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SATURDAY PM, 6TH UPDATE: (Top 10 below.) Sony’s kid-friendly Karate Kid reboot of the ’80s hit film now starring Will Smith’s son and Jackie Chan was a breakaway #1 opener this weekend with at least $56M. That’s twice what the studio was predicting and twice what its competitor The A-Team made. Eleven-year-old Jaden and veteran Jackie Chan led the pic to $19M Friday and +15% for $21.5M, and broke the June Gloom that has descended over domestic box office this summer as movies underperformed. That’s what happened to Fox’s film action version of the 80′s hit TV series The A-Team which finished #2. But it only made $9.6M Friday and at most +4% for $10M Saturday, so it will be lucky to get to $27M for the weekend. That’s embarrassing for what was supposed to be the start of another franchise and a nailbiter between the two opening movies. It turned out not even close. ”A pretty spectacular win,” one Sony exec exulted. “Not even Jerry Weintraub predicted that.”
It’s ironic, isn’t it: the reboot succeeds, and the TV series-to-film doesn’t. And yet Hollywood keeps embracing these unoriginal movie ideas. This reimagined Karate Kid that updated the karate action to kung fu and stressed a diversity theme scored an “A” Cinemascore. Sony did a brilliant marketing job (hampered by the fact Jaden was obnoxious in interviews). Also helping was the Bieber factor: Justin did the main song and music video for the film with Jaden and told his loyal and large number of fans on Twitter to go see the movie. Besides Weintraub who produced the original, new pic was produced by Jaden’s parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett through Overbrook production company with John Lassiter, and made for just $40M because it was shot in China. So the upside on this title is significant. Sony is expecting strong word of mouth and good legs (despite Toy Story 3), especially with schools shutting down for the summer. Saturday’s matinee bump is expected to be big.
But The A-Team cost considerably more after 10 years in development and millions of dollars in script costs. Reviews were mixed, but the pic managed a “B+” Cinemascore. Indeed, so many screenwriters labored so much to produce so little because the 20th Century Fox executive in charge lost control of the film. (Read my 11 WRITERS LATER: ’The A-Team’.) I reported exclusively that the Writers Guild recently decided the credits, and 11 screenwriters worked on the film — 5 single writers and 3 teams of two. And that’s with the interruption of the writers strike. The final credit now reads: “Written by Joe Carnahan & Brian Bloom and Skip Woods. Created by Frank Lupo & Stephen J. Cannell.” In the end, the director and his partner got first position credit.
But talk to insiders, and you’ll hear a story of panic, lies, and mimicry by then studio executive Alex Young, now a producer on the Fox lot. He oversaw several of Fox’s money-making guy movies. But I found he tried to make The A-Team anything but the A-Team — when that’s what the studio expected to release. I’m told that, at various points in the process, Young declared that A-Team should be “gritty like Bourne” (a big hit at the time) or “in the style of 24” (he considered hiring that TV show’s writers) or ”Hard R like Tarantino”. Most inexplicably, Young asked one seasoned writer to delete all the humor from the movie. Also to that end, I’m told Alex did everything possible to keep Stephen J Cannell, the genius behind the TV show who had script and story approval, away from the project.
