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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Oh, the glory of being the only new movie in the multiplex, even if it's an unfunny laugher. Universal's Couples Retreat opened to $12.3M Friday and +10% for $13.5M Saturday from 3,000 North American theaters for a $35.3M weekend. Wow, Vince Vaughn's latest piece of dreck will make geniuses out of Universal's newly installed chairpeople. "Reason? Movies always do business after the studio heads get fired," one studio exec emailed me tonight. [Universal Pictures chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde were replaced by Adam Fogelson and Donna Langley this week.] Couples Retreat is a PG-13 "comedy" but I use that term loosely since even the studio thought it worse than mediocre. But that's what happens when Vaughn cuts loose to star in, co-write, and produce a dumb idea that was an excuse to film in Bora Bora with pal Peter Billingsley as first-time director and other pal Jon Favreau as fellow writer and actor. Yet the pic did even better than Universal or its rivals thought possible. With only a "B" CinemaScore, it's leading in interest and first choice among females over 25, followed by males over 25, and then females under 25. (They really like Vince's about-to-be-40 bloat?)
But the real story this weekend is one I told you about last Sunday. (See my 'Paranormal Activity' Gets Freakishly Good Gross Playing Only After Midnight.) Remember The Blair Witch Project? Even rival studios are salivating over the box office potential of the Paramount pickup Paranormal Activity, which opened September 25th playing only midnight shows. But it did so well that Paramount expanded Friday, and the pic rewarded that confidence with a per screen average Friday of $15,875. That gives it $2.5M on Friday and $2.6M Saturday from a paltry 159 locations, or $7M for the weekend! "it's pretty amazing," a paramount exec tells me. "We assumed the film would perform like most genre movies and fall Friday to Saturday. Instead the movie looks like it will do more." It's now officially a pre-Halloween phenomenon. "Look out cuz there's a freight train coming, and Paramount is going to make a TON of cash on this pickup. Cuz they ain't spending anything on it, and who knows where the ceiling is!" one rival studio exec gushed to me. I'm told this #5 pic could make the most gross of any non-3D film on less than 200 screens. Limited releases not adjusted for inflation or ticket prices were 1986's Platoon $3.7M on 174 screens, 2000's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon $3.4M on 172 screens, and 2007's No Country For Old Men $3.1M on 148 screens.
As for the rest of the Top 10, nothing but holdovers on a fall weekend oddly missing new titles. It'll definitely be a $100+M weekend up, +8% from last year:
1. Couples Retreat (Universal) NEW [3,000] $12.3M Fri, $13.5M Sat, Wkd $35.3M
2. Zombieland (Sony) Week 2 [3,038] Wkd $15M, Cume $47.8M
3. Meatballs (Sony) Week 3 [2,992] Wkd $12M, Cume $96.2M
4. Toy Story 3D (Disney) Week 2 [1,752] Wkd $7.6M, Cume $22.6M
5. Paranormal Activity (Paramount) Week 3 [159] Wkd $7M, Cume $8.2M
6. Surrogates (Disney) Week 3 [2,992] Wkd $4.1M, Cume $32.5M
7. Invention Of Lying (Warner Bros) Week 2 [1,743] Wkd $3.3M, Cume 12.3M
8. Whip It (Fox Searchlight) Week 2 [1,738] Wkd $2.8M, Cume $8.7M
9. Capitalism: A Love Story (Overture) Week 3 [995] Wkd $2.7M, Cume $9M
10. Fame (MGM) Week 3 [3,110] Wkd $2.5M, Cume 20M
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$28M weekend for “Couples Retreat”??
In the words of South Park’s Eric Cartman:
“Well, I’m out guys. If this is what’s cool now, I no longer have any connection to this world. I’m going to go home and kill myself. Goodbye friends”
I will second that with a “screw you guys. I’m going home”.
…You didn’t see the movie. It’s MILES BETTER than that AWFUL trailer.
The trailer was so bad I figured it would suck. My sis talked me into it, movie was good fun.
I would never see “Couples Retreat” but “Zombieland” was totally fun. Much, much better than I expected.
YES! A comedy wins! It may not be a great movie, but it’s fun. And we need fun now. Enough with crappy dramas that are poorly written with stupid premises. What’s up with all the hating on this movie? We all want comedies about real people, but nobody’s making them. You know what? Paul Blart made a lot of money because it made people laugh. I hope this does just as well.
