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SUNDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: I think we need the U.S. electoral college to see who’s winning box office this Presidents Weekend. Rival studios are telling me that Universal’s Safe House is edging Sony Pictures/Screen Gems’ The Vow for both the 3-day weekend and the 4-day holiday. (As a Sony exec emailed me Saturday night: I know they’re ahead $400K tonight. We had a $900K lead yesterday. I’d say close but we have good shot to win.”) Either way holdovers are beating all the new films and the North American box office is big. Here’s Top Ten (determined by 3-day weekend numbers):
1. Safe House (Universal) Week 3 [3,121 Theaters]
Friday $6.5M, Saturday $9.7M
3-Day Weekend $23.9M (40%), Est 4-Day Holiday $28.5M, Est Cume $82M
2. The Vow (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,958 Theaters]
Friday $7.4M, Saturday $9.2M,
3-Day Weekend $23.6M (-43%), Est 4-Day Holiday $27.4M, Est Cume $89M
3. Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 3D (Sony) NEW [3,174 Theaters]
Friday $7M, Saturday $8.7M
3-Day Weekend $22M, Est 4-day Holiday $25.5M
4. Journey 2: Mysterious Island 3D (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,500 Theaters]
Friday $4.4M, Saturday $8.4M
3-Day Weekend $20M (-27%), Est 4-Day Holiday $25.7M, Est Cume $58.9M
5. This Means War (Fox) NEW [3,189 Theaters]
Tuesday Sneaks $1.6M, Friday $5.6M, Saturday $6.8M
3-Day Weekend $17.5M, Est 4-Day Holiday $20.7M, Est Cume $22.2M
6. Star Wars 3D (LucasFilm/Fox) Week 2 [2,655 Theaters]
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $3.3M
3-Day Weekend $7.8M (-65%), Est 4-Day Holiday $9.2M, Est Cume $35.1M
7. Chronicle (Fox) Week 3 [2,556 Theaters]
Friday $2M, Saturday $3.1M
3-Day Weekend $7.5M, 4-Day Holiday $8.2M, Est Cume $51.8M
8. Woman In Black (CBS Films) Week 3 [2,559 Theaters]
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $2.7M
3-Day Weekend $6.6M, Est 4-Day Holiday $7.8M, Est Cume $46.5M
9. Secret World Of Arrietty (Studio Ghibli/Disney) NEW [1,522 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.5M
3-Day Weekend $6.3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $8.1M
10. The Grey (Open Road) Week 4 [2,107 Theaters]
Friday $785K, Saturday $1.3M
3-Day Weekend $3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $3.4M, Est Cume $48.3
FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM, 2ND UPDATE: Another nailbiter. All the studios are telling me that Sony Pictures/Screen Gems’ hefty 
holdover The Vow will end up #1 for Friday with between $7.1M and $7.5M depending on whose numbers prove correct. It also should capture the long holiday, making it the biggest Screen Gems movie ever. (Dear John made $80M). But Sony, which is looking at a 1-2 finish Friday, is cautioning me that the opening gross for its 3D comic book adaptation Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance “could go higher as the night goes on”. So the order might change by Saturday morning. (But probably not, or so the rest of Hollywood predicts. “Ghost Rider‘s opening will be half of the 2007 original,” a rival studio exec tells me. Snarks another: “Once they started advertising it with Nic Cage, it went downhill.”) This weekend, Universal’s action holdover Safe House is expected to battle Ghost Rider 2 for second place all holiday long.
Clearly this 4-day Presidents Weekend box office is starting out very competitively — maybe $180M, continuing the ‘up’ streak. That’s +4% over last year but short of the 2010 Prez Day record of $238M which included Valentine’s Day. What is clear already is that those strong Valentine’s Day sneak previews didn’t help Fox debut This Means War Friday that much better. Not surprisingly, after weeks of soft tracking and moving off its VDay release date, it’ll fall by Saturday behind Warner Bros’ holdover Journey 2: The Mysterious Island because of its big family matinee bump. Gotta say: when Reese Witherspoon, Chris 
Pine, and Tom Hardy combined can’t open a movie to $20M over a 4-day holiday with McG directing, something is hinky. I think the public is fatigued with romantic comedy, even if this one had a lot of action and a not-too-lame premise, and is choosing The Vow‘s romantic drama for a change-up. Disney had very low expectations for its latest Studio Ghibli toon out of Japan. But even if The Secret World Of Arrietty looks like this long weekend’s big flop, Friday will be the highest opening of a Ghibli film. Full analysis when the numbers firm.
