Midnight Madness For ‘Breaking Dawn’ DVD 
RECORD WEEKEND! ‘The Vow’ Beats ‘Safe … 
Saoirse Ronan Bigger Teen Action Queen 
WME Signs Writer-Director Jon Kasdan 
‘Glee’s Jane Lynch Joins Indie Film Comedy 
Universal Revives ‘Dracula Year Zero’ With … 
Jodie Foster Sending Mel Gibson Film ‘The … 
‘Roseanne’ Reunion: John Goodman To Co-Star In … 
UPDATE: Closing Arguments Conclude In Golden Globes Trial; … 
Series Adaptation Of ‘Legion’ With … 
Lionsgate Calms Investors With Talk About Charlie Sheen, … 
Ridley Scott Commits To Next Direct McCarthy’s … 
Benderspink, Arcana Launch Film-Friendly Comics Line 
Marvel Studio’s Tim Connors Defects To Legendary As … 
UPDATE: Warner Bros Lawyers Dig In Garbage Over ‘The … 
Upstart Shingle Radius Acquires Redo Rights To Nic … 
EXCLUSIVE: Summit’s Erik Feig To Be Named President … 
Central Casting Taking Sides In SAG-AFTRA 
Lionsgate Shares Down On Fiscal Q3 Earnings Miss 
Emma Thompson & Pierce Brosnan, ‘Celeste And … 
Movie Ticket Prices Up 0.5% In 2011 
SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Once again, what a cliffhanger to see which pic winds up No. 1 at the domestic box office. Sunday will decide it. Two new films, Kick-Ass and Death At A Funeral, opened with high pre-release expectations, and ultimately post-release disappointment. “So far, not what anybody hoped,” one studio exec tells me. That allowed the oldie but goodie kid’s 3d pic How To Train Your Dragon to slip into No. 1. With only $250,000 between it and Kick-Ass, the order could change when actuals come in Monday. Here’s the Top 10):
1. Train Your Dragon 3D DWA/Par) Week 4 [3,825 Theaters]
Friday $4.3M, Saturday $9.2M, Weekend $20M, Cume $158.6M
At the start of Week 4, this DreamWorks Animation toon distributed by Paramount suddenly and surprisingly came from out of the pack to maybe grab #1. Those higher 3D ticket prices (exorbitantly, $18 at IMAX) may do the trick. Even though its opening was a disappointment, there’s a reason reviewers — and now parents and kids — love it still. Tonight it’s on top but that could change by Sunday’s photo finish.
2. Kick-Ass (Lionsgate) NEW [3,065 Theaters]
Friday $7.5M, Saturday $7.2M, Weekend $19.7M
So far, this potty-mouthed stupor-hero comedy based on the comic book may not even break $20M by Sunday’s end. Whereas Hollywood had been expecting $30+M. Ouch! “Kick-Ass never took hold the way many of us thought it would,” one rival studio exec tells me. Maybe because an R-rated kids in spandex pic confused the marketplace? Now Lionsgate, which paid $25M for this U.S. acquisition, has another disappointment though not financially. Still, from testing the film (and we all know testing is meaningless), Lionsgate hopes it can “play & play & play” and break out of the 2.5X opening weekend formula for its ultimate gross.”
Reviews were very strong — over 76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Then again, the pic’s outrageous profanity and brutal violence & Hit Girl killing many adults and being struck and injured herself was controversial pre-release. That’s usually “good” for a movie campaign at this stage. Tracking-wise, the pic managed to get an extraordinarily high unaided awareness number and resonated with males under 25 followed by males over 25 in awareness, interest, and first choice. But females under 25 lagged behind in choice. That made the difference. Along with a Cinemascore which I’m told was only a “B”.
3. Date Night (Fox) Week 2 [3,380 Theaters]
Friday $5.4M, Saturday $7.75M, Weekend $17.3M, Cume $50M
The good news story of the weekend with an excellent hold.