Right on!~
goodforthem, people who are legit fans of good cinema don’t like low brow mindless films like couples retreat. Movies like that are poorly written, directed and acted. They prefer movies that are actually good. Zombieland is an example of a movie that is both funny and yet well made.
we not laffin with you…we laffin at you…
Intereseting results this weekend, but I knew CR would do well even with those awful reviews. TUT also got abysmal reviews, but stil did close to 30mill opening weekend and 90mill domestic. I expect the same kind of legs for this one, but the response looks to be alot harsher than the one for TUT. Also I’m glad to see Zombieland is still holding up well and PA is constantly climbing up the charts, but will it make 100M domestic should still be the question on everyone’s mind. Hell I’m rooting for both movies becuase it’s awesome to see two orginal horror flicks being successful instead of those efffing Saw movies.
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! I was at the midnight screening at the Arclight Hollywood for PARANORMAL. The midnight screening sold out so they added a 12:15 and a 12:30, if I’m not mistaken. Each show sold out.
I saw the movie, and I have this to say: Paramount needs to enjoy it now, because this movie will not live to see next weekend’s sunrise.
The movie is so astonishingly bad, it can only be compared to a very boring, very unremarkable, very LONG YouTube video. You know those self-indulgent ones that people make, and expect you to waste 30 mins of your time watching them saying obvious (but apparently meant to be clever) things and walking around the house, shaky camera in tow, just to show you something you’ve seen a trillion times before.
And that’s.. pretty much the nicest thing that can be said about it (the other being that that actress carried the entire movie, until that I-can’t-believe-they-made-her-do-that ending).
I saw it in a sold-out theater, everyone of us psyched to see it and ready to piss our pants in fear and could go on and on about it the following morning at work.
No such thing. People would sort of choke out a laugh, then it would kind of die off when obviously nothing was going to come out of the scene. Repetitious, toneless, arc-less, truly astonishingly stale, stale, stale. And with an embarrassingly lame ending.
I just– I was absolutely speechless, much like the rest of the audience trickling out, at how much there was no payoff to speak of, and then we were leaving because the movie was over.
Let me tell you, were this movie straight-to-DVD, it wouldn’t remain on Blockbuster’s shelf. The store would have to toss it out because it just doesn’t qualify as a piece of filmed entertainment, and they’d simply need the shelf space.
I’m going to stake my completely unknown reputation on predicting that this movie will die a box office death so fast the industry might be scrambling to coin a phrase out of its title a week from now.
If it does gangbusters, I might be the one to die of shock.
Hype is hype, but in a post-Blair Witch and viral video world, this movie is 100% pure undiluted hype. And nothing more. Good luck to you, Oren Peli.
Yeah, but no one wants to report how bad Paranormal Activity is. It’s like what’s left of the entertainment press want to be part of selling the hype so they can brag about how they helped it out.
The first weekend Paramount doubled the gross on their estimates and no one said word one. But not to worry their will be payback for this – the next 10 films they try this with won’t get their print costs back.
I saw Paranormal Activity at a friend’s house a few months ago, not knowing anything about it and we we are really into the movie. It was very scary and the silence and home made feel of it really worked for us.
That said, I can see how he hype of this thing, and the experience of seeing it with hundreds of other people rather than with a handful, might create the reaction it did with Ella here.
I think if you can see it in the spirit it was intended, it is an effective movie. And more than anything, I am glad it shows Hollywood that people do want something new. I don’t remember a single transforming robot in the whole movie and that alone was refreshing.
how did you go to the midnight show, hate the movie, and the post at 12:23am?
Must have been the sped up version, right?
I went to the movie for the Thurs midnight showing, technically Friday, Oct. 9 at 12:01am. I posted the review THE FOLLOWING DAY, on Saturday Oct. 10th.
What really sucks about internet posting is being exposed to, and then having to do the thinking for idiots like you.
Sounds like an incognito Saw VI producer who’s trying to undermine the escalating buzz for something that could feasibly rule the Halloween weekend after reaching the height of its expansion.
I kind of find it hard to believe that everyone else in the auditorium was on your jaded wavelength of resistance. I think the disdain for the film that you seemed to have formulated well before seeing it clouded your memory recollection and led you to attest that it was hated in unison by all. I’m sure when you see movies you decide beforehand that you’re going to like, you come on here or in your dumb blog and provide testimony about how everyone in attendance gave it a standing ovation.
Not at all, to all your assumptions about me. I paid for and went to a midnight showing. I had work the following morning like everyone else, but I’m a rabid genre fan and would have paid for a 3am showing if that was all there was.
I will never hesitate to say if a movie was bad, and it was just a very bad movie. No preconceived notions going in. I hadn’t even seen a trailer, I wanted to be so surprised.
