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MONDAY AM: Sony pickup District 9 hit $100M domestic Sunday, the 5th Wingnut Film production in a row from Peter Jackson's company to do that. It also opened #1 in the UK this weekend. And, on Saturday, Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen, passed $400M domestic.
Labor Day weekend is traditionally a slow moviegoing holiday. So Friday's and Saturday's numbers were only so-so. But Warner Bros' horror holdover The Final Destination 3-D ended the weekend a clear winner with $3.57M (-67%) Friday and $4.4M Saturday from 3,121 theaters. It's 3-day weekend was $12.3M, and its 4-day holiday was $15.4M for a new cume of $50.5M. On Friday, it narowly edged out Fox's romantic comedy All About Steve which opened to $3.50M Friday, and $3.9M Saturday in 2,251 venues. The Sandra Bullock (she also produced) and Bradley Cooper laffer did better than expected because it had one of the lowest Rotten Tomatoes scores I've ever seen: 6% positive reviews. It also had the bigger per screen average. But the pic couldn't begin to match those actors' big summer hits (The Proposal, The Hangover) as the season comes to a close. But by today, All About Steve fell to No. 3 behind Quentin Tarantino's holdover Inglourious Basterds from The Weinstein Company and Universal which moved up to No. 2. All About Steve ended up with $11.2M for the 3-day weekend and $13.9M for the 4-day holiday.
And it shaped up as a tough weekend for Weinstein Company's 100% owned holdover Halloween II, which experienced a whopping -78% drop Friday. While Lionsgate's newcomer Gamer opened only 4th for the weekend Hollywood thought it would win. Gamer made $3.3M Friday and $2.9M Saturday for just a $9.1M three-day weekend and $11.2M four-day holiday. (Then again, its Rotten Tomatoes score was only 21% positive reviews.) Taking 10th place because it played in only 1,611 venues was Miramax's new workplace comedy Extract from Mike Judge featuring the hardest working actor in showbiz Jason Bateman. Here's the chart:
Top 10 Movies Grosses
1. Final Destination 3-D (WB) Wk 1 [3,121], Cume $50.5M, 3-day $12.3M, 4-day $15.4M
2. Basterds (Wein/Uni) Cume $95.2M, 3-day $11.6M, 4-day $15M
3. All About Steve (Fox) NEW [2,251] 3-day $11.2M, 4-day $13.9M
4. Gamer (Lionsgate) NEW [2,502] 3-day $9.1M, 4-day $11.2M
5. District 9 (Sony) Week 4 [3,139] Cume $103.2M, 3-day $7.1M, 4-day $9M
6. Halloween II (Weinstein) Week 2 [3,088] Cume $27.1M, 3-day $5.7M, 4-day $7M
7. Julie & Julia (Sony) Week 5 [2,528] $80.6M, 3-day $5.7M, 4-day $7M
8. G.I. Joe (Paramount) Week 5 [2,846] Cume $141M, 3-day $5.1M, 4-day $6.7M
9. Traveler's Wife (WB) Week 4 [2,803] Cume $55.7M, 3-day $4.3M, 4-day $5.4M
10. Extract (Miramax) NEW [1,611] 3-Day $4.3M, 4-day $5.3M
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Wow, Nikki. Could you make your bias against horror/violent/R-Rated pics any more obvious? Last week you put that “quote” up about civilization crumbling with 4 R rated films in the top spot. This week you have to point out how the new romcom had a better per-screen. Romantic comedies are every bit as trashy as Final Destination and definitely MORE trashy than the wonderful Inglorious Basterds and District 9.
Romantic comedies can be fun. Provided they’re done well and the two leads actually have chemistry.
But “All About Steve” is stupendously awful. Bullock is loud, annoying and her character is horribly written. I mean, this movie outdoes Bullock’s sequels (”Speed 2″ and “Miss Congenality 2″) look like “Citizen Kane.”