—
1 PM: Rentrak is having difficulties with hourly grosses and that put a pause on analyzing matinee numbers. But it looks like this 4-day President’s Holiday weekend will end up strong. Right now for today, Sony Pictures’ sequel Ghostrider: Spirit Of Vengeance is opening just pennies away from Universal’s holdover Safe House and Sony Pictures The Vow (in that order). Fox newcomer This Means War is ahead of Warner Bros’ holdover Journey 2. Order by weekend’s end could be same.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Ouch the grosses look terrible, can somebody else check maybe my computer is broken
You can thank creeping gas prices for that. They are nearing $4.00 a gallon in most states and that’s when people are gonna start holding back on spending.
Gas prices have been $10+ per gallon for more than 10 years in Europe and this hasn’t hurt box office at all. As usual the whining sniveling chronic complaining Americans always attribute the decline of everything to gas prices. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Wow an idiot from Europe. I apologize everyone. We do understand economics and the effect of rising goods, I promise, but every country has its share of idiots. Don’t think too badly of us.
That’s because we also have to pay extraordinary amounts of money for health care and other benefits which Europeans get for free.
..and europeans also have lousy health care & visit the usa, just like canadians, to use our more private hospitals due to socialism crushing canadian & european hospitals.
…nt to mention the UK giving up on socialized medicine & allowing more private run choices. in some countries of uk & europe a person has to wait up to 2 years for a pair of glasses to be “funded” by the govt. yeah great system there.
..and how much debt does europe have that is crushing its credit rating due to being so much in debt & socialistic?
…and since the usa has become more in debt & socialistic like europe, our credit rating is headed for the sewer as well. in fact the countries like china & russia who are becoming more capitalistic have better economies on the rise as opposed to europe which is almost in total chaos….just look at spain, italy & greece, especially greece which is very very socialistic if nt communist. its dead. yeah hurray for nationalized socialistic health care. be broke. its fun.
we are more alike then we all would like to admit.
Gas prices don’t affect European society as much as it does American society. Europe has a much better public transportation system and its cities and suburbs are very condensed. America is more spread out. A person practically needs a car to travel in much of the U.S. It’s homes are bigger too and require more energy. Therefore gas prices will affect American’s spending habits a lot more than they will affect Europe’s.
Maybe you ought to get educated on the details before making bigoted claims.
Gas prices have nothing to do with it. They’ve been more than $10 a gallon in Europe for more than 10 years and box office is strong.
box office in Europe is NOT strong. The Americans go to the movies about twice as much as we do in Europe on average!
the grosses look great
THIS MEANS WAR GOT AN A- Cinemascore — it’s great fun!
not terrible for 2nd week movies
The Vow will Win. It’s been a week an it’s still nimber 1 in Tweets
What does that mean? Is there a way to track the number of times somebody tweets about a particular movie? Is there a company whose job it is to tabulate that sort of thing?
No. im going by boxoffice.com
No it has not been number one for a week, in fact Safe House won on Sunday and imho one main reason for the Vow winning the weekdays is Valentine’s Day. Safe House will come in higher than The Vow this weekend
@ray
Except for Sunday, The Vow had a higher daily box office than Safe House for the first week. If Nikki’s rough estimates for Friday and the rest of the weekend, this trend will continue.
@ Victoria. True True True. lets see how it goes. Safe house and The Vow looks like its not going down without a fight.
See what I mean now, Victoria. The Vow was “artifically” held up vy Valentine’s week. Also, Safe House had a better internal multiplier last weekend which is most often a very good indicator of coming holds. Still if The Vow made 7,5 and not previously reported 7,1 on friday, its estimated saturday drop looks too big
@ray
I don’t think The Vow was artificially held up by Valentine’s Day. The Vow’s % drop is 42% vs 40.7% for Safe House and both those movies are kicking GR2 butt. It’s still a tight race for #1, although ….imo, based on the Fri to Sat to Mon percentages, it looks mothers are taking kids to Journey 2 and skipping The Vow. That’s right; Tatum’s competition is The Rock, not Hardy and Pines.
@Victoria
What I meant was that The Vow had a huge weekdays gross because of Valentine’s Day. That is undeniable since VD got it what 11.6M?
What I also meant was that last weekend gave a good indication that Safe House would hold slightly better since it did comparatively more business on saturday/sunday, i.e., held up better.
