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SUNDAY 8 AM, 4TH UPDATE: Jetlagged from traveling but home at last. Let’s start with the domestic bad news because that’s what Hollywood craves. New Line’s The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (3,160 theaters) is a complete disaster despite no fresh comedy at the multiplex since Identity Thief opened five weeks ago. This is Warner Bros’ 5th straight box office dud, 
continuing what has been an abysmal beginning of the year. Despite Warner Bros’ Best Picture Oscar win for Ben Affleck’s Argo, the studio’s woes began with Gangster Squad in January and continued with Bullet To The Head and Beautiful Creatures through February, and festered with the $200 million flop Jack The Giant Slayer on March 1st. Now the studio is counting on May to deliver big grosses again with The Great Gatsby, The Hangover Part III, and the much anticipated Man Of Steel. Any hope for an upside because of the casting of Steve Carell and Jim Carrey (who’s in the Witness Protection Program in the trailers) 
is gone even with a modest $32M production budget. Those stars should have delivered at least a $20M if not $30M opening. Instead their pic only maxed $10.3M for its first weekend after grossing only $3.7M Friday and $4.1M Saturday. And, remember, that includes 1,800 Thursday late shows, too. Even worse, pic scored a ‘C+’ CinemaScore which will hurt word of mouth along with a dismal 25% positive reviews from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes. What’s interesting to me is how many famous names are on the movie. Carell and Steve Buscemi play a washed-up Las Vegas magician duo, with Carrey in a small but flashy role as a rival street performer. It also starred Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin and James Gandolfini. It was directed by veteran TV helmer Don Scardino while Tyler Mitchell is credited with the story, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley credited with rewrites, and no less than Jason Reitman credited with the polish. There’s a long list of credited producers, including Chris Bender and JC Spink of the management firm Benderspink, and Carell’s banner Carousel Productions which he runs with Vance DeGeneres who is Ellen’s older brother. Burt Wonderstone was picked to open the SXSW film festival even though anyone could see that this movie was going nowhere. Everyone I talked to thought it would be weak from the get-go because magic just doesn’t sell at the box office. The marketing campaign fell on Carell’s shoulders with Carrey just a hired hand and not plugging the pic.
Burt was beaten badly by Sony/TriStar’s new Troika/WWE Studios pickup starring Halle Berry, The Call (2,507 theaters). It shocked Hollywood for 2nd place and earned a ‘B+’ Cinema with $6.2M for 
Friday box office and $6.8M Saturday for a $17.1M first weekend. Even though the low-budget kidnap thriller is playing in 653 fewer locations. “Huge credit to Halle and all her hard work,” a Sony exec gushes. Grosses are coming in higher than expected by Sony which acquired U.S., Canada and a few other territories like South Africa and Scandinavia. The film was produced for mere mid-teens. That said, its plot was a lot like 2004′s Cellular starring Kim Basinger and Chris Evans only with the roles reversed. This time, kidnap victim Abigail Breslin is young and Veteran 911 operator Berry is tracking her down. Naturally Sony’s media campaign targeted females as well as the African American audience. TV ads ran on crime/thriller shows but also The Bachelor and Army Wives while Berry pulled out all the talk show stops. The campaign began early with a teaser trailer on Yahoo in January. There also was an online game called ‘You Make the Call’ which put users in the 911 operator’s chair. Brad Anderson (The Machinist) directed the screenplay written by Richard D’Ovidio.
