Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opened strong at the U.S. box office over the weekend—though not as well as expected.
Posts Tagged ‘ box office ’
Movie Audiences Remain Enchanted by Charming Disney Fantasy
Disney’s Enchanted, which generated the second-biggest Thanksgiving opening weekend ever a couple of weeks ago, remains number one at the U.S. box office for the second weekend in a row. The film brought in $17 million, double the amount of the second place finisher, the African-American comedy This Christmas. The success of both these films seems to reflect audiences’ weariness of the sort of depressing films Hollywood has been releasing in recent months and the increasingly dark and grim conent of most network TV fiction series this year.
“Lions for Lambs” Continues Run of Unpopular Films Opposing Iraq War
Robert Redford’s oppressively earnest Lions for Lambs opened very weakly at the box office in its opening weekend, coming in fourth in U.S. receipts, bringing in just $6.7 million. The film explicitly opposes President Bush and the Iraq War (what a brave stand to take these days!) and features Tom Cruise in a supporting role, which clearly was not enough to overcome the film’s unappealing trailer and astoundingly lame concept: a long-winded and superficially fair but fundamentally skewed discussion of the merits of the Iraq War.
American Gangster, Bee Movie Open Big; Anti-Bush Films Continue Free-Fall
American Gangster, the story of a 1970s crime lord (played by Denzel Washington) and the unattractive but indomitable police detective who pursues him (Russell Crowe), pulled in an impressive $46.3 million at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend. It finished first in the audience race, over Bee Movie, which earned $39.1 million in its first weekend.
Dark Honeymoon Comedy Off to a Bad Start at Box Office
The past weekend’s movie box office statistics provide another reminder that many people are tired of the forced bleakness and unpleasant nature of much of what the culture offers today. As E! News reports: Stiller’s new comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, opened with a disappointing $14 million, per estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations Sunday, and the box office suffered its third straight down weekend when compared with last fall. That makes it "Stiller’s weakest-ever opening for a movie that debuted at more 3,000 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo stats. It is a far cry—and many millions—from Meet the Fockers, which opened with $46.1 million in 2004, and last year’s Night at the Museum, which jumped out to a start of $30.4 million," E! reports.
Hollywood’s Antiwar Investment—Wasted!
Here’s a big non-surprise: the spate of antiwar films Hollywood has begun to release in recent months has laid a big egg at the box office. David Kahane has outlined the situation in National Review Online, documenting the painfully obvious "antigun, antiwar, anti-Rethuglican" messages in Shoot ‘Em Up, In the Valley of Elah, Redacted, and Grace Is Gone and mentioning the the upcoming The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs and Rendition, and recent films such as Syriana, Shooter, Jarhead, and A Mighty Heart, "all passionate indictments of one thing or another vaguely connected to the military-industrial complex and the so-called “War on Terror.” Kahane observes: Now, what do all these films have in common—besides being passionate indictments? They all flopped. Or will, soon enough. (Except for, maybe, The Kingdom, which apparently has an appalling whiff of vigilantism.)
Rush Hour 3 Draws Big Audiences
The Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker action comedy Rush Hour 3, reviewed positively on this site last week, opened very strongly at the box office, finishing first among all films in U.S. ticket sales last weekend, thoroughly outdrawing the previous week’s winner The Bourne Supremacy. Reuters reports: "Rush Hour 3," the buddy film starring Chan and Chris Tucker that comes six years after the duo’s last romp, grossed $50.2 million in its first weekend at U.S. and Canadian theaters. "The Bourne Ultimatum," the third installment of the espionage action series starring Matt Damon as a one-time CIA hit man searching for his past, took in $33.7 million in its second weekend playing in North American theaters, a 51 percent drop, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Both films are very good entertainment with basically sound values, so audiences are making good choices this week.
“Ratatouille” Leads Pack, Deservedly
The Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille led in box office take over the weekend but opened weaker than expected. The animated film took in $47.2 million in its first three days, handily outdrawing Live Free or Die Hard at $33.2 million, but that still constituted one of the weakest openings for a Disney/Pixar film. Ratatouille is still expected to be very successful at the box office over time, in that its early numbers were held down by the fact that it opened only two days after the hotly anticipated Bruce Willis action film and just before today’s nationwide release of Transformers. The previous weekend’s winner, Evan Almighty, slipped to third with a disappointing $15.1 million. Its weak performance may give Hollywood execs an excuse to avoid financing films with a strong appeal to Christians.
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