4. Death At A Funeral (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,459 Theaters]
Friday $5.6M, Saturday $6.7M, Weekend $17M
Another underperformer after a soft Friday and Saturday. Screen Gems/Sony had hoped for $20M, about what it claimed the pic’s budget was with Neil LaBute at the helm. To say that the strength of Death At A Funeral lies in the African-American community is somewhat of an understatement. But the big question was crossover, even with that strong comedy cast. (Sure, Tracy Morgan is hot, but Chris Rock is not.) As usual, Sony’s strong marketing went on overdrive and promoted the pic beyond the boring talk show circuit. The studio held a nationwide stand up contest in 15 markets, and some winners will open for Tracy’s comedy tour.
5. Clash Of The Titans 3D (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,753 Theaters]
Friday $4.2M, Saturday $6.7M, Weekend $15.7M, Cume $132.9M
6. The Last Song (Disney) Week 3 [2,767 Theaters]
Friday $1.9M, Weekend $5.7M, Estimated Cume $50M
7. Why Did I Get Married Too (Lionsgate) Week 3 [1,859 Theaters]
Friday $1.2M, Weekend $4.1M, Cume $54.8M
8. Hot Tub Time Machine (UA/MGM) Week 4 [2,308 Theaters]
Friday $1.0M, Estimated Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $41.7M
9. Alice In Wonderland 3D (Disney) Week 7 [2,024 Theaters]
Friday $940K, Estimated Weekend $3.2M, Estimated Cume $323.6M
10. Bounty Hunter (Sony) Week 5 [2,475 Theaters]
Friday $975K, Saturday $1.4M, Weekend $3.2M, Cume $60.3M
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I’m shocked at the low returns.
I’m not. Apparently, our theater chain in the Southwest and Midwest (Carmike Cinemas) got into a dispute with Lionsgate over ticket sales for “Kick-Ass.” They wanted 100% of the profits (as opposed to the 80%-90% they usually get), Carmike disagreed and now none of the Carmike locations are showing “Kick-Ass”.
So Lionsgate’s disappointment with “Kick-Ass” is their own fault. If Lionsgate wasn’t being so greedy, the movie would’ve added $10-$21M to its coffers.
where did you get the information about profit sharing?
thanks!
I really liked Kick-Ass but this was the exact kind of movie that I would have shorted on the Hollywood Futures Market.
I’m only shocked by the fact Date Night is doing OK. This may be the worst “comedy” I have ever seen. Do people only choose films based on the cast? I did not laugh once. Avoid it like the plague.
Kick ass was awesome!!
Alice In Wonderland has made close to $900 million worldwide now. I heard it opened in Japan and Spain this past weekend – anyone know how it did over there?
According to another site, a Japanese paper has reported the following:
An American 3D movie, “Alice in Wonderland” (Tim Burtom Film) starring Johnny Depp, has been released on April 17 in 877 movie theaters all over Japan. And it is prospected that it makes 700,000,000 yen (roughly equals $7,600,000) in the box office only on the first day.
This is what Disney, the distributing agency of the film, announced. It is an amazing start which tops the box office record which “Avater” made last December (370,000,000 yen with 831 screens on the first day). The producer of Disney is expecting that this could be a number that can break the final box office record, 15,000,000,000 yen which Avater made.
Go, Alice!
You are dreaming, Carmike Theatres didn’t provide $20 million for “Avatar”, let alone “Kick-Ass.”
They should just makes a movie called “Hot Tubs on a Kick Ass Plane!”
Internet hype does not translate into box office success.
Also, good for HTTYD for proving that quality can also mean quantity.
Personally I’m holding off for The Losers on the 23rd.
Would Kick-Ass necessarily go beyond geek appeal esp. since its language and violence excludes a family audience who would be drawn to superhero movies. Guns and little girls swearing appeal to old and young men, yes.
Of course KICK-ASS is underperforming, it’s not even in 3-D! It might as well be a black and white silent film.
Why the hell did anyone think Kick-Ass would take hold? It’s an R-rated comic book movie pandering to the lowest common denominator of geekery. And LG should know better by now, after twice failing with Punisher.
Wanted opened to $50m and it was R rated comic book movie.
Wanted didn`t have a little girl killing people and swearing. General audience is extremly sensitive to use of children in adult manner so the whole “OMG, Hit Girl is so awesome…she uses C word, OMG so cool, and hacks and slashes…OMG!” that is a basis of geek hype for this movie automatically generates less tickets by people who are positively horrified (which is everyone but AICN TalkBackers and the likes). Don`t get me wrong, I thought the movie was great but it`s ridiculous to expect such an outragous concept to have a mass appeal.
