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SUNDAY AM: Weekend estimates show that the sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian's 3-day opening fell far short of the original despite a No. 1 box office finish this weekend. 
The 2005 first installment of the joint Disney/Walden Media fantasy, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was a surprise success with a $65 million weekend debut. But the sequel grossed only $56.6 million for FSS after earning $19.3 million Friday from 3,929 theaters. The pic managed only a modest 5% bump for Saturday, when kiddie matinees usually rule, to take in $20.3 million. With an estimated $17 million Sunday, that's a total far less than the $80M which box office analysts expected this weekend. The main problem was the sequel's darker content: the friendly woodland creatures gave way to murder and betrayal and political intrigue as the sequel devolved into what reviewers complained was basically a war movie. That proved bad for domestic box office. Internationally, the sequel did much better: opening day and date in 12 markets, Disney said Sunday that Prince Caspian earned $20.7 million, which represents a 27% improvement over the first Narnia. (Above, Saturday matinee for Narnia 2 at El Capitan. Photo by Jim Stevenson)
Marvel/Paramount's blockbuster Iron Man came in #2 with $8.7M from 4,154 venues Friday and $13.5M Saturday for a new cume of $222.4M and a $31.2M weekend. Fox's romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas placed 3rd with $13.8M f(-31%) from 3,255 plays for the weekend for a new cume of $40.3M. Warner Bros' anime actioner Speed Racer continues as a major bomb, ending Friday No. 4 with only $7.7M (-59%). The $160M movie's cume is just $29.8M -- which means it won't get beyond $50M in total domestic box office. Sony's Made of Honor came in #5 with $4.6M weekend and cume of $34M. Universal's Baby Mama placed 6th with a $4.5M weekend and new cume of $47.2M. The No. 7 pic was Universal's Forgetting Sarah Marshall with $2.5M for the weekend and new cume of $55M. In 8th place, Warner Bros' Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay took in $1.8M for FSS for a new $33.9M cume. The Weinstein Co/Lionsgate's The Forbidden Kingdom took 9th with $1M and a new cume of $50.3M. And, rounding out the Top 10, Overture Films' The Visitor earned $687K for a new $3.4M cume. Overall, box office is way down from last year when Shrek 3 ruled the box office by opening to a gargantuan $121 mil.
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I attended a late afternoon showing of Iron Man at the Century City mall and that place was EMPTY!
I thought that “Speed Racer” would have “Hulk” (2003) -like erosion (i.e., 70+% or more). It’s close.
Let this be a lesson:
When the film rights become available to a kids’ cartoon that had its greatest (and yet incredibly small) popularity 30-40 years ago and the cost to option those rights are only $1…
PASS.
Next up for “disappointment” (Is it really a disappointment if common sense says that it wouldn’t have been successful in the first place?) is “The Incredible Hulk.” It will do better numbers than “Speed Racer,” but will have the same second week erosion.
The fanboys only provide a one weekend bump. The fanboys’ expiration date is always immediately after the first weekend, but “The Incredible Hulk” will at least get that one weekend. Nothing else, though.
Maybe it’s time for studio execs to shake off the myopia and stop making movie after movie for the teen boy audience.
Widen the vision. Women are bored and disgusted with movies – tap into this enormous demographic with some real female driven movies, not the occasional wedding drivel.
People older than 34 are bored. They have disposable income and are not as fickle as teen boys. Make movies for this crowd.
The 18-34 male demographic guiding film production is an anachronism.
Which exec will be the smartest and wake up first? Economics will inevitably force the change.
If only those damn Hollywood liberals would make a good Christian themed movie, then we in rural America would stop watching the Hills and AMerican Idol and go see them!
What’s that? Narnia is one of those kinds of movies. Oops.
Harold, Joel Silver has owned the rights to Speed Racer for over twenty years now. I can’t wait to hear the end of reasons why Speed Racer didn’t take off, no one will ever truly know.
And OUCH for Narnia. It won’t open bigger than the first, and has even stronger competition.
The mistakes with Speed Racer began from the very beginning, when the execs at Warner Brothers, failed to cast Zac Efron, the star of High School: The Musical. Zac not only looks closer to the age and physicality of the character, but, he would have been an automatic built-in draw for the family audience, Tweens, Teens and Twenty Somethings alike–instead, they, Warner, went with for Emile Hirsh–someone who has no proven track record, who is often off putting in interviews???