This proved to be true since Safe House will win the 4-day president’s weekend fairly comfortably. Both had good holds, it will be a tight race for which one grosses the most in total ^^ And ye we all expected journey to hold up well, but it did even better than that. Amazing and imho a bit unexpected
there are several companies that track social media. trendrr is a popular one.
After Safe House’s huge opening last weekend and solid mid-week word-of-mouth, it became destined to suck up most of Ghost Rider’s target demo.
I’m no expert, but if GR2 opens at $25M, it could have trouble getting past fifty total when you consider next week’s inevitable collapse. They’ll spin it, talk about how its budget was lower than the first time around, but it’s still a disappointment.
The big question is why they even made the movie in the first place. Ghost Rider 1 was such a terrible movie that I was stunned they were even thinking about another go around.
So Sony could retain the rights to the character, if they didn’t produce another movie Marvel (now Disney) would have get the rights back.
the first one made $228 mil so stfu
The first one was a success because people wanted to see an entertaining action movie based on a fun comic character. Needless to say, they were disappointed. Do you really think people are going to line up in droves to see the same deadbeat movie twice? Quit taking things so personally, you fluffer.
yup the first one made 228 but it cost over 100M so was far from a success in theaters. Extremely few movies get sequels with Gross to budget ratio that bad (Hellboy did)
another strong weekend yes
Ghost Rider was tracking at around 35 million this weekend. Seems like Safe House is holding up strong then. Anyway I will be seeing Ghost Rider tomorrow in 3D!
who gets fired for This Means War?
Chris Pine’s hair stylist?
The industry needs a good alternative to Rentrak.
You obviously were not in the industry pre-Rentrak.
I was looking at the new movies coming out today and trying to decide which movie was the most unrealistic: Ghost Rider 2, The Secret World of Arietty (a cartoon), or the one where two guys fight over Reese Witherspoon.
lol
McG’s feature career.
Seriously why would he cast Reese Witherspoon? You got two younger looking hot stars and she is NOT SEXY in the least. She was on one of the Entertainment shows last night and she said Hardy and Pine were giving her tips on what is sexy to a guy. Seriously are you kidding me? She is an actress that should tell you all you need to know about how this film is going to do.
This sounds like a package and it got green lit because of her.
@malibu
Seriously, I am nowhere near a Reese fan but “younger looking hot stars”. Yup they are younger but only 1 and 4 years respectively. If it was the reverse, a guy who is 1 and 4 years older than his female costars would you whine?
And no Tom Hardy is nowhere near hot – he looks like a geek who buffed up
haha what a moronic comment by malibu
The Vow is doing good ain’t it? McAdams is 2 years older than Tatum ^^
This is not about age. Reese is not sexy. When she was in her 20′s it would have laughable to have cast her as a femme fatale, and now in her mid 30′s it’s a rather desperate act. As for Tom Hardy, whether you consider him sexy or not, this film will not even be a blip on his career. He’s extremely talented, and this awful film only serves to show that he can handle comedy, even otherwise badly done comedy.
I would think, Nikki, that the performance of The Vow, which was also hammered by the critics, proves that audiences DO still enjoy romcoms. Box office merely shows that, given a choice, they can reject a badly done example.
Tom Hardy is older than Reese Witherspoon.
Tom and Chris are both younger than Reece.
Safe House is holding up well I guess. It looks like another strong weekend for Hollywood.
I pray that Saturday matinee grosses for “The Vow” or “Safe House” edge out “Ghost Rider 2″ (heck, any movie grossing more than GR2 deserves it). If you thought the first one was bad, this one makes it look like “Citizen Kane.” Honestly, Neveldine/Taylor need to be booted out of Hollywood for good.
Disappointing to see “Arriety” not in the Top 5. Studio Ghibli films are just one-of-a-kind and Disney should’ve put a big marketing push on this film. At least they released it nationwide this time, unlike their last three movies.
I kind of liked the CRANK movies, at least the first one. So I won’t mind if Neveldine/Taylor stick around to make a few more studio films.
Have u seen Hugh Jackman’s wife??P. Brosnan’s???? Sometimes Gorgeous men fall for not so attractive women… It happens. Reese btw looks just fine…
So the movie is about an ugly duckling then? makes sense….
WTF? Brosnan’s wife is gorgeous. I’ve never seen Jackman’s wife but you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about anyway.
1) Safe House 25M (6.5M Fri)
2) Ghostrider 23M (7M Fri)
3) Vow 22M (6M Fri)
4) Journey 20M (5M Fri)
5) This Means War 18M (5M Fri)
6) Arrietty 7M (2M Fri)
Arrietty is in like half the number of theatres as the others.
