Box office roundup

[Viin]

The Departed was a great movie if anyone hasn't seen it yet (see it before it's gone!).

[climbjtree]

Ah, Band of Brothers.

I loved the series. Mainly because it's a true story and it didn't need beefing up in order to make it amazing. If you liked the series, read the book.

Differences between the two:

1. Flags is about Marines in the Pacific.
2. About half the movie is devoted to what happened to three of the second-flag-raisers after their removal from the theater, and is done in a flash-forward kind of thing.

Similarities:

1. Both depict combat in a non-glamourous way.
2. Both are historically accurate.
3. Both are had Steve Speilberg's involvement.

[schild]

The Departed was a great movie if anyone hasn't seen it yet (see it before it's gone!).

Or you could just go rent Infernal Affairs. :P

[Abagadro]

The Departed was a great movie if anyone hasn't seen it yet (see it before it's gone!).

Just caught it tonight. I agree it was very good.

[stray]

Scorsese + Crime is always a good thing.

Not as great as anything else he's done in that genre though....Which really isn't saying much, I guess. Still kicks ass.

Dicaprio is working on yet another Scorsese flick (as the young Teddy Roosevelt). That'll be 4 films. Needs 3 more to top De Niro (who hasn't been in a Scorsese film for 10 years).

[Murgos]

The Departed was a great movie if anyone hasn't seen it yet (see it before it's gone!).

Just caught it tonight. I agree it was very good.

Same.  Even better I was just in Boston this last week so it was fun picking out all the landmarks and locations.

I looked at some apartments in the neighborhood near the dome where Matt Daimons character had his place.   How did they not know that guy was on the take?  That's a $40K a year apartment he was in.

[Abagadro]

Music was good too. I'm going to pick up some Dropkick Murphy tomorrow.


EDIT:

That's a $40K a year apartment he was in.

Just read on IMDB that that was Tom Brady's old apartment.

[stray]

One of my old jam buddies married his way into that band.

Speaking of Boston, Red Auerbach died today.

[Llava]

The Prestige was definitely worth seeing.  Wanna see some tricky shit?  Watch two magicians try to fuck each other over.

[Murgos]

Music was good too. I'm going to pick up some Dropkick Murphy tomorrow.


EDIT:

That's a $40K a year apartment he was in.

Just read on IMDB that that was Tom Brady's old apartment.

I looked at some places on the less trendy north side of Beacon hill (200 yards away and the prices are 1/2ed) and an average unrenovated 1200 sq ft condo there was ~600k.  If that was Tom Brady's place I expect I way underestimated the cost, 6 - 8 thousand dollar a month apartments are not uncommon in that area.

[Johny Cee]

Scorsese + Crime is always a good thing.

Not as great as anything else he's done in that genre though....Which really isn't saying much, I guess. Still kicks ass.

Dicaprio is working on yet another Scorsese flick (as the young Teddy Roosevelt). That'll be 4 films. Needs 3 more to top De Niro (who hasn't been in a Scorsese film for 10 years).

Heh.  Worse then Casino, Goodfellas or Mean Streets?

I'd actually rate it higher then Casino,  but I hated the Sharon Stone character.

Scorsese does local color better then anyone.  His characters feel like they grew up outside NYC,  or in a bad section of Boston.  And they tend to carry around those stereotypical personality tics we associate with certain ethnic-geographic groups. (Irish temper for instance,  or that stubborn pride).

Every character in this was at least intriguing,  and most were damn entertaining.

[stray]

Heh.  Worse then Casino, Goodfellas or Mean Streets?

I'd actually rate it higher then Casino,  but I hated the Sharon Stone character.

I like Casino just as much as Goodfellas (and Sharon Stone is the best part of Casino imo....And I'm not even a big fan of her otherwise). Mean Streets owns them all.

The Departed as just as good as Gangs of New York, I guess. Or Cape Fear, if that can be counted as a crime flick...

=============================

Way off topic, but this is an important question:

"I'd actually rate it higher then Casino."

Is it "higher then" or "higher than"? My instinct is to write "higher than", but I see people type "then" a lot. What's the right way? Anyone?

I'm not trying to be a grammar Nazi or anything like that. I really need an answer.

[Murgos]

Than is for comparisons and then is temporal.

