From Darkhorizons, "Whilst Hollywood's 'tracking' figures have been off much of this Summer, their predictions of a soft opening for the much hyped "Snakes on a Plane" proved more correct than even they surmised. The Sam Jackson starrer generated just $13.9 million at the box-office this weekend, coming in second behind a three week old Will Ferrell comedy.
Maybe it was the hype which bloomed too early, maybe it was the late August opening which guarantees a weak start, and maybe the recent terror scare and Draconian security measures that came along with it turned people off movies involving planes. Whatever the case, the finger pointing and attempts at justification will now begin in blogs and editorials everywhere.
After all, for your average $30 million action thriller it's a disappointing opening. For one so talked about though, it's a crushing blow. The online hype was far more intense than most films of this calibre, and the actual concept has become a part of the cultural vernacular, yet traditional forms of the film's publicity (posters, trailers) were all low-key and disappointing which probably contributed a lot. Expect the film to quickly vanish from theatres but earn a nice dividend for New Line in the video/DVD market.
The 'Snakes' did a tad better than Justin Long comedy "Accepted" which had a more average $10 million opening. The collegiate comedy was hurt by a last minute delay of one week in its release, lack of star power, and rather run-of-the-mill concept. It performed better than Hilary & Hayley Duff snoozer "Material Girls" whose $4.6 million opening failed to reach even the low expectations of the studio.
"Talladega Nights" continues to hold well in its third weekend, dropping just 36% and comfortably clearing the $100 million mark. The smallest drop was the much panned "Barnyard" which fell just 22%, the toddler market is keeping that film chugging along it seems. "Pirates" still keeps declining comfortably at a rate of 30.8% this week, and officially passed the $400 million mark on Sunday.
"World Trade Center" held the best of last week's entries, falling a decent 42.3% whilst superhero family film flop "Zoom" (down 46%) fared better than "Step Up" (-52%) or "Pulse" (-57%). "Little Miss Sunshine" expanded into more theatres, nabbed a #7 spot, and landed an $8,212 per screen average, triple that of most other films in the top ten.
Sundance flicks "The Illusionist" and "Half Nelson" fared the best on the limited front, taking in around $18,000 per screen averages in their limited runs. The former opened on a mere 51 screens and fared better than expected. Other limited releases this week were Matt Dillion drama "Factotum" with an alright $10,133 average, and David Duchovny/Julianne Moore romance comedy "Trust the Man" which bombed with a mere $4,631 average on 30 screens."
1 comment:
Oh well. I caught it Friday night and wished I was in a packed theater with more people yelling. Some people were shouting stuff, me included, but it was a bit more subdued.
The movie was fun; the biggest problem was the fakeyness of the snakes. Fakes on a plane! Okay, sorry.
I'll maybe write a bit of a review later.
Post a Comment