Halloween 2 should have been burnt before it was ever released. Truly Awful and an insult to anyone who has been watching the series since 1978. There’s not a moment of suspense or any sense of fun in anyone frame in the movie. Its just plain brutality using characters Rob Zombie has no business touching. My review-http://blog.entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com/2009/08/30/halloween-2-2009-review/
Chuck
Gamer is such an unusual movie, not what I expected. It isn’t at like a Running Man movie except that it’s about a game being broadcasted, other than that, it’s a very original story with some great acting in it. There is some character development and the storyline does stay sound throughout the film, thankfully it isn’t too preachy on the future social commentary but lets the audience carry their own thoughts on that. In some ways it is somewhat gratitious in a sexual context, though nowhere near as bad as some make it out to be but thankfully it didn’t detract from the film. IMO, Gamer worked because of the storyline maintained it’s direction as in going forward, the action in the film was used to enhanced the story and didn’t detract though there was enough to please any fanboy who enjoys all the big bangs. Overall, the film is more like The Matrix than Running Man and nowhere near like Crank or Crank 2. I think that the film should have been slightly longer with more shots of the support cast, which were more like extended cameo’s but it still works. It is a fairly decent film, I’d rate it B+, not a perfect film but an enjoyable watch in it’s genre.
@ FYI
I’m wondering if you work for anybody remotely conected with this rip off. I say rip off because I want my money back. If I had a razzie vote I would nominate this turd of a movie. The direction was just piss poor and the camera work was slipshode. I can find nothing about this movie that is redeamable. Most of the talent wanted to do better but the directors just pissed that away. The story was trite and predictable with just enough of the visuals removed to make things confusing. You sir have FAILED!
love to hear what all involved with Steve are talking about this am. maybe that sandy should just star and not produce. she’s always iffy in that arena but so charismatic otherwise.
Once upon a time, when you saw a film ad on TV, then you knew what it was about. Nowadays, it’s all cryptic leaving you to try to guess rge plot. Like Gamer. I saw the ad a few times and still didn’t know what it was about. I knew it had something to do with games – and that’s it.
These marketing people need to get their act together and learn how to market these films. Even a horrible film can get decent business if it’s marketed right.
Thank you. A film is a product that studios are selling to the public. Market, market market the product with trailers that tell you 1) what the movie is about, 2) who’s starring in it and 3) why we should care and run out to see it as opposed to staying home in our pygamas and watch dvd’s. I mean WTF? The studios have to find a way to cut through the clutter in the media. Why is it that all the media (old and new) landscape is blanketed with mediocre reality stars, shows, and endless gossip about actors who aren’t working but love to go to starbucks?? I’m thinking this is an untapped area of filmaking I should look into developing. The industry needs marketing experts. Movies don’t sell themselves.
@ Soryay
You’re joking right? You think Studios pay millions of dollars to market a film and then just hand over the operation to noobs?
I can’t believe ANYONE paid money to see All About Steve. That film looks atrocious.
It looks like All About Steve was released just to cash in on Bradley Cooper and Sandra Bullock’s recent successes. They didn’t screen the film for critics, which is a bad sign to begin with. I have a feeling, this film will drop off really quickly. Your estimate for Gamer is a little bit low for the 4-day weekend. It made almost as much as the two films above it on Friday. I have a feeling Final Destination will end up on top. Just because it’s the second weekend, and it should do better on the weekend. All About Steve, because of its crappy reviews, will suffer once the bad word-of-mouth spreads.
All About Steve apparently was screened for critics. Reviews appeared online at both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times websites on Thursday.
EXTRACT comes in 8th place and you say nothing bad about it.
It’s a real shame that the preponderance of film critics are bored, jaded snark monsters, because Gamer was an absolute blast. Michael C. Hall’s dance routine might have been one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen…and I’ve seen Danny DeVito’s ass.
OK Nikki,so Gamer didn’t win the weekend because of its Rottemtomatoes score, yet All About Steve wins with an even lower score. So, reviews didn’t have anything to do with that one?
‘Extract’ was shockingly bad.
Word of mouth will kill this one.
‘Extract’ deserved better but it should still top Mike Judge’s other live-action comedies.
That’s not saying much. “Idiocracy” did $444,093, “Office Space” did $10,827,810. It wouldn’t be hard to top those numbers. Even so, it’s going to be a stretch for Extract considering it only did $4.3 million this holiday weekend.
Why is labor day traditionally a bad weekend for movies? At least this year, they offered something interesting. is it because people are getting ready for school?
Cause its the last shot for families to get in some semblance of a summer vacation.Especially in this economy, more money is going into travel than into the movie theater.