Even Keaunu Reeves, before he was cast as the lead in The Matrix, had success with the films Speed and Bram Stoker’s Dracula…among other previous successes, which brought added millions to the box office of The Matrix–it wasn’t just the cleaver concept alone that attracted audiences, it was the casting of Reeves, having just come off of two hot movies.
Speed Racer’s failings had nothing to do with the age of the property: let’s look at Alvin and The Chip Munks success as an example. Blaming Speed Racer, with the claim that it wasn’t a popular enough property is just passing the buck for The Wachowskis Sibling’s many mistakes and poor realization of the material.
I could go on with analyzing the many missteps of the Speed Racer film adaption, from the over long running time of the film, the gaudy crayon colored look of the film, making it age and gender restrictive to solely an audience of little boys, to sandwiching it in between Iron Man and Narnia…full well knowing in advance that the tracking numbers for Speed Racer just couldn’t match the other two films…and thus, could not compete with them? It was just distribution suicide. The film should have been released on Thanksgiving or Christmas weekend, but I digress. The point is, if I could see these flaws weeks and even months before the release of the film, which I posted on another web site, why couldn’t the folks at Warner (who are getting paid millions to know these things) see this coming…as I did???
I’ve been saying this for awhile now… I was very puzzled by the producers choice to make this film darker. I thought for sure that it would push family attendance down, but everyone kept hyping the film. I even wondered if I had the market for this film totally wrong.
Nope. Parents read the reviews and a lot of them stayed away.
As Nikki says, “Toldya!”
I don’t truly understand all the expectations.. we’re in a recession, Narnia is a sequel of a movie that had a good box office but wasn’t that well received (less hype for part two), and the public, movie conscious audience has a three month movie marathon with big names every week in it’s mind *, resulting in less awareness for each individual title. I’m actually amazed that Narnia is drawing those numbers after part one being over two years ago and not that significant in addition to the before mentioned movies surrounding it. I’d say the reason Narnia is actually doing well is it’s darker, more adventurous feel.
And Speed Racer is a complete different story. My guess: it’s geekly loveable instead of cool and an has absence of marketing that makes a point, draws a character, gives a mood, or does anything except for displaying a logo.
*Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda, Hulk, Love Guru, Get Smart, Walle, Hanckock, Hellboy, Dark Night, Xfiles, Mummy etc..
I’m aware that not all movies listed are expected blockbusters, but a Mike Myers, Sex in the City, X files or Steve Carell movie, despite of drawing numbers or not, creates an awareness as a brand making it hard for others to stick out of the field.
Sixty to sixty-three million isn’t so bad. Save your OUCHes for “Speed Racer.”
I can’t shake the thought that epic and dark fantasy – just like Pixar animation – would do better around Christmas time, when more people are really in the mood for such fare and also more demographics are open for it. This ought to mean longer legs, better word of mouth, eventually bigger on dvd..
Conventional wisdom says it’s not so, but to me that seems more like poor math modeling with some very essential parameters missing.
Lets not forget something here. People pays to be entertain, so make a movie that entertains. Forcing down into their throat of your product, just because you have a vision, a message or you feel strongly for the subject matter is not entertainment.
Predicting what will be a sure-fire hit is as easy as guessing which church Lohan or Hilton will crash next time, which we know, will never happen. So Hollywood producers, next time you get a movie script, pls ensure the word ‘Fun; is on the cover page.
Oh! A movie can open at anytime of the year and still get good returns for people will watch it no matter how hot, cold, tired, expensive the situation are for them to get to the theaters.
Now to Narnia….
The 1st movie was a complete surprise to me that is. I had thought it would be similar to LOTR or even HP but nope, it was pathetic. Sure it grosses over 750M USD worldwide but my guesses is that, many had hoped for the same but left disappointed.
Lets not forget, what helped it to gross that huge was also the support of a certain religious group, whom had also powered a certain Mel Gibson movie to super blockbuster status.
So to see the 1st day gross for the sequel to not surpass the original is not surprising. My take is it will hard to for the sequel to reach 200MUSD, No matter how attractive its religious plot is, how epic the battle sequence are, it has loses its charm.