Yeah, it’s not really a bomb, because it wasn’t a very wide release like the others. If anything, This Means War is the bomb. And speaking of bombs, is it ok to call Phantom Menace 3D one now?
Probably not, since it cost so very little to produce. Sure, prints and advertising cost something, but just like ARIETTY and WOMAN IN BLACK, not having to actually make the movie means you start making a profit almost immediately.
Except 3D retrofitting adds to the cost.
It’s going to take in around $100m worldwide. For a $15m investment that’ll kick off rereleases of all of them, it’s no big deal. Think of how well the beloved films in the series could do. Even Episode III will be well received as it really has the action scenes to make the 3D treatment worthwhile, something I and IV kind of lack.
Not sure how it’s going to take in $100 million worldwide, when it can’t even make half that here.
TPM 3D is at 70 million worldwide. It’s not a bomb. Last week you were saying the same things. You’re obviously very desperate. Oh, and it will break one billion now.
It’s not a bomb, even though it’s doing worse than even Dragon Tattoo internationally?
I saw Arietty tonight….and it was excellent. The best animated film I’ve seen in years.
I’m not the market at all for This Means War, but admittedly, I was surprised at how attractive Reese Witherspoon looked in the marketing. That said, once I learned that Chelsea Handler was in it, I knew I was never going to watch the movie…not even rent it. Who made the choice on that one? While I’m sure she has her fans, I can’t help but think she’s a polarizing figure. She’s Reason #1 I won’t be watching this.
Agreed, on both counts. I’m no Reese Witherspoon fan, but she looks great in this. And Chelsea Handler’s presence completely negates Witherspoon’s attractiveness.
Totally agree. Are they trying to make Chelsea Handler the new Rosie O’Donnell female sidekick? No thanks.
Witherspoon hasn’t been able to catch a break since winning the Oscar. Just seems like one bomb after another. Sad, but telling.
Thanks for mentioning this – I felt the same way. Would have gone to this, but have no desire to spend money to see Chelsea Handler. I thought it was a minority opinion, but with these other comments, I wonder if there were enough to keep the movie at #4…
It’s a cute premise. Regardless of the female lead, women should want to see a film in which the woman is fought over by two hot guys…and from the same guy who wrote mr and mrs smith, too? It was weird this was tracking so softly. Then I saw handlers face in the trailer. Then I saw even more of handler in another trailer. As they say on shark tank, ‘it’s not for me, I’m out!’
I agree. One flash of Handler and I move on.
Reese Witherspoon’s movie career is officially in the toilet. Water for Elephants bombed. How Do You Know royally bombed. Her current movie is bombing. Her huge paychecks don’t correlate to her box office results. She is one of the most overpaid underperfomers in Hollywood. Stick a fork in her career. It’s pretty much done.
Water for Elephants bombed.
Are you kidding?
I think bomb is too harsh a word but I do think it was quite disappointing. The movie had two Oscar winners, the popular guy from Twilight and was based on a best selling, loved book. That should be a shoo in for great box office results but it certainly wasn’t. I think all of the results of her last several movies point to the fact that Reese’s career is definitely on a downwards trajectory.
Water for Elephants made $117m on a $38m budget. Hardly a bomb, especially in last year’s box office climate.
I do think Reese was miscast in the film, as a gorgeous woman the two leading men fight over. She seems to seek out those roles and it’s not a good fit.
It wasn’t a bomb but it underperformed. The Vow, a badly reviewed romantic movie, made in 5 days, the same amount that Water For Elephants made in its entire domestic run. Why couldn’t Reese’s romantic drama make that kind of money? Her film had much more going for it with award winning actors and a huge book following.
All of her recent movies either underperform or bomb. The days of saying she’s a bankable movie star are over.
WFE showed that even costarring the most popular young male actor of the day, and with material from a very popular book with a built in fan base, especially considering those two factors, Reese Witherspoon can not deliver. It was lackluster, in box office and performance. That’s ultimately worse than a bomb which could have been blamed on multiple factors. Instead of a prancing steed, they got a cute little show pony. Not. Good. Enough.
And Chris Pine can join her there. He sucks all the energy out of his films and is DEAD WEIGHT. People only ever liked him as Captain Kirk. There has never been any evidence people want to see him in any other role. Look at Denzel’s openings before and after Pine! Now look at this Valentine’s week rom-com. Pine is dead weight.