And #1 in the marketplace and still great news for Disney is its $218M holdover Oz The Great And Powerful. This 
juggernaut at the box office had a strong midweek performance now that about 18% of kids are out of school for spring break. And there’s still little else in the way of family fare in the marketplace at this time. Now expect a 10-day domestic total of around $145M with $11.4M Friday and $18.2M Saturday for $42.2M for this second weekend – down only -46.6%. This Wizard Of Oz prequel crossed the $100M domestic mark in only 6 days and North American cume now stands at $145M. “We benefited by the fact that that we were the first big event film which had the halo effect of people talking about it over the weekend and wanting to go see it if they didn’t have the chance,” a Disney exec analyzes. Oz crossed $100M international on Friday with 80% of the marketplace open and big countries like France & China left to go. Currently in release in 55 territories representing about 85% of all foreign, overseas gross is $136.8M and worldwide cume is $281.8M and counting. I’m told international drop off is about -43% with a slightly larger expected drop in Russia (-68%). (If you take Russia out, the drop was only 35%.) Pic was still #1 in UK, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
This weekend’s total moviegoing is in the neighborhood of $103M – about even wth last year’s. Here’s the Top Ten based on weekend estimates:
1. Oz The Great and Powerful (Disney) Week 2 [Runs 3,912] PG
Friday $11.4M, Saturday $18.2M, Weekend $42.2M (-46.6%), Cume $145.0M
2. The Call (Troika/TriStar/Sony) NEW [Runs 2,507] R
Friday $6.2M, Saturday $6.8M, Weekend $17.1M
3. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (Warner Bros) NEW [Runs 3,160] PG13
Friday $3.7M, Saturday $4.1M, Weekend $10.3M
4. Jack The Giant Slayer (Warner Bros) Week 3 [Runs 3,357] PG13
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.8M, Weekend $6.3M, Cume $54.0M
5. Identity Thief (Universal) Week 6 [Runs 2,842] R
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.0M, Weekend $4.5M, Cume $123.70M
6. Snitch (Summit/Lionsgate) Week 4 [Runs 2,353] PG13
Friday $1.0K, Saturday $1.5M, Weekend $3.6M, Cume $37.3M
7. 21 And Over (Relativity) Week 3 [Runs 2,424] R
Friday $950K, Saturday $1.0M, Weekend $2.6M, Cume $21.9M
8. Silver Linings Playbook (Weinstein) Week 18 [Runs 1,602] R
Friday $745K, Saturday $1.1M, Weekend $2.5M, Cume $124.5M
9. Safe Haven (Relativity) Week 5 [Runs 2,206] PG13
Friday $840K, Saturday $1.0M, Weekend $2.4M, Cume $66.9M
10. Escape From Planet Earth (Weinstein) Week 5 [Runs 2,211] PG
Friday $619K, Saturday $962K, Weekend $2.2M, Cume $52.0M
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Who will be blamed for Burt Wonderstone? JC Spink and his voracious dining appetite?? Toby Emmerich who also greenlit Jack The Giant Killer? Perhaps the same people at Warners who marketed all these duds? One suspects that there is much confusion at Warners and not a tentpole in sight.
Well there’s Pacific Rim, The Hangover Part 3 and Man of Steel…so they do have tentpoles. But the problem is that they not considerate for their Spring releases.
That being said, I think WB is such a bi-polar studio. When they’re at the top of their game, they’re the best in the biz. But sometimes, they greenlight the most questionable films.
I don’t think you understand what a tentpole is (do you work at Warners?).
Pacific Rim is a potential tentpole. Superman is intended as a tentpole. They aren’t guarantees by any means, which is what a tentpole is.
Definition of TENTPOLE
: a big-budget movie whose earnings are expected to compensate the studio for its less profitable movies
I googled it, of course…
So you can make a movie that is guaranteed to make money? Are you a wizard?
Based on The Hangover Pt.2, it would take lot to get me to see part three.
One of their execs spends all their time on Twitter trying to become a celebrity. Talent doesn’t like it when you try to steal their jobs.
I went and saw Burt Wonderstone with my Wife and it was actually pretty funny. The theater was laughing pretty hard. There were some really good scenes. It was a light hearted movie. If it had been made into an R Raunchy comedy, it probably could have been funny, but I really enjoyed it, as did my Wife who did NOT want to see it. She actually ended up liking it better than me.
The budget was only 30 million so they wont be losing to much on this movie.
I didn’t see a promo for Burt W. until two days ago so it’s no wonder the movie has “bombed”. They did not promote this movie at all so it was given this would not do well. “The Call” on the other hand has been promoted heavily since JANUARY so no matter how much they spent on “The Call” itself, I am sure they doubled it in advertising costs.
You were watching the wrong programs. It was promoted every 10-15 minutes all weekend long on sports tv, basketball, hockey, Fox, CBS. Was more than annoying.
I haven’t been watching sports and I’ve been seeing lots of promos. Definitely not a lack of promotion problem.
Then perhaps they should rethink where they run their media on these smaller titles. Live sports and broadcast, while casting a wide net, sure have a lot of waste, especially considering this films performance. Not to mention the waste they continue to push in the atrocious amount of outdoor WB buys for every title. Maybe it’s time to get a bigger online budget for these more limited films and see if you can pull in a targeted audience instead of pouring all your $$ in ESPN, Fox, and CBS.
I have seen the promos and other than something to do with a magician I had no notion of what the film was about. It is an art to pack the plot line into a trailer but if you cant do it, there may be something wrong with the movie. And the fan base of both Carrell and Carrey is very specific to certain work and just does not seem to play to the larger audience today. Carrell needs to stop trying to be Ben Stiller and Carrey needs to act his age.
I saw so many commercials and movie trailers for “Burt” that they helped convince me this was going to bomb.
You’re out of your mind….$30M won’t even cover the budget for three male leads. In addition, this stinker cost at least $50-$75M to market, and remember, comedies don’t travel well. Especially bombs like this one….its at least a $100M write-off.
Did you timewarp in from 2003?
Carrey’s big career goal of the moment is to rebuild some semblance of an audience, so he piggybacks on people like Carrell and works for backend that isn’t coming.