I’m with a previous poster in wondering why Hollywood in general kow-tows to the 18-34 year old demographic
I know it will forever be an important demographic…but isn’t there an untapped market for those over 34 (they too have disposable income) and they are just plain BORED with one comic book inspired movie after another…
and it makes talent in this town lazy…are there really any good specs out there lately? I’ll bet it’s just all formula stuff geared for the 18-34 group
Hollywood: no one’s watching your product, no one cares about your award shows anymore, and your disdain for half your customer base through your arrogant display of chic bourgeois liberalism just plain turns people off…I hope there really is a sag strike so this town can burn itself and rise again like the phoenix
is there anyone really excited about movies anymore? when the two most anticipated movies is a sequel from a movie we haven’t seen in 18 years (Indiana Jones) and a movie based on a one hour cable show (Sex And The City)—you got PROBLEMS
but go ahead Hollywood…keep insulating yourself from those that make you relevant (your audience)—then you soon become irrelevant and become just an industry for die-hard fans…you know—like broadway
there are sooo many avenues for your product Hollywood..and you turn out generic, mediocre crap that even your coveted 18-34 year olds are BORED with lol
First off, anyone know the budget for Caspian?
I don’t think Narnia 2 is in such bad shape, especially since it will certainly do well worldwide (more action will play well overseas). Even if it makes half what the first one did, it will still probably be profitable. But the big concern is the rest of the series. I’d bet they could probably do well with a third one, especially if they learned their lessons from this one and kept the budget down. But after going to a friday night showing that was probably a quarter full, if that, I think it’s extremely unlikely they’ll make it through all seven. I wonder how soon we’ll hear an announcement about part three (or about the rest of the series in general).
It was always an uphill battle – after the third books, they get way different. And two of the kids are gone now, with the other two out after the third book – basically the series has mostly different characters in every book. Had to maintain continuity.
It’s a shame they probably won’t finish the series. I still hope they can do the third one, I think that book has the most potential to be a great movie (to be fair, Caspian doesn’t have the strongest source material, and I think they probably improved on what is a fairly uneventful book). I’d love to see Magician’s Nephew and Last Battle onscreen but at this point I doubt it.
The movie is definitely darker and more violent (no way in hell it should have been just PG), but I don’t think that’s the main problem. It’s just way too long and too slowly paced. It also suffers from the inevitable comparison to LOTR, but I think if it didn’t drag so much people wouldn’t mind. If they would have just cut it a half hour shorter (or more), that would have helped reviews (which were fairly positive) and word of mouth considerably. It is more violent, but the big problem is that younger kids will be just BORED.
And this seems like an odd week to complain about movie being aimed at 18-34 males. This movie skews much more “family” (all ages if anything) and probably fairly even across gender lines. Speed Racer, sure. And Iron Man definitely fits that demographic, but it’s the perfect example of why studios target that demographic, and that a movie that appeals most to those guys can also bring in a huge female audience as well as people outside that age group.
A comic book movie done WELL has a great shot at appealing to all ages and both genders, as we see from Iron Man. Were you really bored with it, or did you just assume you would be and stayed away? If not, you may want to give it a shot, it has great acting and dialogue to go with the action.
While there are generally too many brainless action movies, and too many comic book movies, there will always be room for great ones.
By the way, how is making movies for teen boys chic, bourgeois, or liberal? (Isn’t the “hollywood liberal” stereotype supposed to be elitist intellectual artsy snobs?)
Good point that the first Narnia was a thanksgiving/christmas release. I think this movie would have done better released that time of year.
And if “dark” is so bad for a kids movie, why are the Harry Potter movies doing so well? Each one has been darker than the last. I don’t buy that “dark” is the whole problem in this case.
Nikki,
Can we please please please stop using the term “kiddie matinees?” Somehow it just seems so demeaning, not only to kids, many of whom are a lot smarter and more discriminating than we ever were, but to a lot of us who actually prefer going to films in the daytime. How about just “weekend matinees”? Or “no-school-day matinees”? Thanks.
I think it’s a mistake to characterize Narnia 2’s lower-than-expected box office on it’s “darker” tone. On the contrary, when a movie is what people call “darker” very often, that’s a short-hand way of saying it’s “more dramatic” and thus a better story. “Empire Strikes Back” is the fan favorite of the Star Wars saga and it is often described as the “darkest” film in the series. But it isn’t the darkness per se that resonates with the fans, it’s certainly the film with the most character and narrative reversals and intense situations. Ditto for Two Towers. I think Narnia is lower than expected because the first film isn’t very good (although it’s better than The Golden Compass, for sure.) It was a hit simply because film-goers were hungry for more Lord of the Rings and they went — it never stood on its own and it rode the coat-tails of Peter Jackson all the way to a nice opening weekend. So, it isn’t the “tone” of the film that’s responsible. It’s a general lack of enthusiasm.
LA Times has rave video review of Indiana Jones up on website after Cannes screening.
