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SUNDAY AM: Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army heated up the North American box office with a fiery $13.7 million Friday and $11.7 million Saturday from 3,204 theaters. It made $35.8M total over the weekend for No. 1 as well as in four foreign countries that raised $4.6M. With big support from African-Americans and Latinos, the audience skewed male with slightly more than half of moviegoers age 25 years or older, and the majority had seen the first film in theaters or on DVD. Obviously, the studio's uber-marketing attempt to humanize the Guillermo del Toro pic's bizarro collection of characters from the Dark Horse comic book worked nicely. That's why Ron Perlman as Hellboy did promos on every NBC Uni media outlet imaginable. (Even on cable's Oxygen channel with Bravo's James Lipton interviewing him...) "We wanted to make him as audience friendly and accessible as possible," one Uni exec explained to me. The fact that Hellboy II made 50% more than the 2004 first movie's $23.1M opening FSS is a real triumph for Universal Pictures, whose bosses Marc Shmuger, David Linde and Donna Langley swooped in and scooped up the sequel from Sony/Revolution Studios which did the original Hellboy I. (And the trio wanted it before del Toro's Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth ever opened.) As one Uni exec exulted, "We took somebody's reject pile and made it into a franchise for us."
At No. 2, Sony Pictures' first-placer finisher over July 4th, Hancock, kept one of the summer's best holds -- -47% -- on the box office, earning $10.3M Friday and $13 million Saturday from its 3,965 runs. It had a $33M weekend and a $165M cume. So far, foreign is $180M and its worldwide total is $345M in just under 2 weeks. Its total domestic take is heading to $225M, internationally to $350M, so Hancock is on track to earn maybe as much as $600M worldwide. Attribute it to Will Smith's star power and the strong word of mouth for the film, which received a B+ Cinemascore and an A- among its core of young men. Audiences (more than the critics) seem to like that unexpected third act plot twist in the pic.
In 3rd place, New Line / Warner Bros' Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D took the freeway to a $6.7 million debut Friday and $7.9 million Saturday from 2,811 venues for #3 and a $20.5M weekend. The studio thinks that's a strong opening for a film costing just $54M (and, frankly, looks it). The 3D screens outperformed the 2D screens by 3 to 1. "I think anytime dinosaurs exist in a movie, don't bet against it," one Hollywood marketing guru told me. (Talk about date-swapping: the Brendan Fraser starrer was supposed to debut in August when the actor's other summer movie The Mummy 3 was slated for July. Then Universal moved The Mummy to August, so Warner Bros moved Journey forward to July. Got that?)
Pixar/Disney's lonely droid Wall-E was No. 4 since it keeps going and going like the Energizer bunny, racking up another $5.6M Friday and $7.4M Saturday from 3,849 plays for a $18.5M weekend and $162M cume. Universal's Angelina Jolie-James McAvoy starrer Wanted was No. 5 with $3.6M Friday and $4.5M Saturday for an $11.5M weekend and new cume of $112M. In the 6th spot was Warner Bros' Get Smart with $2.2M Friday and $2.9M Saturday for another $7.1M weekend and new cume of $111M.
And all the way back at No. 7 was 20th Century Fox's Meet Dave which even the studio didn't bother to hide was going to bomb big-time. The Eddie Murphy starrer opened to an embarrassing $1.7M Friday and $2M Saturday despite playing in 3,011 theaters for only a $5.3M weekend. It's not like this is the first moronic movie Eddie has starred in -- remember Norbit and Daddy Day Care which did big business? -- but this was "an incredibly difficult one to market," an insider explained to me. So was that other sci-fi Eddie pic, The Adventures Of Pluto Nash, which tanked as well. The general concensus is that Meet Dave should have been aimed "at young kids from the get-go". Or just never made. Fox will spread the loss with two financing partners New Regency and Dune.
The rest of the Top 10 were holdovers. No. 8 went to DreamWorks Animation/Paramount's Kung Fu Panda which took in $1.2M Friday and $1.7M for a $4.3M weekend and new cume of $202M. No. 9 is Picturehouse's Kit Kittredge: An American Girl on 1,849 theaters struggled for $758K on Friday and $878K Saturday for a $2.3M weekend and an $11M cume. In 10th place, Paramount's Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull which eked out another $602K on Friday and $951K Saturday for a $2.2M weekend and a fat cume of $310.4M.