Water for Elephants was not a bomb. It was actually one of her bigger successes in a long time. She needs to do more movies like that if she wants to get noticed.
True, it wasn’t a hit but it wasn’t a bomb either. Somwhere in between and it’s first weekend to final gross multiplier wasn’t bad either.
wth are you people talking about? To make 117M on a 38M budget (more than 3 times budget= is a hit anyway you look at it
If you call that a bomb 96.2% of all Hollywood movies are bombs
I agree with this, however, people are still deluiding themselves about Reese w.’s career, if they think the money ‘Water for Elephants,’ did make, wasn’t solely due to Robert Pattinson. He got the women that did go to the theater, not Reese.
Water For Elephants did not bomb.$117 million world wide on a $38 million budget and over $14 million in dvd sells is not a bomb. But with that said it wasn’t Reese that was the draw it was Robert Pattinson.
Wouldn’t Ghost Rider 2 be the bomb since that is a big budget sequel and did not even open to half of the original over a long holiday weekend?
But remember, Sony’s probably only into this movie for $35 million + P&A. They split off domestic and international with Hyde Park. I do think Ghost Rider suffered from so many other things OVER performing lately (as in The Gray, Chronicle, Journey 2, The Woman in Black, Red Tails, Contraband, The Vow, Safe House) and I think a lot of people inflated expectations for it’s opening numbers because of that. Sony will make a nice profit on this movie… I wouldn’t worry.
This Means War had a similar budget, and I saw more advertisement for TMW than for Ghost Rider.
Exactly what Romantic Comedy has Reese Witherspoon been successful in? She’s a character actresss who needs a strong concept to show off her acting chops and catapult her into the lead role. She should avoid romantic comedies.
Speaking only for myself about This Means War, I am actually angry that my chance for a mad magazine type spy vs. spy film was turned into a romcom, and wouldn’t touch the film with a ten foot pole. And I’ve paid for my share of romcoms.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA was a hit, though, I believe it was a hit because A) Boxofficemojo tells me that even awful romcoms (most are) make their money back. See LEAP YEAR. The worst of the worst make their money back.
B) That title was perfect, as it gives the underserved Southern folks a movie to call their own, while not alienating progressives who want to see a romcom as well.
Romcoms, for all the shellacking they take, are pretty much a surefire bet, in my opinion. Who doesn’t want to see a 100-minute love story that has a few (yes, sometimes VERY few) laughs?
I almost never have any interest in seeing a rom-com. I certainly have never bought a ticket to see one.
The post shouldn’t have ended with “Who doesn’t want to see…”
The overarching point I was trying to make is that romantic comedies are a profitable genre. Both at the box office and in other markets. Your name is Justin — the films aren’t aimed at you, just like MONEYBALL isn’t expected to bring in women in droves. But three women in a family will go see even a terrible romcom like SOMETHING BORROWED. And when THE WEDDING PLANNER comes on TBS at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night, a lot of people will actually be watching it.
THIS MEANS WAR is a bad, bad movie. But plenty of these bad films make money. THE UGLY TRUTH was bad as well. It made oodles and oodles of cash for the people involved.
Audiences don’t tire of romantic comedy or horror, they tire of bad movies.
erm mfan. The complete opposite of what you said is true. The ONLY type of movies that Reese career has been built upon are comedies
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde 2
Sweet Home Alabama
Water for Elephants
are 4 of her 5 hits. The fifth being her oscar winning role in the biopic.
The trailer for This Means War looked dumb. Chris pine and Tom Hardy are not Channing Tatum that young women get hot for. Worse, Reese Witherspoon can’t pull off sexy and looks too old for the part.
How is Arrietty a bomb playing in only 1500 theaters?
Pine got his fame by being the new William Shatner. Why Hollywood thinks that’ll make him the next A-list matinee idol completely MYSTIFIES me. It’s not like Shatner went on to anything like that.
chris pine has loads of charisma plus acting chops. definitely one of the more talented actors of his generation. i noticed him back in bottle shock when he even managed to pull off long hair.
I find Pine’s looks distracting, and he doesn’t have enough charisma or talent to overcome the Ken doll factor.
p.s. Pine was cheesy as all get out in Bottle Shock. Only reason to see that is Rickman. Hardy is the only reason I would consider This Means War.
Hardy is the most overhyped (by the industry) actor in years
He has some talent, not a lot
He has zero box office draw no matter how hard they hype him
He is not insanely good looking
Don’t blame Pine for being cheesy in Bottle Shock. He was just written that way — and saddled with a terrible hippie wig. Despite its flaws, Bottle Shock is one of those movies I can’t help but watch when it’s on cable. Like you say, thanks to Alan Rickman.