Carrell is on the Sandler model, minus the grosses, so he earns through production credits rather than anything upfront and he keeps the budgets lean to get his films made.
I’m shocked this thing cost 32 million.
“You’re out of your mind….$30M won’t even cover the budget for three male leads. In addition, this stinker cost at least $50-$75M to market, and remember, comedies don’t travel well. Especially bombs like this one….its at least a $100M write-off.”
Try actually reading the story before commenting as it clearly states that the budget was 32$ million (i guess it did more than cover the three male leads). Now while 50-75 million might be right for marketing it could hardly be at least a 100 million write off as it has already grossed over 10 million.
Will it make a profit during it’s theater run? Probably not, but it will hardly be a disaster financially for the studio. Just a mid-low level dud.
I love Chad Kultgen as a writer but the problem lies in the concept. Who gives a shit about magicians, really.
Really dated concept and idea. The big room magicians like Seigfried and Roy had their big run over a decade ago. Even guys like David Blaine and Chris Angel were over 5 years ago.
Yup. The whole thing sounds like a worn out joke.
Who gives a shit about anchormen or male models?
Zoolander bombed.
Anchorman did good because of Will Farrell. Also the anchormen as a comedy concept is pretty fresh.
Zoolander did not ‘bomb.’ This is a widely held misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. The movie performed modestly – it was released two weeks after September 11, which certainly hampered its gross – but was not a bomb by any means. It wasn’t a hit, but it did very well on DVD and ancillary. (Another misconception is that Stiller’s directorial debut, The Cable Guy, which starred Jim Carrey, was a huge bomb. Yes, it underpeformed – the first Carrey starrer to do so – but it ultimately broke even, and made some money back.)
You nailed it. I saw this last night and I actually laughed a lot, especially for a PG-13 comedy. There are a lot of smart moments, but I think they shot themselves in the foot by trying to focus on tricks that could be performed theatrically (the original version apparently did zanier stuff, didn’t read it). This is also the kind of film that is going to bomb for critics no matter what, because they’re not high school kids. Not cool enough for kids, not adult enough for adults. But still really solid filmmaking.
When is Hollywood going to learn that stories are what matter? For some stupid reason studios believe stars sell tickets. But the truth is stars get way too much credit when the material is good. As was pointed out in this story, Hollywood would have you believe that people pack the theaters when their favorite “star” is in a movie. But that’s insulting the viewers intelligence. Studios care whether a star is attached to a film — not the general public. The lack of a star will NOT stop a film with a good story and competent actors from being a hit. But if the concept is bad, the script is bad, and the story just isn’t appealing — it won’t matter who the star is — people just won’t go. I love Steve Carrell. He’s hilarious. But Wonderstone looked awful and uninteresting from the get-go. NO so-called star of any magnitude was going to save it. And why someone at the studio didn’t throw this script in the trash can when it landed on their desk is beyond me.
Considering you can go back 40+ years to books written about the movie industry then and find the exact same sentiment (i.e. the story is what matters, not the star, why don’t studios get this?) yet studios still behave the exact same way, the answer is never. The reason is that stars are important to execs in terms of keeping their jobs and upon whom the blame falls.
‘getaloadofthis’ nailed it.
“Studios care whether a star is attached to a film — not the general public.”
THIS STATEMENT COULD NOT BE ANY TRUER. Too bad studio execs won’t realize this.
That’s because studio execs usually have their heads up their…..
Was this developed at Carousel?
It’s so easy to say what film will work and what won’t…in retrospect. The Heist had a good trailer and was, in all honesty, dreadful. But I saw it because I liked the stars. Trailers lie to the audience. A bad trailer for a good movie is even worse. Jim Carey was the best thing in Wonderstone IMO, and the reason I saw the film because the trailers were dreadful. There is a lot of blame to go around but I would’t start with the actors. And whoever thinks actors don’t care if their films bomb because “they have a great life and can do anything” is sorely mistaken. Carrell must be mortified because he is a nice guy and his efforts didn’t deliver. That’s how I would feel at least.
Other magicians, for one. Those that have magicians in their family for another. Writing off an entire sector of the entertainment industry, simply because you were scared by a clown as a kid, doesn’t seem to make sense to me….
Greg Silvermann. That’s who.
I think you may be right about marketing’s role in a film’s success or failure.
I saw the trailer for “Jack” at the theater, I thought the film looked interesting and was very open to seeing it. Then after seeing the TV trailers for the film, repeatedly, it looked kinda cheesy to me, and I stayed home.
Warner’s marketing dept, with the 4 or 5 opening weekend duds they racked up so far in 2013, ought to be polishing up their resumes and their exec bosses ought to fire them.