It was a big moviegoing weekend overall with $150+M box office but still down 12% from last year's record-breaker.
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I’m really happy for HB2 because it deserves it’s success more than any movie out now in my opinon. As for MD, well what can I really say. I can’t really understand why Murphy keeps doing films that the MTV crowds wan’t to see him do, instead of films that he knows he should be doing. Goes for Myers to.
Good for Hellboy,but all this is just an appetizer for next week when the Dark Knight will destroy everything in it’s path.
Was unimpressed, the same old fantasy genre, good battle evil good wins with a few quips and smirks along the way.
It was a regurgitated fantastical theme, that left me fidgeting in my seat.
Please tell me again why Hancock got such scathing reviews and HellBoy 2 is just skating through? It was a mindless muddle with a lack of a good plot, and please don’t tell me much more is expected from Hancock.
I did have a few chuckles,but that wasn’t enough to stop my squirming and glances to the exit.
If I could choose one career in town to end, Eddie Murphy’s would be it – hopefully, he just took care of that himself. “Embarassing” doesn’t even start to describe those numbers. “Atrocius” is more like it. The man should never work again.
You can’t change a movie from a self-explanatory title, Starship Dave, to Meet Dave. The first title says everything you need to know about the movie. The second title doesn’t say anything.
I saw Hellboy 2 last night and the crowd was better than I was expecting, as was the movie.
Easily the second best superhero movie I’d seen this summer behind Iron Man… sorry Hancock and Hulk. I feel bad though that the movie only has a week to sell tickets before Batman comes out.
As for the other two opening this weekend, Journey to the Center of the Earth probably suffered from Beowulf syndrome, where the movie was only worth seeing in an imax or other 3D theatre. Meet Dave I’d honestly never even heard of before this post. Did they do any marketing that didn’t involve driving a giant Eddie Murphy head around LA… you know, for the rest of the world that doesn’t live in LA?
The MTV crowd doesn’t want to see “Meet Dave.” What are you talking about? For Murphy to succeed again – and I think we’d all like to see that – he needs to recapture his edginess again, and that will take dropping his entourage and the all his protectors, both internal and external, and show some vulnerability. A good dramatic role would help. He also needs to work with some visionary, powerful directors and be open to doing what they say, rather than hand-picking a bunch of talentless lackeys. That’s Mike Myers’ problem as well. Americans love both of you guys and will support any film efforts that show your real selves. Just drop the shield and put it all out there. It’ll be cathartic and rewarding.
never understood eddie murphy’s appeal
Hellby is the best movie of the summer, if nt the year, for combining & successfully deliverying the full gamet of human emotions: humor, suspense, and even serious romance. Its that good. Dont care what the gross is or what critics say. Its common sense and the common movie experience that one takes away from this flick, on how good it wask.
…not just CGI but reai-life actors playing almost every fantastical and/or horrific character on the screen.
…incredible picture. A real joy to xperience & damn any naysayers.
Batman & his sidekick the Joker will probably take the crown for the serious high drama, high action type hero flick, but this movie had so much of every emotion and plot device, as well as keeping all the horror and fantasy elements of the comic book genre in check. Iron Man & the Hulk were gr8 as well, but this movie is coming for the twilight zone where the others are long standing, “from earth” magazine franchises.
Batman, while great, has still been modified for the big contemporary screen medium. Hellboy on the screen is the same as the comic book/ modern pulp magazine experience.
del Toro is defintely a master movie craftsman. I cant imagine anyone doing what he does with this character.YES, THE DIRECTOR DOES MATTER FOLKS. Without del Toro there is no Hellboy franchise. Mucho kudos for Uni for scooping del Toro and hellboy up.
…the drama brought a tear to your eye and the suspense a gulp in your throat and yet the humor had you also laughing in the aisles until you were in tears. Incredible martial arts sequences, and good old urban cop type confrontations. AND FANTASY AND HORROR.
Perleman and crew were hitting on all cylinders. Just the perfect movie experience. Gives one hope and pleasure that hollywood still has it when it allows master artists to strut their stuff. And yet all artists involved sacrificed ego for the greater good of the overall movie experience.
highly highly recommended.