I decided beforehand I would probably like Public Enemies, and I loved it. No one else did, and in fact the audience seemed quite bored by it. No standing ovations. It tanked.
See? No jadedness, no wavelengths of resistance.
PARANORMAL was horrible, lame… my applause goes to the marketing genius behind this project. Rumor has it that Steven Spielberg sent it back in a trash bag…. marketing didn’t explain that he probably thought this was trash…. And I agree!!!
Prepare to die of shock then. The movie does more with it’s $15,000 budget than any major horror release I can remember of late, with well over 100 times the budget. It has a 92% rating among top critics on RottenTomatoes and the theater I was at last night was completely into it. People were screaming, jumping and left laughing at how scared they were. A total throwback to suspence created out of what you don’t see, letting your imagination do the work. I think it was well done, considering what it is, and will continue to do very well.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the movie that will finally topple the ‘Saw’ franchise: Paranormal Activity.
Hmmm…
Couples Retreat is a dogshit movie, and makes 28 million… maybe Uni marketing knows what they’re doing after all.
Yes. Couples Retreat blows. It blows major chunks.
But…if we take a closer look at recent Vince Vaughn movies versus tracking, the films tend to outperform (ignoring Fred Claus of course). Tracking totally underestimated The Break-Up, and no one expected Four Christmases to do what it did. So let’s just acknowledge the cold hard fact: middle America digs Vince Vaughn. It’s time to stop being a comedy snob about this guy. He’s basically a Midwestern Adam Sandler. If only he would let his ego get out of the way and make a good movie, he could have an amazing career; he’s actually a good actor, especially in films that he’s not hijacking by dint of being the writer and producer. He’s losing his mojo.
“Reason? Movies always do business after the studio heads get fired,”
Disagree. “Surrogates” bombed after Dick Cook was fired.
Couples Retreat definitely outperformed Funny People at my theater on Friday. $30 million is definitely not out of the question.
But when is Paranormal Activity going to get to NH? We already have I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell; why can’t we get something people actually want to see?
What’s the problem with Vince Vaughn? Not a member of the tribe like Jeremy “the Hack” Piven? Vaughn has talent, charm, and he’s appealing to Americans, not morons from the right or left coast.
Visit your site every day but the pundits and critics got this one wrong. The reason that Couples Retreat is doing well is that it’s not a bad movie. Unless there are two Couples Retreats playing out there this weekend, the movie we saw had the audience laughing, amusing scenes and a bit of a ring of truth for the older demo in the theater. As we left we passed a huge throng waiting to get in for the next showing. People in the exiting group were smiling and remarking how much they enjoyed the flick. The movie was far from perfect but the ensemble players were interesting and capable and it was a fun escape. Most people go to movies to be entertained. If they pickup a bit of truth in the process it’s a plus. With the understanding that Upstate New York is more than a stone’s throw from LA, there is a reason that much national corporate product testing goes on here to separate future winners from future dreck. The logic being that if it flies here it will fly anywhere. Word of mouth will bode well for this flick. The mavens missed on this one but those Vaughn fans who turned out on a cold Syracuse night seeking a bit of Fantasy Island style escape didn’t. Universal, Vince, Ralphie and D-Bob got it right.
We’re forgetting that Couples’ Retreat was the ONLY wide release this weekend. Zombieland, Cloudy/Meatballs, and Toy Story have all been out since at least last weekend. And a film like Zombieland will naturally skew towards the male audience. So that leaves a rather big gap of wide release space to Couples’ Retreat.
Ella,
You sound like a former studio exec (mid 40’s) who is out of touch with the teenage / college youtube generation that thrives on these types of movies who can’t be sold via expensive marketing campaigns.
Expect $30M+ (probably way more) from this movie then a drop after Halloween. It’s funny because this is THE movie college kids want to see not a movie a studio is forcing on them. Listen to the market
Simply true.
someone gets it. kids went to this movie because of the buzz on the internet not some expensive marketing campaign
Bob,
By making blanket assumptions that people in their “mid 40’s” are “out of touch,” you sound like (and probably are) a real nozzle. Everyone is attacking Ellen for stating the truth that Paranormal Activity is pretty bad. If she is a former or current executive or she is 19, 28, or 48 doesn’t really matter does it? It is just really douchy of you to try to lump her into some group to which you have fostered some weird and false sense of superiority. No amount of manufactured or real hype can change that Paranormal Activity kind of blows. Cloudy, Zombieland, Toy Story 1&2, etc. There are much better movies out there to see. Don’t beat up Ellen for pointing that out.
