SPEARE'S TIPS - The Films of 2/10/12

[silversurfer19]

A 50% drop in a weekend with four openers over $20m (which in itself would be a record I think) is hardly a hard drop. In fact I think that's quite respectable really.

[Buscemi]

But losing half your audience is rarely a good sign for your movie's future. Especially for a film that was getting such strong reviews (while I'm still trying to figure out how the film is any different from things like The Devil Inside).

In the process, I am sort of puzzled by this weekend doing so well. For one, when did people start liking Ryan Reynolds again? And also, we're still willing to watch Nicholas Sparks-esque romantic films even though their endings can be predicted in the trailers?

And though The Vow is doing well, audiences aren't going to want to watch a third Channing Tatum movie in three months (with a fourth movie, his stripper semi-biopic Magic Mike, opening in June) when 21 Jump Street opens. Especially since Tatum has no range or charisma. And The Lucky One (which is based on a Sparks novel) will likely underperform. Instead of a name teaming, it's Zac Efron and the girl from the Atlas Shrugged movie. Efron hasn't sold himself as a serious actor and outside of Atlas Shrugged (which no one really liked, not even the target audience of Tea Partiers), no one really knows who Taylor Schilling is.

[numbersix]

Losing half your audience is actually the norm for non-holiday wide releases. And if you can't see the difference between Chronicle and found footage horrors maybe you should go see it?

[Geezer]

Yeah Boush, you are way off here. a 50% drop against 4 wide openers that pulled in good numbers should be considered a win for Chronicle.

Can't believe those numbers for Safe House! I mean I thought it would be a decent, middle of the road success but never even considered a 30 million dollar opening! Will be very interesting to see where the final numbers come in, but that's pretty shocking.

[Brockster]

Looks like 2 weekends in a row where we have to wait until Monday to know who the winner is....certainly makes the game a little more exciting

[transformers2]

Yeah Boosh, you're hatered for Chronicle is insane. A 50% drop is to be expected and it holding decently against the very strong field this weekend is pretty impressive.

[Shrykespeare]

Friday Estimates (BOM):

The Vow, $15.3M
Safe House, $13.8M
Phantom Menace, $8.6M
Journey 2, $6.6M
Chronicle, $3.5M
Woman in Black, $3.4M
The Grey, $1.4M
The Descendants, $880K
Underworld Awakening, $675K
Red Tails, $640K

Big Miracle and One For the Money have not reported on BOM at this time.



Weekend Projections (BO):

The Vow, $40M
Safe House, $39M
Phantom Menace, $24.5M
Journey 2, $23.5M
Chronicle, $11.5M
Woman in Black, $10.8M
The Grey, $4.5M
Big Miracle, $4.0M
The Descendants, $3.3M
Underworld Awakening, $2.4M
One For the Money, $2.4M
Red Tails, $2.3M


Amazing numbers all around! Also amazing: less than a 50% for both a found-footage film and a horror film. 2012 is just kicking ass!

[Buscemi]

Losing half your audience is actually the norm for non-holiday wide releases. And if you can't see the difference between Chronicle and found footage horrors maybe you should go see it?

The Devil Inside: found footage movie about a girl who becomes possessed.
Chronicle: found footage movie about kids who get superpowers.

They do not seem any different (expect Chronicle probably actually has an ending).

[Geezer]

You're clinically insane. Seek help immediately.

[Chienfantome]

Damn. I would have thought that all those new movies would kill each other off, but the exact opposite happened. Strange. And great I guess.

[Buscemi]

On the found footage movies: the only one I can think of that had any sort of difference from the rest was Apollo 18. And I read it was awful. Otherwise, it's the same "one-dimensional characters are haunted/one-dimensional characters are cursed/one-dimensional characters are being chased by a force" material that can be done without such a gimmick. Chronicle looks like nothing more than these cliches, but as a superhero movie (and from what I read, it is but with a better script).

It will be forgotten like every other one of these movies not named Paranormal Activity.

[transformers2]

Losing half your audience is actually the norm for non-holiday wide releases. And if you can't see the difference between Chronicle and found footage horrors maybe you should go see it?

The Devil Inside: found footage movie about a girl who becomes possessed.
Chronicle: found footage movie about kids who get superpowers.

They do not seem any different (expect Chronicle probably actually has an ending).

My head just exploded as hard as when ROBDUDE said he went to the movies with his imaginary friends.

[Shrykespeare]

By that argument, Superman and The Exorcist are the same movie.

[transformers2]

By that argument, Superman and The Exorcist are the same movie.

Wait they aren't

[Buscemi]

By that argument, Superman and The Exorcist are the same movie.

Expect Superman was born as an alien with superpowers and in The Exorcist, she really was possessed.

As I said, are Chronicle and The Devil Inside really that much different? Both are genre films using found footage gimmicks and feature dumb kids having a curse put onto them (Chronicle has superpowers, The Devil Inside has demonic possession). The characters aren't very likeable and have people searching for them to get rid of what has happened to them. There may be minute differences (in Chronicle, it's sort of a blessing) but otherwise, they come off as being the exact same movie.