Box Office: An Expensive Lesson in Sequel Production
Monday, August 25, 2014 at 9:45AM Amir here, with the weekend’s box office report. Much like last week, the biggest story at the multiplex is the massive failure of a has-been brand. Then, it was the shrinking shoulders of 80s action heroes that could not bear the weight of a changing, modern world. Now, it is Frank Miller’s overly familiar aesthetic and the fading stars of Jessica Alba and crew. This catastrophe is of epic proportions. Budgeted around $70m, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For failed to make even 1/10th of its production costs back and fell behind the aforementioned Expendables 3. Reviews haven’t been kind and any affection for the original film has vanished in the intervening decade. You either have to suffocate the audiences with non-stop sequels and reboots before they know who’s hitting them, or they’ll forget you. That’s the lesson for Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller and one they have had to pay at least $50m dollars to learn.
The best selling wide release was also the weekend’s Film Amir Is Too Old To Watch, a romance starring Chloe Grace Moretz called If I Stay that didn’t have the muscle to take the throne from Guardians or Turtles, making this one of the year’s quieter weekends.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
01 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY $17.6 (cum. $251.8) Review
02 ...NINJA TURTLES $16.8 (cum. $145.6) remember the animated one?
03 IF I STAY $16.2 *new*
04 LET'S BE COPS $11 (cum. $45.2)
05 WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL $9 *new*
06 THE GIVER $6.7 (cum. $24.1) Review
07 THE EXPENDABLES 3 $6.6 (cum. $27.5) recommended read
08 SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR $6.4 *new*
09 THE HUNDRED FOOT JOURNEY $5.5 (cum. $32.7)
10 INTO THE STORM $3.8 (cum. $38.3)
11 LUCY $3.5 (cum. $113.7) Podcast
12 BOYHOOD $1.8 (cum. $16.5) Review & Podcast
13 MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT $1.3 (cum. $6.8)
14 DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES $1.1 (cum. $203.9) Podcast & Reviewish
15 GET ON UP $.9 (cum. $28.7) Review & Viola Davis
On the limited side, brighter news: Ira Sach's Love Is Strange a film The Film Experience adores, did strong business on only 5 screens. Here’s hoping it expands across North America as quickly as possible. The only new release I watched in the past couple of days is Ari Folman’s The Congress, which isn’t actually out until next weekend. Stay tuned for my review! What have you watched this weekend?
Chloe Moretz, Sin City, box office, sequels
Reader Comments (13)
I watched "Frank," which I imagine is going to be divisive but which I thought was a truly effective, sly take on its subject (and which is a great vehicle for Domhnall Gleeson, who is the star of the show, not Fassbender and his giant head -- though he does a great job, too).
Double feature this weekend. I finally got on up and despite the crazy chronology and dog-eared musical biopic blueprint, I found the James Brown story a great time at the movies. Mostly because of a strong supporting cast, adrenaline-fueled music scenes, and a starmaking turn by Chadwick Boseman, who powered the movie past the occupational hazards. He should be in the running for an Oscar--he turned a crazy, caricature-prone personality into a living, breathing person.
Also, Guardians of the Galaxy. Extremely competent popcorn filmmaking, featuring another new leading man, Chris Pratt, expertly channeling Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford's pesky self-seriousness.
Saw Love is Strange. Really liked it, especially the lead performances. But it felt slightly... undercooked? Maybe it was just my expectations and I need to re-watch.
Didn't make it to the theater this weekend, but did catch up with all episodes of Welcome to Sweden, which is a delightful and welcome respite from regular TV comedies,
Also saw The Railway Man; I really liked it, though the torture scenes were hard. I was ok with the pacing too; perhaps I was just in the mood for a slower movie. Both Firth and Kidman give quiet and moving performances. Despite his "leading man" status, Firth usually has dismal chemistry with his female co-stars (the exception being Jennifer Ehle and Julianne Moore), but I found his onscreen relationship with Kidman really believable, so I'm looking forward to their other collaborations. Also nice work from Stellan Skarsgard.
Didn't make it to the theater this weekend, but did catch up with all episodes of Welcome to Sweden, which is a delightful and welcome respite from regular TV comedies,
Also saw The Railway Man; I really liked it, though the torture scenes were hard. I was ok with the pacing too; perhaps I was just in the mood for a slower movie. Both Firth and Kidman give quiet and moving performances. Despite his "leading man" status, Firth usually has dismal chemistry with his female co-stars (the exception being Jennifer Ehle and Julianne Moore), but I found his onscreen relationship with Kidman really believable, so I'm looking forward to their other collaborations. Also nice work from Stellan Skarsgard.
Pam -- i actually thought they had good chemistry too. I just wish her role hadn't been so stock "strong supportive wife!"
I AM SO GLAD SIN CITY TANKED. Good riddance to stylized garbage.
My plans to see Boyhood were thwarted for the THIRD weekend in a row (I should probably just resign myself to not seeing it until it is released for home viewing) by friends who dragged me to If I Stay... and then proceeded to mock the film all the way through, and too loudly for my tastes (at one point I actually shrunk into my seat so as not to be seen with them). I was barely able to judge the film on its own merits, but once you get past the unbelievably stupid decision that kicks the story into gear (you don't go out driving when schools are closed due to snow, people!) I actually don't think it was horrible. I expected better from Moretz, though - she was pretty one-note. Stacy Keach gave a much better performance than the film (and his small role) deserved.
I've actually been looking forward to Sin City if only because so few films this summer have any sort of style to them. It's not like I loved the first one all that much (I liked it but that was it), but when I saw the trailer recently it felt oddly refreshing to see something so different from everything else in the multiplex. Then I saw the reviews and thought... maybe not...
I saw Lucy this weekend, it just opened in the UK. I thought it was really fun. Scarlett Jo is on fire the past couple of years.
Busy, schizoid movie watching weekend for me. I saw Calvary and a second dose of Magic in the Moonlight in theaters, rented DIvergent on demand, saw Unknown Knowns and Camille Claudele 1915 on Netflix, and broke out an old timey DVD to watch Twentynine Palms. The Dumont films are TIFF homework.
I loathed the original "Sin City" - a movie I despised so much I would personally set fire to every single print- I did see " The Giver" the Twilight Zone Afternoon Special- glad to Mr Pratt and friends are back on top were they belong!
We had the Israeli Film festival on here locally, so I saw RITA JAHAN FORUZ (which was little more than JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER but for some famous Israeli singer) and SELF MADE (BOREG) a wonderful Lynch-with-humour comedy-drama about a Jerusalem artist and an Arab factory worker who half-way through the movie, suddenly swap places (LOST HIGHWAY style). I wish more people would see this (or at least one, so I could discuss it with someone).
Also saw Jacques Tati's PLAYTIME (at a local Tati festival). Same as I find all Tati films - very random, but with enough slightly amusing moments to make it worthwhile.
Ninja Turtles is one of my favorite that I have enjoyed very much because their unique imagination and surprising and lovely expressions made by animation help.