The Hunger Games continued to dominate the domestic box office over the weekend for the third time in a row. Seems like people just can't get enough and predictions are that women kept going back for double viewings, leaving both Titanic 3D and American Reunion in its dust. Its new total is now over $460m worldwide. That is a lot of millions. The big new releases for the weekend; Titanic 3D and American Reunion fared okay, but surely not as well as any of those involved with them hoped. Interestingly, they seemed to get better box office numbers internationally with American Reunion almost matching it's number at the domestic box office.
Box Office
 | 1. The Hunger Games $33.5 million / $303m Total In the Twilight vs. Hunger Games love triangle battle for the hearts of America, I think we can finally call The Hunger Games as the unequivocal winner. Congrats Peeta, Gale and Katniss. |
 | 2. American Reunion $21.5 million/ New While it had a decent showing, seems like a lot of people decided to skip the Reunion, or maybe they just didn't have a new outfit to wear. |
 | 3. Titanic $17.4 million / $25.7m Total Once the box office King of the World, Titanic doesn't seem that this will once again be inspiring people to wait in line. Had a respectable weekend for a movie that was already released, but still behind the 3D release of The Lion King and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. |
 | 4. Wrath of the Titans $15 million / $58.9m Total While domestically this is getting kind of close to "bomb" territory, it is lighting up the box office around the world even beating The Hunger Games for the number one slot. What is drawing people to it internationally? Are we all missing something? I'm confused. |
 | 5. Mirror, Mirror $11 million / $36.5m Total Julia Roberts just doesn't seem to be the Box Office draw she once was. Makes me a little sad for her... but not sad enough to make me actually go see Mirror, Mirror. |
 | 6. 21 Jump Street $10.2 million / $110m Total I'm still surprised at the quality of this movie, and say good for them for actually re-booting one of my favorite TV shows in to a successful film franchise..oh yes, I am sure we can expect many more. |
 | 7. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax $5 million / $198m Total It's Dr. Seuss. What is not to love? Seems that children, families and moviegoers agree..still. |
 | 8. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen $975 thousand / $4.64m Total This movie has some legs. Weekend box office has steadily increased and held on nicely since the films debut. The little Salmon that could? |
 | 9. John Carter $820 thousand / $68m Total Seeing the trailers of how John Carter COULD have been marketed makes me sad, since I think there was some opportunity for this movie. Instead, it will just remain as known as one of the biggest bombs of all time. Let's hope Taylor Kitsch can pull it out in some other movie, because I love watching that guy. |
 | 10. Safe House $581 thousand / $125m Total Denzel. Enough Said. |
thats a tad depressing.
Historical/fantasy epic action films usually do much better business overseas than in the states, which is why John Carter & Wrath of the Titans are doing exceptional business everywhere but in America.
American Reunion did about as well as Scream 4/Scre4m did last year, which really isn't all that much to tout considering the American Pie brand was always pretty strong, even years into its direct-to-DVD run. Titanic might hold up better than the other 3D conversions, but I'm really glad to hear that the ceiling for these cash-ins had already been met by Lion King. The sooner people stop seeing these, the better for the industry.
Oh and Hunger Games four-peats next week, I'm calling it. Even if the film loses 50% of its audience, that's $17 million that Stooges or Cabin in the Woods would have to beat. I don't see either of those films hitting that number.
With very little notice worldwide John Carter has actually managed to turn a bit more than a $13 million dollar profit at the box office thus far, and that's not even counting no cost profits from potential DVD sales and video rentals which tend to be kinder to popcorn films that were passed by in the theatre.
Safe House quietly made over $100 million, not bad.
Katniss Everdeen, what a nonsense name. Not a great excuse to keep skipping this thing, I'll admit.
How is Safe House still in the top ten? It's the ultra-marathoner of movies at this point.
Mirror Mirror is actually supposed to be quite good.
@Daemon: Be careful not to equate "exceeding your budget in ticket sales" to "making a profit". If the movie costs $250 million to make, you need double that amount worldwide just to break even (because roughly 50-60% of the gross goes to the movie studios, the rest to the theaters), and that doesn't include what Disney spent on prints & advertising (at least another $100 million, an extremely cheap price for blockbusters, in all honesty), so when it's all said and done, John Carter needs to make $700 million to make a profit. It might make $300 million worldwide before it hits home video.
@FinalDasa: Yeah, i figured the movie would drop out after its big opening, but it stuck around. $125 million is nothing to sneeze at, but the $80 million budget w/o advertising keeps things in check.
Not to sound like a bit of a dickhead, but I really miss Alex's snark in these write-ups.
@MjHealy said:
This. His snarky-ass blurbs of cynicism really made this feature.
@VinceNotVance: Sure, sure there are always all sorts of expenditures in terms of advertising and all the hidden and not so hidden financial bells and whistles that go into producing and developing a major motion picture. But in the end perception is the name of the game (especially when it comes to stock prices) and as history has taught us more often than not we simplify it by just looking at the advertised raw production cost of a film and how much it made at the box office to gauge its relative success.
Wrath of the Titans has been the number 1 movie in my country since it was released because Edgar Ramirez is in it. I've heard the theaters burst in applause every time he shows up, which sounds fucking ridiculous to me.
I caught Wrath this weekend and it was a solid "meh..." I also bit the bullet and saw Hunger Games since it was filmed around here and I wish I would have just marathoned Battle Royale and the Running Man. At least then I wouldn't have felt like I was having a seizure every time the action happened.
Titanic the 3RD - really America?
You're referencing me already, aren't you? How sweet of you! <3
..But to be serious, I saw this coming about The Hunger Games and American Reunion, but I didn't expect AR being in 2nd place for now. Just placing my opinions out there.
Again: the success of Wrath completely blows away the film-school elitist view of foreign markets as bastions for enlightened, deep thought. Because they watched three movies that had accents, so CLEARLY they "get" the culture those movies came from.
@MjHealy said:
@Daemon: True, but I kinda doubt that the people who would make assumptions like that would pay attention to something like foreign box office. It's most likely "was it the #1 movie in America at one point/did it make $100 million in ticket sales" mentality.
@csl316 said:
A "Katniss" is one of a group of aquatic plants called Sagittaria. Another name for the plant is "Arrowhead", and Katniss Everdeen's weapon of choice is a bow and arrow. The plants themselves and Katness' awareness of their attributes also factor into the story.
Not that that's all any reason to go and see the movie, but there's more to her name than it might seem. Conversely, the name Peeta is purely fuckin' dumb. ;)
Also...
Not a convincing argument for a misguided exploitative watered-down "adaptation" made 21 years after the dude died. It's absolutely not Dr. Seuss.