Paul
Hey Bob, if this isn’t the movie “a studio is forcing on them”… WHO IS PAYING THE TAB FOR ALL THOSE TV SPOTS?
You’re so f’in naive.
I agree with the hollywood reporter re PARA ACT: “Much of “Paranormal” is as exciting as the outtakes from a particularly dull episode of “Big Brother.”
–the outtakes from a dull reality show. That’s the movie I saw.
This is a clever studio – with a FANTASTIC WEB CAMPAIGN – releasing a totally inferior product.
28 million weekend (if that, in fact, holds up, which it won’t….) doesn’t even cover Universal’s P&A spend on the picture, which is north of 40 million…
And next week it drops like a rock.
Should have never been PG-13.
-RnsW
Good to see “Paranormal Activity” did well in very limited release. Facebook and Twitter are positively buzzing about this movie. Sorry, Ella, it will do well in the weeks to come (unless hype skyrockets it to “Slumdog” territory). PA was a unique horror film because it develops; rewarding patience and punishing the “Saw”/Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” crowd. Sure it owes itself to “Blair Witch,” but this movie delivers.
At times, PA had WTF!?!? moments that I do not want to spoil. People laughed uncomfortably at parts, but not toward the final 20 minutes. Consistent intensity hung around the atmosphere. Even though a few people walked out, my sold out Denver audience of teens and twenty-somethings enjoyed it and even applauded at the end.
Finally, I saw “Zombieland” earlier this week and shockingly loved it. Surprised how quickly that dropped second weekend.
Couples Retreat had a great looking trailer and a great idea. It’s like the Apatow syndrome – these actors aren’t bright enough for improv.
I always thought Vince Vaughn should slim down to Swingers weight, put on the goggles and play DC Comics’ Plastic-Man (not the Wachowski script neither). That could be a new opportunity for this now sort of rancid frat boy
couples retreat. it’s the team that brought us swingers. and the people who loved that movie turned up for this film.
Hey, ELLA. When YOU see a movie that YOU don’t like, at least have the honesty to admit that the looooong opinion you felt compelled to share with everyone is YOURS ALONE. By all accounts (from people who were at the same show as you) your version of the audience reaction does not match what actually happened. Across the board, the film is getting glowing notices from both fans and critics alike. Clearly you have some bone to pick with this film. Try to do that without creating a tall tale.
I’m really tired of these movies where fat obnoxious older men are married or sleeping with younger hot women. Vaughn and Favreau have jumped the shark and officially become disgusting dirty old men and so not funny. (And that’s a shame because I like Favreau)
I haven’t seen the film so no opinion about that but in fairness to Favreau, his movie wife Kristin Davis, who plays Jon Favreau’s wife, is more than 1.5 years older than him. Vaughn is probably at least a decade older than Akerman but I don’t think their pairing is all that unrealistic – good pal of mine who’s a bit older than VV just got married to a woman @13 years younger than him. We’re not talking Connery with Zeta-Jones age gaps here.
I wasn’t aware of Paranormal Activity till a friend told. This movie has a buzz and strong word of mouth going.
Weird, Couples Retreat hasn’t broken into the top ten trends on Twitter ever – first Number One friday movie to not to that in a long time. Zombieland and Paranormal Activity continue to trend.
That’s hilarious!
What’s “…in a long time” for Twitter trends – eight days?
Why is it hilarious? Twitter is the most effective tool studios have ever had for tracking (and manipulating) word of mouth. And they didn’t even invent it!
so much for objectivity. vince vaugh is hilarious, he has a following, so what if the movie stinks, worse movies have had bigger opening weekends. go see something else and let vince keep making movies, go watch wedding crashers, he’ll do it again. he is hilarious!
Look, I like Vince Vaughn and I actually liked Couples Retreat, but really I think some of the credit should go to Krsten Bell. after Sarah Marshall she became a big star too.
That was my thought. I considered seeing Couples Retreat (which is not my type of movie at all), simply for her.
But there’s no way I’m seeing a movie as bad as CR sounds. Even for Ms. Bell.
This really surprises me – only because I had not heard of one person that had any desire to see it – which is usually my gage. The marketing obviously worked but a one sheet where everyone looks miserable I figured was a terribl idea. Boy was I wrong. But at the end of the day, we haven’t had a comedy in awhile, no other new wide releases and the Vince Vaughn thing…but it’s not a movie anyone will give a shit about in a month. Although less in box office, I still think comedies like Role Models, Sarah Marshall, I Love You, Man and the early Judd stuff has a much larger impact in terms of movie-going experiences – even if this shit sandwich does 100 dmestic.