Plus, Wanted had Angelina and curved bullets.
Even with Angelina Jolie & a fire storm of publicity, Wanted fell off the radar quickly. I think bad word of mouth killed that film.Wanted only made about 134 million which is sad considering all the publicity it had. I didn’t see Kick Ass, but I did see Death at a Funeral. I’m thinking good word of mouth might keep this film going or atleast produce excellent DVD sells. Death at a funeral was funny thanks mainly to James Marsden & Tracy Morgan.
kick-as would be lucky to make 134, crawling on it’s hands and knees. Another should have been better effort from Vaughn.
But Kick Ass`s good WOM is really a bad WOM for everyone who isn`t the primary target. The movie is praised for Hit Girl saying C word and shooting and cutting people in half. Parents won`t see it. Elderly won`t see it. Most women and girls won`t see it.
check your B.O. numbers again. Wanted made $338M WW. If Jolie had signed on, they’d be making the sequel.
Yeah, but Wanted made more than 200mil over seas, and thats what you get from Angelina star power.
The film ended up making almost 350mil WW, tahts a lot of money.
no one knew it was a comic book, there were no costumes and it was sold as an angelina action thriller
Snakes on a Plane redux. Let this be a lesson why internet hype can sometimes be wildly misleading. I had a sneaking suspicion that Kick-Ass wasn’t going to have much appeal beyond its target audience of loser freaks. When awareness began to spread with those outside of the societal fringe about all of the tasteless and off-putting stuff that the little girl does in the film, its box office irrelevancy was sealed. Look for the life failures who decided 6 months ago that they loved this movie sight unseen to now go with the defense that something this “subversive” was never supposed to make huge money in the first place. Nevermind the fact that their raving during this span about how huge it was going to be was ear-splitting. It’s going to be gone from almost every theatre by the time Iron Man 2 opens…tee hee.
so. true.
I’m far from a Kick Ass fan. Don’t know anything about it. But man, you sure have a massive chip on your shoulder. What gives?
So true! Go on the AICN boards, they’re already defending it’s failure as the film being too subversive, when there’s nothing subversive at all about the movie.
Bottom line is, aside from the violence and other things, the movie was a mess, a complete and utter mess. Tonally the film is all over the place, the middle hour puts you to sleep, and the end is just stupid. HitGirl was the only good thing in it, which is saying something.
On a side note, I’m sure the geeks at AICN would love to know how Vaughn was able to get the personal information of a talkbacker who was posting spoilers a few months ago. Vaughn had one of his minions call Moriarty aka Drew McWeeny, who was only too happy to use his old contacts to sell out a fan of his old site in order to kiss up to Vaughn. No wonder AICN and CHUD are all over praising this piece of shit and defending it from bad reviews. They are in the backpocket of certain filmmakers, and dissent will not be tolerated. Remember when AICN used to post spoilers and actually care about fans? Yeah, now they’re defending their “friends” in the industry. Pathetic.
McWeeny is a failed screenwriter. Of course he sucks up to filmmakers.
Directors who pander to AICN geeks should learn a thing from Cameron which is that AICN geeks don`t matter. Tarantino&Rodriguez (Gridnhouse),Zach Snyder (The Watchmen), Sam Raimi (Drag me to Hell), Matt Vaughn (Kick Ass), Kerry Conran (Sky captain) are just a few of directors who went with what TalkBackers dream up as their ultimate wish movie. And then they are surprised when nobody else see it and when 70% of TalkBackers don`t show up either because they are 13-14 and the movie is hard R.
I fully expect Machete to go the way of Grindhouse and very likely Expendables too.
Fat Harry&co don`t have their fingers on general audience`s pulse and their opinion for better or worse cannot change the hit or miss outcome of movies they try to hype or anti-hype. For exmaple, Devin fought a war against The Dark Knight and is still fighting against Avatar and those movies are the biggest or among the biggest ever. And everyone knows that harry`s head is permanently stuck in Peter Jackson`s butt which still couldn`t save Lovely Bones from being a critical and commercial disater. So, yeah, they are relevant in their weed-induced dreams or something.