Really J?
Go rent 48 Hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, Bowfinger, Nutty Professor, Shrek, and Dreamgirls. Heck, rent his best of SNL video, a show he dominated for years (and left before he was 25!)
The man is a MAJOR talent and was the biggest movie star of the ’80s for a reason.
which is why it’s sad when he makes crappy movies. Like Someone above said, he needs to lose the entourage and yes-men and get good manager who can bring back the hilarious wise-ass we all loved.
“George Glass”
Why so defensive, and over Eddie Murphy of all things?
Must everyone agree with you?
Murphy has never been appealing. His humor is not funny and he is not likeable.
If you feel differently, then bully for you.
The end.
48 hours – sucked
bh cop – ok, but not cause of EM
coming to america – sucked
nutty professor – sucked
shrek – ensemble
dreamgirls – ensemble
EM sucks and is too old to be making movies, esp. sucky ones
the 80s are long over, to the dude above
Eddie Murphy – the biggest movie star of the 80s??????
That is hyperbole. While his career was big, he was not the biggest. What is this statement based on?
Even Time magazine makes the distinction between dramatic and comic actors – and, incidentally, Time named Steve Martin the top comic actor of the 80s (and that makes sense.)
I’m not here to defend Eddie’s recent movies.
What I can say, without a doubt, is that the man is not only one of the funniest natural talents ever, but he INSPIRED an entire generation of African-American comedians with his work on SNL and several of his movies in the 80s.
There are a lot of people with egos in Hollywood. Not sure why, when its a minority (see Jennifer Lopez), we all try to pretend their ego is worst than a Mel Gibson’s or a Jim Carrey’s.
Or heaven forbid the Starlet-of-the-Moment.
Eddie is a talent who needs to get back to working with REAL directors and REAL ensemble casts (no more of these movies where he plays multiple parts) – if he did he would turn out much better movies
Or maybe he’ll just retire, Cagney-style. We shall see.
Eddie Murphy has talent. He used to be hilarious, before he started trying to appeal to the kids that loved him as Donkey in the “Shrek” movies.
Bowfinger was probably his last really good non-voice over role. And nobody saw that movie. There’s a reason his performances on SNL still rank as some of the greatest ever. And there’s a reason Beverly Hills Cop was so huge. He was and is funny.
But he’s so insulated and protected he has lost his edge. The Eddie Murphy of today would be too afraid to put on the Gumby costume or play “Buhwheat.” That’s probably why his Donkey roles are so enjoyed–they show him for the hilarious actor he can be.
Iron Man is still the number 1 movie of 2008 IMO. I’m going to see HBII in a couple hours. Looks good,and I gotta support my Mexican brother/director. As far as Eddie, I’m sorry, but his movies buh-LOW. I didn’t like Nutty Professor that much, and NORBIT?!!! REALLY?!! I had hope with Shrek, as he was actually funny. I watched BHC a couple days ago. Where is that Eddie Murphy?
Cyd salad said it best. Eddie must drop his agency and make more serious movies. Some good examples would be either a dramedy where he found out that he had a daughter from a previous relationship that his wife doesn’t know about and she is white or a action movie in which he is sidekicks with The Rock. Both of these ideas are doable. For the first one, there are tons of young actresses willing to play the part and it gives Eddie a chance to be edgy again. The second can be a caper movie where Eddie is the older and wiser partner to The Rock.
TDK will own them all.
To fully appreciate just how bad MEET DAVE is doing one has to look no further than the American Girl movie which is barely off from it’s opening week. But here’s the remarkable thing -They’re in 1800 screens, cost $8 million to produce and will make $2.1 for the weekend, with a cume of $11.
Dave’s in 3,000 screens, cost $75 million to produce, and will make $5 million for the weekend.
On a comparitive average Kit Kittredge is Star Wars next to MET DAVE.
Here’s the thing about Meet Dave. Eddie Murphy is no longer funny, he doesn’t attract a general audience. He seems angry and sad and desperate. And I don’t want to bring my kids to see him in a movie. I’d rather introduce them to the old Eddie. This afternoon we went to see Kit Kittredge and completely enjoyed it. It was quite full at the Grove but there weren’t a lot of showings.