Couples Retreat was the only movie in wide release. Same thing with 4-XMas. Vaughn’s career is turning into Adam Sandler’s. Used to be really funny but now makes really bad movies that his childhood friends write, direct, and produce. The more successful his movies are, the more control his crew gets and the worse the movies are. Sandler is a nice guy and his movies appeal to kids, Vaughn is a horrible person and his movies don’t appeal to kids so I assume his career will not have the legs that Sandler’s does.
“Couples Retreat” makes money…not exclusively because of marketing. Don’t overthink it: it’s a comedy with several comedians in it and the public likes going to the movies, especially with comedy. This is a large demo pic and will do serious boxoffice the first weekend b/c many people under 30 don’t care what RT has to say. Besides, that’s maybe 2% or 3% of the population going (200 million US citizens x .2 = 2 million x $10 ticket = $20 mil).
Do you really think it isn’t a larger demo than would go to see a by-definition-exclusively-sci-fi aud “Surrogates?”
A seemingly harmless film (as most in the Vaugh-Favreau cannon have been) will always do decent boxoffice when not surrounded by any noticeable competition.
Silver Lining: However, when a genuinely well-made, well-acted, small little actionner is made and released without competition, it may not make initial big boxoffice but WOM will carry it to $145 (See “Taken”).
It’s ALL ABOUT RELEASE DATES & COMPETITION…LESS ABOUT MARKETING–DON’T OVERANALYZE. No one ever lost an election underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Even though I agree that movies do well in less crowded markets, “Taken” had a very good ad showing the scene with Liam Neilson on the phone with his daughter and her being dragged from under the bed. It was aired during the high rated BCS National Championship game. Don’t underestimate how effective that was.
Yeah, even the Paranormal haters should rally behind the film on the basis that it could finally put a stop to the vomitorium that is the Saw series.
Massive hype + marketing = “Paranormal Activity”.
Word of mouth should kill this film quicker than Woody Harrelson dispenses with a crippled zombie. If this is what passes for a good film on college campuses then this country is in big trouble and I fear for the future of America’s youth.
At the screening I was at at least five people walked out before the movie was half over.
This movie is so mind-numblingly, infuriatingly slow and relentlessly uninteresting that the audience probably loses IQ points just by watching it.
It looks like a really bad “Film Production 101″ course video with the director thinking he’s the next Spielberg, or at least the next Tobe Hooper, when in fact he’s closer to the next Ed Wood.
Curse you, Balir Witch Project!
An aspiring film maker made it for 10 grand. I’d take it and 20 clones over a “Saw” movie any day.
What does that have to do with anything? The first ‘Saw’ was made by aspiring filmmakers with a 10k budget as well.
Nikki, if America can make Transformers 2 a massive blockbuster then this should be no shocker. America loves crap.
I don’t see how Paranormal Activity can be called fresh and original, the gimmick is reheated and the third act falls flat. It’s also a classic amateur production featuring a female lead who tries too hard (it’s the last we’ll ever see of her, apart from her needing to lose 20-30 pounds).
For college audiences only.
You are so out of touch with what people like. You take cheap pot shots with the same level of meanness that we see from young men on the internet who are usually anonymous. Why can’t you except that people want to see comedies and shouldn’t be made to feel like an idiot for doing so. Enjoy your know-it-all elitism.
Bravo~
you know everyone at paramount is clamoring to take credit for this weekend and whoever the hell drove that internet campaign will get no credit. figures.
That “rival exec” gushing over Paranormal sounds like a moron. “Aint”, “cuz” – do grown-ups really talk like that?
HaHa, the jealous zeroes who couldn’t get any of their own ideas for threadbare projects off the ground are seething with bitterness that they didn’t come up with the story conceit for PA and they’re now coalescing together in a pathetic attempt to undermine the film with an envy-motivated smear campaign! Why can’t any of you miserable creeps once, just once, tip your hat to a “little film that could” and commend its creators for coming up with a recipe for success that you would’ve concocted yourself if you actually had the talent? Any time a nothing-budget movie becomes a sensation, the same armchair Kubricks whose dreams of filmmaking never came close to materializing predictably start bellyaching in thousand-word blog entries that nobody reads about how their brilliant perception for the cinematic quality the film in question lacks exceeds the public’s misguided affection for it. As a person who takes pride in not being a passive-aggressive internet cliche with schadenfreude for lifeblood, I’m going to relish in the intensification of the rancor from these also-rans in the game of life as the viewership for PA goes through the roof and the dollars continue to pour in, because I know it’s simply a hilarious matter of hateful posturing from people with ulterior anxieties. The same people onboard with the PA backlash are those who always piss and moan about how every horror movie nowadays is a PG-13 remake, and now that a unique one comes along that’s truly effective in its aim to scare, they’re uncomfortable about giving credit where it’s due in the area of its proficient execution because it actualized the storybook scenario of upstart, overnight success that they thought they were entitled to as aspiring filmmakers. You have to earn it, which the creative force behind this film did through sheer assertiveness and tack. Give him his just due, instead of turning up your nose up at him and presupposing that you could’ve possibly done a better job, because if that were the case you would’ve done it by now and you wouldn’t be languishing away in the wasteland of the internet.
