From ew, Hollywood’s autumn blues continued as the box office trailed 2010 for the fourth week in a row. Thanks to the surprisingly soft debuts of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, this weekend’s top dozen movies earned about 13 percent less than last year’s. Luckily, next week brings us The Adventures of Tintin, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, We Bought a Zoo, and the wide expansion of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. If those movies can’t lift the business out of the gutter, then Hollywood better start revising its New Year’s resolutions.
Warner Bros.’ Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, won the weekend with an estimated $40 million. That’s a steep drop from the 2009 original, which debuted to $62.3 million. It’s worth pointing out that the first movie opened on Christmas Day weekend, which helped to inflate its numbers. A Game of Shadows, on the other hand, opted for the weekend before Christmas — a much tougher frame due to the fact that many moviegoers are currently occupied with holiday preparations.
Still, most box-office prognosticators thought the $125 million sequel would at least generate $50 million this weekend. The PG-13 movie, which received middling reviews, will now have to hope it has sturdy legs throughout the holiday. One good sign is that A Game of Shadows received an “A-” grade from CinemaScore audiences, so word of mouth should be positive. As expected, the film skewed male, with men making up 59 percent of the audience. Also, as has been the case with many big movies this year, A Game of Shadows had trouble attracting younger moviegoers. Only 32 percent of its audience was under the age of 25.
Full report here
5 comments:
Watching them continue to totally fuck up Sherlock Holmes for the largest possible audience is like an ongoing slow-motion car crash.
Yeah, I think it's shameful that they even call it 'Sherlock Holmes'. It's just cotton candy escapism under the guise of Doyle's stories.
I should clarify that I'm a HUGE Sherlock Holmes fan. I strongly recommend the new British series "Sherlock" (which moves Holmes and Watson to contemporary London and yet manages to be more faithful to Conan Doyle than any other adaptation I've seen).
You could simply remove the name "Sherlock Holmes" from the new films and just call it something else. They don't resemble the original stories at all.
likewise, jordan; tried to watch the 2009 sherlock holmes movie and bailed after five minutes. also love british "sherlock" and hope they keep up the quality going forward.
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