Box Office: "New Year's Eve" Drops Its Ball & a Milestone for "The Help"
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 6:30PM Despite overloading with stars, some more bankable than others, New Year's Eve didn't exactly get moviegoers partying. Might this be an end to Garry Marshall's holiday franchise. Since he's working backwards chronologically given that he started with Valentine's Day, one supposed Christmas was going to be next.
Trivia Note: This is Michelle Pfeiffer's second "Ingrid". One assumes the first one (White Oleander) wouldn't like this mousy character too much!Box Office (U.S.) Baker's Dozen
01 NEW YEAR'S EVE new $13
02 THE SITTER new $9.8
03 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 $7.8 (cum $259.4)
04 THE MUPPETS new $6.9 (cum $65.7)
05 ARTHUR CHRISTMAS new $6.5 (cum $33.4)
06 HUGO new $6 [Scorsese & Team] (cum $33.4)
07 THE DESCENDANTS $4.3 [Michael's review] (cum. $23.6)
08 HAPPY FEET TWO $3.6 (cum. $56.7)
09 JACK AND JILL $3 (cum. $68.5)
10 THE IMMORTALS $2.4 (cum. $79.8)
11 TOWER HEIST $2.3 (cum. $74.1)
12 PUSS IN BOOTS $1.6 (cum. $141.8)
13 J EDGAR $1.1 [Nathaniel's review] (cum $34.7)
Talking Points
• Young Adult and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy started off in teensy-tiny release (sigh. why must so many movies do this?) garnering solid per screen averages... especially Tinker Tailor. That fake out release for We Need To Talk About Kevin (Oscar qualifying) also had fairly full houses though it'll be removed from theaters next weekend just as its gaining steam. Sigh.
• The Weinstein Co is obviously keeping The Artist very close to their vest grooming it for an Oscar explosion. Despite promising first two week numbers it added only 10 new screens and is inching towards $1 million. Will the caution pay off or smother its ignitability with crowds?
• Despite a good week of awardage, Margin Call seems to be on its last legs creeping towards a $5 million gross in its 8th weekend.
• And believe it or not, The Help -- currently in the thick of Oscar campaigning and DVD releasing -- finally crawled past Bridesmaids this weekend to become the single biggest unexpected blockbuster of the year, 11th for the year overall and the 2nd biggest female led film (after Bella's wedding of course).
Sadly, The Helps #11 finish means the top ten this year is ONLY franchises. All original films were shut out which is basically the movie version of coal in the stocking of future moviegoers. Alas, we do it to ourselves! Such is the stagnating power of habit and pre-sold entertainments. No originals? DANGER. DANGER. Stop sending this message to Hollywood. If a franchise is getting weak, skip its next installment! Wait for the DVD.
New Year's Eve, The Help, box office
Reader Comments (7)
That's the thing: What grosses both matters and doesn't. It matters because too many franchises in the top ten chokes out original ideas and if franchises keep taking up pluralities of the top ten, the film culture becomes absolutely boring. It doesn't matter because the great films get sifted out and the bad everything gets forgotten, whether prestigious or trashy. And also: The culture shift toward franchises is endemic of a continuing and growing obsession of following plot over aesthetics and full thematic statements. I acknowledge plotting is important in some cases, but, to me, even the most well plotted film that's bereft of visual or linguistic metaphor is BORING. Best example: 1. Thor. A movie about mythological figures should be ripe for such a brave and daring approach. Nope. We get the blandest origin story ever. The only new superhero franchise I'm looking forward to in the foreseeable future is Ant-Man. It's the first time a director has decided to bite into a legacy hero and I hope the results are impressive. Probable length: As there's three Ant-Men now (Henry Pym, Scott Lang, Eric O'Grady), I'd say the thing might be very long for a commercial movie at three and a half zippy and hyper kinetic Edgar Wright hours.
At least Michelle's in a number one movie! There's a bright side to this horror which is Gary Marshall's continued directoral career.
Oh crap, I didn't know that about We Need to Talk About Kevin. One week qualifying runs are such a pain in the ass.
So sick of this limited release B.S. We adults who don't live in major cities have nothing to watch for MONTHS and then bang! they will all expand at the same time. Who is in charge of such stupidity?
Entertainment Weekly has posted an interesting article on its website about the past weekend's box office (see link below). Well, it's more the commenters' thoughts than the write up itself. They express some of the same gripes that are often discussed here.
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/12/12/box-office-new-years-eve-tinker-tailor/
hm...not very good films are now one film that i like this is anonymity!
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