(Did you see what I did there?)
A flood of movies came out on Christmas Day, fortuitously (for Hollywood) occurring on a Thursday this year and allowing for a long weekend.
As a further sign that ‘stars’ don’t matter much in today’s movie marketplace, the number one movie of the weekend featured two ‘b’ or ‘c’ level celebrities (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) and, much more importantly, a big cute dog. Marley and Me, adapted from a popular book—I should know, I work in a library—dug up a whopping $37 million bones—see what I did there?—for a nifty $10,000 plus theater average. That was the weekend take, by the way. On Thursday it made about $15m more, so it’s total stands at $51m plus. That makes the film a hit already, since you have to assume it cost a lot less(by tens and tens of millions of dollars) than many of the weekend’s other releases.
The rest of the weekend’s movies were majorly star-driven. The number two film was Adam Sandler’s special effects kiddie movie Bedtime Stories, which drew (since Thursday) a healthy $38m plus. Reviews were tepid, but aside from Marley and Me it was the big family oriented flick, and thus drew that audience.
Brad Pitt’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button got much better reviews, and a bit higher per theater average, and even just a tad more than Bedtime Stories over the four day period. However, over the Fri-Sun frame it drew less, indicating (unsurprisingly) that the kid-friendly Bedtime Stories will have better legs. More important, Benjamin Button cost a whopping $150m to make—which doesn’t include advertising and prints—and which is probably four or five times what the more successful Marley and Me cost. Even so, while not a home run, Button’s $39 four day take for the weekend isn’t bad. It just needs to do well overseas, and time will tell whether the film’s fantastical plot has universal appeal. Button also drew the weekend’s best reviews, although it’s Rotten Tomatoes aggregate was still just a fairly good 73%.
Tom Cruise’s Valkerie actually did pretty well. Yes, it came in four place, but it drew a robust $30m, and it’s $75m production budget was half of Button’s $150m. One imagines it’s WWII setting will sell it well overseas, as well, so things look mildly rosy for star Tom Cruise’s slow climb back to respectability.
Jim Carrey’s Yes Man, a veritable remake of his own (massively more successful) Liar, Liar, added another $16.5m this weekend, for a two week take of nearly $50m. Comedies do well on home video, so assuming they kept the budget within sane limits (it remains unannounced, though, so who knows?), the film is doing OK, if not great.
Will Smith has taken a severe tumble for the first time in a long time, and the world’s one legitimate film star might be finally paying the price for a string of highly mediocre pics such as I, Robot, I Am Legend and Hancock. You can get away with that crap for only so long of a time. Moreover, Seven Pounds drew scathing reviews (27% at RT), generally be accused of being highly pompous. For me, the problem was that I figured out what the film’s ‘mystery’ concept was the very first time I saw a commercial for it. Even so, the film’s fairly cheap budget (about $55m) means that the $40m it has drawn in the States over the last two weeks will probably be enough, with at least some overseas monies*, will keep it from losing money. Still, Smith might actually want to make sure his next couple of movies are actually good, assuming the bloom isn’t already off the rose for him.
[*I’m hoping the film hasn’t been released in many overseas territories, since it’s current reported foreign take is about $27,000.]
The week’s one real turkey was the dreadful-looking Frank Miller pic The Spirit. It drew a woeful $6.5m this weekend, for a four day take of around $10m. Considering what a travesty this looks to be, the result seems entirely just.
