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MONDAY AM, 8TH UPDATE: As a studio exec exclaimed to me this morning: “I guess there’s been a reason there has never been three $20 mil pics on a September weekend. Football!” Monday numbers show both Moneyball ($19.5M) and Dolphin Tale ($19.1M) missed the mark.
For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Why blame the NFL, when the cause for underwhelming performance could just as easily be that the cinematic offerings were far from good? Sounds like a pathetically and transparently spinning executive.
Here’s why so many adults I know did not attend a movie this weekend; these were the actual ways we broke down the films…
Moneyball: looked like a boring story. Brad Pitt as Brad Pitt. Was about baseball, but not in the way Bull Durham or FIeld of Dreams were. Seemed about some algorithms. Pass.
Abduction: looked like the Hollywood system trying to jam some new action kid down our throats, the way they tried so hard with Colin Farrell and others in recent years. Not to mention it seemed so by-the -numbers. Less a movie than a promotional vehicle for some ugly kid who from the trailers we saw clearly was an awful actor.
Killer Elite: couldn’t get the women to go see it, but my buddies and I will likely see it at some point on VOD or DVD or on a plane somewhere. DeNiro doesn’t care anymore and the other two guys are very B-list DVD guys, again to the group with which I see films.
Drive: already saw it. Pretty good. Solid human story, some good action/violence. Cool music. Got a little gimmicky with the long silences and smiles btw the two main characters, in lieu of dialogue. Director did that a little too much. But overall pretty solid.
I was with you until you cited Clive Owen as a “B List Actor.”
The reason Moneyball didn’t make $20 million was it was one the same weekend as the Mathlete Finals in Nerdsvania. All those folks that get excited by non-sexy statistics had better things to do.
Hilarious!
But seriously I thought this Billy Beane guy was supposed to be a genius with a unique winniing formula of managing but I read he’s never gotten a team into the World Series so what is so great about him??? Like other comments I’m not buying the excuses why this movie didn’t do better at the box office. Sony had the option of changing the opening date to any date of their choosing so why didn’t they? Going forward we shall see how this movie plays out at the BO but I think a lot of potential moviegoers view the theme of the movie more along the lines of Boringball than Moneyball despite the good reviews.
I love it when studio execs strive too hard to make a smart comment.
I understand football dropping box office receipts on an action movie like the new DeNiro flick, but it has zero impact on “Lion King” and “Dolphin Tale”, or “Abduction” which is not the action flick a football fan would see.
Maybe it hurt Moneyball, but maybe Bradd Pitt’s beat face on the poster did as well.
Ah, this must be Hollywood’s version of “Monday Morning Quarterbacking.”
Maybe Moneyball and Dolphin Tale just sucked?
Was this not clear in the past 50 years of September football?
Taylor Lautner/Abduction did great. He had a decent opening in crowded field of new movies, not to mention having to go up against Brad Pitt. This is not the end of his film career people!
I really hope you are wrong.
I love all of Sony’s different explanations about the Moneyball performance…
Kind of comes down to when does
a Brad Pitt movie not opening bigger than what a Jesse Eisenberg film does on opening weekend be considered a success
(social network..)
Honestly if you’re missing these movies why are you on this board? It’s a great time for movies right now. This fall has already seen a few fantastic offerings. You criticize Moneyball without even knowing what it’s about. Go see it. We’ll wait. Bye.
You are missing the point. As an average film goer, the only movies that came out in the last two weeks that I want to see was Lion King cause it was in 3D at the El Capitan and I’m a sucker for classic Disney reissues and Killer Elite which I don’t see paying $20 for when I can wait a couple months and buy it for less on DVD.
As for my film going experiences, if I were to find a film that will make me go to a theater to see it, The weekend probably isn’t the time for me. Friday is winding down time from working all week so I hit a bar or club. Saturdays are out because that’s when all the screaming kids and parents go to movies and me and my friends don’t wanna deal with that crap. Sunday is out because of Football.
The only time I’ll see a movie on the weekend is for a decent looking horror film and it’s gotta be R rated. None of this PG-13 crap cause that isn’t a ‘horror film’, it’s a kids film with a boob or a slight glimpse of blood. The next film to come out that looks promising is The Thing, but only if it’s rated R. You could argue that Poltergeist was a horror film and it was PG but I can argue that the Spielberg Machine was why it wasn’t R.
Anyway, none of these movies coming out, in the eyes of an average movie goer, just don’t seem that interesting to us. It’s the same argument about Academy Award nominated films and most foreign films. The average film goer doesn’t want to read while watching and all those films that get awards are made for the old Hollywood guard that still vote for the Academy. When those people FINALLY start dying off faster, you’ll see a huge difference in the films getting nominated. Mark my words.
