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[Savitar]

City of Bones truly swept America.

Like a plague.

 

[-Kees-]

You can't spell Richard B. Riddick withouth Hard Dick.

 

[artist]

Riddick underperforming .. nice.

 

[ratcliffja]

They didn't like how it depicted Reagan as a racist.

Reagan was depicted a lot more positively than I expected. He came out as a pretty good guy compared to most, but with a hard stance against assisting South Africa. Still, the movie was extremely inaccurate with the actual title character, adding in an extra son, killing off his real son who is still living, adding a non-existent affair for his wife, and completely changing his childhood background. Saying it's based on a true story is pretty insulting, even by Hollywood standards. As historical fiction, I would say it would be a solid movie with some great acting, but as it stands, I am pretty upset at how they butchered the life of a man whose true story is definitely worth telling.

 

[Jimothy]

Riddick underperforming .. nice.

How is 18 mil with a budget that low underperforming

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

And people complained about the titles. Awesome title!

 

[kswiston]

For all the "flop" talk, Elysium is doing pretty decently, at least relative to the other big budget sci-fi flicks out this year. It's relatively new in some markets and has a couple mid-size markets left to go. Particularly keeping in mind that unlike Pacific Rim, Oblivion and After Earth, it hasn't been released in China.

Elysium released in China this weekend (with $11-12M), which is why it's the #1 international movie. It should pass $250M with the business it has left. I'm not sure about $300M.


Jurassic Park 3D has now made more in China than it did in the US ($54M and counting vs $45M domestic). I think this is going to become a more common occurrence going forward. If Transformers 4 has a Pirates 3 to Pirates 4 sized drop domestically next year, the domestic and Chinese grosses may end up being closer than you would think.

 

[Persona7]

Riddick was really packed and I saw it on the first showing saturday morning.

I hope it does well.

 

[artist]

How is 18 mil with a budget that low underperforming

Every place had this opening higher.

In this case, blame Vin Diesel who now owns the Riddick role and is keeping the $38M independently financed sci-fi franchise on life support. He leveraged a lot of his own assets because he loves this galactic ex-con character or hopes to earn more coin from it or both. Universal released in 3,107 U.S. theaters while eOne Entertainment is distributing in Canada. The R-rated pic opened mediocre with $7.3M Friday and $7.1M Saturday for what Universal says is a mediocre $18.6M weekend (but Hollywood estimates at $19.2M). it opened on 314 IMAX screens in North America, delivering about $2.5M. That’s after earning a middling ‘B’ CinemaScore from audiences and grossing an unimpressive $900K from Thursday night’s domestic late shows and Friday’s midnights. Even though this actioner had this first fall weekend all to itself, it took in only 1/2 what the original made and 1/3 what the sequel earned. The 3rd installment clearly didn’t expand beyond core fanboys since the outlaw character hasn’t been featured in a film in 9 years – although it’s been in a succession of DVDs and video games. Exit polls showed the audience was 59% male/41% female, 47% under age 30/53% age 30+, and 37% Hispanic/31% Caucasian.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Riddick is a tough sell for some reason. It's a miracle it even got a 3rd movie.

 

[megamerican]

Every place had this opening higher.

Variety is a lot more gracious in their write-up and Deadline is notoriously snarky about BO performance.

It's a very solid opening in a year when almost everything has been soft.

 

[kswiston]

Every place had this opening higher.

Who wrote that? Nikki? Pitch Black only opened to $11M. I'm not sure why the author is comparing domestic totals from PB/Chronicles of Riddick to an opening weekend of the third film.

Riddick openings:

Pitch Black - $11,577,688
Chronicles of Riddick - $24,289,165
Riddick - $18,673,000

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I wonder if the This is the End re-run has anything to do with Franco's roast getting really nice ratings for Comedy Central? Or just a coincidence?

Now the cast of the roast (including Aziz "I don't know why I'm here, I barely know James Franco irl" Anzari) makes sense. Smh at all of the blatant movie plugging in retrospect.

 

[DMczaf]

Should have made xXx 3: Return of Xander Cage instead.

 

[Messofanego]

Now the cast of the roast (including Aziz "I don't know why I'm here, I barely know James Franco irl" Anzari) makes sense. Smh at all of the blatant movie plugging in retrospect.

Aziz was right to call out on the boring gay jokes.

Wow! So many gay jokes about Franco. Apparently, if you're clean, well-dressed, and mildly cultured, you're SUPER gay now! Is that why the rest of you guys are so aggressively fat and dirty? You'd think if you read one book and take a shower, dicks are going to fly into your face?!