I did this and then I did that.

She was better than him.

[Strazos]

Thank you Murgos, you got it before I went on a rant.

Anyway, I really want to see Flags. That's the kind of stuff that can get to me because, you know, it actually happened.

Greatest Generation, indeed.

[Johny Cee]

I can only hope the Grammar Snake is not venomous,  otherwise I'll be in a world of hurt.

[Strazos]

I don't think it's deadly...just paralyzes the "stupid" part of the brain perhaps? 

[Yegolev]

I liked The Departed a lot, despite apparent gaps in the plot.  I'd have to see it again to remember them.  I remember thinking a few times "What is important about that scene?  Why was that in there?", but I am out of practice with movie-watching.

[WindupAtheist]

I am makings with report on the moneys of the moviefilms. All numbers are from the Box Office of Mojo Dotcoms as usuals.

------

#1 - Borat, Week 1

Weekend gross: $26.3m
Theater count: 837
Budget: $18m

It's per-screen average was five times that of the runner-up, and it's already covered production costs plus forty percent.  Releasing it on such a limited number of screens turned out to be a poor decision after all.  That will doubtless be remedied in time for next weekend, but the distributor can still safely feel like a pack of assholes. 

------

#2 - The Santa Clause 3, Week 1

Weekend gross: $20m
Theater count: 3458
Budget: Unknown

Tim Allen is like Steve Guttenberg.  He's an actor with a lengthy and reasonably successful career in features, despite never having made a movie that anyone actually liked.  Anyway, TSC2 opened at $29m on an estimated budget of $60m, but went on to make almost $140m domestically over the course of the holiday season.  This one opened rather a bit lower, but it's also way early for a Christmas movie.  By January of next year this one could easily be sitting on a pile of money.

------

#3 - Flushed Away, Week 1

Weekend gross: $19.1m
Theater count: 3707
Budget: Unknown

I'm having a really hard time telling these talking-animal CGI kiddie flicks apart anymore.  I think this is the one where Jean Reno plays an evil frog, but I'm not 100% certain.  In any event, a third-place opening of less than $20m isn't much to sing about, given the incredibly high theater count.

------

#4 - Saw III, Week 2

Weekend gross: $15.5m (-53.9%)
Total gross: $60m
Theater count: 3167 (+0)
Budget: 10m

Dropoff?  Who gives a shit about the dropoff?  This thing could have left theaters after the first weekend and still been well into the black.  And while I wouldn't ever bother going to see crap like this, at least it stomped the shit out of that last "little pale asian kid with wet hair" bullshit PG-13 "horror" movie.  Seriously, I've cut loose with farts scarier than any of that remade Japanese crap.

------


#5 - The Departed, Week 5

Weekend gross: $8m (-18.8%)
Total gross: $102.2m
Theater count: 2785 (-166)
Budget: 90m

Leonardo DiCaprio has definitely gotten better with age.  He doesn't look 14 years old anymore, and he takes on worthwhile roles.  This movie looked really soft compared to it's budget, what with it's initial $29m opening, but it's shown solid legs down the stretch.  I have to remember that this isn't summer blockbuster season, and everyone isn't neccessarily looking to make a big splash on release and then fade away quickly.

------

And the rest...

rank - title - weekend/total/budget - (comment)

#6 - The Prestige - 8/39/40 - (Another one with a low dropoff, but without as much initial audience to hold onto.)
#7 - Flags of our Fathers - 5/26/90 - (Clint's WW2 drama takes it in the ass.  Who needed another sappy war movie?)
#8 - Man of the Year - 4/34/? - (What if a comedian became President?  What if nobody gave a shit?)
#9 - Open Season - 3/81/85 - (Another indistinguishable talking-animal CGI movie.  Disappointing performer.)
#10 - The Queen - 3/10/? - (If I wanna see Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth, it'll be the first one.  More decapitations.)

[stray]

Tim Allen is not Steve Gutenberg. Gutenberg, for some odd reason, was HUGE in the 80's. Then he fell from grace, and had nothing but minor roles....And then nothing at all.

Tim Allen is steady, and not at all plain in that Gutenbergian kind of way. He has some eccentricities at least.

I loved one movie he made though: Galaxy Quest.

Like I've said elsewhere, the best kind of sci-fi is comedy.

