen as an equally tough sell and opened in a worse month (August), yet it thrived. Both films had an “A” Cinemascore, the not terribly scientific polling of audience-goers who actually attend these screenings, so they were equally well received.
So why did Guardians thrive in its opening weekend (at $94.3 million) where Ant-Man failed to reach similar heights? If I had to guess, marketing was likely the key issue. It never seemed as though the studio knew how to actually sell the picture. Was it a fun romp for families? Was it a 20’s-30’s male leaning comedic affair? And Marvel’s last-minute attempt at stressing the connections to their shared cinematic universe with a number of ads to that effect didn’t really do the trick either.
That’s not to say $58 million is a flop by any means, because it’s not, particularly given Ant-Man‘s more modest $130 million budget (not counting whatever was sunk into marketing). But, this is a case of Marvel becoming a victim of their own success a bit. With each opening since 2010 ranging from $65-210 million, the inevitable film that hit below that was going to face some scrutiny.
It’s possible that Peyton Reed‘s newest directorial outing may find some legs in the coming weeks, and the international numbers are only now coming in ($56.4 million and counting), but as of now Ant-Man‘s “Avengers bump” is a bit non-existent it seems.
For the record, I don’t think if Wright stayed on as director it would have really done much, if any, better.
What did you think, readers? Was Ant-Man all you hoped it would be?
By: Jerry Beck,
on 2/21/2013
The Weinstein Company’s Escape from Planet Earth surprised many people by earning a robust $21.1 million over the four-day President’s Day holiday weekend. Its success was all the more surprising because the B-list kiddie pleaser didn’t have a huge marketing presence, wasn’t made by a name-brand studio, and didn’t seem to have wide appeal beyond its target demographic. But it benefited from a quiet period for family films, while managing to surpass the debuts of other CG space pics like the $12.3M opening of Planet 51 (2009) and the $6.9M opening of Mars Needs Moms (2011).
The Moviefone website has an in-depth piece discussing the film’s strong opening. In there, Stephen Bruno, the Weinstein Co.’s marketing president, explained how he approached the advertising for Escape from Planet Earth:
“[It] was focused on first presenting our core audience with a longer form look at the full story via in-theater trailers, advertisements, and long-lead digital placement. The television campaign was bifurcated to raise awareness and interest with parents and kids, through a six week flight that first aimed [to] re-introduce the concept, then highlight the comedy, and of course close with the exceptional voice cast.”
Bruno makes it sound easy, but the real proof will be if he can repeat this success with the next three Weinstein animated films planned for release this year.
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By: Jerry Beck,
on 10/8/2012
Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie debuted weakly last weekend in fifth place with $11.4 million. The opening is significantly lower than Burton’s last stop motion feature, The Corpse Bride, which debuted with $19.1M in 2005.
The opening of Frankenweenie concludes this year’s great stop motion experiment. It was the third major stop motion feature this year, following Aardman’s The Pirates!: Band of Misfits and Laika’s ParaNorman. None of the three films were able to crack a $15 million opening. In fact, no stop motion feature has ever had an opening north of $20 million. It begs the question, Are stop motion films simply incapable of grossing as much as CG or has no one ever made a stop motion film with mass audience appeal? In a year with more stop motion features than usual, it’s a question worth considering.
Meanwhile, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania is on its way to becoming one of Sony’s biggest animated hits. The film dipped a modest 36% in its second weekend, grossing $27.1M and pushing its U.S. total to $76.7M.
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By: Jerry Beck,
on 9/30/2012
The Genndy Tartakovsky-helmed Hotel Transylvania overcame overwhelmingly negative reviews to lead the U.S. box office with an opening weekend total of $43 million (estimated). It is the best opening weekend ever for a Sony Pictures Animation feature, topping the $30.3 million opening of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 2009.
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/13/2012
The juggernaut that is the Avengers movie (as opposed to the Juggernaut in the X-Men films) is still rolling. How did it do this weekend? The weekend box office estimates for the U.S. are for $103M. That brings the global total to $1,002,082,000. Marvel has to be feeling pretty good.