Halloween II didn’t have a sense of fun?! Since when are horror movies supposed to be fun? It’s a film about a sadistic serial killer stalking and murdering anyone who crosses his path. Zombie is true with his depictions of horror and violence. He holds a mirror up to the voyeuristic nature of horror fans. The fact that people like Chuck are mad because they can’t enjoy watching Michael Myers’ latest killing spree is rich with irony.
“He holds a mirror up to the voyeuristic nature of horror fans. The fact that people like Chuck are mad because they can’t enjoy watching Michael Myers’ latest killing spree is rich with irony.”
Oh I get it Rob Zombie is a genious.I don’t think so. As for a sense of fun- YES even in horror movies it can be fun when the audience actually gets to root against evil. That it might be defeated. Sorta like most of the Halloween films pre-Zombie. Zombie had no intention of that in his Halloween 2 as the Laurie Strode character is written so pathetically. Its just Myers brutally killing. Hey glad you liked it but its not my idea of a Halloween film. Yes I did hate it.
chuck
Why is Miramax still in the film making business???
I hated this “Read more” format
I guess some Web Designer Consultant needs to be fired.
Please bring back the old format
I am a Sandra Bullock fan but “All About Steve” is not worth going to see. Once word of mouth gets around that movie will be old news.
She should remake the “Ghost and Mrs Muir” with Tom Sellect as the Captain.
Wait, how is Jason Bateman the hardest working man in Hollywood?
You say “All About Steve”s RT score is something to be shocked about, but 6% is, while obviously bad, becoming a regular occurrence these days.
Why do you think GAMER’s Rotten Tomatoes score had anything to do with its grosses? Most audiences, especially younger ones, who buy tickets for movies don’t care about critics — and half of RT’s critics are “web people” who nobody pays any attention to or has even heard of.
Maybe nobody just wanted to see GAMER…looked like crap, sounded like crap, kids have gone back to school…I just doubt saying “it’s 21% rotten!” had anything to do with that.
Agreed. One only need look at the gross for Transformers to see that critics have little or no juice with the movie-going public.
People decide what they want to see and they do just that, period. Also agreed that half (more?) of the critics on RT are inconsequents who have appointed themselves reviewers and set up generic websites to legitimize their opinions…
Who cares?
Chuck, didn’t you think Zombie’s first HALLOWEEN should have been burned as well?
I thought Halloween Remake was the worst “film” in a decade… and shockingly Halloween 2 is a MUCH better film just oozing with atmosphere and a big creepiness factor. I honestly cannot see all the hatred for this movie. It’s actually the best Halloween Sequel since part 4, but I know I am in a niche’ market. The movie, to me, was 1000 times better than any abortion Rob Zombie has put to film so far.
I don’t get the love for Extract. Went and saw it on Friday night with the wife and some friends, and while it does have some laugh out loud moments, it’s a pointless movie. And, the ending is just a cop out. Jason Bateman, who I love, seemed like he was just mailing it in, Mila was a typical hot, useless plot device. Ben Affleck stole most of his scenes, though.
Office Space is about 10 times better. I would rather have seen a sequel to what those guys are up to(like Clerk’s 2) than this movie.
Anybody else notice that GI Joe is going to get very close to the 300 million that the studio predicted and that Nikki said was unrealistic?
Steve:
I’m sorry, how in the world do you think G.I. Joe’s gonan make 300 million domestically?
Chris:
Not domestically. Internationally. Nikki posted when the movie came out that the studio was expecting 300 million total, and along with Toy sales it would be a hit. Nikki said that she had no idea how they could say it would hit 300 million. Well, it’s only about 30 million away. It will finish very close to 150 in the states and will probably get closer overseas.
Like somebody just said down thread, Nikki can’t do her Toldja’s if she doesn’t cop to being wrong.
Why was GAMER supposed to win the weekend? Whenever I saw anyone react to the trailers, they definitely laughed during ALL ABOUT STEVE but sat dead in their seats during GAMER, which looked lame from the get-go. And Ludacris having the final word “we’re all just slaves” seemed like the final anvil over the audiences collective heads. The trailer screamed “you’ve seen all this before” so what was the reason to see this?
A theory about Extract: its potential audience was turned off by its initial trailer, which chose to make it seem like a Hangover-knock-off (man parties too hard, can’t remember what happened) instead of explaining what the movie was about.
Such a cynical calculation by the studio. It screamed that this movie had nothing to offer. I’m a Mike Judge fan, and I can’t bring myself to see it, thanks to that trailer.