AICN lost its mojo in the 00s because harry and co. started sucking up to the studios and being flown out to meet stars and such and now no longer have any street credibility.
Offensive posts like this is the reason why I wish there was an ‘electrocute user’ button on the net. Obviously, you wanted ‘Kick-Ass’ to fail from its outset, and not that it dissapointed not only do you disparage the movie and the filmmaker, but also the fans. Way to go.. way to be a human being. A movie doesn’t have to be a 700 million grossing crowdpleaser to still be a great movie 20 to 30 years down the road.. and that’s what… not gonna call you the name you deserved to be called… don’t get.
I loved ‘Kick-Ass’. Can’t wait to add it to my DVD collection.
And really, if it didn’t work for Snakes on a Plane and Grindhouse, why the hell was Kick-Ass gonna be any different?
If they paid 25 million for Kick-Ass and it’s supposed to make 20 million this weekend alone, why is that bad?
Clearly, its not 30 million, and they had to pay for marketing, but it seems clear they’ll still make a bundle on it, no? Especially as it will do well on DVD as well.
My guess is it’s a tricky one to market — you see the girl in the costume in the commercial and think its a kids movie — but it clearly isn’t (it’s a hard R.) And then it’s based on new characters as opposed to 40 year old comics… well, 20 million for the opening weekend seems pretty great to me.
Lionsgate spent as much on P&A for Kick Ass as they have ever spent on a title (if not more). If they spent $40mm on P&A and $25mm to acquire, then make $50mm back on theatrical, they only get about $28mm back from the theaters (based on the split, about 55% comes back to studio). That puts them in a whole of about $32mm going into the Home Video window.
Even if they find a way to make that $32mm back post-theatrical, they are hardly looking at a big profit on this one.
The real “loss” here is the massive egg on their faces. Kick Ass was Lionsgate’s time to play with the big studios. They were the big release if the weekend and had huge awareness. They ran a big campaign and Kick Ass has been their biggest coming movie for months. To open weak is to say that with everything leaning their way, they still cannot “open” a film or create an “event”. Not exactly the best way to attract talent to the studio for future products, especially when you are not known for overpaying talent.
It is a shame, as this could not come at a worse time for the studio (when they are fending off Icahn). It is a really good crew at Lionsgate and I really would like to have seen them succeed.
We usually use 48% when calculating collections from exhibs.
-RnsW
What No One of Consequence said plus it`s about losing the face. Kick Ass was overhyped and thus expected to become a phenomenon. And it didn`t. Expections that aren`t met are the worst case scenario because emphasis is on negative. At this moment, talk of the town and Internet is that “OMG, Kick Ass underperformed!” And one of big rules of the boxoffice is that people go after sell outs. When word of sell outs starts spreading, people get an urge to see the movie now. So they`ll txt and tweet that “OMG, no tickets for any show! All sold out!” which spreads the “must see now!” panic. However, Kick Ass doesn`t have this because $7.5 mio from 3,065 theaters points out to many empty seats. Because mass appeal just isn`t there.
I agree, comic book movies should have a simplicity to them because they are inherently goofy. A guy with superpowers wearing tights and saving the world is at its core a juvenile wish-fulfilment fantasy, to overcomplicate that does move away from that idea. They should have complex, engaging stories but should never lose sight of that basic appeal. Kick-Ass deliberately shut out sections of the audience, and that’s fine because of the type of story it wanted to tell, but people shouldn’t be surprised it lost mainstream appeal. All in all, KA did follow the basic formula of a superhero movie, the heroes and villains all followed a basic formula, but the added elements eg. Hit-Girl gave it a different spin but also alienated a core market.
I’d read predictions that the weekend take for “Death at a Funeral” could be as low as $12 million and as high as $20 million. So if it comes in at $17.5 million — and if the production budget was indeed in the $20 million neighborhood — then that is a big victory for that film. Especially if it comes in at only $2.5 million behind “Kick-Ass” when it was thought that it could trail that film by as much as $18 million.