Having read the many comments about the WB films “Jack” and “Burt” on this site, my overall take-away is that these films were way better than their trailers would suggest. It’s one thing for a film to have a huge opening weekend and then drop significantly the next, due to word of mouth. That’s a studio’s marketing dept doing their job well.
It’s quite another for a major studio film to open poorly out the gate. Yes, some films are simply crap and don’t deserve to do well regardless of the marketing effort behind them. However, it seems that if WB’s Marketing Dept really dislikes their own films, they will half-heartedly promote them. If that’s the case, as a film goer, I appreciate their integrity. As a member of the industry community, they need to do their jobs of putting butts in theater seats or let somebody else do it.
Something tells me JC Spink and his voracious dining appetite would kick the shit out of you. Dude was a amateur boxer, and you don’t forget those skills. Especially against someone that serves espresso at Starbucks.
Congratulations to Brad Anderson! Hard work pays off!
Yes indeed…Brad Anderson’s television credits are many but his films, “The Machinist” with Christian Bale and “Transsiberian” with Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Ben Kingsley were terrfic and sorely under-appreciated. I bought “Transsiberian” on Blu-ray out of curiosity and was surprised I enjoyed it so much. I didn’t realize he was the director of “The Call” until reading this story, so I’ll probably check it out this weekend.
I’m with you. I always liked Brad Anderson’s indies (I’d also add Next Stop Wonderland, Happy Accidents, and Session 9 to that list) and didn’t know he was behind The Call. I figured The Call was just a potboiler, but now I’m curious. Anderson’s an underrated director who can handle any genre.
I’m pretty sure its bad luck to have Olivia Wilde in your film
Thank you for saying this. Olivia Wilde is box-office poison. Hollywood, take note.
Plueeze. You blame the fate of a film on Olivia Wilde.?!
Ridiculous and just plain stupid thinking.
Exactly. “Box office poison” means “Ugh, I don’t want to see that movie because [actor name] is in it” (e.g., Mel Gibson). Defined more broadly, you could say “This person’s name above the title does not get butts in seats” (e.g., Taylor Kitsch). Olivia Wilde is just “the girlfriend” – any other pretty ingenue could play her parts and it wouldn’t add or subtract one dime from those movies’ box office.
Not necessarily. For instance, I have nothing against Taylor Kitsch, and enjoyed “Savages,” yet just about every movie he manages to have a starring role in tanks.
Therefore, he’s considered to be ‘box-office poison.’ Personal feelings about a particular actor has less to do with it than the box office performance of their films.
Taylor Kitsch is the guy from John Carter, right? I saw that one and I don’t think it was as bad as some of you keep saying.
Don’t bother. Silly and unkind people. Terrible combination.
Perhaps not poison, but she certainly brings nothing to the table. I am not sure why all of the studios got on the Olivia Wilde bandwagon. She is a good TV actress not a movie star. At best she is the flavor of the month. Sadly, that flavor doesn’t taste very good.
I think you might be right. She has been in some huge movies that should have done big numbers from Tron to Cowboys and Indians. HMMMM
Maybe she just doesn’t know how to pick good films. Doesn’t mean *she* is the *reason* it flopped. Had it done well, no one would be giving her the credit.
>from Tron to Cowboys and Indians
Was that a joke or did you mis-type COWBOYS & ALIENS?
Just wait until you see her work in LONE RANGER VS PREDATOR!
Cowboys and ALIENS was ripped off from Steven Busti . . . research it. Hollywood, more often than not, especially in this day and age, has NO original thoughts and is just pretty pathetic if you ask me. Some stuff is good, but not like the past. There’s no creativity, originality……everything’s a reboot, stolen, or just plain sucks. I hope Busti took them for a ton with a quiet settlement, or will do so in a loud way.
I like Steve Carell but his projects are not that funny. I foresee box office poison for him with his current trajectory.
I think Carell still has plenty of box office potential. He seems to be on a cold streak, but as recently as CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE, his box office average was quite respectable. Carell has been most successful when sharing the screen with a strong ensemble. He’s likable, promotable, and scandal-free. Creatively and financially, he’s an asset to any movie he works on. Besides, a truly bankable movie star is something of a unicorn these days, and it’s very rare for a cinematic funny man to maintain a decade-plus period of success on the level of Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, or Adam Sandler.
Steve is probably the nicest guy in town and has no worries.
Crazy, Stupid, Love made only 84 million on a 50 million dollar budget, which puts it about even. A hit it was not. Carrel has not had an actual hit since Get Smart.
Well, if it made its money back, then it’s definitely not a flop. When was the last time any of you actually paid to see a film?
I guess you don’t count these?
