“Despicable Me 2” has earned over $142 million since opening July 3.
“The Lone Ranger” had a $29 million weekend, $49 since mid-week.
Kevin Hart’s “Let Me Explain” had a $10 million weekend ($17 since opening).
“The Heat” managed another $25, on its way to $100 million (by next weekend)_and “World War Z” is over $158.
It looks as if “This is the End” will fall just short of $100 million, all in.
A Western revenge shoot-em-up with an evil preacher, a wrongly widowed ranch wife and Ed Harris as a man on her trail.
January Jones? In a Western?
Lee Daniels (“Precious”) is in desperate need of a hit. The director of that all-star flop “The Paperboy,” producer of the flop “Tennessee” and director-producer of the embarrassment “Shadowboxer” (two OScar winners humiliated by that mess) would LOVE to get his hands on the Janis Joplin bio-pic that is making the rounds as a project to be.
But “The Butler,” the story of a servant who serves eight presidents and lives long enough to see lynchings and Jim Crow end, the Civil Rights movement and Barack Obama in the White House, has been tied up in MPAA negotiations with Warner Brothers over the rights to the name — which WB says it owns, since in 1916 a silent comedy with that title is in their back catalog.
That the MPAA agrees with this nonsense is the stuff of eyerolls. That Warners bases its claim on that title based on a movie that few among the living have seen is a hoot. I chatted with a waitress the other night who was shaking her head over “Man of Steel,” but who has never seen the Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies. People don’t watch old movies. Period.
The extra attention won’t hurt the film. which is coming out awfully soon. A little extra buzz for star Forest Whitaker, et. al., cannot hurt. Daniels needs this movie to open to decent reviews and a bit of box office, otherwise his “Precious” bounce will have been squandered.
Maybe it’s personal — WB folks hating the Weinsteins.
June, for those keeping score at home, wasn’t the best month for movies. Or movie studios.
“The Purge” over-achieved, “The Heat” is a hit.
But “After Earth” was a sign of the end for Will Smith. “White House Down” was an epic setback for Channing Tatum.
And “The Lone Ranger,” from the producer of “Prince of Persia,” is shaping as the first flop of July, the third big bust of the summer. It’s a “John Carter” sized failure — a movie that made a boatload of cash, but cost so much more than that, and faced such weak reviews that “failure” is written all over it. THR speculates that the loss Disney faces over this could be up to $150 million.
And it’s not like that comes as a surprise to most. Whatever Hollywood hopes to get out of a brand name title — even ones as obscure as “Prince of Persia” or as dated as “John Carter” or “The Lone Ranger” or (the upcoming) “Man from U.N.C.L.E” — spending this sort of money on these films is insane. $250 million for this? After Disney gave Bruckheimer all that cash for “Persia”? Fool you twice, shame on you.
Peter Bart at Variety says that this mania for brand names — sequels and remakes — is driven by fear, and self-perpetuating. The more Disney wastes on “Lone Ranger” or Warners on assorted comic book films (“Justice League,” another “Green Lantern”? Really?), the less they want to spend developing original ideas pitched to them by screenwriters.
Which among the summer’s remaining pictures looks like a failure of this scope? “R.I.P.D.”, the crime fighters in the afterlife action comedy with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, looks, well, iffy. Universal removed all doubt about it when they decreed that they wouldn’t preview it for critics until the night before opening.
I’d like to think “Grown Ups 2” will tank, but I doubt it. Sandler’s in decline, but this sort of comedy — loud, crude, crass — never goes out of style.
“Wolverine” has an element of risk about it.
“Elysium” seems “can’t miss” but “Percy Jackson 2” and “Mortal Instruments,” shoved into August release dates, have the whiff of not-quite-there about them.
And Disney’s “Planes” seems half-hearted, at best, an exclamation point on a summer that their big cartoons did not own. Not by a long shot.
“The Lone Ranger” is said to have cost over $200 million, over $225 according to some guesses. Plus marketing.
So it pulling in an otherwise robust $47 million since July 2-3 through Sunday night is…disappointing. In a big way. With Disney looking at a cartoon “Planes” in August and not seeing all that much from “Monsters University,” there is no joy in Mousewitz.
But “Despicable Me 2” has blown the box office up this long holiday weekend — $140 million, U.S., $200+ worldwide. Millions more for that Minions sequel that’s in the works.
Kevin Hart’s half-hearted “Let Me Explain,” sort of a victory lap for being the king of big venue stand up tours at the moment, looks to pocket $17 million, Wed-Sunday. Very impressive for a cynical, under-written and overpriced short concert film.
It all adds up to a Batman-beating/Spider-Man swamping July 4 weekend for the record books. Wow.
Can’t tell from this trailer if Laika, the studio that made the surprising “ParaNorman,” suggests a good movie. It looks original, unusual.
What does it have in common with “ParaNorman”? The “two dads” and “two moms” description of families jibes with “ParaNorman’s” surprising inclusion of a gay character (surprising as in it’s a third act reveal). “Boxtrolls” come to theaters in Sept. of 2014.
The Minions are munching through the box office competition this July 4 weekend. They added $23 million or so July 4 to their July 3 $35 million and seem headed for about $125 million by the time this long holiday weekend is over.
“The Lone Ranger,” which Disney spent $225 million on (I hear Johnny Depp’s trailer was nice) is flopping. It won’t even manage $50 million by Sunday night and looks to be a “John Carter” sized disaster. Seriously, did anybody NOT see this coming? Don’t they remember “Wild Wild West?” No Western TV series is worth $225 million on the big screen. If they’d been able to make it for $100, a shorter film with tamped down violence, they’d have had a shot at breaking even.
And since “Despicable” is going to easily top “Monsters University” when all the cash is counted at summer’s end, well Mouse Heads will roll.
Kevin Hart’s concert documentary “Let Me Explain” made so much money on its opening day that it looked like $30 million hit. But Thursday and Friday numbers suggest that word of mouth isn’t great and that the audience for it basically was spent on opening day.
Very good trailer to the Amanda Seyfried as Linda Lovelace film, capturing a lot of the arc of this story of the woman and the men around her who made “Deep Throat.”
Peter Sarsgaard, James Franco, Bobby Cannavale, Hank Azaria, with Debi Mazar. This limited release (early August) looks solid, sexy and serious.
Kevin Hart’s latest concert film, which didn’t cost much of anything to make, has already picked up $4.7 million just from Wednesday. More Chevy Suburbans and leather shirts for Mr. “Let Me Explain.”
“The Lone Ranger” did a middling $9.4 million Tuesday night and Wed.
But “Despicable Me 2” blew up — $35 million and counting. It’s going to be an epic opening –$100 million? More. Box Office Mojo says it’ll be at $130 by Sunday. Box Office Guru already seems like he lowballed it — $115 by Sunday.
Tuesday’s openings for “Despicable Me 2” and “The Lone Ranger” confirmed how starved folks are for a fun family toon this summer.
“Despicable,” already raking in the cash abroad, opened to over $4 million in business. “Lone Ranger” did half that.
With “Monsters University” still playing to gullible ticket buyers, will “Despicable” do all it might have done Tuesday-Sunday? Certainly. Figure on a $60-75 million weekend, with maybe $20-Tuesday-Thursday. As much as $100 million by Sunday night? Sure.
“Lone Ranger,” fighting bad buzz and weak reviews, will be hard pressed to make much headway against “The Heat” and World War Z.” Will it be a “White House Downer”? I think so. The table is set for an epic bomb.