“Kick-Ass” seems to be another case of Hollywood hipsters thinking what appeals to them and the fanboy crowd (of which I usually am one) will appeal to the rest of the country. Because everybody *really* wants to see a little girl swearing like a sailor and violently killing the bad guys in the most bloody fashion. Original estimates of a $30 million weekend? Really? Roger Ebert seems to be the only one who reflected the pulse of the country on this movie.
If your numbers hold, very good news for “Death at a Funeral,” and major disappointment for “Kick-Ass.”
Oops…I meant “Especially if (“Death at a Funeral”) comes in at only $1.5 million behind “Kick-Ass” when it was thought that it could trail that film by as much as $18 million.” (Based on your listed estimates.)
“Because everybody *really* wants to see a little girl swearing like a sailor and violently killing the bad guys in the most bloody fashion.”
Ha, just as Hollywood jumped on Hit Girl bandwaggon with infinitely more expensive Hanna, another movie about teen girl trained to be a cold-blooded killer, the Bourne for teen girls. I bet they are sweating now.
IMO, Kick Ass was really entertaining but it isn`t something that many people will want to see. As already pointed out, it`s a niche movie and PTA (which looks to be awfully low) and opening day total reflect that. I wouldn`t be surprised if DATF pulls up to win the weekend.
Overall, if both movies are made for cheap, than they are winners except for those who had unrealistic expectations.
I doubt Ebert’s viewpoint had anything to do with audiences not going. Ebert took the movie literally — but it’s just as much of a fantasy as any other comic book film. And it wasn’t as nearly as sadistic as WATCHMEN or even THE DARK KNIGHT IMO. I’m usually the first one to jump on the morality defense angle but it didn’t wash with KICKASS — even my wife couldn’t understand where Ebert was coming from.
Why shouldn’t he take it literally?
Just because fantasy and sci-fi films don’t reflect everyday reality doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken literally. I mean, Superman is a guy with superpowers who can fly. You can choose to interpret what that might symbolize within the overall popular culture. But within the specific context of a film, the character and his powers are meant to be taken at face value. Leaping tall buildings in a single bound is not a symbolic act, it’s a literal one. That’s what makes it fantasy, as opposed to allegory.
I feel bad for Cage, though, ‘cus it looks like he’s gonna have a weak year with K-A and Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
National Treasure 3 might do alright for him, though. And he’s talking about Ghost Rider 2…
They should just move SA to Percy Jackson slot in February. Going agiant Inception in July is not a good idea.
Why do you think the Socerer’s Apprentice will bomb? Cage proved that with the right mix, a la National Treasure, he can bring in the box office returns.
Plus, he isn’t actually in Kick-Ass all that much. Anyways, I still can’t believe how pathetic that opening for Kick-Ass is as well.
It’s gonna bomb, because it looks like Dragonball: Evolution with a better budget.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice could be really expensive for its backers. Kick-Ass…meh. Hard R comic book movie does mediocre. It cost $30 million & was acquired for $25. No one’s making much on it but it should be flat.
My overseas friends report Kick-Ass doing well there, so I’m not sure what the deal is here. It is a fun movie. Perhaps it is simply not having any marketing meaning to the movie mavens… Oh well…
Of course, another thought for the low box office on many of these films could be that this week we experienced Tax Day, April 15th, and perhaps folks were just recognizing how broke they were!
Who knows…
Heaven forbid we have a movie where a little girl cusses and uses violence. Everyone knows that’s for boys. Littler girls are only supposed to be rape/incest victims or prostitutes. Isn’t that what Hollywood has taught the public to expect from girls in movies? They don’t save them selves, they are saved by men. Please. Hit-girl kicks ass and I love her for it.
too right, Angelica! too subversive for wider audience. they can only handle girls kicking ass if they also have big boobs and revealing outfits.
Hit-Girl may appeal to you but she is still a pawn of a character dreamt up by an old male geek. I hardly think she is the antithesis of a victim/prostitute female character. I don’t think Mark Millar came up with a feminist icon hero. She’s not that deep.
Thank You! That was beautifully said.
And Vaughn is no Wonder Director. This was disappointing.
Totally with you, Angelica! Sure, it’s perfectly ok to depict an 11-year old girl as a rape or incest victim, or even an innocuous boy-obsessed Barbie-playing stereotype, but dare to dream her as an awesome fantasy character like Hit Girl and look at all this bloated, self-serving ‘moral outrage’. ‘Kick-Ass’ is genius, and so is Matthew Vaughn!