Despicable Me – $251 million U.S., $543 million Worldwide
Date Night – $98 million U.S., $152 million Worldwide
Dinner for Schmucks – $74 million U.S., $13 million Worldwide
Horton Hears a Who – $154 million U.S., $143 million Worldwide
Evan Almighty – $100 million U.S., $73 million Worldwide
His only honest-to-goodness, stink-bomb of a movie was “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”. So that’s why they’ll keep casting him in movie leads.
Horton Hears a Who and Despicable Me are animated movies. It doesn’t matter who stars in them.
At least he has Anchorman 2 coming up. Yes, Steve Carell’s latest films are horrid, and this is a guy that can pick and choose his roles.
Crazy, Stupid Love was one of my favorite films from 2012, and generally I like Steve Carrell. But Burt isn’t something I’d go see – the trailer is awful, and at the end of it you’re left thinking ‘who cares?’. Same thing I think whenever I see Toby Emmerich’s name. I guess when WB cleaned house at NewLine they needed to keep one big exec on staff. Shame they’ve given him such a nice deal instead of sending him off where he belongs.
The Incredible Fart Blunderstone is a perfect example of why New Line should be shut down and closed with all of its execs kicked to the curb. They make crappy movies all the time and they have the nerve to give themselves executive producer credits. This movie should never have been given the go ahead the script was horrible and they wasted so much money developing it and making it. If Kevin Tsujihara is smart he’ll fire everyone at New Line and send them all packing.
Script for WONDERSTONE was terrible. Who wrote that dreck? They should not be allowed to write movies again, because they have zero talent? Probably someone’s son or daughter.
The duo that wrote Horrible Bosses wrote the script. Horrible Bosses made over 100 mill domestic. It was the director that F-ed it up. He only directed 30 Rock episodes and tried to make the movie a nostalgic feel good movie instead of the comedic free for all it should have been.
Please. Weak sauce.
the original script was by Chad Kultgen. The rewrites were a big part of this film’s failures.
Well at least they had the balls to put their name on the script, jos. You’re probably a failed writer that just got fired from Blockbuster and was too stupid to even see that one coming. O’Doyle rules.
Couldn’t agree more with this. However, Toby probably has a contract that runs through x number of years, same with all the other misogynistic, egotistical a-holes at NewLine. It’s just a question of riding it out, although this kind of failure will hopefully cause Kevin to look at the contract very, very closely. The fish stinks from the head…..
I do hear that WB is in the midst of serious restructuring right now, so it will be interesting to see the outcome.
C’mon Kevin, shake everybody up a bit and get rid of the no talent a-holes.
I hate to agree with you but your reasoning is too tight. Toby alas has never had a good eye for product and he’s kind of a bigot and an a-hole
Pacing 30%+ behind “Alice in Wonderland,” here comes Disney to continue painting the rosiest picture possible of “Oz.” It’s not a disaster, but with that $350 million all-in price tag, you have to believe they were hoping for more than $200 million worldwide by this stage of the game.
You’re kidding right? Anytime a film makes close to 150 million in two weeks, its golden. It still has a long way to go internationally also. Disney still rules.
As the previous poster stated, the total budget including advertising is reported to be around 325-350 million. That means OZ has to make 650-700 million at the box office just to break even. The overseas numbers last weekend were disappointing, especially considering it opened in the majority of the international market. Based on the numbers so far, it’s extremely unlikely this gets close to recouping its budget. Who cares if a movie with a HUGE budget makes 150 million in 2 weekends when it’s most likely going to end up losing money by the end of its theatrical release.
most pictures don’t BE on WWBO. that’s why the ancillary markets are important. even if the pic underperforms internationally, disney will profit several hundred million dollars on this picture.
The film needs to perform well in Russia; Germany, Japan, UK and Australia. All of the movies that have grossed $1 billion have done extremely well in each of these territories. “Oz: The Great and Powerful” is already out in each of the aforementioned territories including Hong Kong, China and is currently under-performing in them all.
At this pace I don’t think it’s going to get passed $500 million, because it’s about to go up against “The Croods,” “Olympus Has Fallen,” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” in the next two weeks. All of this on the heels of “Jack The Giant Slayer” debacle, one successful “Snow White” re-imagining from last year, but two failed Red Riding hood re-imaginings from 2011. Yet I don’t think studios are seeing the pattern.
There is a “Sleeping Beauty” re-imagining coming out this year, and TWO Pinocchio movies in the works for a possible 2014 or 2015 release. It’s time to stop RE-IMAGINING and go back to simply IMAGINING.
Amen, brother.
What exactly does “re-imagining” mean anyway? I understand re-making an old movie, and even re-doing a book that was made as a movie years ago, but re-imagining doesn’t make sense to me.
go back to imagining…what a concept….if only hollywood would listen.
Quite unreasonable comments John.