Here’s the Top 10 (numbers will be refined in the morning):
1. Karate Kid (Sony) NEW [3,663 Theaters]
Friday $19M, Saturday $21.5M, Weekend $56M
2. The A-Team (Fox) NEW [3,535 Theaters]
Friday $9.6M, Saturday $10M, Weekend $27M
3. Shrek Forever After (DWA/Par) Week 4 [3,868 Theaters]
Friday $4.3M, Saturday $6.7M, Weekend $16M, Cume $210.3M
4. Get Him To The Greek (Universal) Week 2 [2,702 Theaters]
Friday $3.3 (-47%), Saturday $3.8M, Weekend $10M, Cume $36.4M
5. Killers (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,859 Theaters]
Friday $2.7M (-52%), Saturday $3.3M, Weekend $8M, Cume $30.3M
6. Prince Of Persia (Disney) Week 3 [3,108 Theaters]
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $2.6M, Weekend $6.5M, Cume $72.3M
7. Marmaduke (Fox) Week 2 [3,213 Theaters]
Friday $1.8M (-47%), Saturday $2.5M, Weekend $6.2M, Cume $22.5M
8. Sex And The City 2 (NL/Warner Bros) Week 3 [2,750 Theaters]
Friday $1.8M, Saturday $2.0M, Weekend $5.3M, Cume $84.5M
9. Iron Man 2 (Marvel/Paramount) Week 6 [2,305 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.2M, Cume $299M
10. Robin Hood (Universal) Week 5 [2,450 Theaters]
Friday $786K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $2.8M, Cume $99.6M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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The A-Team movie sucks because it spends all the time on the origin. In the series, the origin was done in a ten second voice over with archive footage of Vietnam. That’s all you needed. The series worked because it was typical Cannell — oddball characters come together, fight various bad guys to save sympathetic victims. That’s all it was.
The A-Team series was like a good pancake. Nothing too serious, easy to get right, as long as you stick to the basics.
I think the Karate Kid movie is all Jackie Chan, and will fall apart box office wise. The original worked, because it had a plausibly bullied slender White kid being taught by a tough old Japanese-American WWII hero. Chan’s a great physical actor, not very good in English language acting though. Smith’s kid reeks of spoiled Hollywood brat, no one can really relate to the basic plotline (Black kid in China, i.e. rich Black kid in China).
Again the original Karate Kid was a bullied boy finding a substitute father who taught him how to fight. That’s all it was. You just had to not screw it up.
The movie will die in China. The Chinese don’t think much of Blacks, and any suggestion of a “romance” between the Smith kid and the female co-star is poison. China already has 20 million Chinese guys without any hope of wives given the gender imbalance (selective sex abortion). By 2050 that will rise to 50 million. When I was in China in the 1990′s, we heard reliable accounts of riots in various universities by Chinese men over African exchange students dating Chinese women.
In the movie the ordinary Chinese kids are the villains. Funny — Chinese people don’t see themselves as villains. If Smith thinks he’ll get any money out of China from box office/DVD he’s been hanging out with Theta Meters too much.
Again, both movies should have stuck with the basic concepts of what worked in the 1980′s and kept it. The A-Team was never gritty or real-time. It was a cartoon, but fun. Karate Kid was never “international” or star driven. Ralph Macchio? Pat Morita? Good actors, not stars.
I’m scrolling through, reading the comments, get to paragraph three of the above comment and think to myself “this must be written by that race-obsessed Whiskey person.” What do you know? Seriously dude, based upon this and numerous other posts you’ve made, are black people not allowed to star in mainstream motion pictures?
According to your logic, the film made $52 million this weekend despite the fact that “no one can really relate to the basic plotline (Black kid in China, i.e. rich Black kid in China).” According to you, “the Karate Kid is all Jackie Chan.” I guess all those tweeners who had no interest in “The Spy Next Door” decided to turn up on droves for his next family-friendly romp.
And please define “plausibly bullied” to me. On the one hand you state authoritatively that Chinese people hate blacks, on the other you seem to suggest that only “skinny white kids” can be plausibly bullied. Yeesh.
Whiskey is an idiot, and a right wing, race-obsessed clown. Just ignore.
OY,
LOL!!! I thought the exact same thing.;-)
LOL! – VFX in Venice, I did the same thing! About halfway through reading the post I think, “WTF? Who is this jackass?” There are many other posts here that represent various views but none as crackpot as good ol Whiskey.
Whiskey, Your comments about the racial tension in China made me think of Mira Sorvino. In 1989, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in Chinese (East Asian Languages and Civilizations), and her honors thesis, entitled “Anti-Africanism in the People’s Republic of China” (which was about the Nanjing Anti-African protests of 1988), won the Harvard Hoopes Prize for writing. And, you are correct to say the same tension continues today, as President Obama discovered in his visit to Beijing last year.