Pity.
Don’t really understand the Snakes on a Plane comparison – that movie failed it was just one joke that was given away in the title. Kick Ass had lots in the actual movie to enjoy.
Kids are buying tickets for CLASH and sneaking into KICK-ASS. The R rating is killing it.
The entire point & history behind Kick-Ass is the hard R material. They went out of their way to not make even a R-13. Their bed, they can sleep in it.
Can you believed it Nikki, that Bounty Hunter will cross 60M this weekend? So lame your predictions that this movie will bomb and that Diary of Wimpy Kid will do much better.
So lame..so-so lame.
Bounty Hunter was a huge failure. Fifty million in P&A with a forty million dollar budget. Ouch. Learn your math.
Actually The Bounty Hunter’s budget was $50 million. The director confirmed it to Variety. $50 million for a crap.
You really believe what a director tells you a movie cost… lol
I also doubt that Kick-Ass cost anywhere near the $25mm that Lion’s Gate paid.
You are stupider than a 3rd grader.
40M budget + 20M P&A
60M B.O US
50M B.O International ( and still counting for both)
Go do your math….Stupid little twat
After the both of you are finished adding, I have a question. Why is it that Matt Damon’s film “Green Zone” which made about 30 million less than Bounty wasn’t smashed? I didn’t see Bounty and I don’t want to. I would like to see Jennifer Aniston accept more challenging roles. UsWeekly and many other media outlets just smashed her. Nothing at all about Matt’s film. That’s seems unfair to me. Do you think they can’t add either?
I agree. Green Zone cost what about $130 million and made $30 million. How much did the Informer make? Also, did anyone trash Uma “Kill Bill” Thurman for her record low delivery for Motherhood? I am not trying to defend Jen Anniston, but some consistency would be nice.
Don’t you know it? Its Manlywood..male actors can have as many movies that bombed and still commanding big dollars and studios wanting them for their next project
Whereas if an actress acted in a few disappointments, she is labeled box office poison. Ask Nikki. She is one of the many, whose columns on actress B.O is nothing short of ‘seek & destroy’.
Nicole, Resse, Jen and many others. Nikki and the tabloids loves to kill off the actress if they stared in a stinker. But when the same actress do well in the box office, Nikki and the likes will down play these achievements and credit it to the scripts, the director or the dog (Marley & me)
But when Damon or Clooney’s movies tank at the box office, they blame it on the viewers for lacking of good taste.
$60 million domestic for something that does not have respectable foreign or ancillary prospects against negative costs pushing $100,000,000 = bomb.
You are even stupider than the other 2 ( Anonymous – Saturday April 17, 2010) & Jack’s_Angry_Pancreas) combined.
Bounty has made over 45M overseas. Add that to the 60M in USA, gives the movie over 100M on a budget of 40M with another 25 markets to play.
Exactly how is this a bomb? Did you failed your grade school maths? Must be!
Gosh! I hate stupid people. Go back to Uranus
i’m no aniston apologist. for instance, i wish she’d find a new hairstyle. although i liked her is Friends With Money.
but here are the facts, The Bounty Hunter opened in the number 1 slot in many overseas markets. its made $85M in the uk/ireland, $6M in germany its first weekend and $5M in russia its first week. so apparently she can open films overseas.
As much as the haters can’t accepted Bounty Hunter did well at BO. According to Box office mojo the budget is 40M. The director said he had 50M to work with. So that’s 50M approved doesn’t mean 50M total. Box office mojo gets their numbers from the studios.
Anyway the marketing budget is not reported but it could very well be between 20-30. Highly doubt the studio will approve more than that for a 50M film.
Anyway the movie already cross 100M WW and will make more in the upcoming weeks. The numbers are solid even though it wasn’t a hit. The tabs and media called it a flop just to make a negative story about JA, that’s all. They don’t make a big deal of Matt Damon, Jude’s Laws flops etc, because they don’t make money for the tabloids.
