Box Office: Green Seeking Green
Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:01PM It takes money to make money. But in some cases, green seeking green cannot ever find enough of it. Warner Bros and DC bet big on Green Lantern shelling out $200 million for production and another $125 million in advertising to build awareness but the $53 million opening is not going to convince anyone to greenlight (haha) a sequel. Unless the Lantern Corps has legs. Three fantastical f/x movies opening soon Transformers, Harry Potter and Captain America are probably feeling like huge Yellow villains to Hal Jordan at this point. Maybe he shouldn't have played it so smug and arrogant?
HIS CONSTRUCTS ARE WEAK!
U.S. Box-Office (Actuals)
figures via box office mojo
01 GREEN LANTERN new $53.1 [review]
02 SUPER 8 $21.4 [thoughts] (cum. $73)
03 MR POPPER'S PENGUINS new $18.4
04 X-MEN FIRST CLASS $11.9 (cum. $120.3) [review, top ten X-moments]
05 THE HANGOVER PT II $10 (cum. $233.1)
06 KUNG FU PANDA 2 $9 (cum. $143.6)
07 BRIDESMAIDS $7 (cum. $136.4) ♥
08 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES $6.6 (cum. $220.7) [review]
09 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS $4.8 (cum. $21.4) [podcast]
10 JUDY MOODY AND THE NOT BUMMER SUMMER $2.1 (cum. $11)
11 THE TREE OF LIFE $1.1 (cum. $3.9) [My thoughts and "Overheard"]
12 THOR $1.1 (cum. $176.1) [review]
In other box office news: Midnight in Paris (just discussed) will become Woody Allen's highest grosser since the 1980s this week. Bridesmaids continues to have miniscule drops each week and I suspect it'll have the longest top ten run this entire summer. And aside from the documentary smash Fahrenheit 9/11, The Tree of Life is the biggest grossing Palme D'Or winner from the past several years.
What did you see over the weekend? Did you love it?
Reader Comments (11)
I hope the studios realize after the relative failure of Green Lantern that they've run out of comic book characters that anyone aside from serious fanboys truly care about. After Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and some of the X-Men, there's not a lot there to interest Joe Average.
Mike-I hope they realize that they need to watch the budget on those comic book characters-otherwise we'll see reboots, sequels, and prequels of only those four properties. The Green Lantern is a classic comic book character and a decent film subject, but they needed to A) make a better movie and B) not spend $300 millon on an unknown subject.
I don't think the B-list and below comics characters are remotely unmarketable if done right; they may be less familiar to audiences, but at most that just makes them like an original property. Films will succeed or fail on their own merits, ultimately.
Blade is C-list at best, but he had a trilogy that more or less jumpstarted the current wave. Iron Man wasn't really considered an A-lister until the current movies.
John T -- agreed. i mean, spending that much money is insane ... even if it's Batman. The more you spend the less chance you have of profits. I still mantain that Green Lantern Corps would have worked MUCH better as a sci-fi television series... it's a ridiculous enough concept that it needed the grounding slow burn familiarity and mythology-friendly medium of television.
Mike -- you're right. i think we're seeing a glut in the market. A great movie could overcome that but this is not a great movie.
SC, films might succeed on their own merits if they aren't being released in an oversaturated market, but that's not the case here. Blade and Green Lantern aren't comparable because they were released in radically different environments. Also, the third Blade movie (the one they spent the most money on, and incidentally the one with Ryan Reynolds in it) flopped.
Come to think of it, the most disappointing box office for an X-Men film came from Wolverine, which costarred Ryan Reynolds. Maybe the lesson here is, "Don't cast Ryan Reynolds in your
comic bookfilm."I saw Super 8 which, as many have noted, starts off quite well and just kind of shrivels away as it goes along. The "I understand the monster/alien because he's JUST LIKE ME!" moment at the end was particularly cheap and unearned, as was the faux-transcendent ending as a whole.
Also saw Midnight In Paris, which was good and charming, and owes much to the charms of Owen Wilson, who helps paper over some predictably half assed screenwriting, especially late in the film. But it's pretty funny that some people are inevitably flipping for it as Woody's best since [insert preferred 80s classic here]. I wouldn't even say MiP is my favorite Woody of the last five years, let alone twenty, thirty or forty!
Btw, I realize I'm weeks late to the discussion on both those movies, so never mind. :)
On another blog recently someone was pointing out that this was the first summer in a long time without any obvious bombs, either among movies already released or those looming on the horizon. A $50 million opening for Green Lantern, I think, qualifies. It'll be lucky to top $130 million at that level. If it makes $300 million worldwide it'll be at a $160 million loss off theatrical - a disaster by any standard. Good thing Hangover 2 has already raked it in and Harry Potter is coming 'round the bend or there'd probably be heads rolling at Warner Brothers.
Mike -- how was X-Men Origins: Wolverine gross disappointing ? Rarely have i seen a film so entirely without merit do that well. and it earned nearly $400 million worldwide which is more than the first X-Men movie.
I had no intention of seeing No Strings Attached, but...I'm sooo glad I did this weekend. Truly funny, great chemistry between Portman (worthy of a comedy Globe nod) and Kutcher (he's so purdy and sweet in this film), fantastic supporting cast (Kevin Kline, Lake Bell, Greta Gerwig, Ophelia Livibond), surprisingly touching...I liked it so damn much I watched it twice.
And I finally caught Get Low...whoaaaa! Duvall was SNUH-UBBED by the Academy! I knew he had some awards heat, but I did not expect that. Beautiful film and performance.
Nathaniel, I saw The Runaways...so worthy of all your Film Bitch tech and craft noms...Dakota had some great moments...but she wasn't dirty and grimy enough in the performance scenes...the scene where she curses out the cashier who won't sell her liquor is high camp! And I've decided Kristen Stewart is a better actor when she doesn't speak. She's got a great look and she has the right amount of edge for the role, but her acting is collegiate. Oy!
Oh, I mean in terms of the way the grosses for the series were rising--Origins was a big step backwards. It made a ton, certainly. But it didn't have the staying power of the first film, and if you adjust for inflation, Wolverine didn't make as much as the first one. I guess "flop" is too strong a word. "Beginning of a downward trend" is more accurate.
At SF's queer film fest this weekend: I saw "Weekend" and LOVED it. a nice gay rom-com that will definitely remind you of "Before Sunrise" but with a lot more drugs and more hot realistic-looking sex.
Seth -- i loved that, too. Excited to see it get a real release whenever that happens.