…blah blah blah, Sam. Really, you had to write all of that?
As for your ‘unique’ movie, it’s 1) a standard haunted house pic, which has been done hundreds of times. 2) Looks and feels like Blair Witch 3) Is Exactly the Same as the A & E reality show
Yeah, that’s Unique all right! It’s called a “fluke”.
well said. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m always happy for a little film that goes beyond what anyone thought was possible.
Re: “Fat older guys with hot chicks” … comedies like Couples Retreat are male oriented, besides young “hot” actors can “smolder” like a Calvin Klein ad but are not funny. Vaughan may have put on years and pounds but still has skill. So too did Piven (who was hysterical in PCU) but his ego corroded his undeniable talent (Piven was amazing in “Cupid.”) Kristen Bell is quite funny, was amazing in Veronica Mars. And yes Middle America as opposed to Santa Monica/Malibu loves Vince Vaughan.
I don’t know if Paranormal will be what execs think it is. Stuff like Blair Witch only comes around every once in a while, a Halloween movie is certainly timely, but I’m more impressed with District 9. Shot on a tiny budget its as beautiful as any Michael Bay extravaganza. Done by professionals too, btw. Probably more hype than quality.
I don’t know Nikki, Vaughn has a solid list of recent movies that either did well or above expectations — provided that he toplined them (like “Wedding Crashers”, “The Break-Up” or “Four Christmases”). Even the reviled “Fred Claus” brought in a decent $72 million domestic. The guy has an audience, and he brings them in. For a studio like Universal still smarting from their crop of summer duds, they’re lucky to have him. Especially after the supposed Apatow hit “Funny People” tanked at the box office.
And as for “Couples Retreat,” it’s rather blah. There’s some funny scenes (most of them spoiled in the advertising), but everything else was “been there, done that.” Wasn’t a bad movie but not good either.
I am not sure why people are so surprised about the success of PA. It is utterly manufactured. To limit inventory and build demand is basic business. And more to the point, it’s the way films used to be released. This blockbuster bullsh*t doesn’t work anymore. I can only hope that studios return to this slow growth model. But even as I say it, I know it won’t stick…sadly.
[SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!] the problem with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is that the creator and backers of the film think pointing the camera at something for two seconds to four constitutes as scary. the door closing and moving, the chandelier swinging, the electronic noise when micah is recording himself in the room, katie suddenly waking up, katie catatonic — there are so many techniques to make that stuff scarier and not just like some animal at the zoo you observe. you can build upon the sequences, do some more sound design, get another camera angle (micah mentioned getting two. god that wouldve been nice. one close up and one wide and that wouldve helped the scares immensely).
to make matters worse, we have to listen to micah and katie in the day which had some funny banter but 10 minutes of that with two seconds of scares afterward and repeat this formula for the first 50 minutes gets old really quick. the camera keeps fading up and out to show us that 2 seconds of scare that isn’t scary! also, doing this made me lose total track of time and made the movie and moments until the better creepy stuff start seem an insufferable wait.
bottomline: the movie, while admirable, is just not scary. it rises to a sorta/kinda creepy note the last 15 minutes but by then it’s too little too late. the scares were a 2 or 3 on a scale of 10.
p.s. having it called one of the scariest movies of all time is a slap in the face of every above average horror movie ever made.
- the girl’s acting, while decent at parts, failed at the bigger moments. she couldnt carry the movie.
- despite all my criticisms, i thought it was a decent and had a good premise. the interactions between micah and katie were authentic and micah is a great character. it just needs to be scarier.
Caught COUPLES RETREAT this afternoon, I’m pretty sure there were more laughs on the Hindenburg.
I could never see a Vince Vaughn movie; and it might be a great movie, but his characters constantly grate on my nerves. Some might call that entertainment. Not for me.
Saw Zombieland today with my son and we both loved it. Very well done with enough quirks and interesting twists. It was a lovely coming-of-age movie too.