In the global market, Box Office Mojo has Avengers as the #11 film all-time. Bigger than any Marvel film before it. Bigger than Dark Knight. Bigger than all but the last Harry Potter. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t #6 or #7 all-time by next weekend. Granted, you’ve got some of the 3D screenings boosting the box office totals, but this is a very, very big film. Avengers has really captured the both the domestic and foreign markets in a way that relatively few films have.
This weekend’s $103M was a 50% drop-off from last weekend. That’s a relatively high drop-off, but then again, opening weekend was a record setter and you just don’t keep that up. Let’s say Avengers drops 50% at the weekend box office for the next 4 weekends. That would add roughly $95M to the Avengers coffers, for something in the neighborhood of $470M domestic box office dollars… and that’s not even counting ticket sales Monday through Thursday for the next month.
This is looking like a top 5 all time grossing film both internationally and domestically. Possibly top 3. It will be tough beating out Avatar and Titanic, but everything thing else seems possible.
The criticism of this movie is out of control. It’s actually pretty decent.
Mike
Critics be damned! Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was great fun. I loved the Dark Knight Returns references from the comic book as well as those from the Doomsday comics. Yes, it’s over the top, but what do you expect? I didn’t have high hopes for this one, but they truly delivered. And Diana, Wonder Woman, kicked ass!
The criticisms will likely only affect the movies staying power. The Hollywood Reporter indicated that more than 66 percent of ticket buyers were white, male and between the ages of 18-34. Only 6 percent were above the age of 44 and 3 percent over the age of 55.
This was DC’s largest salvo, opening everywhere at the same time (including China) on a holiday weekend and the first big blockbuster of the year with no competition.
I’m seeing fanboys talking about going 2, 3, sometimes 4 times during the weekend. That won’t keep up. That 29% RT rating, and other similar critical scores will likely eventually catch up with it.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-5-reasons-batman-878521
Agreed, they’ve also adjusted down, so the final tally is actually 166.1 million. Friday to Sunday was a huge drop-off.
Haven’t you heard that Marvel paid critics to pan this movie? That’s what fanboys are tweeting. They can’t imagine anyone honestly disliking any superhero movie. Fanboys don’t seem to have much contact with people outside their own bubble.
At least this is a switch from the usual fanboy position, which is that critics PRETEND to dislike superhero movies in order to impress their “hip” friends.
Film critic Matt Singer put it best, when he tweeted that “superhero fatigue” doesn’t mean critics think there should be fewer superhero movies. It means they want BETTER and MORE VARIED superhero movies.
” … more than 66 percent of ticket buyers were white, male and between the ages of 18-34.”
Sounds like the demographics of DC’s readership! No wonder their sales are in the toilet, with such a narrow range of people buying their comics.
“They can’t imagine anyone honestly disliking any superhero movie.”
Batman v. Superman has its problems, like Cavil being a complete and utter dud, but it’s far better than a true disaster like Green Lantern. It does seem like there’s a bit of piling on here.
Mike
[…] of the Brubaker/Phillips Partnership Great, Mostly Goofy World’s Finest Covers BATMAN v SUPERMAN looks to score WB’s biggest opening with $170.1 million Random Shadow Print Imagery The Black Callus Interviews: Tyler Landry Inhumans Pin-Ups By Jack […]
“It does seem like there’s a bit of piling on here.”
Yeah, it’s hard to believe that people actually hate garbage movies, right?
http://zharazhar.blogspot.co.id/2016/03/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-movie.html
It’s adult superhero movie every parent or adult people should reconsider themselves if they want to bring their children to watch this movie. Event for adult people themselves, it is uneasy to digest the messed up plot and story particularly for the casual viewers. It is inaccessible to them, they might don’t really understand some specific things, such as the opening movie scene that showed the closing moment of Man of Steal movie from Bruce Wayne’s perspective, the idea of the omega symbol during Bruce Wayne’s dream sequence which is a symbol of Darkseid. The one that explained by Lex Luthor in the end of the movie.