My girls and I are very anxious to see Mama Mia.
I’m not surprised about meet dave. That was a john fox project at fox and that guy is a moron. he will greenlight any piece of crap eddie murphy hands him.
Realty chick is right – Meet Dave is an expensive diseaster. $75 million (minimum) budget. Plus $40 milion P&A = someone loses their job. What a dumb movie to greenlight. and the tag line??? Eddie Murphy IN Eddie Murphy. Yuck!
The American Girl movie which i contend had a retarded release pattern,might actually crawl to $20. I don’t think Eddie can say the same.
The fault dear brutus lies not with us, but in the stars…
Eddie Murphy is the God of comedy. In Meet Dave he’s hiding out as a mortal man which makes him boring like Jerry Lewis after Dean bailed. I think as a kids movie Meet Dave works but again there needed to be more fantasy and of course a talking dog. Eddie Murphy career is not over – don’t be silly – he just needs to work with better material and a stronger creative team. I’m telling you, if he takes a few more supporting roles in meaningful films he will rise to God like status again.
Beverly Hills Cop 4 to work needs to be taken out of Beverly Hills and the BH cops goes to Detroit to him Axel in an urban land solve a murder.
Do a switch on the fish out of water and put Eddie Murphy in a Training Day setting with the white cops having to be schooled.
That’s my free advice Eddie and Paramount. Take it for what it’s worth.
Chris E. Jackson
WGA member
I just don’t care which of these movies is #1 or #2 in the weekend box office. I’ve just seen these two movies and both of them, I must say, are excellently made. That’s all.
Viva Hollywood films!
R.I.P Mr Murphy
It’s about time yuo rest your acting career and let someone else take over the podium. Norbit was the final straw for me, and to think I was a fan. For someone who doesn’t turn up on your movie priemer, it tells alot of your ego getting bigger than yuor talent.
Anyways, lets not talk of the has-been.
Being a big fan of HellBoy 1, I am so happy to see how it is performing on the B.O for the sequel. Del Toro is not only a director but a stroy-teller, a good one at that. Perfect casting, special effects etc..
A real good movie has been produced and for one, Hollywood got it right.
There are some silly comments here. Eddie Murphy has been involved in too many flops over the last 25 years (Holy Man, Pluto Nash, I Spy, Showtime, BHC3) to think one flop is going to kill his career. Just looking at BOM, as bad as most of his films have been recently, the last 5 all made at least $75 million. 1 bomb isn’t going to harm somebody with that track record. He needs 3 or 4 of these in a row to kill it. If anything, hopefully it’ll shame him into picking a better project, i.e. Dreamgirls, before he goes back to his cash grabbing.
wow, there’s a lot of haters around here (as well as supporters of course). eddie murphy was indeed one of the biggest, if not, through biggest star of the 80’s. His films all made good money at the box office(except for best defense in which he cameoed in)-and if you’d adjust them for inflation, they would make 100 million dollars or more. in fact his stand up film, RAW, is the highest stand up concert film as of this time. Also Raw and his other stand up concert, delirious, remain as comedy classics. He was a huge star for a reason, he had appeal to the young and older audience –despite all his cussing. Comedy central had eddie as The number 9 best stand-up of all time (and it was said that his rank could’ve been higher if he didnt quit stnd up so early in his career). Also it was said by many on SNL, even lorne michaels, that Eddie practically saved SNL (whose ratings has dtopped until Eddie started his classic characthers like gumby and mister robinson) with his popularity. You can say what you want about eddie, but you cant doubt that he wasnt one of the biggest stars of the 80’s. And he is in in The top three (or even number one–from what i heard) as of being The highest box office star from all his movies combined, of course shrek helped it–but you cant deny that eddie helped attract more moviegoers with his donkey character. And a website said that he is third on The actors with The most 100 million dollar movies. Also I agree with The post above, that one flop or bomb wont kill eddie’s career, cmon if he can still make big movies and remain a popular hollywood star after flops like holyman and The bomb that was pluto nash–then he can easily survive through meet dave.
Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers flop
Steve Carell and (animated) Jack Black hit big
Will Ferrell & Ben Stiller better be bringing their A-Game. Seth Rogen: your clock is ticking too
For comparison, Murphy and Myers were even surpassed by Spring newcomers like Jason Segel & Tina Fey. Embarrassing!
Meet Dave won’t be the end of Eddie Murphy’s career… he’s survived worse (the triumvirate of Pluto Nash/I Spy and Showtime for instance)… it was a poorly marketed movie (is this a high concept comedy for teens and grown-ups ala White Chicks or a kids’ flick?) with a bad title (as mentioned above) that depended entirely on a poster with a little Eddie Murphy inside the head of a big Eddie Murphy… it’s a real HUH? concept for sure. Eddie will do another Beverly Hills Cop and there’ll be another Shrek movie and he’ll do just fine. Heck, he probably has made so much money just from Shrek that a bomb like this doesn’t even faze him.
I went this weekend to see “Encounters at the End of the World”. It was wonderful.
I have never found Eddie Murphy funny, I always though his humor was too crude and stereotypical.
Eddie needs to realize that the viewing audience has moved on from the 80s and are more sophisticated.
The new people we find funny are:
Will Smith
George Clooney
Brad Pitt
Mike Epps
And a few others
These actor give a kind of humor that doesn’t fell like a comedy stand-up routine.
Eddie never had the talent to be a “actor” he was always a comedian, even P. Diddy (Monster’s Ball and Raisin in the Sun) has more talent as an actor.
HANCOCK
I think the audience appreciated that it way an attempt to be smarter than your average Superhero movie, it presented a real life situation, in a real life present period to the Superhero genre. The viewing public is smarter and more sophisticated than we think.
I would as a fan go to many of these Superhero movies and just have to leave my logical mind outside, and keep saying to myself “We are not in Kansas anymore” but with Hancock, I loved the human flaws, the real city, and the whole human scene of him trying to fly away near the end.
Arnie:
12/9/88 Twins Uni. $111,938,388
6/17/88 Red Heat TriS $34,994,648
11/13/87 The Running Man TriS $38,122,105
6/12/87 Predator Fox $59,735,548
6/6/86 Raw Deal DEG $16,209,459
10/4/85 Commando Fox $35,100,000
7/5/85 Red Sonja MGM $6,948,633
10/26/84 The Terminator Orion $38,371,200
6/29/84 Conan the Destroyer Uni. $31,042,035
5/14/82 Conan the Barbarian Uni. $39,565,475
Total $412mil
Eddie:
11/17/89 Harlem Nights Par. $60,864,870
6/29/88 Coming to America Par. $128,152,301
12/18/87 Eddie Murphy Raw Par. $50,504,655
5/20/87 Beverly Hills Cop II Par. $153,665,036
12/12/86 The Golden Child Par. $79,817,937
12/5/84 Beverly Hills Cop Par. $234,760,478
7/20/84 Best Defense Par. $19,265,302
6/10/83 Trading Places Par. $90,404,800
Total $817mil
TWICE AS MUCH!!
Eddie Murphy is going to do Bevery Hills Cop 4. Hey, it was pretty successful for Stallone to return to his signature roles…Murphy might cash in one last time in between voicing Donkey.
post above was right – john fox is a lame tool but steve asbel was the fox executive who “championed” meet dave. doesn’t really make a difference. Both are clueless clowns who have no idea how to make a movie.
Eddie needs a haircut and some other straight men.. Barbershop III with Eddie Murphy.. It should work..
Hairdehair..
BarbershopIII with Edie Murphy.. Several straight men..
Hey Seth…people DON’T find George Clooney and Brad Pitt FUNNY (Leatherheads, anyone?)…get a clue!
Uh, Geroge, did you just paste in box office gross takes (for Arnie) with total earnings (for Eddie)?
Sure looks that way.
Hot Wings,
I find them funny in OceansXX and there was this little film Bard Pitt did for Guy Richie in which he was hilarious. (something to do with a barrel and smoking guns?)
There are different types of humor, there is the sophisticated and clever type and then there is the more obvious and after that there is the crude loud type.
If I were to use your standard of one bad movie then Eddie Murphy isn’t in any way funny, remember DAVE/PLUTO NASH, there was another clunker,but I forget.