Obviously Moneyball didn’t suck. It’s at 94% in Rotten Tomatoes and the audience rating is an A. It’d be nice if readers actually had some knowledge before spouting off. Try actually seeing the movie before declaring that it sucked. It’s a crazy concept I know.
Why is there always an excuse for so-so opening/performance for a Pitt film????Wether it is small release or now a football game? Maybe next time studio could focus more on promoting the actual film than promoting Pitt.
If the people that saw it give it good word of mouth then the film will still find success but it’s clear Pitt didn’t bring the audience expected for his “huge star” status.
The reason to blame football is that the movies declined from their two previous days on Sunday, and we know that many households stay home to watch football that day. Fairly simple. It’s odd to declare that the just-sub $20 million performance of Dolphin Tale and Moneyball is related to their quality when you have not seen either and both have received wonderful reviews from critics and audiences who have seen them. I think it’s notable that audiences spent more than $40 million this weekend on true family movies (Dolphin Tale and Lion King) — and I think/hope all of the top 3 will continue to do well next week as there is a genuine demand for good films.
Hey Twinautner – how do you exactly back up the claim that Abduction did great? It had a HORRIBLE per screen average with a heavily marketed campaign. It actually proves that people go to see Twilight for the books and story lines and not at all for the actors like Lautner. Not to mention, Lautner can’t act his way out of a box and that was evident when Lionsgate started to remove any bit of him delivering dialogue during the TV spots. Are you his agent or manager because there’s nobody else that delusional to think it did great or that he will be a star!
Hahahaha – That Studio Exec deserves a promotion.
So insightful.
You people just don’t get it. The reason it is football and please include NCAA in this conversation, is that it makes Billions of dollars. That means they have the money to market it everywhere and to everyone.
Why are NCAA football conferences and even the schools themselves starting their own cable networks? Because the viewers and the money is there.
Sports is taking on Hollywood very hard know. Let’s not forget to mention that there was a big UFC fight this weekend and last week’s Boxing.
This is not going to get any better for the movie industry.
It is not just the NFL…it is September when kids are back in school, and often, the blockbuster films are not often put out in this time period.
However, Hollywood does have a way…like the stock market spin doctors…to find a reason to justify the results.
This weekend is just about what they ALL knew would happen…except for the Lion King must be driving them all (except Disney) crazy with jealousy.
Oh geez its like US$ 500k short and its supposed to be a big deal?? Just wait and see how much it will make when it finishes its run. Im aure it will do well abroad where moviegoers are more intelligent than american moviegoers who goes to watch sandler, vince vaughn, carrey shitty movies. Brad Pitt is also very popular internationally much more than in America.
Get a grip people. Moneyball would have been a tough sell no matter who starred in it. It’s perceived as being about baseball and statistics even though there’s much more than that to the picture. Hopefully WOM will help spur people into seeing the movie because it’s truly a wonderful film and deserves to be seen by a wide audience.
Aside from DRIVE, all the other movies looked mediocre, at best. Save the $12 and wait for HBO or Netflix. I’m not saying they are mediocre, but if they are really good, the trailers didn’t do them justice.
I’m sorry but to blame football for their bad marketing is really pathetic. They had a choice as to when they wanted the movie released and they made a choice to show it during football season which is the same every year. This is a bad movie made worse by a horrible actor. Deal with it and stop making excuses. Brad Pitt can’t act his way out of a paperbag.
If you guy see moneyball make sure to have a triple esspresso first, wow was it boring. it amazes me this movie got made because in no way, shape or form was that a movie, just some good looking morons vanity project.
MB couldn’t even beat the Benchwarmers as the #1 baseball movie. BW was 19.6 mil on opening weekend.
Well put. Agree with the analysis. Although re DRIVEN, if I can find a white satin jacket with a scorpion on it, I’ve got my Halloween costume.
I saw Moneyball over the weekend, and I can honestly say it was a really good movie. However, unless you read the book earlier, it’s a harder sell to get people to see this movie since the movie focuses on the general manager of a major league baseball franchise and his nerdy assistant, who most people will not relate to. People loved The Natural, Field of Dreams, and A League of Their Own because they could all relate to the players and even a sad sack manager. Most baseball fans don’t go cheering for their GM, even if he looks like Brad Pitt and has six pack abs.
And this is one of the two major slow periods of the year for movies. The first is the time between the end of the Oscars and the beginning of the summer movie blockbuster season in May, and the second is now, which lasts from Labor Day to just before Thanksgiving when the big holiday movies come out. So expectations are naturally going to be much lower this time of year.
The big problem is just a lack of original interesting material/projects out there plus few actors or actresses that are that intriguing. Or that the best projects always go to the same three actors, Leo, Brad and George. Can’t some studio spread the wealth around a little to younger ones and give them more opportunities? It’s getting a little boring, even though I’m a fan of them. And no, Taylor Lautner isn’t who I had in mind either. And actresses of any age are not exactly overwhelmed with great roles in interesting movies.