Reese isn’t that much older than her co-stars, but the film casts her as a brittle businesswoman. Angelina Jolie could pull that off and still charm the audience but with Reese they should have tailored a sweet girl-next-door kindergarden teacher.
Rushmore used a wholesome sweet teacher a foil for two dastardly characters scheming over the same girl. All three TMW characters shop at Hugo Boss and have the cold-fish personalities.
“…but the film casts her as a brittle businesswoman. Angelina Jolie could pull that off and still charm the audience…”
Like she did in ‘Life or Something Like It?’.
And FYI insane Angelina fans, I don’t mean this to denigrate her I’m just trying to point out that almost every time somebody on this board says something like “the reason this movie didn’t do well is because it’s Johnny Depp, but he’s not in period dress” there is a counter-example. So nobody knows anything. I actually do believe that there is a pattern somewhere in all this data but people need to start with an open mind and *really* consider more than one or two factors.
The absolute worst are the people who come on here to say that the reason a film (or, recently, Hollywood movies in general) is doing badly is because it’s a remakes or based on a toys or a cartoon or because “the audience are tired of being treated like idiots” or because it is a qualitatively bad film. That’s all wishful thinking – Sequels and bad movies (as I suppose ‘Safe House’ and ‘The Vow’ must be) and sequels to bad movies make money *all the time*. If a bad movie flops, it’s probably for some reason *other* than the fact that it sucks.
Don’t forget the one-note political haters who tie every box office failure to an actor’s politics. Or a fictional puppet’s stance on the oil industry.
What a year Sony is having so far. First Underworld, then The Vow, now Ghostrider – who would have thunk it?
Arrietty is NOT a “bomb.” With this opening it could do more than Ponyo. It’s the biggest opening in the US for a Hayao Miyazaki film.
Terrific hold for The Vow. I thought for sure it would be more front-loaded due to Valentine’s Day dates last weekend.
Journey 2 is underestimated. I think it will probably be #1 over the 4-day weekend with over 28 Million. Will be the #1 movie on Monday for sure.
The kid’s market is undeserved, which is why John Carter will get to $600 million worldwide. After the Lorax, there is no competition for kids, unless Mirror Mirror breaks out. For 3 to 4 months, John Carter will be essentially alone in the kid’s market. It doesn’t matter how bad the movie is or how terrible the marketing, it has its niche all to itself for months. The crazy thing is that as great as John Carter will do, it still won’t breakeven at the box office, since it needs to do about $800 million. That budget was flat out criminal.
“John Carter will get to $600 million worldwide”
LOL jesus you’re an idiot
There are no other kids movies for MONTHS. There is no humanly possible way for John Carter to do less than $600 million minimum. Families want to take their kids out to the movies. They will see John Carter over and over again, if there is nothing else to see. Prove this wrong. What’s your logic Steve?
John Carter looks about as aimed at kids as Transformers. The director even said it’s not a Pixar movie because Pixar is an “all-ages brand”.
What is this about John Carter being a kids’ movie? Isn’t it about some hero killing a lot of misshapen hobgoblins–one after the other?
Kid’s don’t have their own money. Adults have to be able to sit through the movie without gritting their teeth. Sorry, but John Carter looks like a B-movie ripoff of better made films, and will bomb big time in the U.S. Adults can take their kids to the mall or for a picnic. I have no idea how international audiences might react to it, though.
“Bomb” just means lower-grossing these days.
Just to clarify, this is not a Miyazaki film, it’s from his studio, but a different director.
Agree that ARRIETTY is not a “flop”, either. Half the screens as the others and if you look at the per screen average, it will be in the top 5.
The only way John Carter will open big is if they up the online ads. The trailer looks like Clone Wars or that big Zeus movie (seroiusly, who cares what it was called) but I’m not seeing the ads for JC anywhere. They need to plaster up a few banners for it on youtube. John Carter should also trying wearing a shirt; what is he, a Smurf? A shirt was good enough for Han Solo.
I’m not entirely sure why Nikki has decided This Means War is one of those movies she’s just going to defend but there’s little point windering why Witherspoon, Pine, Hardy and McG are having trouble opening the film if anyone has actually seen the marketing.
First, Hardy can’t open an envelope on his own. Good actor, yes – not an independent draw. Pine has certainly got a skoosh more charisma and ability than some of his contemporaries but he’s never opened a film on his own either.