If I recall, most of the movies that Sandra Bullock produces for herself, while making money, usually suck. Sadly this is no different. It’s too bad because it’s a talented cast. I think she should stick to working for others who can compensate for story skills and not allow her to control. I might be in the minority but I think she’s just too talented a comedic actor to be wasted in her own productions.
Americans outside of the entertainment industry and devoid of entertainment website information are either clueless to the rants and raves of RottenTomatoes or could care less about their 2 cent point of view. Most Americans base their value of a movie’s see worthiness on the trailers and comments from friends, co-workers, and associates they deal with on a daily basis. That’s why Gamer died at the box office and G I Joe continues to thrive despite not being shown to critics for review.
The studio knew All About Steve was going to be a dud. That’s why they changed the release date to open after Hangover & Proposal. Once those films proved successful, there may have been some hope that audiences would then flock to see Cooper and Bullock in Steve, but nothing was going to change the fact that Bullock was playing a role that should have gone to a younger actress like Anna Faris or even Isla Fisher. Let’s be honest, who was going to buy a 45 year old (actress who at best can play 40) as a flighty airhead chasing a man around the country? As a producer she completely miscast herself as a co-lead.
And when are producers going to finally accept that Gerard Butler is not a leading man?
Maybe people are sick of old Gerard Butler. Can’t stand the guy. Add that to Ludacris. Sum of that equation = no thanks.
Reviews didn’t kill Gamer. All About Steve got venomous reviews. Go, Sandy! More female leads please …
Wow. To all you bashing “Basterds”, week after week. What do you have to say this week? Glad to see a great movie doing great.
Amen to that, Jack. It’s strange, but I.B is the feel-good story of the summer: artistic, challenging film with bad buzz overcomes the odds and finds its audience.
I’ve seen the Extract trailer numerous times, and I still don’t have a clue as to what it is about…. Not inspiring me to pay $ to see it.
Nikki, the more you rant and rave about horror movies, the more you get the reputation for being a miserly old fart. I know elitists go for that. Kind of like the asshole studio exec you quoted last week whining about how stupid Americans are for going to see horror movies even though he made them. What a fucking hypocrite. Anyway, I’m glad Final Destination is doing well because it, like The Hangover, is further proof that a movie doesn’t have to have some asshole $20 million a movie “star” to open it.
Aside from all the terribly unexciting movie talk this labor day
weekend TF2 crossed the 400mil mark making it part of an elite group of movies that have accomplished this. Good to see that after
all boo-hooing and “nay saying”, bitching, and complaining both
from critics and viewers that the realest fans in movie nation
havnt forgot what good old fashioned summer fun is all about. On
another movie note the new trailer for Christopher Nolans INCEPTION
has hit the web and i have to say for a teaser that wasnt dosent
much at all., i found it to be extemely intriguing. I dont know
about you guys but im pretty excited about this movie. Warner+
Legendary+Nolan+ Star cast is a pretty good recipe. With a reported
200 mil budget and being pumpmed as a sci-fi action movie this is
looking to a big time player next year. Does anyone have anymore
information on this movie as far as plot and synopsis?
Actually, Adix, it seems pretty telling that it took THIS long for Trannyfarmers 2 to crawl to the $400 million mark after such a huge debut. It certainly didn’t have the good word-of-mouth that The Dark Knight or even Shrek 2 had, and seems to me more like the results you got from the second Pirates movie in terms of people with free time but little discernible taste still seeing it based on residual good will they had from the first film. If Bay pulls off another turdfest like this one for TF3, expect to see the box office sink lower just like Pirates 3 or The third Matrix film. Oh, and as for “good old-fashioned summer fun” — that was on display in Star Trek, Up or even The Hangover for many viewers, and the results paid off smashingly for them. If you want to claim that for TF2, you’re entitled to do so – but you’re still delusional.
“Transformers 2″ made enough money in the first two weeks to guarantee itself the $400 million gross it would limp to in its eighth weekend. A 61% drop in its second weekend is proof of that, and 40% drops every weekend after that.
“Inception” looks a lot better than TF-2 — shame we have to wait for summer 2010 to get that.