“I’m with a previous poster in wondering why Hollywood in general kow-tows to the 18-34 year old demographic…”
Hollywood kow-tows to the 18-34 year old demographic because that is the age at which “Hollywood” is stuck — mentally, emotionally and developmentally…
All of this row about Caspian being a darker film just goes to show how few people actually read books anymore. Guess what? The book was darker. If you take out the darker elements, you fundamentally change the story. The rest of the books in the series also contain dark elements, so maybe a lesson will be learned here to market the growing maturity of the series in a way that takes advantage of it instead of ignoring it and hoping that parents won’t mind once they find out about it.
Also, those of you who have enough brains to not have your world painted for you by CNN, CBS, Fox News, and so on stop dropping this “we’re in a recession” line just because you heard Katie Couric tell you so. A recession requires the economy to RECEDE for a certain period of time. That has not yet happened yet. Notice I said yet, I am not one of those “everything is sunshine” self deluders. We are in a time of economic trouble that may indeed turn into a recession, but we are NOT yet in a recession no matter how much certain sectors of the media like to misuse the term. On top of that, trying to use that as an excuse for why a particular film didn’t do well is pretty absurd when it hasn’t hurt other films. I guess maybe Robert Downey Jr. got a note from his mommy or his doctor that excused him from the recession?
The reason why these movies don’t do too well despite all the hype is because of the overly long running time. You wanna make a family movie and have it do well, then you need to have a running time around 90-100 minutes. I’ve a 13-year-old boy and you know a movie’s in trouble when he asks me when it’s gonna be over.
I sure as hell ain’t gonna see a POS like Speed Racer at a run time of 2hrs 15mins and I almost lost my patience w/Iron Man at over 2hrs (and I thought it was alotta fun). Narnia runs at 2hrs 20mins; this is where the problem lies.
Narnia followed the same pattern as other sequels, Spiderman and Harry Potter, which also opened lower than the original. I don’t understand why people thought this would open higher. It was a successful opening and in the end will outgross the original due to the fact it is airing in the summer rather than Christmas.
“We Are the Goon Squad and We’re Coming to Town…”
ok folks, lets stop shilling against this movie because its christian based (ie bush is a christian…isnt he?) and a war movie (ie we are in a war…arent we?), as well as being rated PG (potty mouthed & sexed up PG-13s are so much more “sophisticated,” …right?) .
total for the movie is UP from the first one and completely in line with what “insiders” have predicted.
if “insiders” are correct, the sequel was down about 8% on the domestic returns from the the first movie and up 27% of the foreign returns. so thats a total of about 17.5% UP from the first flick and overall fits the “insiders” “predictions” SPOT ON.
so what they hell is wrong with that and why does it deserve a “toldya so” swipe? thats a cheap shot against a movie that is not “cool” with modern day “pop culture.” so does that mean it is a “failed movie?”
oh….and as far as indy 4 is concerned, i have read it “creaks along.” oh but lets all go see it because hey, its indy, right? so does a movie sequel because it makes a billion a good movie? or is it just hype?
folks…lets please put things in perspective before being fashionistas and goon squad trendsetters.
The previous poster, BEN, is the only person talking sense on this poor excuse of a talkback. I’m ashamed of other people responding such as “Armand” and “Snowpuff”. You are talking like regular studio suits, with no knowledge about filmmaking and storytelling, seeing film only as a product. Who gives a damn if soccer moms didn’t want to bring their future fuckups to see the movie. Still grossed 56 millions! At least audiences all over the world are not as stupid as here…
Going 3-D would have cost them more, but they would have had wider returns at the box office. This is yet another film that should have been released on the weekend of Black Friday…or on Christmas Day!!!
I don’t know much about the Narnia movies or books. I heard it was a Christian Book or something so that was enough to keep me away. But it seemed to me by looking at the ads that the first movie seemed to have a “strong female” vibe to it. Like the main character was female or something. I thought that was great. I still don’t want to see Christian propaganda but hey, if they want to move towards enlightened thinking I’m all for it. However, this second movie just seemed to be about that young prince swinging his sword. I didn’t see any of the strong females that were in the first one. Maybe that’s why it didn’t do as well.
Billy, I’m a bit confused by your post. I neither recommend nor condemn the choice to make the film darker. I just predicted it would lower the draw for the film.
Also, this is not an argument about a film series known as high art. It is Entertainment with a capital E.