That said, I don’t think the movie will die in China. Jackie Chan is popular as an actor and a singer throughout Asia, and the government has approved a cut of the film for distribution in China (albeit with the Chinese villians and the interracial kiss cut).
Whiskey — you exude galloping ignorance. The “karate kid” movie is already box office gold. So much for your brains, which are akin to mental flatulence. As for the romance, it will play in China because if you ever did your HOMEWORK before spouting you would know the Chinese version of this movie will edit out the kiss, making the relationship between Jaden and the Chinese gal a good “friendship.” Trust me, that tweak alone, along with Jackie Chan and a universal love of all things Will Smith will ensure auspicious tidings for this flick. Not to mention the cinematography is tantamount to a love letter to China, it is THAT beautifully shot.
So swallow that, you ignoramus knuckle-dragger.
Sony doesn’t care how much the movie makes in China, because they sold the distribution rights to China to the China Film Group for $5 million. It was required of them if they wanted to film in China. So Sony will not make a penny in China.
“I think the Karate Kid movie is all Jackie Chan, and will fall apart box office wise. ”
You couldn`t be more wrong. many reports indicate that the audience is eating this up like crazy. Claps, cheers, laughs, tears. WOM will be strong. I guess you haven`t seen the movie but it`s absolutely absorbing and resonates emotionally. I was surprised how much I liked and, yes, my screening also had rapturous reaction.
Many people regardless of race can relate to feeling like a fish out of water. It’s a universal theme. And movies with them tend to do well.
Dude, in ALL seriousness… Are you on some hellbent self-deprecating campaign to prove to the world what an absolute uninformed tool you are? I mean, really…
whiskey, your racist bullshit is tired. aren’t there already enough movies out there starring white people? are you really that threatened by *one* summer movie starring someone of color? and we’re all still waiting for you to admit how wrong you were about Avatar– unless, of course, you’re still clinging on to your delusional belief that it has not yet turned a profit.
Do you EVER get tired of being proven wrong? The movie’s ALREADY a hit. And what’s with the race-obsession? Wow. Just….wow. After seeing you get owned on this site over and over again and everything you say proven thunderously wrong, I’m starting to think you’re just an autistic obsessive. I’ve never read anything by anyone who knows less about the industry or audience reactions that you. Take your personal politics-driven nonsense and go sit on Rush Limbaugh’s lap or something.
Whiskey, you do realize this marks how truly worthless & despicable you are when you have to stoop to bashing (on a website that’s not yours) an 11 year old kid to feel better about yourself.
Fact– He got top billing on a major motion pictured that opened $52 million.
Fact– You will never do that. Ever.
Fact– He will go on to do more films.
Fact– You will never do that. Ever.
Fact– He has the power to do whatever he wants in film & television.
Fact– You know what applies here.
“Young declared that A-Team should be “gritty like Bourne” (a big hit at the time) or “in the style of 24″ (he considered hiring that TV show’s writers) or “Hard R like Tarantino”. Most inexplicably, Young asked one seasoned writer to delete all the humor from the movie.”
Exhibit A in the “When Execs Have No Creative Instincts Worth a Damn To Rely On” department.
i dislike jayden smith too.
note: it’s “jaden” (not “jayden”).
I called it! Watching kids beat each other up is way more fun to watch than middle aged men saving the world.
Not seen Karate Kid yet but i’m planning on it. That said I really enjoyed the A-Team alot more than I had expected I would what with all the critics trashing it and all. Hope it does better than predicted I would love to see anohter one made. This summer has pretty much sucked so far so it is my #1 movie of the season for now. Pretty sure Toy Story 3, Knight and Day, Inception, Salt and The Expendibles will all be better so it should not stay my #1 movie of the summer for long tho. If it does this will be the worst summer movie season in history.
The trailer for the A-Team killed it! It was dumb! Who on earth needs to see this rubbish!