It didn’t cost 350M all-in. boxoffice.com (which consistently is on the high side has total at 280M)
trailng the superuper hit AiW . Ok. So what? I doubt any movie this year will make as much as Avatar, dos that make them all failures?
its 2nd weekend hold looks good, its weekday holds WERE good.
etc etc. Personally there is o way in hell I’d see it. Loos boring. Doesn’t mean it’s not successful with others.
Agreed. Look at the grosses compared to Avatar and Avengers. Its lagging so far behind. Talk about a FLOP.
Its the toys too. That is the big part of the financial situation. I notice that the animated character China Girl who pretty much has a big mouth with James Franco, acts totally different when she meets little girls in the movie. It is like, “What is your name would you like to play?”. I notice they are selling this doll on Amazon in 3 different sizes. They even have a limited hand painted addition for a few hundred bucks.
I almost walked out of “Oz” but kept thinking “maybe it’ll get better”. It was bad. Mila Kunas was terribly miscast. I would not recommend- at all.
Agreed. And, people think Mila Kunis is a great actress. She should stick to the rom-coms and raunch comedies. That is her forte.
Good on WB tanking!
As a consumer, I hate their Netflix 1-2 month hold agreements, as if that’ll get me to buy their crap movies like “J Edgar.” I hate their stripped down rental disks too.
Perhaps all of Time-Warner should go out of business to spare you the misery of waiting 30 days for a movie you desperately, urgently, passionately need to see Right Now, on your couch, on your terms. While we’re at it, let’s snuff out the entire world of cinema so you don’t have to stress out while waiting for your favorite films to be hand-delivered to your doorstep.
No. They should find ways to improve their products and how they’re delivered to customers. They’re going the same route that the music companies did when digital downloads started — limiting access to their product. Brilliant move.
I agree with you and “The Whiz” that Hollywood needs to gets its products out to the consumers in every way they can. It’s good biz in a fast-changing marketplace. I’m annoyed when FX makes me wait a week for an episode to pop up on VOD. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to hate on a company to the point where I’m actively hoping they fail. That’s just dumb commenter rhetoric.
Pretty solid numbers for “The Call.” Looks like S. Carell is on his way out.
He’ll have an upswing with ANCHORMAN 2, plus the DuPont heir-and-wrestlers drama directed by Bennett Miller.
Anchorman 2 is not a Steve Carell vehicle and he may earn critical success with Miller’s Foxcatcher but not the box office $uccess he desperately needs to resuscitate his career.
“He’ll have an upswing with ANCHORMAN 2, plus the DuPont heir-and-wrestlers drama directed by Bennett Miller.”
So happy for Halle Berry!!! She was amazing in CLOUD ATLAS, the most overlooked film of 2012, and THE BEST film of 2012. It’s a must see!
Luisa Rey. Halle Berry wasn’t amazing in Cloud Atlas. She was mediocre. Now, Jim Broadbent & Hugo Weaving were amazing in that flick.
I thought Halle Berry was quite good in Cloud Atlas. Not amazing, but quite good. If you want to see Halle Berry being amazing, watch “Alice & Frankie” Her best performance. Period.
And I think that Cloud Atlas, although overlooked, was THE most ambitious film of 2012. I think that film will be appreciated more as time goes on. Bladerunner was not a commercial hit nor well-liked by critics when it first came out, but now it’s grown from cult favorite to cinema classic. I think Cloud Atlas could very well follow that trajectory. Time will tell.
Including this one, Carell’s last 4 movies that he starred in all lost money (not Evan Almighty-sized losses though): Wonderstone, Friend for End of World, CrazyStupidLove & Dinner for Schmucks. Hope he finds a non-animated winner soon.
Crazy Stupid Love was $140 million on a $50 million budget. Not a bust, course it had Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in it also and was a good movie.
CrazyStupidLove Lost Money. It may be a good movie but it lost money.
Crazy Stupid Love made 3 times its budget. That’s not a flop.
CrazyStupidLove is a wonderful movie – nothing to be ashamed of there.
Crazy, Stupid, Love, budget $50,000,000 gross: $142,851,197
Dinner for Schmucks, budget $69,000,000 gross: $$86,406,677
They’re not big hits, but also not the huge bombs that people on here wish that they were.
You don’t appear to be knowledgeable on film accounting. Those are just production budgets so toss in an additional $20 to $30 million for marketing/prints for each and take income as only 50% of those grosses since distributors/theaters take other half(conservative, simplified math for this example):
Crazy, Stupid, Love: budget $75M income $71M
Dinner for Schmucks: budget $94M income $43M
It’s not a question of math. It’s a question of language. People throw around the word “bomb” too loosely. I don’t mean to split hairs, but a movie can be a financial failure or disappointment without necessarily being worthy of the bomb label. A studio doesn’t have to take a write-down when a moderately priced dramedy like CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE fails to break even.