Comment by Billy Walsh — May 18, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
Billy, I am no ‘regular studio suits’ but what I am is a moviegoer and we’re the ones that the movie studios should be listening to if they want us to fork out our money to pay for the movie they put in the cinemas. Sure, I know nothing about the production, direction etc..but if these producers and directors wants me to watch their end-product, then they better deliver something I am willing to watch for 2 and half hours and not regretting what I could have done better with that wasted time.
We’re not asking for much are we? A movie that entertains, that makes us want to go for repeat viewings, that forces us to be the 1st to watch it when it hits the big screen, that made us grab the video as soon as it is out.
Give us what we want and we will reply with our pockets. audien
Though Prince Caspian was down from the first Narnia picture, I’d be interested in knowing if The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had another film with the appeal of Iron Man playing at the same time of its debut. With the darker themes of the current film, its box office seems very respectable.
Alfie –
Generally family films released in the winter tend to do better than those released in the summer because there is so much more competition in the summer.
Consider the legs of recent family films released in the winter such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Night at the Museum or the first Narnia.
This one has to keep going up against Speed Racer, Iron Man and a new blockbuster every week following.
I’m thinking this movie would have done better if released during the holiday season, but would hardly call it a disappointment after a 60-mil opening. If anything, the predictions by the “experts” were poorly calculated.
I went to see Prince Caspian on Friday and loved it. Unlike the first one, I will be going back to see it in theaters again and I’ve been encouraging all my friends to see the film.
As to the darker themes, the movie reflects the book accurately. Don’t expect it to get better because the series gets progressively darker the further into it you get.
Thanks for the support, Billy Walsh. I feel passionately about good story-telling and I think it’s important that folks stay open-minded about why a movie is or isn’t successful. I don’t want to see good filmmakers with a strong story to tell urged to make their movie “less dark” or to “lighten thing up” if that doesn’t fit the best interest of their story. Part of the reason Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are so successful is that they have villains the filmmakers take seriously. However, it is important to note that the “darkness” of the villains is counter-balanced in both cases by heroes who are deeply human and interesting. Although that’s just one aspect of the success of these films, it is an important ingredient. The stories like these that resonate with audiences all have deeply human, unique characters faced with a great and terrible threat. I wonder what would have happened if Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings weren’t books but were submitted to the studios as original screenplays. Would the execs have urged the filmmakers to “lighten up” the villains to make it more “fun”? Those films wouldn’t have been nearly as successful if that had happened because they would have been transformed into movies that were no longer dramatically fulfilling.
“Narnia followed the same pattern as other sequels, Spiderman and Harry Potter, which also opened lower than the original. I don’t understand why people thought this would open higher.”
You need to look at the numbers, virtually every sequel these days opens bigger than the original. The only reason Spidey 2 had a smaller opening weekend was because it opened Wednesday while the first opened Friday. While the weekend itself was lower, the opening was much bigger since it made 60 million just on wednesday and thursday. When Spidey 3 moved back to a friday opening, it set a new opening record (which still stands).
So yeah, when a sequel opens lower than the original these days, it doesn’t meet expectations.
“total for the movie is UP from the first one”
Worldwide, maybe. But if it’s down domestically, that isn’t a good sign.
And the first Narnia was well received overall. Sure, it probably benefitted from LOTR, but there’s no way it would have made so much just from that. The opening weekend was decent but nothing amazing – it made the big money because it had great legs. Word of mouth was good so it held up very well week after week.
And didn’t it do well on dvd as well?
Why do people always feel the need to invent a reason when a movie underperforms? The answer is the same every time: The movie underperformed because people didn’t go. Why didn’t people go? Well, you’d have to talk to them to find out. And I don’t see a lot of pollsters seeking out people who stayed home from the movies on a particular weekend and asking them why they’re home with Netflix and TiVo instead of at the local cineplex.
The movie failed because it was darker. Oh, of course. Just like LOTR: Two Towers failed because it was darker than Fellowship of the Ring, and Return of the King failed because it was the darkest of all of them. Just like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom failed. Just like Empire Strikes Back failed. Just like Superman 2… hell, is there ANY sequel out there that isn’t at least somewhat darker than the orginal (and doesn’t have the words “Electric Bugaloo” in the title)?
Like Bill Goldman says, nobody knows anything. I wish at least a few people in the industry could admit that.
I don’t think Caspians’ “Darker Content” was the cause of the less-than-expected box office sales. I think the movie-going public has been beaten to death with the Fantasy genre. And spending their gas money to experience another Braveheart style army-clash might be too much of a “been-there-done-that” to justify the cost.