 

[acksman]

For that budget, Riddick did a good job. with the few names it had in it and the amount of CGI it had to put in. Not saying all the CGI was good, but fits the movie. Is Riddick doing a worldwide opening?

 

[Effect]

wait WAT. pls No

EDIT: this on Wiki

i hope they changed their mind

I assume they expect it to do well on dvd/blu-ray/streaming? That has to be the only reason why they would still go ahead with the sequel right?

 

[spwolf]

Next year doesn't look that much better. Amazing Spider-man 2 is the only thing I see on their release slate guaranteed to break $300M WW. 22 Jump Street will probably make good money, but comedies are rather limited overseas in most instances.

you mean one that got 750 mil last year, WW? seems like you mis-read the old numbers.

 

[Ridley327]

you mean one that got 750 mil last year, WW? seems like you mis-read the old numbers.

No, he's saying that ASM2 is the only film in their 2014 slate that is going to break $300 million WW, which is not indicative of a healthy schedule.

 

[spwolf]

No, he's saying that ASM2 is the only film in their 2014 slate that is going to break $300 million WW, which is not indicative of a healthy schedule.

ah, got it... Sony doesnt have that many franchises anyway, so I dont see how they can repeat their 2012 unless most of their big hitters are in the same year and then also they get some unexpected hit like they did with Hotel Transylvania. Something like Fury might do well in 2014, with Brad Pitt and WWII which is popular topic still.

 

[spwolf]

p.s. does anyone know if This is the End will be expanding internationally? It didnt run in many countries yet, including here.

 

[Gold_Loot]

All of their big budget tentpoles bombed or underperformed this summer (unless you count Grown ups 2 as a tentpole). Smurfs 2 was probably the biggest hit of the bunch. They had to have been expecting $500-600M off of that film, given the performance of the last one. That should have been easy money in a summer where most of the releases were not established properties.

Next year doesn't look that much better. Amazing Spider-man 2 is the only thing I see on their release slate guaranteed to break $300M WW. 22 Jump Street will probably make good money, but comedies are rather limited overseas in most instances.

Evil Dead did quite well for them, and I'm expecting Cloudy with Meatballs to do fairly well as well.

 

[Busty]

Evil Dead did quite well for them, and I'm expecting Cloudy with Meatballs to do fairly well as well.

IIRC Evil Dead was distributed by an indie outfit called FilmDistrict (who also released Drive) who release all their films through Sony's distribution 'mechanism'.

Ironically in a similar case White House Down was arguably undone by Olympus Has Fallen which Sony will release on home video via a 'distributer for hire' deal.

All of their big budget tentpoles bombed or underperformed this summer (unless you count Grown ups 2 as a tentpole). Smurfs 2 was probably the biggest hit of the bunch. They had to have been expecting $500-600M off of that film, given the performance of the last one. That should have been easy money in a summer where most of the releases were not established properties.

Sony have already committed to a third Smurfs film for 2015 given that they thought they had struck gold with the first one only to have it blow up in their faces. I bet out of their summer this one misfire might have stung the most even if it's no where near the biggest money loser.

I suspect Sony thought they had a 'sure thing' with Smurfs 2 and instead it's wildly underperformed.

Next year doesn't look that much better. Amazing Spider-man 2 is the only thing I see on their release slate guaranteed to break $300M WW. 22 Jump Street will probably make good money, but comedies are rather limited overseas in most instances.

Agreed. While I certainly don't think that ASM2 will bomb I'm not sure it will improve upon the original reboots WW gross. And while $700m (or whatever) is nothing to be sniffed at I'm sure Sony will be looking for it to do a 'Skyfall'.

I have a feeling that while Jump Street will do very well (I'm a HUGE fan of the first film) it's in a weird situation as it's being released in the same summer is Channing Tatum's biggest test as a future star in Jupiter Ascending from Warners. I think we might see Sony relent a little on the date of that film and move it to later in the year.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Should have made xXx 3: Return of Xander Cage instead.

But State Of The Union told me he died, unceremoniously.

 

[spwolf]

Evil Dead did quite well for them, and I'm expecting Cloudy with Meatballs to do fairly well as well.

they really did big effort with smurfs, here in eastern europe, merchandising was everywhere, much much bigger than despicable me and it didnt pan out in the end, so who knows... in any case, between smurfs 2, After Earth, White House and City of Bones flick, they probably lost 500m in expected revenue, mostly in the US too.

What they did well was comedies and smaller movies...