Yes, I’d agree with everyone who says Witherspoon LOOKS great in the ads but she’s on a run of underperformers as well and the film just looked too dumb from the outset. It’s probably no dumber than Knight and Day or Mr and Mrs Smith (since it at least shares a writer with TMW) but it still lacks star power or a behind the scenes affair to propel it anywhere.
Lastly, there’s McG – one of the worst directors out there who has never made a good film and yet still gets given a fortune to go and make more of them.
This Means War really will be lucky if it can get anywhere near even Knight and Day numbers in the end. I just hope it didn’t cost anything like as much.
I see The Vow or Journey 2 taking top spot this weekend, with Safe House second and TMW fourth. For the three and the four days.
Damn, submitted too soon and I forgot to mention Ghost Rider 2 in there (understandably) but I figure the lower the better just in case Sony was ever tempted to make a third.
What is this bizarre talk of Knight and Day? Is this some new Scientology push to rehab its rep? Bizarre.
Uh, they both have some action/romance plot and they’re both from Fox.
I actually liked Mr. and Mrs. Smith and these types of movies in general, but This Means War looked flat out dumb. I can’t tell if it’s the premise or the casting or directing…or all three. McG is the action movie version of M Night Shyamalan. Although, at least M Night started out with a couple of good movies.
SHOOT.. I LOVED MR. and MRS. Smith. Saw it opening weekend and still watch it on FX.. which plays it all the time. And I suspect the ratings are still high. I don’t know that many other films that play that often. The chemistry between the characters was HOT and I have not see TMW, but the trailer just didn’t make me interested in who actually ends up with Reese. Something I don’t see anyone commenting on. Plus when I saw the trailer..having see MMS so many time, I just kept noticing all these similar things. And it felt like a rip off to me. I know Simon wrote or had a hand in both, but it was just too obvious.
Not interested in paying money to see it. Maybe DVD but not in a theater.
you wonder why they are being easy on This Means War? part of their quid pro quo with the studio that made it.
R.I.P Reese Witherspoon’s career. And buy-buy $10 millions checks for every movie. Now no one will pay even $1 million. First Water with Elephant underperformed. And now this.
She is the one to blame for 70% of the films failure. Because people watch trailer and can’t understand how two hot and young spies can fight to death for woman like Reese. She looks too old for Tom and Chris. She is unsexy. And she looks like soccer housewife mom with two children. She doesn’t look like young hot chick. Can you imagine how movie would look if someone like Mila Kunis would play instead of Reese?
Reese is 35 years old. She needs to stop pretending that she can play 25 years old hot girls. She doesn’t look it. She was looking like some aunt to Pattinson in Water for Elephants. And she looks like older sister to Hardy and Pines in This Means War.
Reese is like a couple years older than those two guys– not quite the obscene age difference we are usually subjected to by Hollywood with older guys being paired with women way to young for them. Your sexism is almost as obnoxious as your bad grammar.
Her playing a pushing 30 softball player in How Do You Know was kind of a stretch.
@ccokmeyer1970 – NICE!
I saw This Means War. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s actually a fun movie. Reese doesn’t play “the hot girl”, she plays “a girl next door” type and the guys find themselves attracted to that. They are surprised to find they would be happier with a woman like that. The problem with This Means War is the marketing. Fox blew it by making it look like these guys were fighting over “the hot girl”. Part of the comedy in the film is the two guys not knowing how to impress or even really date a “normal” woman. As for Chelsea Handler, her scenes are pretty funny. If you’re looking for a great movie that you’ll still be talking about in two weeks this is not it. If you want to enjoy a pop-corn movie with some good laughs, This Means War will deliver on that level. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I was not planning on seeing this movie, and my girlfriend definitely did not want to go, but we were invited with friends so we went. We both felt afterwards that we’d had a good time and we enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because our expectations were low, but in the end we had a good time and that’s all that really matters, right? It’s a fun movie. Regardless of what you think of McG or Reese or any of the actors, if you get outside of Hollywood and the movie tanks Nationally, the blame lands squarely in Fox’s lap for screwing up the marketing.
I also saw This Means War tonight with my gf and like Film Fan,I thought the movie was fun & very enjoyable. Judging by the laughter I heard around me..we were not the only ones who liked the movie. I know a bombolo when I see or smell one…and this film…is defintaley not one of them. Whats interesting..is how many people on here are calling it a bomb… when they hadn’t even see it.
