Other Crap

Weekend Box Office Results for April 16-18, 2010

Kick-Ass, despite hype and solid reviews, bombed. Death at a Funeral did as well. They were each 30-40% below expectations. Instead of finishing 1-2 at 33m-25m, as forecast by Weekend Warrior, they finished 2-4 at 19m-17m.

Winning the week was (surprise) How to Train Your Dragon, which not only beat the two newcomers, but also beat the two movies that bested it last week! As ol' Mel Allen would have said, "How about that!"

(The reader responses were good, and people quite reasonably disliked my oversimplified characterization above, which is notably bereft of nuance. Therefore, I brought all the comments up from the dreaded "comment page" to the main page, then inflated my own thoughts a bit, as follows.)

Anonymous reader comment: "Now hold on. Since when does an independent production that was shot for $30 million count as a bomb with an opening weekend gross of $20 million? It might be a little dissapointing (sic) by half. But that's hardly a bomb."

Scoopy comment: Independence and budgeting are irrelevant to the issue, aren't they? The film was in 3000 theaters, was widely hyped, and was touted as a $30+ opener. It earned $19m and failed to beat a film in its fourth week of release (Well, maybe. The numbers are not final.) That makes it a bomb in my book. Granted it didn't go Full Truman to become a record-setting film bomb like Hoot. But not every bomb is Little Boy.

Anyway, the word "bomb" is arbitrary and subjective. If you don't like "bomb," feel free to substitute "grave soul-crushing disappointment," as in "Open the windows and jump, lads. The Dow just hit $198.60"

Zigwalski comment: "After watching Kick Ass today I can understand why the movie failed to live up to expectations. While I enjoyed the movie, it is probably a little too much comic book geek for the average Joe that wants to see Spiderman and Iron Man movies."

Spoilers ahead!

"Also, since the main character Kick Ass never really lives up to his name and never really becomes a real Superhero this may have been a let down for some people. His character is really a social comment on Celebrity and the Paris Hiltons and Kim Kardashians of the world that become famous for not actually doing anything. This probably goes over the heads of audiences that want to see him actually Kick Ass. Also some people may think that this is a spoof ala Superhero Movie and do not want to see another groaner."

Poor Justin comment: "I gotta go with the first commenter. The opening weekend fell below expectations. That doesn't make it a bomb by any stretch of the imagination, especially since word of mouth might grow audiences in coming days/weeks."

Scoopy comment: You raise a good point. I will be greatly surprised if the word of mouth builds this particular film theatrically, but ancillary sales may possibly make it highly profitable, and there could be a successful sequel. I remember reading that the experts have now determined that The Punisher was a success because its flaccid theatrical gross was offset by some surprisingly high DVD sales. Kick-Ass may fall into that same category, especially considering that younger kids who can't get into the theater for an R-rated film have no problem obtaining R-rated DVDs as rentals or purchases. K-A is rated 8.5 at IMDb, so it obviously has ardent admirers.

You will probably see a Kick-Ass 2, especially if the ancillary sales and rentals are good, and the sequel may even prove to be a big hit. Remember that the first Austin Powers movie was not especially successful (@ $50M), but rentals and a cult following created a tremendous demand for a sequel - which eventually grossed more than $200m. Ironic, that: good movie with tepid box office germinates tepid movie with good box office. Such, as they say, is life.

And I've always hated them when they said it.

Anonymous reader comment: "Anything that doesn't do Avatar based numbers these days is considered a bomb, perfect example Terminator Salvation. It did $42 million on it's opening 4 day weekend in the US. And according to wikipedia 'The film's total domestic gross is at $125,322,469, and along with $246,723,586 from overseas territories, for a worldwide gross of $372,046,055' Even with pulling in over $172 million in profit (probably adjusted to around $100-125 after advertising costs, etc.) it still was considered a bomb, I'd like to have a movie that makes a $100 million profit and it considered a bomb.

But like everything today, if it's not massive or doesn't live up to expectations it is considered a disappointment and that it "bombed" at the box office. With Kickass, it seems like it fell into the Snakes on a Plane problem where the internet buzz and meme that didn't translate into box office numbers for the movie.

Them's the breaks and all that.

I don't think anyone has an actually idea of what is considered a hit or bomb based either on expectation or vs. production cost, and that's where the problem lies with all of these projections, tallies, and whatnot.