District 9 is the greatest movie of the year by far–certainly the best reviewed and still insufficiently praised. A deeply profound filmmaking triumph that simultaneously succeeds as unqualified popcorn entertainment. Hope it continues to rack up box office dough. Couldn’t possibly be more deserved.
Photoshop FAIL… Her calves are bigger than her thighs… What an awful poster.
And yes horror films can be fun. The slasher subgenre is all about rooting for the final girl to stop the killer. Scream was fun. The Texas Chainsaw remake even had a better written female lead. Wrong Turn 2 was also fun to watch. Halloween? No.
Laurie Strode was so annoying that you could care less if she lives or dies.
And if that’s the case, why make a movie to begin with.
The site redesign looks OK on computers, but half the text is unreadable on smart phones because of the brown column on the right. Didn’t they test the new look on smart phones and BlackBerry devices?
Tarantino is second again with a strong showing and you don’t mention it. You shouldn’t brag when your right and then be quiet when your wrong.
Here’s the problem with the biz. You take a movie like “All About Steve”. You give the actress a producer role and give her approval over the director. She and the studio pass on all the capable experienced directors who were brought to them to hire a first-time director whose only experience was directing a few decent short films. Studios feel that it is less “risky” to hire a first-timer who hasn’t had a misfire rather than hiring an experienced director who may have had a few films that didn’t perform. And it’s not only the studios making these terrible decisions. blame also rests on the talent agents who think they are protecting and properly advising their clients on what directors they should work with. These talent agents too would say “my client won’t work with that director” if the director has had some failures, and instead these agents would support their client working with a “hot” first-timer coming from commercials, short films, film festivals, etc… because it’s “less risky” to them too.
the system needs to be fixed! the best films in the business were made in the 70’s and 80’s where studios worked with real filmmakers, storytellers, not just shooters. studios need to rethink the process.
@LOUIS,
I hate to tell you this but 400mil bucks is 400mil bucks, i dont
care how you want to cookie cut the cake so if there is delusional
euphoria that prevails it belongs to you. As far DK goes you might
as well have called Dark ledger because everyone knows that the
death of Heath Ledger fueled this movie. If he hadnt died,R.I.P.,do
you really think its making 533mil?…No way. DK was a major borefest that profited from a strange death to a rising star.
@MATT C,
I will tell you like i told your friend louis, you make all the
money in your first week or you stretch it out over 20 weeks.,400mil bucks is well…..well its 400mil bucks.
Well, even though $400 million is a hefty chunk of change, the bad word-of-mouth essentially torpedoed TF-2’s chances of scoring $450 million domestic (or $500 million). The Dark Knight made that amount of money in less than a third of the time (18 days) and went on to gross another $100 million.
Word-of-mouth does play a crucial role of a blockbuster’s staying power. Paramount may have won the summer (with TF-2 and Star Trek carrying away $657 million), but Warner Brothers had longevity with “Harry Potter” and “The Hangover” (both are still playing at the first-run theater I work at).
Dude you cant use bad-word-of-mouth when a movie does 400mil
domestic, 827mil worldwide. Besides polls were done right here on
leesmovieinfo that showed 70% of movie viewers found TF2 to be
awesome and 30% found it to be aweful so im not exactly sure how
you are rationalizing “bad-word-of-mouth”.
I can give you the Hangover, that movie has done an excellent job
and it was very funny but Harry potter..not to sure bout that one.
By all rights one could reason that it had as much anticipation
and hype as did TF2 and after a record-breaking midnight showing
one would expect it to be doing more and it simply has not. The
same way you spoke of TF2 limpin its way to 400mil i can say the
same for Harry potter limpin its way to 300mil.
I went to see this for the cast and as a fan of “Office Space”, but “Extract” is no quirky “Office Space”, not by a longshot, and I’m concerned that Mike Judge has only a sequel of “Beavis and Butthead” to redeem himself.
Casting should have brought this one in, but the script and direction were conventional and lifeless. Standup supporting efforts by J.K. Simmons and Ben Affleck, and to a lesser extent Clifton Collins were apparent, but not enough to jumpstart this snooze fest.
Bateman, Wiig, Kunis and Koechner left me flat for the most part, and as an aside, Kristen Wiig really needs to break out of her comedic typecasting; time to take some risks.
Now that the robot cartoon has passed 400 million, isn’t it time Hollywood did the right thing and replaced the writer’s names with the lead pyrotechnic guy’s in the opening credits?