[Ironwood]

Scary co-incidence.  Was watching Galaxy Quest again on Friday when I was snuffly.

It's a great film.  And it reminds you that Ms Weaver is hawt.

[Trippy]

#1 - Borat, Week 1

Weekend gross: $26.3m
Theater count: 837
Budget: $18m

It's per-screen average was five times that of the runner-up, and it's already covered production costs plus forty percent. 

No. The studios only get a portion of the box office gross receipts. The rough rule of thumb is to divide the gross in half for the portion going to the studio. They get their biggest cut during the first week where it can reach 70% or so going to the studio but by the 4th or 5th week (assuming the movie lasts that long) they are getting less than half. So it may have just made back it's production costs, depending on the deal the studio made. However the production costs don't include marketing costs which can be quite large, though for this film probably not so much.

[HaemishM]

Tim Allen has made some decent movies. Galaxy Quest was funny as hell, and I actually liked the first Santa Clause movie. But there really was no reason to make a sequel, let alone a second sequel.

But yeah, he's reaching Guttenbergian status for me now.

[WindupAtheist]

There's a "LOL MARKETING COSTS" post on every second page of this thread.  Either do these yourself or quit fucking bothering me everytime I proclaim successful a movie where gross exceeds budget without posting a detailed accounting of net profit.

[Yegolev]

Gutenberg was in some funny movies but isn't really funny after minute five.  Allen is at least funny, and hasn't gone so far overboard as Will Farrell.  Farrell is the new Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler, take your pick.

[Big Gulp]

But there really was no reason to make a sequel, let alone a second sequel.

Are all three of them going to pay off their initial investment and then some?  Sounds like a good enough reason to keep making sequels to me.

[Merusk]

#3 - Flushed Away, Week 1

Weekend gross: $19.1m
Theater count: 3707
Budget: Unknown

I'm having a really hard time telling these talking-animal CGI kiddie flicks apart anymore.  I think this is the one where Jean Reno plays an evil frog, but I'm not 100% certain.  In any event, a third-place opening of less than $20m isn't much to sing about, given the incredibly high theater count.

You don't have kids, so that's not a surprise.  It was a mistake for them to open alongside TSC3, adults don't feel as silly going to a live-action kids movie (which being a squel they also know what quantity of fart & snot jokes to expect.) as they do going to a CGI-Clamation movie staring a bunch of limey fops. ( I called Hugh Jackman a limey fop, lolz.)

   That said, we saw it this past weekend and I haven't enjoyed a Kid's movie that much in a long time.  Shame it's not doing as good as it should because of Tim Allen.  (Yes, Reno plays a frog, but the main frog is Ian McKellen)

[Velorath]

You don't have kids, so that's not a surprise.  It was a mistake for them to open alongside TSC3, adults don't feel as silly going to a live-action kids movie (which being a squel they also know what quantity of fart & snot jokes to expect.) as they do going to a CGI-Clamation movie staring a bunch of limey fops. ( I called Hugh Jackman a limey fop, lolz.)

Most adults I know actually prefer the CGI kids movies to the live action ones, but then most adults I know, even the ones with kids, would feel silly going to see a Christmas movie in the first week of November also.  Flushed Away just wasn't very good from what I've seen of it.

[Abagadro]

I believe McKellen's character is actually a toad. The frogs are great for a number of reasons I won't spoil.

Flushed Away has some really funny stuff that most adults wouldn't get, let alone kids. I dig any movie with a throwaway Kafka joke.

My 2-year old sat through the whole thing too (its a brisk 86 minutes) so it was double-plus good.

[Velorath]

Tim Allen has made some decent movies. Galaxy Quest was funny as hell, and I actually liked the first Santa Clause movie. But there really was no reason to make a sequel, let alone a second sequel.

Speaking of sequels, just to make Haem stabby Uwe Boll is signed on to do a sequel to Bloodrayne.

Empire Online is reporting that the infamous Uwe Boll will return to direct a BLOODRAYNE sequel, which finds a re-cast Rayne battling vampires in the Old West.

The first BLOODRAYNE made around $3.5 million globally & cost about $25 million to produce.

[HaemishM]

Wow, neck sucking and unwieldy blades in the Old West!!! At least he's getting closer to the setting of the original.