Nikke, just curious. Have you seen A-Team? or are you just a bitch? i’m guessing the latter.
The latter
You say that (as you anonymously post on her column that’s viewed by millions) like it’s a bad thing.
As a future investor in the Cantor Exchange, I play the HSX exchange pretty seriously until we can invest in movie futures for real cash. I’ve been crowing about KARATE KID’s potential for months now. But even a $52 mil open is beyond my wildest dreams of a $45 mil open. Having an average stock position of long at $101, my investment fund JCM Cinema Capital predicted a $121.5 million 24 day gross target. If that $52 holds, guess we should aim a little higher (i.e. $140.4 target).
BTW, everyone should relax on THE A-TEAM. Although I saw THE KARATE KID first and was quite satisfied (@@@ (3 REELS)), THE A-TEAM is a @@@@ (4 REEL) made my day. It’s a cult classic in the making and damn near the perfect 21st century big bang action movie. For continuous, nonstop, gratuitous violence, adrenaline, humor, and excitement, THE A-TEAM brought it. I was very, very surprised. “Overkill is underrated.” – Col. Hannibal Smith. I wholeheartedly agree.
“Buy me a movie, daddy! Please!!!!”
Is is too soon to hope for Jaden’s inevitable drug addiction/Oprah appearance? Why can’t celebrities just let their kids be kids?
He is a tool, and his parents are irresponsible.
Finally, someone called it.
I’m not a religious person but I really feel like praying for this kid.
Will Smith was on Oprah. He talked about how important it is for his children to work and hold their own weight because society will distance themselves from people who don’t. Diddy could learn from this. He just bought his 16 year old son a car worth 360,000. Is his son old enough to get a driver’s license? It’s his money.
Ron Howard
Bryce Dallas Howard
Jason Ritter
Colin Hanks
Michael Douglas
Angelica Huston
Jeff Bridges
Beau Bridges
Jake Gylenhaal
Maggie Gylenhaal
Timothy Hutton
Drew Barrymore
Nicolas Cage
Jessica Capshaw
Frank Capra III
Francis Capra
George Clooney
Jake Busey
Scott Caan
Jason Patric
Keifer Sutherland
Christian Slater
ALL beneficiaries in one form or another of the nepotism you now claim to so vehemently despise…and this list isn’t even the tip of that iceberg…yet this ONE particular kid has you REEEEEEEEEEEALLY hacked off about it, just wondering why–oh, wait…nervermind.
At least this means the chances of a Knight Rider film will be zero.
Congrats to The Karate Kid, I didn’t know how the public would take to this film. I just don’t want to see Will and Jada campaigning for political candidates who are “looking out for the average Joe” while they produced this film using cheap labor in China.
If you were a fan of the show even after all of this negativity I suggest you go see it as it is quite a bit of fun and delivers exactly as it should. The audience I just saw it with cheered and clapped at the end. Oh yeah, and stay for after the credits.
I’m bummed Splice didn’t do better. I applaud Warner Bros. for taking a risk by releasing it during what is usually the height of summer movie going, and condemn audiences for rejecting such a great film. Seriously, if only it weren’t for those stupid audiences and their bad taste, Hollywood would be making some great films.
SPLICE was great but TOTALLY mis-marketed. So you had people feeling gypped they didn’t get what they expected and well… total rejection.
It’ll do well on video though.
yeah, I know. With a bit of creativity, WB could have represented the film as what it is, and it would have reached its intended audience. Film goers who would have actually liked it were turned off by the generic marketing, and the people who did go see it were expecting a run of the mill monster movie. All around a disaster, I agree.
I might also add that I was shocked at how dumb some of the people were when I went to see Splice. The couple to the right of me literally didn’t understand the words that the actors were saying, and the girl kept on asking her boyfriend, what does this word mean, and he always replied that he didn’t know. For example, when Elsa spoke into her tape recorder saying she was going to remove Dren’s “human accoutrements,” the woman turned to her boyfriend and said, “What are accoutrements?”