I’ll wait for Paranormal Activity on DVD. It might be scary or not. But whenever something looks like a home movie, then why would I pay to watch a home movie in a theatre? I’ll watch a home movie at home.
It’s nice to see pissed off agents who aren’t making a dime off these actors (well $13) chime in and really put their personalities to work for once! About freakin’ time.
@ Sam:
I want to agree with you. I really do. But I don’t. It’s a rule: Every time a film is met with commercial success, someone has to come to a board and bash it. But it has less to do with unrealized dreams and more to do with disappointment and the need to vent that disappointment.
Last weekend is a perfect example: Zombieland and Whip It both received great reviews, but Zombieland was the box office smash and WI failled. On this board, almost everyone was praising Zombie, but a few people came along and bashed it to no end. To me, it seems a failed filmmaker would use words like “pedestrian” and “tripe,” but these people were criticizing the poorly-developed romance between Stone and Eisenberg and the ending that, in their opinion, did not resolve much.
Those are valid criticisms, but why the need for people to be loud and call everyone else a sheep? Because, to them, Zombieland is NOT the cinematic miracle everyone says it is, so the public comes across as sheep-like (Which they are). And this, wrong as it may be, fuels their dislike for the film, and what to them may be a 6/10 instead becomes a 3/10 because they’re fed up with the hype. You can see this really come into play around Oscar time.
Whip It, on the other hand, did not find an audience, so web surfers felt the need to defend it because no one was there to say anything differently. Had WI opened to $25 million, there would have been a lot of backlash. Remember Juno? If that movie had stuck to a limited release and only grossed $2 million, there would still be people insisting it’s a great movie instead of all the people bashing it. “$150 million for what,” etc, etc.
Is Bandslam REALLY a great movie? I doubt it. But we’re inclined to be more sympathetic towards it because it tanked. Example: If someone asks me whether they should watch Knocked Up or Sex Drive, I’m inclined to say Sex Drive because it was actually a pretty funny movie that didn’t make any money. Knocked Up already has all the dough it needs 8X over. Why not spare a little change for the movies that don’t get attention?
I haven’t seen Paranormal Activity; I probably won’t get the chance until the 26th, so I’ll be back to discuss it. But I usually give critics the BOTD because I’ve been called out for the same thing when it wasn’t true. I really liked The Bourne Ultimatum, but on IMDb, I pointed out a really huge plot hole towards the end, and people jumped on me, saying I was a snob who couldn’t enjoy a good movie, etc. And I LIKED that movie.
Don’t get too passionate about a movie. You’re bound to be blinded by it.
zombieland was piss funny hysterical. I highly recommend it.
[MINOR SPOILER]
havent been to a flick in awhile where the audience really got into a movie & this was it. at only 1hr 27secs it scores its points and leaves you wanting more…after credits there is a tiny concluding scene with the cameo star of the film.
..and there was also this coming of age vibe to it, as another poster mentioned.
as one reviewer put it, the movie is a “road movie/horror flick/dark comedy/earnest romance/action film hybrid.”
very well done by all involved. i think i may try a 2nd viewing in the coming weeks.
So you know, Couples Retreat DID NOT break the record for biggest October live-action comedy opening day or even weekend. That still belongs to Scary Movie 3.
I think it is time for you to step out of your closed “hollywood” box and touch base with the rest of America. This was a decent movie to watch and was funny. The box office totals reflect that and people are going to see it based upon word of mouth.
The economy is in the toilet right now…people are out of work. Movies like this allow the viewer to escape the world around them and laugh. This is one of the reasons you are seeing a resurgence of half hour sitcoms on the networks. People want to laugh!
I’m sorry that you did not enjoy it…but there are a lot of movies that rank poorly by critics (Which is a term I use loosely), but are enjoyed by a lot of people. Movies are for entertainment…and if they accomplish that…they are successful. Plus, it has a happy ending. I think critics only enjoy movies where someone dies and it ends on a bad note. You are seeing a resurgence in everything 80’s. Guess what type of movie came out of the 80’s? Campy romantic comedies. There are some great actors that do comedies well today, and you are seeing them in movies like this.
Just sit back, turn off your Hollywood blinders, and take in the movie for what its worth. A campy romantic comedy that lets the audience sit back and laugh.
Paranormal was the biggest waste of time in recent memory. I was going to demand my money back – but the queue of people doing likewise was so long I didn’t even bother.
The hype is astonishing for this movie…and the end result is absolutely pathetic – not scary or in any way redeeming. Watch the trailer – save your money.