God, what a fucking hack.

[Viin]

We saw Stranger Than Fiction tonight. I don't normally like Will Ferrell (stupid humor annoys me) but he was very good in this movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal is hawt. Very good movie, but I would have wanted a non-Americanized ending.

[Zetleft]

Picked up Night Watch the other day.  Fucking crazy movie, loved every minute of it.  I'm on the hunt for the sequel now (day watch).  Plan to see Borat after work tonight so hope it lives up to the enormous hype.

[WindupAtheist]

A little late this week, but at least I've done two in a row again.  Numbers from Mojo as always.

------

#1 - Borat, Week 2

Weekend gross: $28.3m (+6.9%)
Total gross: $67.1m
Theater count: 2566 (+1729)
Budget: $18m

A massive widening of release has managed to give this one a little bit of a bump upwards in it's second weekend.  It's per-screen average is still in the $11k range, compared to not quite $5k for the #2 flick.  Here is an article about Cohen being sued by a bunch of poor put-upon villagers in Romania who didn't know Borat was going to make them look stupid.  Take it with a grain of salt, given the source.  (Not me, I'm impeccable.  I mean the Daily Mail.)

------

#2 - The Santa Clause 3, Week 2

Weekend gross: $16.9m (-13.2%)
Total gross: $41m
Theater count: 3458
Budget: Unknown

The small dropoff in the second weekend was expected and bodes well.  It'll probably stick around all throughout the holiday season, making decent money and defying me to think of things to write about it every week.  It's sporting a miserable 2.8 average user rating on IMDB and 13% at Rottentomatoes, but this is the sort of movie that's immune to things like sucking.

------

#3 - Flushed Away, Week 2

Weekend gross: $16.6m (-11.7%)
Total gross: $39.8m
Theater count: 3707
Budget: Unknown

The opening was weak, but this one looks like it might also show some strong legs down the Christmas stretch.  The end of which, I might add, I'm dreading.  After the holiday season comes the New Year dumping ground period, where studios toss out all their unwanted films to die ignominously.  Tristan & Isolde, anyone?  Anyway, I guess I can root for Flushed since Jean Reno is involved.

------

#4 - Stranger than Fiction, Week 1

Weekend gross: $13.4
Theater count: 2264
Budget: $30m

So Will Ferrel is a guy whose life suddenly acquired a narrator that only he can hear, or so my two seconds of research tell me.  The opening is nothing to scream about, but at least the budget is nice and reasonable.  Still, this will need to show a little staying power to be regarded as something other than disappointing.  Reviews and whatnot seem positive, so that's entirely possible.

------


#5 - Saw III, Week 3

Weekend gross: $6.9m (-52.8%)
Total gross: $70.2
Theater count: 3013 (-154)
Budget: $10m

For a disposable Halloween cheapie like this, still being in the top five after three weeks isn't bad.  It's doing a lowly 29% at Rottentomatoes, but an acceptable 6.6 average user rating at IMDB.  Not really surprising for a movie like this.

------

And the rest.  I only do the bottom five in detail if there's something interesting going on, and that's not really the case here.

rank - title - weekend/total/budget - (comment)

#6 - Babel - 5.5/7.4/? - (Pretentious Oscar bait, probably sucks.)
#7 - The Departed - 5.1/109.7/90 - (Gross isn't bad.  They overbudgeted, in my opinion.)
#8 - The Prestige - 4.7/46.1/40 - (Could have done a little better.  Disappointing.)
#9 - The Return - 4.4/4.4/? - (Opening weekend, 2k screens.  Dead on arrival.  Wonder what they spent.)
#10 - A Good Year - 3.7/3.7/35 - (See above.  Opening at #9 or 10 is always a flop unless you're some limited-release indie.)

[Llava]

"What's a good time to release our ghost movie?  Hm.  It should be around a holiday.  Those always help.  C'mon guys, this is what we do for a living, we're pros.  Pick a holiday.  OH!  I'VE GOT IT!  THANKSGIVING!  NO HOLIDAY SAYS 'ZOMGHOST MOVIES' LIKE THANKSGIVING!"

[Lantyssa]

We have Christmas starting in October now.  The poor marketing people have difficulty because the holidays are all mixed up.  (We'll kindly ignore whom it was that caused this...)