Being an English major I hate to say it, but the film might have done better on cinemascore if the vocabulary in the script had been dumbed down a bit.
You’re totally right. And it is completely unfortunate, because had they just trusted the movie and marketed it for what it was, they could have had another Pan’s Labyrinth…
oh well..
Clearly, Sony has the strongest marketing team in the biz – they consistently over-perform. Paramount is awesome. Disney and Warners…franchise masters. Fox, WTF? Can we all chip in and buy them a clue? Universal, good luck with that comeback, you’ll need it.
Sad, since some of Universal’s flops (State of Play,Funny People) were actually good movies. Fox (save Searchlight) can blow me though. Most of their stuff is mediocre and sometimes direct to DVD worthy.
Like Jayden or not (I don’t) it’s impossible to deny that he worked his ass off for this role. Sure he had access to the best of anything, but he still spent 8 months training tirelessly to be able to look legit on the screen. And now he and his family are reaping the benefits.
So whatever. Give the kid a hand. If he continue to be a spoiled brat then it will come back to bite him in the future. He is only 11. He could grow out of it.
karate kid which really should be called kung fu kid — is shockingly good. went in with no expectations but found it to have a very solid story and a worthy reboot. A Team actually did better than i expected, i thought it would tank.
Not talked about is the flip between KILLERS and GET HIM TO THE GREEK. All the talk last week was about KILLERS beating GHTTG, but after a week, Killers is falling fast and GHTTG pulled away during the week.
Can’t believe KARATE KID might do $50M. Amazing.
Hi Nikki (ever increasingly becoming one of your fans): amazing…2 movies I care little about having a box office bet going on. My money and interest go to another movie…maybe some people have heard of it….called Twilight Eclipse?
I think people are also forgetting the Bieber factor. Jaden did a song and music video with Justin Bieber for this film. Bieber has also been telling his fans on Twitter to go see the movie. Bieber fans are like Twi-hards….loyal and large in number. So when you add together the normal family film appeal element + the remake factor + the Will Smith factor + the Bieber factor…it’s no wonder this is doing so well.
I pity the fool who gets in business with Alex young !
Karate Kid had good hooks- kung-fu and an “inspiring” story of the underdog and his mentor. A-Team’s hook was stuff blowing up, such as a tank in mid-air. Perhaps they should’ve put more martial arts in it. A bunch of cocky old guys sitting around and stuff blowing up…it needed more.
I’m a Screenwriter and even I find your treatment of alex young wrongheaded and vindictive. A film development executive is allowed to develop a film! He is allowed to try one thing then try another. All a healthy part of the process. If this is a late hit for other things he did then at least cme up with something more damning he did on A Team to justify the screenspace you’re devoting to this guy.
Will Sex and the City even hit $100 million domestic? Nikki, you’ve yet to mention once how disasterous this performance is. Is it the death of a franchise? Will they be bold (ie, stupid) enough to make a number three. If so, will someone please retire Michael Patrick King and recognize that he’s a bad writer who should never direct?
Both these movies suck and this Karate Kid stupidity is going to inspire a sequel so we all lose! This whole summer sucks I cant think of one movie I’m waiting for, maybe The Last Airbender. I hope M. Night does not Mess That Up.
The A-Team is a really accurate translation of the TV show – what people seem to forget is that the TV show was mindless fun that wasn’t actually very good. Mr T was cool and a cultural phenomenon which drew a lot of people.
Nikki writes, “It’s ironic, isn’t it: the reboot succeeds, and the TV series-to-film doesn’t. And yet Hollywood keeps embracing these unoriginal movie ideas.”
How is this “ironic?” Why would we have assumed the reboot would fail and the TV adaptation to succeed? And whichever one was the success, wouldn’t it justify Hollywood’s embracing of “these unoriginal movie ideas”,
And would it be more accurate to call “The Karate Kid” a “remake” rather than a “reboot?”
My thoughts exactly. How is one unoriginal idea succeeding and the other doing poorly ironic at all?