Box Office: Bella Marries but We're Totally Team George
Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 5:29PM Twi-hards RSVP'ed to their beloved franchise's wedding, giving Twilight's fourth film a box office weekend as bloated as its romantic angst and running time. George Clooney's Oscar bid (aka The Descendants) also saw very enthusiastic attendance. It's only in 29 theaters and still managed to crack the top ten (!), suggesting a future all lucrative like the family's in the movie (who happen to own gazillions worth of Hawaiian real estate).
Box Office (U.S.) Top Ten -Estimates
01 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 new $139.5
02 HAPPY FEET TWO new $22
03 IMMORTALS $12.2 (cum. $52.9)
04 JACK AND JILL $12 (cum. $41)
05 PUSS IN BOOTS $10.7 (cum. $122.3)
06 TOWER HEIST $7 (cum. $53.4)
07 J EDGAR new $5.9 [review] (cum $20.6)
08 A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR 3D CHRISTMAS new $2.9 (cum $28.3)
09 IN TIME $1.7 (cum. $33.4)
10 THE DESCENDANTS new $1.2 (cum. $1.3)
One Final Talking Point
Remember when we were wondering if The Help (#11 of the year) could overtake Bridesmaids (#10) to land in the US top ten of the year? It's still trying. The Help is still in theaters (under 400) and is now just $900,000 behind the other female driven smash featuring poo jokes. The only similarly intense and weirdly close battle for yearly "rank" bragging rights is between Captain America (#8) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (#9) with less than $300,000 separating their takes; no poo jokes unite them but they do share super serum injections.
What did you see this weekend? Or are you saving your pennies for the awesome cavalcade of pictures opening for Thanksgiving. So many goodies opening for the holiday.
Happy Feet, The Descendants, Twilight, box office
Reader Comments (15)
I saw The Descendants today. It felt obvious at times, wasn't the most original film and went on too long but it was effective. Not in my top ten of the year but certainly a good film.
i live in france so i saw MoneyBall (it's totally abstruse for me),Intouchables(a french comedy with Francois Cluzet & Omar Sy)),50/50 and Mon Pire Cauchemar(with Isabelle Huppert & Poelvoorde by Anne Fontaine:not her best movie)
I know I'm a little early, but looking forward to next weekend, I see "The Muppets," "Hugo," and "Arthur Christmas" opening. Does anyone else find that completely insane? I know that kids have off of school on Friday, but seriously, those movies are all aiming for virtually the same audience, and there's no way that audience is going to be able to support all three titles. I foresee at least two of them (most likely "Hugo" and "Arthur") flopping hard.
Sorry to be so negative, but what a scheduling clusterfuck. Whose idea was that?
There's a forth Twilight? I thought the novels were a trilogy? (Shows how much I care.)
Janice --- Try a fifth. The last book was divided in two. Like Harry Potter. Yikes.
Watched 'La Piel Que Habito' this weekend. Not top-notch Almodovar (that'll be, for me, 'La Mala Educación', 'Todo Sobre Mi Madre' and 'Hable con Ella') but superior to 'La Lei Del Deseo' and 'Volver' for me).
Saw Melancholia. Found it really engaging, but I need to see it again, preferably in a full-size theater.
moneyball - so not a baseball film (thank god) much more of a management film (if that's a recognized genre). pitt is excellent but so are hill and seymour hoffman. aaron sorkin is a god.
I saw Weekend. It's my favorite movie of '11 so far.
I saw Martha Marcy May Marlene. FANTASTIC!!! Best film I've seen this year! Engrossing, completley had me on my toes. The performances were fantastic. Elizabeth gave a believable interesting, natural torment performance. John Hawkes was superb in a small, but scene haunting role that a lesser actor would have made odd. Sarah Paulson was right on the money, and Dancy was great as well, adding such a typical mindset to the story. The way it was shot and felt seemed European and scary. I really really really liked it. It was what I wanted Winter's Bone to be like. Only MMMM was WAY better. :-)
It was between THE DESCENDANTS (for the Oscar buzz) or IMMORTALS (for the pretty boys). Ended up seeing neither choosing instead to save the money up for next week where it seems I have like seven films I want to see opening up (Muppets, Artist, Hugo, Marilyn, Dangerous Method, Rampart, Arthur). DAMN. The glut is happening and my wallet is already screaming.
I saw Moneyball. It was number 1 in Australia before Twilight pushed it out.
Australians mostly like sport but don't know baseball. I realised that I was relying on the music score to tell me when it was an important or tense part of a game. Unlike Americans, Australian don't know how it will end so it does have extra tension.I still don't know what the last game of the season was or why it was so important but I liked the film anyway.
B-/C+ for "The Descendants," Nathaniel? Wow- I'll be looking forward to reading that review.
I saw Melancholia and actually thought it was fun, which I'm pretty sure was not the effect von Trier intended to have on me. The planet plot was great, but there were lots of loose ends that felt like they were added in to give a faux-arty effect. Also, I preferred Charlotte Gainsbourg to Kirsten Dunst. Justine made no sense to me and I don't feel like Kirsten provided any clarification.
Also saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch for the first time this weekend. Why can't John Cameron Mitchell act more often?
My bet is that, if two of them flop, it's Hugo and The Muppets, though I'd lean on Hugo being the relative failure. I don't think Arthur Christmas will flop because, well, it's a month to Christmas and sentiment would help secure it, even if it isn't quite as good as the other two. Estimate: $250-400 million worldwide. I don't think The Muppets will flop because it has some very positive reviews (currently every review out is positive) and it is a recognizable brand. Having both means the business WILL be good. Lest we forget: The Smurfs, with 23% RT score, grossed 559 million worldwide and $141 million domestic. Estimate for The Muppets based on that: Anywhere from $350-800 million worldwide. Estimate for Hugo: The great reviews and Scorsese's name will both help bolster gross and I know it won't be a Heaven's Gate style disaster, but I can't see it getting beyond double it's budget (a very high $170 million) even on a worldwide context. I'd say it'll gross anywhere from $220-310 million and maybe eventually earn the studio a bit of money once DVD sales are taken into account.
Saw J. Edgar and Bridesmaids. J. Edgar is, like most recent Eastwood movies, problematic but also very moving in the end - if, of course, you can get past the problematic parts. The knee jerk criticms of color scheme is especially off point here - you can criticize the uniformity of his visual style, I suppose (though why Eastwood catches particular heat about this versus other established auteurs who are just as stuck in a rut, visually) but it is highly appropriate and effective in this context.
Meanwhile, Bridesmaids is a great, tight 90 minute comedy bloated out to 125 minutes in the typical Apatow house style. Wiig and the rest of the ladies are fantastic (not enough of the ladies, too much of WIig and her cop suitor, if you ask me!), but Feig's direction is sluggish and uninspired, the writing is totally conventional, and there's not a single scene in the film that isn't too long. Which is a shame, because the raw material here is pure gold.
Looking forward to catching The Descendents and Muppets this week.