Kick-Ass is not a remake or established franchise. Even the comic it was based on was developed at the same time as the movie was. That said, the buzz for Kick-Ass is strong and the feedback has been great. I could actually see Kick-Ass having a better second weekend.
D.Z., why go after The Sorcerer’s Apprentice? Have you seen it? Read the script? Anything other than some sort of self-inflated prescience that the rest of us lack?
From the trailer, it looks pretty cool and let’s face it, there is in it, nothing anywhere nearly as objectionable to this conservative country as the ultra-v and potty mouth of Kick Ass (which I will absolutely see tomorrow.)
SA looks average and doesn’t skew towards women, though. And if a film like Percy-which probably has more overall “tween” appeal-wasn’t huge, given its budget and P+A, I doubt that SA is gonna do any better.
So much for wee Mark Millar. He’s trying to trick Hollywood into believing he’s the hot ticket. Look at him talking, lying to the press to make himself seem, well, “wanted”, babbling on about the “dough” his movies will bring to the studio.
Oh yeah?
“Wanted” worked on Jolie’s assetts alone. Heck, they changed the entire premise of Millar’s silly book.
“Kick-Ass” simply doesn’t. What’s next? “Nemesis”, the one he reportedly has some of the biggest directors standing in line for? Err, why exactly? It’s one of the worst new comic books out there, critics have their field day with it.
Why pay money for the next flop, Hollywood? Millar simply isn’t IT. Never was. Never will be.
I disagree that Wanted worked on Angie`s assets alone. Sure, they helped and she was amazing in it. But general public is turned off by movies where kids perform or are subjected to violence. family people, elderly people don`t think Hit Girl is a good joke. For them, such context for a child is repulsive. And F and C bomb drops don`t help either.
Kick Ass is a niche movie and as such, it`s a success. Only those who expected it to cross over where it couldn`t are now disappointed.
Wanted, if you work through the math, was probably at best a minor movie based on foreign receipts. Domestic grosses barely covered the production budget (assuming 75% first weekend and 50% thereafter), what the take on the foreign box office was is anyone’s guess.
Is there a Wanted 2 in production? Nope.
So that answers how profitable that movie was. Heck Ghostrider 2 is in the works. And that movie stunk, mostly. Fonda was the only entertaining thing in it. But then pretty much any movie is more entertaining if Peter Fonda is in it. He’s sadly missed from movies.
What are you talking about. Wanted’s budget was 75 mill. International gross was 205 mil. Universal wanted to do a Wanted 2 but only if Jolie decided to come back. She decided that Fox ending was the best and declined the offer to return.
As usual whiskey is ignorant and wrong. Yes, as a matter of fact, there is a Wanted 2 in pre-production. Why won’t this buffoon named whiskey just go away?
I’m a comic book fan and I can tell you what hyped-up nonsense Mark Millar produces. He actually wrote a horrifically bad crossover for Marvel which changed everything and had very little plot. It basically promised everything under the sun (superheroes fight each other, Peter Parker reveals he is Spider-man-the biggest put-on of all) He basically promises concepts and that’s it. I don’t know about the book or the movie, but I’d warn anyone away from what he writes.
A $20 mil opening puts it on track to make about $100 million worldwide by the end of its run. With a budget of less than $50 million (marketing included) that’s certainly nothing to be disappointed in. Especially for an independently financed, R-rated film.
You’re assuming that the people who avoided K-A won’t flock to The Losers and ‘Nightmare instead.
I’m not shocked at the low returns of these films. Hollywood in recent years has been going down hill. Depending more on special effects and Celebrity actors to pull in numbers. What happened to making art? Get back to storytelling guys or lose audences to youtube and other subpar media.
Art and originality is so passe.
Amen! I agree!!!!
There’s a reason why comic books are a niche market. No matter what fanboys like to tell themselves, it’s not because comics aren’t in spinner racks in convenience stores. It’s because comics just don’t have mass appeal. And a niche book such as Kick Ass in a niche market =/ blockbuster movie.
Yeah, you’re right, Batman, Spider-man, and Iron-Man movies made no money. Those characters have no appeal at all.
They made money, because the marketing didn’t intentionally try to turn off the general audience. And those films had more actors with an impressive resume than, say, Sex Drive.
