SPEARE'S TIPS - The Films of 2/3/12

[Buscemi]

I had said avoid Perfect Sense.

[numbersix]

Yeah well you also said Chronicle would underperform, One for the Money would do well, Joyful Noise would surprise, Contraband would bomb, and Pariah would break out. I wouldn't go tooting my horn if I were you.

[Chienfantome]

We all have our ups and downs when it comes to predicting

[Geezer]

Even me.

[transformers2]

We all have our ups and downs when it comes to predicting

That is the damn truth right there!

[Buscemi]

Yeah well you also said Chronicle would underperform, One for the Money would do well, Joyful Noise would surprise, Contraband would bomb, and Pariah would break out. I wouldn't go tooting my horn if I were you.

In Chronicle and Contraband's cases, I saw almost nothing on those films and didn't know how they would perform. Meanwhile, I saw a lot of promotion for Joyful Noise and One For The Money. As for Pariah, I cannot explain that. It opened in an empty market with excellent reviews and failed to take off. I guess having Spike Lee's name on it is now a sign for failure (it seems like he'll never recover from Miracle at St. Anna, seeing how bad the reception was on his new film).

And I saw absolutely no promotion for The Grey (other than a trailer on Killer Elite), which opened in first a few weeks back.

As for the new releases, I've only started seeing promotion for Safe House (though the trailer's been out since November) and a lot of promotion for The Vow. The market here is simply weird (all of the chick flicks get huge marketing while the guy movies that have been making money are hardly marketed) and I cannot explain how all of the chick flicks are flopping while all of the guy movies are doing well.

But this year has been weird ever since a film with an F on Cinemascore opened to $35 million.