Whereas last weekend featured four different films earning above $20 million at the box office, this special three-day weekend (or four-day, in box office terms) featured five movies all grossing over $20 million. And you'll never guess what order those movies came in.
Whatever your guess was, I guarantee it didn't involve Safe House, last week's number two movie, somehow leapfrogging over Channing Tatum's latest attempt at feigning human emotion into the number one spot. I also don't assume it involved both the aforementioned Chatum emotion simulator, and that goddamn movie where The Rock pops his pecs for love or whatever, staying in the number two and three spot respectively. Well, too bad, because that happened.
That left the Nicolas Cage-fronted superhero sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, as well as This Means War, the dreadfully reviewed spy/romantic comedy featuring Reese Witherspoon in a role guaranteed to remind you why you stopped paying attention to Reese Witherspoon, to take fourth and fifth place respectively.
Even worse off was the Studio Ghibli animated family film The Secret World of Arrietty, which placed a depressing eighth on the list. Want to know why we're a nation of terrible parents? More than three times as many people went to go see Journey 2 in its second week than Arrietty. And while the numbers weren't nearly as huge, more people also went to go see the third week of The Phantom Menace once again menacing theaters than did Arrietty. I don't care how low key and consequence free The Secret World of Arrietty--I guarantee that even the lousiest Ghibli stuff runs circles around that Jules Verne recycling garbage that is Journey 2. And yes, I'm even counting Tales of Earthsea.
The indie market stayed relatively quiet by comparison, with Oscar nominated documentary Undefeated (not the Sarah Palin one) and foreign film contender Bullhead each opening to around $42,000 on seven screens or less.
And now, a top ten list which I quite frankly can't make heads or tails of this week. It's just baffling stuff.
 | 1. Safe House $28.4 million / $82.6 million |
 | 2. The Vow $26.6 million / $88.5 million |
 | 3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island $26.4 million / $59.5 million |
 | 4. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance $25.7 million / NEW |
 | 5. This Means War $20.4 million / NEW |
 | 6. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace $10.2 million / $36 million |
 | 7. Chronicle $9.2 million / $52.7 million |
 | 8. The Secret World of Arrietty $8.1 million / NEW |
 | 9. The Woman in Black $7.9 million / $46.5 million |
 | 10. The Grey $3.7 million / $48.7 million |
Dropped Out: Underworld: Awakening; The Descendants; Big Miracle
Source: Box Office Mojo
no surprise that two generic and bland movies are on the top
Actually, I'm pleasantly surprised that Arietty cracked the top ten.
I'm still shocked that the first Ghost Rider movie cracked over 50 million in its opening weekend.
Ah, Secret World probably did great for Disney, or rather, their expectations. Even Alex said in his review that it felt like a "minor Ghibli film". It's gotta be hard to try and advertise that as something amazing - like Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky or Howl's Moving Castle - when it's so unambitious. It's also pretty stupid to not just call it, "The Borrowers" and leverage the license -- something all Hollywood studios should be excellent at by now. Then again, Disney's marketing is not top-notch these days either; there's a reason movies of theirs like Prince of Persia, Tron: Legacy and (soon to be) John Carter underperform at box office consistently, and it's because their marketing is terrible.
It'll do well on home video though. It just doesn't feel like the kind of movie you go to the theater to see. Ghibli seems to be screwing Disney over a bit; Ponyo wasn't that kind of movie either. Now that they're getting their movies released theatrically in the west by the Mouse House of all people, you'd figure they would do something more ambitious, epic, and just plain "showy" again, but they keep giving them these weird little hard-to-market movies better suited for home video.
But until Ghibli makes another "epic" film, it'll be hard for Disney to find massive success there. Movies that are charming kids' fare just aren't made anymore here in the 'states. A movie like Totoro may be wonderful and memorable, but everyone else is striving to make the next Kung Fu Panda or whatever. It's gonna take a long time to "justify" releasing a Ghibli movie like this.
And I'm pretty sure Journey 2 isn't as bad as Screened seems to think it is, too.
Poor Ghost Rider though.
Not surprised about Arrietty. Most people don't know it's out and I never heard of the film until Rorie reviewed it. Also who is still going to see The Vow? Valentine's Day was a week and people are still seeing romantic movies. Also
@vinsanityv22 said:
I have to say I disagree about Disney's marketing on TRON: Legacy. I thought they actually did a pretty decent job marketing that film though I can agree with you on Prince of Persia's marketing (From what I recall, it didn't have very much marketing) and John Carter is easily their worst marketing job yet. The movie is made on a $250 Million budget and so far they've done very little to let people know about the movie. It's like they want it to fail (it's quite possible that they do indeed want it to flop).
I wish Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson was in better movies....he is one charasmatic mother****er.
I was wonder why everyone at school was saying they went to see Safe House over the weekend........
@vinsanityv22 said:
Alright, so I haven't seen Arrietty yet though I want to. I haven't seen Tales From Earthsea either (though it's on my list of things to do) but here's my take on this. The last two Studio Ghibli movies were not written or directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The last one he did do, Ponyo, was directed more towards a child friendly audience. While Spirited Away was also more kid-friendly, it had an amazing story and characters to boot. That seems to be the problem with Studio Ghibli. They aren't coming up with original material and instead leaning back to remakes or re-tellings of children's stories. There's nothing wrong with that, per say, but the audience that will go see a Ghibli film wants the epics you're talking about. I don't think Studio Ghibli is screwing Disney, as Arrietty was released back in Japan in 2010 and it made a boatload of money then. I think it's more that since Howl's Moving Castle didn't take off in America like Spirited Away did, they're catering more to their core fans in Japan. I know Miyazaki is getting older but I hope he can deliver one last sweeping epic for Ghibli. Other than Grave of the Fireflies, the Miyazaki-less Studio Ghibli films haven't been that superb.
@samcwic said:
It's on track to be the best performing American release Studio Ghibli movie. The top spot is held by Spirited Away but it only made $10 million total (that's US domestic), so I'm certain Arrietty will surpass that return. Now, it had the widest release of any previous Disney-SG movie, but still at 1500 theaters, that less than half a normal film these days.
As a Jew, I find your Holocaust Hyperbole (hereafter referred to as Hyperbocaust) inoffensive and apt.
Unsurprised about Arriety. It's anime. It will never do well in America.
Also, I don't think you can really blame parents for seeing crap. There's nothing else to take their kids to, and hasn't been anything for months. Even knowing the movie will be awful, it's hard for parents to say no to a child jumping up and down yelling "I WANT THE MOVIE WITH THE JUNGLE MONSTERS!"
A family film comes out perhaps once a month, and parents will take their children to see it. The only time you can complain or blame them is if a really good family movie gets snubbed in the process. You could maybe argue Arriety is a "really good family movie", but it's also anime. Even Spirited Away barely made $10 million. For a $23 million budget, an $8.2 million foreign release weekend is pretty damn good, especially considering it made over five times its budget already.