It seems there mostly dissing the movie sight unseen..just because they dislike Reese or McG. Im no big Reese fan myself, but she did a good job (as did Pine & Hardy) looked great & yes…shock of shocks…pretty sexy for a woman of her advanced years. So while the usual negative nancy boys of negativity will be more than happy to see it fail at the box office, I had a good time..and like film fan said…that’s all that matters.
I am assuming your comment about Reese Witherspoon, “shock of shocks,looking sexy despite her advanced years” is a sarcastic response to the 12-year-olds on this site who are appalled that a 35 year-old woman would even try to convey sexiness on screen. I like that the casting had younger guys falling for an older woman.
ITA. It’s actually a fun movie
I agree with this poster. I went in with low expectations (Thank you, Rotten Tomatoes). Yet I found it funny, clever and decently acted by all concerned. People in my theater were laughing at times because some of the lines are genuinely funny. Why they cast Handler as the female BFF is a head-scratcher. There are so many more talented comediennes around. Kristen Wiig would have been great. Even Melissa McCarthy.
Reese Witherspoon did NOT look like a dowdy soccer mom. She was sexy in a way that made the premise of the two guys battling for her credible. Sure, the idea that these two buddies could fall for the same woman in the space of an hour was a stretch, but, geez, it’s a movie.
I have seen a lot worse. I had a good time. And both Pine and Hardy seemed up to the challenge, both as spies and smitten would-be boyfriends for Witherspoon.
I give it a solid B.
You mean all these people commenting on a film they probably did not see? What a shocker!
You can always tell when a PA writes a comment.
Remember, This Means War was delayed 2 days to February 17 because of the film’s soft tracking among viewers, and the box office numbers and reviews reflect this. It’s in 5th place despite having Witherspoon, Hardy, Pine, and (gasp) the insufferable Handler. That’s pretty pathetic since Safe House, The Vow, and Journey 2 are holdovers from last week. This movie was sloppy — notice all the continuity errors. In hard economic times, people aren’t going to pay a lot of money for such a terrible flick so its grosses will obviously drop next weekend.
Handler was terrible, just annoying and unfunny. She doesn’t understand that there’s more to acting than simply spitting out her lines with her eyes barely open. It’s no wonder that her TV show on NBC has seen decreasing ratings since its premiere last month. This is what happens when studios place nepotism before talent.
Precious would have been a better fit for this role.
Reese is extremely talented, and was great as a teen (Election)
and is great in Southern Wife (Walk the Life), and Chatty Annoying Wife (American Psycho)
Gabourey Sidibe?
You’re confusing “old” with “hot”. If Angelina were playing the part, who is much older, no one would dare say that. Why? Because she oozes sex every day, and twice on Sunday. Stop being lazy with your analysis.
why is it always twice on Sundays? What’s wrong with Fridays or Saturdays…
OK.. that comment made me LMAO..
thank you
Saturday is wash day.
Oh hi Reese or Reese’s friend (anuston? Handler?) Angelina Jolie is not older she’s the same age as Reese, 36. Which you know of course…but, your subversive snarky jealousy aside…I will agree with your overall sentiment, jolie was hot at 20 and she’ll be hot at 70. Ditto monica belluci, catherine deneuve, liz taylor, etc. You either have sensuality, or you don’t. It cannot be manufactured.
Exactly, which is why Reese should not have been cast. It has nothing to do with age. For instance, Jennifer Lopez is much older than Reese, and no one would be making these ageist comments if it were her being wanted by two knucklehead spies. It’s more that it’s, Reese Witherspoon and they’re trying to make her into alluring sex kitten at the 11 th hour. Similar to what Jennifer Aniston’s agent has tried to do for much of her career. Stripping out of your clothes still won’t make you sexy. There’s nothing at all sensual or sexy about her desperate exhibitionism.
Much older? That’s enough Jen, go sit your 45 yr old azz down. Jolie and Reese are the same age, 36. Everyone knows that. That said, I agree with your analysis. Jolie hot. Reese not.
No,
They are not the same age. Check your facts
@shy, Mila Kunis is HORRENDOUSLY overrated. You can go to any mall in America and find a chick who looks like her. Surely you could have come up with a better name if you’re gonna run down Witherspoon.
I’ll ignore the “Precious” comment.
Reese is not to blame it is McG or the studio for miscasting her in the role. She is the cute, sweet likeable leading lady not the sexy woman who has got two studs after her. Ridiculous.
To me when you cast someone you need to make sure the audience will buy them in the part. When it looks like they are trying to hard to fit the role that is when the film gets into trouble.