The box office results for the weekend of August 24th – 26th sees a batch of newcomers die before even getting started. Coming in with weak promotional campaigns, The Expendables 2 were able to easily hold off all the new guys without breaking a sweat. As for the studio that released these said new guys, they may be sweating, Patrick Ewing style, on Monday. Here are the studio estimates:
1. The Expendables 2 ($13.5 million)
2. The Bourne Legacy ($9.2 million)
3. ParaNorman ($8.5 million)
4. The Campaign ($7.4 million)
5. The Dark Knight Rises ($7.1 million)
6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green ($7.1 million)
7. Premium Rush ($6.3 million)
8. 2016: Obama’s America ($6.2 million)
9. Hope Springs ($6 million)
10. Hit and Run ($4.6 million)
Analysis
Having “The” in your title, apparently ensured a decent take this weekend as evident by the top six spots.
Premium Rush led the pathetic newbies but that’s about all the praise this sucker will be achieving. With a production budget of $35 million (on what?), the Joseph Gordon-Levitt bicycle chase feature is going nowhere fast. Many will cite that this is a reflection on the drawing power of Gordon-Levitt as a lead, yet they are dead wrong. Very little promotion was put into this and by releasing it during the tail end of August – where studios unload unused titles (crap), this was set-up for failure before it even had a chance to ride. The lovely critics praised Gordon-Levitt’s performance in what was a sea of mediocre reviews.
Hit and Run, also a victim of lackluster marketing, may actually be the one newbie that sees the black ink. Made for just $2 million, Dax Shepard’s “backyard” flick with his friends and girlfriend (Kristen Bell), will end up making money when it’s all said and done. So good for them; but they owe an apology to the people that paid to see this.
If it’s the end of August, chances are the studios shove at least one or two horror products down your throats. And most of the time, they’re scary bad. The Apparition lives up to that hype and couldn’t even break into the top ten ($2.9 million opening). Once again, a minuscule marketing campaign was unleashed maybe a week before the release date. Knowing that, the production budget of $17 million (again, on what?) will haunt Warner Bros. on Monday. Well, that is until they read this…
The Dark Knight Rises currently holds the longest streak in the top ten with 6 weeks. Domestically, Christopher Nolan’s Batman finale is now up to $422.1 million. Worldwide, $941 million; which is also the first time that the international totals have out-grossed the domestic in this trilogy.
Closing out the summer movie season this week, audiences will a variety of choices: The gritty Lawless, and fam-friendly Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure hit on Wednesday. Friday will try to apologize to horror fans for this past weekend’s blunder with The Possession. Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers!