I just got out of the theater seeing Paranormal Activity, and it was packed at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon during the Eagles game (in a Philly theater).
I, along with the majority of the audience, am college age and absolutely loved this movie:
1- the above posts got it right in that it’s like a long YouTube video, which makes it all the more realistic to those of us that post on a regular basis, i.e. young America.
2- It rewards patience by having the plot be a slow boil, right up until the closing seconds.
3- In the school of Speilberg with Jaws, and M. Night with Signs, it’s more what you don’t see that makes the scare that much more creepy.
And most importantly to me, 4- This movie has the “Cool” factor. I heard about it from my friends, so I checked out the website. I told people about it, and we went to a showing. We felt like we were ahead of the curve, and I can see this movie exploding in a few weeks just because so many people are talking about it, and you don’t want to be left out (kinda like when I relectantly read The DaVinci Code to see what the buzz was about.)
I also appreciate that a movie studio isn’t shoving the marketing down my throat with another birdbrain Transformers / Surrogate / another stupid rom com. Also there isn’t any disgusting blood / guts / gore that would turn me off (Along with most other females). Girls like scary movies too, but it’s so hard to find any that are effective without being so goddamn bloody and disgusting.
Make more movies like this!!!!
(Unfortunately it’s prob because hollywood DIDN’T make this, that it’s so great!!)
question…what are you smokin…
Josh Greenstein didn’t believe in PA and wouldn’t give it any marketing $$. Yet somehow he’ll be hailed as a genius come Monday morning. Failing upwards has never been so easy, eh Joshy?
Friends in Atlanta during the initial free sneak previews of PA reported the same thing: Initial excitement in the theater, then a collective let down you could feel with conversation in the lobby afterwards being the film was awful.
It’s a great marketing campaign. Old fashioned ballyhoo. William Castle would be proud.
CR was fun. Not complete comic gold, but still had funny bits, enjoyable interplay between the actors, some great throwaway lines, as well as interesting casting on the character parts. Surprisingly pro-marriage (could be another reason Middle America likes it). Amusing, and didn’t go for every obvious joke in the book (see the photos at the end of “The Hangover.”).
Paranormal Activity will be big, if they ever release it!
I looked again this weekend and the closest theater is miles away. By the time it is released my enthusiasm will have waned. It’s now October 11th, release it already.
Paranormal was interesting. Wait for on DVD see it in the dark in your own house. You might be scared shitless.
Do not see it in a big theater. It will not scare you.
Actress was good until she needed to me. Actor was one note throughout, maybe due to anemic writing but his character was such a tool that it really lost me…
but it’s quite inspiring to see a 15K movie do so well and capture so many people’s imagination.
Paranormal activity is an incredible film, and the backlash that is beginning to form here on these boards is totally predictable but still disappointing. I saw a midnight show in Portland Oregon that was pretty much all kids college age and younger and ive never experienced an audience freaking out on the level that this film achieved. people were congregating in the parking lot, not to talk about how disappointed they were as another poster stated, (which is ridiculous; ive never heard of such a thing, when people are disappointed they go home, they don’t stand around and discuss with strangers) these kids were gushing about how scary it was. Bottom line: this film is insanely clever (in that it does so much with so little). That is its defining characteristic, and when anyone does something that clever it makes a lot of other people look or at least feel stupid. If you work in Hollywood and have contributed to the glut of terrible horror films of the last decade: you should feel stupid. Maybe you should accept the obvious reality that this film is striking a chord with audiences and try to learn something from it.
I find it very hard to believe that the studio thought COUPLES RETREAT was going to bomb considering the INSANE number of promos for the movie I’ve been subjected to in recent weeks. It’s been everywhere to the point I’m sick of the sight of it and refuse to see the movie. Then again, Jason Bateman is a good enough excuse as any not to see a movie. Why that douchebag keeps getting work is beyond me.
There is a simple way to figure if an audience is into a movie: they are quiet. And these days, that is no small thing.
I caught Paranormal Activity on Sunday night in Burbank with a very rowdy, talkative, texting crowd. Once the film started – silence. And NO TEXTING! And teens telling their friends to “Shut up, dude!” I could hear my wife breathing (exhaling in panic is more like it) next to me. The only noise from the audience were either whispers of “…shit…” or the occasional loud shout of “Turn on the light!”
While it is not as scary as Blair Witch – it is a clever movie and the lead girl did a good job, esp. considering the budget. Once the clock starts ticking the audience goes into a Pavlovian zone of horror.
As for “Ella” who seems on a personal rampage against the film – you liked “Public Enemies”? Really? Nuff said.