I have a simple solution, instead of reporting how much money a movie has made, why not report how many people have actually gone out and seen it. That would be a much better way to judge a movie’s success.
“You don’t appear to be knowledgeable on film accounting.”
You don’t seem to be either.
Factor in cable rights, home video, VOD, airplanes, ect.
Studios WANT you to think movies bomb. Most movies are moneymakers. Otherwise people wouldn’t continue to finance them.
Duh Ryan…hence me writing “conservative, simplified.” Of course all those ancillary revenue streams will increase the financials but studios want real “moneymakers” and not just a $5 to $15 million in the black moneymaker as you naively suggest from a hefty initial investment with decreased number of movies being released per year.
Ancillary fees don’t count against a film’s negative cost. Home entertainment is a different division in most studios, with a different finance group and different accounting rules. There are retailers and distributors to be paid, different rights to be paid, etc., and VoD is usually part of home entertainment — it requires additional marketing expenses and payments to cable groups, and films are often sold in packages instead of individually.
The bottom line is, you don’t just add up how much a film has “made” and suddenly see whether it’s in the black or not. There’s no shame in a film not earning back its costs — the original “Wizard of Oz” didn’t for 17 years, nor did “Fantasia,” “Pinocchio” or most lower-level studio live-action films.
But we live in a time when Deadline (which I enjoy reading, despite its grammatical and factual errors) and other outlets report breathlessly on how much a film has taken in during any given 24-hour period, and a small number of people make a crazy amount of money by positioning their films as successes. Why not just let them live or die on their own?
Meanwhile, to Warner Bros.: It’s time to decimate the PR and marketing teams. “Business as usual” just doesn’t work anymore. Disney learned that lesson — and if “The Lone Ranger” doesn’t work, which is looking increasingly unlikely, it will do so again.
Simple Math says:
“You don’t appear to be knowledgeable on film accounting. Those are just production budgets so toss in an additional $20 to $30 million for marketing/prints for each..”
You may be “knowledgeable” about what studios report about these matters , but you are also quite clearly gullible enough to take what they report at face value. There are all sorts of reasons for studios to engage in creative accounting (e.g., grossly inflating production and advertising budgets) to make it look like a movie hasn’t made money. One reason is so they don’t have to payout monies based on net profits.
sounds just like something sneaky studios would do to hide profits.
They keep putting out these Steve Carrel movies where he has to carry the whole film and time and time again they flop. So it’s like the definition on insanity… Obviously the public is sick of his act.
He should do okay in supporting roles. I look forward to Anchorman 2. He’s especially bad when he plays himself and like that lame end of the world movie or Dan in Real Life. He sucks less when he plays a character like BW, but it’s still not enough for something you’d actually have to pay to see.
NL is just fine. The Hobbit was a grand slam and they have other films in the pipeline that will make up for these losses. Everyone loves to pile on and criticize, but they’re a great company with quality executives who take a first hand approach with the talent they hire to work with.
Hi Toby! You’re fooling yourself.
“Quality executives”?
Self confidence is a great character trait for a studio exec – but too much of it coupled with dubious development skills, smugness, & being out of touch is a recipe for fiscal disaster. Ivy league shmivy league.
Finally the execs at the new New Line are being exposed for their lack of talent. The only hit has been Hobbit and nobody currently at New Line had anything to do with LOTR or the Hobbit. How can WB not completely clean house at New Line? This is the exact reason that someone should never ever buy stock in Time Warner. New Line has become a total sham.
Every studio has their ups and downs. Disney won with The Avengers, but they also had to suffer due to John Carter. Not completely Box office related, but look at what happened to Paramount last year with the delay of GI Joe 2 and the production problems with World War Z.
Warner Bros. will be fine but they just need focus.
You know you’re going down the tubes when WWE is doing it better than a major. Good work!
“You know you’re going down the tubes when WWE is doing it better than a major.”
I was saying that when I tried to buy a ticket to see Dead Man Down last night, but couldn’t find a theater still playing the one-week-old movie.
Go WWE.
Steve Carell is not a leading man and that buffoon he plays in every movie is getting very, very tiresome.
Agreed…this guy just isn’t funny and should be thankful for the success he’s had and go off into the sunset.
Nobody even at Disney thought Oz would do as well as Alice, so that comparison is irrelevant. No matter how much of a skeptic you may be, Oz has proven that “it has legs” and is obviously popular with a wide audience swath.
I got a call from my 70+ year old father a few days ago. He heard about the movie and now he wants to go see it. He only sees about 3 movies a year, so the good word of mouth on OZ is spreading, even if a lot of critics didn’t like it.
Is it everything you could want from an Oz prequel? Probably not – but apparently it’s enough for most. It hasn’t even hit all the international markets yet and the success here is going to help it internationally, even if they haven’t heard of Oz. No one heard of Avatar either, but we know how well that did.