Batman,Spiderman,Iron Man are not comparable to Kick Ass in any way. The trio are pop culture icons and they don`t have a kid who swears like a sailor and kills a bunch. There`s no bad language in there and it is established that Batman never kills.
Superheros with moral code will always be more mass appealing than superheroes without it. The latter being kids and teens makes the matter even more turn-offish. Plain and simple, Kick Ass is for certain tastetes, not for general taste. As such, it is a success but those expecting TDK, Iron Man, Spiderman type of a success obviously don`t feel the audience`s pulse.
But what did all of those have in common? They were good MOVIES that appealed to a mainsteam audience. Your average person didn’t go see The Dark Knight because it was a Batman movie. Most people didn’t even know who Iron Man was.
But if people were going for just the characters, then Wolverine Origins and latest The Hulk — two of the most popular characters — would have been massive blockbusters. So no, I don’t buy the premise that the characters inherently have some sort of mainstream appeal. I read comics, and I recognize that. Wanted worked as a movie because they stripped out all of the comic booky stuff.
And being such a niche audience means creators can go a push the envelope further, and that’s how books such as Kick-Ass and Transmetropolitand are made in the first place. You couldn’t get away with it in a mainstream medium. But it’s absurd to think that something that only a fraction of the couple hundred thousand people who make up the comic book market even read was somehow going to be a hit movie.
And because my fellow fangirls and fanboys will jump all over my typo as proof that I don’t know what I’m talking about — yes, I know it’s spelled Transmetroplitan.
Yes and no.
Superman, as conceived and written by Siegel and Schuster nearly 70 years ago, is about the most recognized and beloved fictional character ever. The stuff created by guys who were unabashedly pulp, who wanted to appeal to 11 year old boys, still works. It has power. Mystery. Astonishment. It hits all those moments.
The stuff written today, is mostly derivative junk. Look at Watchmen. Alan Moore did not create original characters, instead he trashed/parodied creations by others: Captain Atom = Dr. Manhattan, transforming a patriot into an uncaring monster, quirky and funny Blue Beetle into “the Owl” a symbol of impotence, the gentle zen Buddhist Thunderbolt into Ozymandias, and so on. Filled with rape, murder, and worse by the … superheroes.
Every 11 year old boy who wished he was grown up, powerful, respected, admired, and most definitely not a bully, can relate to the classic comic book characters. Who are never cruel, sadistic, mean, or disgusting. Look at the Hulk: combining Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, with a little boy’s temper tantrum, he ‘kid-speaks’ (Hulk Smash) but is never mean or vindictive.
These are great characters. But they are incompatible with the current crop of writers who don’t write or create for kids, and spend most of their time drawing mustaches on artwork, metaphorically speaking. “The Authority” where a group of superheroes runs the world in uber-PC, and ignores super-powered terrorists? Overturns an American Presidential election because they don’t like the conservative results? That’s stuff for the tragically hip, urban 40 year old yuppie in his Prius. Not a 11 year old boy wishing he was grown up.
Comic books today are conceived and written for a small group of urban hipsters with too much money and a desire to be terminally edgy. Comic book characters when they work appeal to 11 year old boys, and that which remains inside every man, without irony, self-mocking, hipsterism, and tragic coolness.
Like everything else VERY SIMPLE is it very hard to do RIGHT. Its like cooking a perfect omlet. You can’t just slap the eggs in a pan and expect it to come out right.
Another Lionsgate Marketing Bomb.
The problem is that Tim Palen just wants to create materials that HE things are cool. He has no interest in what “Marketing” actually is or what goes in to. Yes the campaign looked cool, but that is only 1/3 of the equation.
When is Lionsgate going to wake up and realize that Tim is a good creative executive but a terrible President of Marketing?
This movie would have opened at any other studio.
Time to pull the plug on Palen, I am sure a few of my fellow filmmakers would agree.
well said. i’ll go one step further and claim he is just a good poster designer. Trailers not so much.
Actually I don’t even agree that he makes great print. Sure, lionsgate print is always uniqe, but it’s never good marketing.
Pretty posters that don’t say anything.
I thought the print for Kick Ass was great. And even better than looking cool, the outdoor was actually designed to be read while driving! (Most studios forget to consider that)