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Releasing Planes in theaters instead of a direct to video scheme was a very clever move by Disney.

Was in the disneystore today as well and asked about how the merch is shifting and they said its still selling like mad, anecdotal evidence but it seems on the whole the project will have been a roaring success I imagine a huge percentage of households with a little boy of a certain age will end up with the DVD / blu ray at some stage as well

 

[Angry Puppy]

I want to be pounded by Diesal's dick.

 

[kswiston]

Year of the Horror film continues!

Friday Studio Estimates:

1) Insidious 2 - $20.1M (Production budget was $5M)
2) The Family - $5.4M
3) Riddick - $2.2M - $26M total
4) We're the Millers - $1.7M - $128M total
5) The Butler - $1.7M - $96M total
6) Instructions Not Included - $1.4M - $24M total
7) One Direction - $830k - $25M total
8) Planes - $710k - $80M total
9) Elysium - $640k - $87M total

- Horror films are super frontloaded (especially if they open on a Friday the 13th), but with Paranormal Activity 3 legs, Insidious 2 will reach $40M this weekend. It has a good shot at the September opening record with is $42.5M, by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

 

[Alrus]

That's a bigger friday opening than The Conjuring.

 

[DMczaf]

James Won

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I like that Justin Lin & James Wan are both bonafide in the eyes of Hollywood right now.

 

[gdt]

Damn, thats a huge opening. The reviews aren't great though. Any impressions from gaffers?

 

[Hachimaki]

Has this trend of low budget horror films being so successful in theaters always been around? Or are studios releasing them at the right times so people have no choice but to see them.

Don't really follow box office numbers that closely but it seems everytime a scary movie comes out it most likely than not will do very well at the theaters.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Has this trend of low budget horror films being so successful in theaters always been around?

Since 1978, really. Halloween was at one time considered the highest grossing indie film ever made (I think. at least at the time. It's been bested since, I believe) and that sparked off the horror film run of the 80s, which led to the new-horror run of the 90s, which led to the back-to-basics-and-then-some run of the 00s.

Basically, ever since Halloween proved you could shoot someone stabbing the shit out of kids for 90 minutes at a low cost, Hollywood's been making those movies, and more often than not, they profit. Some way more than others, yeah, but Horror is one of those genres that is mostly written off or not considered all that much, but is REALLY consistent for a studio.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Aziz was right to call out on the boring gay jokes.

lol at "aggressively fat and dirty."

 

[Futurevoid]

Damn, thats a huge opening. The reviews aren't great though. Any impressions from gaffers?

It's fucking awful. I very nearly walked out midway through. Take everything that was bad about the first movie (the last 25% of the movie) and make a sequel around it while forgetting what made it good. You now have "Insipid Chapter Who Gives a Fuck" which is a better name for it.

This is from someone that enjoyed a good bit about the first movie, mind you. "The Conjuring" is 50x the movie this is.

 

[a secret-boss]

26 for Riddick. Gonna reach that budget no problem

 

[kswiston]

Weekend Studio Estimates:

1) Insidious 2 - $41.1M (Production budget was $5M)
2) The Family - $14.5M
3) Riddick - $7M - $31M total
4) The Butler - $5.6M - $100M total
5) We're the Millers - $5.4M - $132M total
6) Instructions Not Included - $4.3M - $27M total

- Horror legs are kicking in for Insidious 2, but it's still the second highest Sept opening ever.
- The Butler passes $100M, and should at least reach $120-125M

 

[Chamber]

Should have made xXx 3: Return of Xander Cage instead.

I would love for this to actually happen. The first xXx was a fun little movie and we can easily pretend State of the Union doesn't exist.

 

[3N16MA]

Global Totals:

PLANES: $55.8M Overseas Total / $138.8M Global Total.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY: $465.4M Overseas Total / $730.9M Global Total.

FAST & FURIOUS 6: $550M Overseas Total / $788.7M Global Total.

DESPICABLE ME 2: $481.2M Overseas Total / $840.2M Global Total.

JURASSIC PARK 3D: $71.1M Overseas Total / $116.5M Global Total.

R.I.P.D.: $34.6M Overseas Total / $67.9M Global Total.

KICK-ASS 2: $29.6M Overseas Total / $57.9M Global Total.

THE WORLD'S END: $17.8M Overseas Total / $40.4M Global Total.

PAIN AND GAIN: $29.1M Overseas Total / $78.9M Global Total.

WORLD WAR Z: $336.4M Overseas Total / $538.2M Global Total.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS: $237.6M Overseas Total / $466.3M Global Total.