Yeah, this guy is a complete troll. Last week all the haters were saying 300 all-in. Now it’s 350. I guess next week when its still kicking butt, it will be half a billion all-in. Here’s a tip: Spend less time hating on successful people and more time learning how to open a movie.
too bad oz is a joyless and overlong experience with 2 main characters cgi creations, and with a sidekick nearly as obnoxious as jar-jar binks (zack braff as the winged monkey). i dozed off during the movie. this makes alice in wonderland look like avatar!
Halle Berry has been in need of a hit for a while, so good for her. Very pleased an actress of color over 45 is still bringing crowds. You watching studios?
What?? Halle Berry is over 45?!? I totally thought she was in her late thirties. Now I feel old!
I happened to be buying lottery tickets Friday night just off the side entrance of an indoor shopping mall multiplex showing “Oz–The Great and Powerful”. I couldn’t believe the number of parents with groups of kids assembling to go and see Disney’s new prequel to the old classic. I stepped out of the mall on the way to my car and more similar groups were coming in. This was on a cold night in Winnipeg, Canada with a touch of snow in the air and no sign of spring. Disney, desite the mixed reviews, seems to have done something right.
trailer, cast, mixed reaction and bombing at box office makes me think Burt wonderstone might be that rare awesome strange comedy
Just becuase you have Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey as the main stars does not mean its going to be a box office winner. The title alone and the trailer practically sank the movie and poor Olivia Wilde trying to do her best in this idiotic movie. I saw this movie and it looked horrible and boring. Steve and Jim both were annoying after a while.
I do want to see the Call.. the trailer really gives you an inch towards seeing it but with movies like The call you really do not need any serious acting ability nor soes the audience really have to try and understand whats going on just a movie to relax and enjoy… Looking forwad to seeing it
Burt Wonderstone looks “Incredibly” stupid. I blame the writers. Actors can’t make magic from a bad screenplay.
Jason Reitman was brought in to touch up the third act and lines for Steve Carell so blame him for that. The director was a newbie and the studio had the tone all wrong from the get go.
Jason Reitman? He’s not a writer! I don’t care if he co-wrote UP IN THE AIR, which was overrated, and SMOKING, also overrated, dude can’t write, and can’t write comedy!
Okie doke. Let us know when you get nominated for best adapted screenplay.
I made it without my dad being anyone, and I’m happy enough being less than a Jason Reitman, as my expectations were never high. I’m simply stating that he’s not good enough to save the movie, or even really improve it. I’ve seen him give 5-10 interviews. He’s neither witty nor particularly interesting at all. Watch one of his interviews. He’s a nice guy, but has nothing at all to say. No charisma, no charm, no wit.
Reitman got nominated because of Sheldon Turner, then LOST because he comes off as being completely insufferable.
The best in when he says, It’s harder for me to break in because people doubted me as a result of having a father in the business. Uh, no, tool, your stunning lack of humility is why you lost that night. Also, UP IN THE AIR wasn’t that great. Highly overrated.
I have to say I’m surprised by Wonderstone’s showing. I haven’t seen it, but the trailer looked pretty good and Jim Carrey is usually great in over-the-top comedies like this.
And it’s a funny topic too. The pomp and mania of Las Vegas magicians and all…
If I worked at a studio and had Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey (both can be really talented and funny) I probably would have given it the greenlight.
I’ve got no dog in this one, but I’ll admit, I thought it would do a lot better.
I was stunned to learn that “Wonderstone” had been accepted into SxSW. Seriously? What an unfunny turd of a movie this is. How on earth did it get made? How on earth did it attract such top drawer talent? You look at the Black LIst and see the great scripts that will most likely never see the light of day, and then this crap pops up. I know it happens all the time and I suspect this was death by a thousand script notes. How many bad movies is Steve Carrell allowed to make?
Good to see Ms. Halle Berry get some solid B.O. results for ‘The Call’. She deserves better projects than she’s been getting — and she has had some stinkers in the past! — so I doff my hat to this low-budget hit. Her acting in this movie actually saved an underwhelming script that could have fueled a disastrous flick in the hands of a lesser actress.
Just keep doing your thing, Halle. You rock.
I completely agree, I don’t think the film would have worked as well with another actress. Halle Berry and the direction of Brad Anderson made a mediocre script thoroughly enjoyable.
C’mon, their are many actresses better than Halle Berry. Give me a break ! Don’t make me laugh.
Don’t be a jerk! Halle Berry is an Oscar winning goddess. Just because you’re not a fan doesn’t mean she’s a bad casting choice. Let her be, and let the rest of us enjoy the movie.
I just saw the Call and based on the mostly good reviews….it was a good ride. I was all in. Both Berry and Breslin were totally believable and I had no problem with the ending.