To all the posters that want “mature” movies, when was the last 35-65 blockbuster? Let’s narrow it a bit, geared toward women?
Seriously, please stop worrying about what is already is out there, if you want to change the system, change it! Otherwise the “Iron Man” will rule the roost.
Christopher T,
You’re right, my use of the term recession was wrong. But i didn’t so much want to talk about the worlds of banking and business in details then use a word that describes the mood i find with most people (and news, written news in supposedly serious papers): money is tight and saving / not being wasteful seems a bigger issue now than it was the last years. And I guess this mood will have its traces on box office. (”Let’s see the must see’s and skip the ok ones”.)
But i do not think that’s the main reason why Narnia’s numbers are lower than estimated by some, I’d say it’s mainly a lack of excitement surrounding the title.
And how dare you call me fox watching!
Well, that also might just be based on the fact that first one was a pile of shit. And, that this one is most likely also a pile of shit.
why is it “not good” for being “down” domestically, yet UP internationally, as well as OVERALL????? The frakin movie has been out for less then a week its already made almost 50% of its budget back!!!
its asinine to think this was a bad weekend.
especially with a LONG holiday weekend coming up and the rest of the summer. I know tons of people simply waiting for the holiday to see movies. whether its this one or the others.
my two local theatres have this film up on several screens for a reason: it sold/sells ALOT of tickets.
also, fo rthe poster who said “this didnt have a strong female vibe” wtf??? there was female written all over this movie!!! did you even see it? the girls kicked major butt and the youngest girl was key to the whole PLOT!!! Not one of the female characters had a weak scene. They were perfect.
like i insinuated earlier, there are more than a few anti-christians that are very happy this movie didnt meet “expectations” and supposedly “failed.” I find their knowledge of what the film is ALL about lacking in any fact at all, if not out and out lying to draw attention away from their own bias & bigotry.
I hear folks say “its darker” yet it was very funny and adventurous as well, and even had romance. its “darkness” was no darker than the first movie. does anyone remember when alsan was killed in the first one? that was horrific and i couldnt believe it was a PG movie for that one scene alone.
I cannot wait to see it again, and will spread the word even more so seeing that so many anti-christians dont want this movie to be successful.
I also cannot wait for the next sequel.
cheers
Don’t forget the original Narnia movie was the same book that was based on a popular television version that a LOT of people saw. Caspian is based on the book that was not. For Caspian to do even near as well as the original is a win. A lot of people went to see the first movie remembering the original they saw long ago as children. Caspian only has the name of the series and previous movie to build from. I doubt the change in revenue has to do with it being too violent, and I think most movie execs would consider over $50M opening weekend a success, not a failure.
“Well, that also might just be based on the fact that first one was a pile of shit. And, that this one is most likely also a pile of shit…” so speaks a modern day bigot.
how can anyone say “most likely” when they HAVENT even SEEN the movie.
i love it when bigots play at being God too, and seem to KNOW IT ALL.
pfft…
the lenghts they will go to lie about something they have NO CLUE about.
Did it hurt Lord of the Rings that it was “too dark” and violent? They had to make it more adult. The first one was too childish. That had the advantage of being the first one though, so it had the curiousity factor and of being able to get the christian audience. Alot of those people didnt come back because the first one wasnt what they expected; it was more fantasy than religious. Plus this one doesnt have the religious symbolism the first one had.
You cant just depend on the kids to have a blockbsuter either. A big budget movie has to have more general appeal. Older teens and young adults have to want to see it too. Had they made more for children Im sure it wouldnt even have done as well as it did.
Comment by Benjamin — May 19, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
Such un=PG words you say Ben.
Not nice though it fits the movie very well (*!*)
….and yet Armand the bigot didnt see it either…yet he somehow KNOWS that Ben’s comments are accurate, and yet Ben didnt see it either??? so he didnt like the first one and yet he wasted $ to see the second?
…another liar as well as a bigot.
This movie isn’t flopping by any stretch of the imagination. While performing below expectations domestically, it’s surpassing expectations in the international markets where it’s been released — and it has yet to open in the UK, Germany, France, Australia and Japan where LWW enjoyed its highest overseas grosses. Expect its take in the UK to be huge — Brits like “dark” fantasy (witness the success of Golden Compass in the UK) and the book is also better known there.
This doesn’t even take into account the DVD release, which should be just nicely in time for Christmas.
Disney isn’t losing any sleep over this one, folks.
Comment by lu-ee — May 21, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
Are you working for Disney or something? Sheesh!
Muat be..