By and large, studios have somewhat agreed to play nice during the major moviegoing periods of the year, agreeing to space out their major releases so that each studio can have their own weekend to themselves, with the other majors and mini-majors offering only smaller counter-programming. As a result, Sony had no real competition opening this weekend against their action thriller “Salt” and it was reflected in a solid opening frame that firmed up Angelina Jolie’s rep as one of Hollywood’s more versatile stars. People like her. Or are scared of her and feel compelled to see her movies, lest she drain their blood. We vote the latter.
Still, everyone likes a good competition, which is why studios also like kicking the shit out of each other on occasion. Hence the weekend take for “Inception,” which boasted the strongest legs of any live-action blockbuster this summer, ruled the roost for the second week straight. “Salt” proved a worthy competitor, but we have to believe word-of-mouth was the major factor here, as the mind-play actioner also did killer weekday business. If interest continues into weekend three (which would be marked by a gross over $30m – unlikely, but possible) then Chris Nolan becomes the number one blank check filmmaker in Hollywood, at least for the time being. We’d like to believe it would also be a game-changer, but it’s less likely Hollywood will say, “We need to greenlight more original ideas!” than, “Greenlight anything with dreams in it!”
Of course, it’s not all celebrations and excitement. “Inception” is just beginning a slow international rollout, and as zeitgeist-y as the movie might be, they need those international receipts to be strong as well. Meanwhile, as robust as its opening weekend was, “Salt” still needs to go a long way to justify both the $100 million budget and Angelina Jolie’s $20 million salary. “Despicable Me,” however, reportedly only set Universal back $60 million or so, and even with heavy marketing costs, this stands to be one of the year’s biggest hits, weathering a very small audience drop of only 26%. Toons have legs, and remain the surest bet in town, provided your marketing department isn’t out to lunch.
No such luck for “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which showed an average audience loss in weekend two. A major percentage loss would suggest people didn’t like it, but in this case, it looks like people are just generally apathetic. The realistic folk behind this movie knew it was going to be, at best, a forgettable cable favorite in the vein of a “Mummy” sequel, but they were also hoping for the indifferent, perfunctory early weekend crowds. Marketing mucked this up, but let’s face it, no one really gave a shit about this in the first place, and Disney treating Jon Turtletaub as some blockbuster artiste and not a hack that lucked into the “National Treasure” franchise certainly didn’t help.
“Toy Story 3” is somehow surviving despite the success of “Despicable Me” and is having a helluva victory lap, with $400 million domestic in its sights, solidifying its position as the top earner of the year. With “Cars 2” and “Monsters Inc. 2” on the horizon, we do hope Pixar can resist the urge to continue the adventures of Woody, Buzz and company. We won’t say no to a Pixar sequel just yet, but we would prefer more original ideas. Really, we just want less of “Cars.” Meanwhile, “Toy Story 3” found legit competition for the kid dollar from the mid-market kids’ flick “Ramona And Beezus,” which had a low key opening but generated $8 million. The picture was extremely cheap (Fox, if you haven’t guessed) and, from all accounts, fairly middlebrow, so somebody should generate a satisfactory profit by the time DVD comes calling.
Down 23% from last weekend, again posting the lowest percentage drop in the top ten is Adam Sandler’s “Grown Ups.” Out of all the Sandler films, this had the most, ahem, “star power” (if you can call it that) but we find it hard to believe there’s no crossover between the Kevin James and the Sandler fanbases. We can’t stop asking why this is happening – how is it that after so many of the sub-literate slices of whorish, hateful, infantile, poorly-written slop that represent Sandler’s mainstream career he’s able to pull in some of his biggest audiences? And to Sony, we have to wonder, how did you spend $80 million on this? The film’s locations are as follows: shitty lake house, cheap water park, tiny public basketball court and a church. If you’re going to release the shittiest movie in the marketplace, at least have the common decency to maximize your dollar.
In the indie world, “The Kids Are All Right” posted a bigger per-screen average than any other top ten finisher again, but with the confidence of national TV ads and 200 theaters, it wasn’t all that muscular, with $2.6 million at 201 locations. The film should be a success in weeks to come when word of mouth spreads (most seem to like it, this particular writer excluded), but it might not have breakout potential per se. “Cyrus,” which had a more marketable hook, added to its $6 million haul with a strong $700k weekend, and it’s likely these two films will top out around the same place, with a $10 million ceiling.
Playing to sold-out shows in New York City was Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime,” which pulled in $30k at one location, the IFC Center, this weekend. An expansion to other markets beckons in the next three weeks, while “Jean-Michel Basquiat: Radiant Child” generated $18k on its sole NYC engagement. The documentary “Countdown To Zero” brought in $48k on three screens, while the touted re-release of “Orlando” with Tilda Swinton generated $11k on two screens. Together with “I Am Love,” which pulled in $346k to vault its total over $3 million, discerning filmgoers in the tri-state area have a neat Swinton double feature to treat themselves to. If that’s not you, don’t fret – “Love” is currently playing at 165 locations.
Music Box Films owes their success this year to the late Stieg Larsson, as they’ve generated solid grosses from the films based on his novels. “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is the year’s biggest foreign language grosser at $9.5 million, and the sequel “The Girl Who Played With Fire” pulled in $521k for a $2.9 million total after three weeks. With single digit audience drops, Roadside Attractions’ “Winter’s Bone” and Sony Classics’ “Coco Chanel And Igor Stravinsky” continued to perform well, padding their totals at $3.6 million and $1 million respectively. There’s no shortage of options out there, so please guys, support your local arthouse.
1. Inception – $43.5 million ($144 mil.)
2. Dinner Condiment – $36.5 million
3. Despicable Me – $24.1 million ($162 mil.)
4. The Magician’s Sidekick – $9.7 million ($43 mil.)
5. Toy Story 3 – $9 million ($380 mil.)
6. Ramona And Beezus – $8 million
7. Grown Ups – $7.6 million ($142 mil.)
8. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – $7 million ($280 mil.)
9. The Last Airbender – $4.2 million ($123 mil.)
10. Predators – $2.9 million ($47 mil.)