Will Ferrell had a tough run there for a while. After launching himself to A-list, $20 mil-a-picture status with Old School, Elf, and Anchorman, it seemed like his agents convinced him to say yes to any project willing to accommodate his price tag. Thus we were subjected to Kicking and Screaming, Bewitched, and The Producers, not to mention his dreadful performance in Melinda and Melinda.
But he bounced back- big time- with Talladega Nights, and a reasonably well-received turn in Stranger than Fiction. And now, with Blades of Glory topping the weekend's box office with $33 million and a $9.7k average, I'd say he's found his Sandler-esque niche.
I've never been a huge, post-SNL Ferrell fan (although I loved his George Bush bits, and his Neil Diamond-storytellers sketch is one of the funniest things I've ever seen). I have friends who quote Anchorman and Old School religiously, and I certainly liked them, but I never felt the need to revisit them enough to add them to my repertoire. Then came that long run of laugh-less comedies, and my attitude felt justified. But now Ferrell has found his box office way, the same way Sandler did post Little Nicky, which is to say that he embodied roughly the same character in different worlds, always loosely tied to some romantic subplot. Sandler as a wedding singer. Sandler plays pro golf. Sandler adopts a kid. The stories are simple and formulaic, not very challenging but funny enough, and bring many of the same people along for the ride (Rob Schneider, Steve Buscemi, etc.).
Ferrell's oeuvre seems to be the sports comedy: Ferrell the soccer coach, Ferrell the race car driver, Ferrell the ice skater. His next pic, Semi Pro, is Ferrell the basketball coach. If you're a regular reader of this column, this might come as a shock to you, but I don't really mind this trend. Will's a funny guy, and as long as he's making these movies, you never know when something's going to come out of left field and surprise you a little (I felt that way about Sandler's 50 First Dates).
A little more distressing is the $61 million price tag attached to this pic. Jon Heder, the Blades costar, can't be commanding that much of a salary yet (it's certain to go up after this, though), so it seems they paid a fortune to CG most of the skating scenes. With Evan Almighty coming out this summer with a price tag in the vicinity of $200 million, studios need to start tightening the belt on these comedies or they're going to lose their sparkle.
Elsewhere in the top ten, Meet the Robinsons opened with a decent $25 million from 3400 screens for a $7.3k average. Reviews weren't good, and while the opening is okay, especially for the spring, it doesn't exactly signal the sea-change in the use of 3D I'm sure Disney execs were hoping for. But James Cameron's next movie, Avatar, will be the real litmus test for the public's interest in the revitalized technology.
300 continues to hold up reasonably well, much to the chagrin of Iranian prexy Ahmadinejad, falling 43% to $11 million and raising its total to $179 million (I can't believe you people let me get away with comparing the opening of 300 to the Gulf of Tonkin incident). It should creep over $200 million domestic.
Last week's champ, TMNT, was one of a number of pics that fell hard over the weekend, tumbling 62% to $9 million and bringing its total to $38 million. Good thing they kept the budget down on that one. Wild Hogs continues to boggle the mind by dropping just 39% to $8.3 million and raising its total to $135 million. Mark Wahlberg's Shooter will officially never see black ink, falling 45% in its second week to $8 million and bringing its total to $27 million. Is it a coincidence that a week after that lackluster opening, he attached himself to M. Night Shyamalan's next pic, an apocalyptic movie with a heavy environmental theme called The Happening? Call me crazy, but I actually think this is a good fit. Wahlberg's better than these action programmers.
Comments (2)
Elsewhere in the top ten, Meet the Robinsons opened with a decent $25 million from 3400 screens for a $7.3k average. Reviews weren't good, and while the opening is okay, especially for the spring, it doesn't exactly signal the sea-change in the use of 3D I'm sure Disney execs were hoping for.
Sorry, but you're wrong on this one. Meet the Robinsons in 3D can and is being considered a success. The film made $25 million, and $7 million is being attributed to the roughly 500 screens showing it in 3D. Theaters showing it in 3D also reported double the amount of sales for the 3D version, rather than the regular. So believe me, Disney is all about the 3D, and with the amount of theaters being equipped with digital 3D capable projectors, it won't be going anywhere soon.
1 of 2 | Posted by Vic | Posted on April 2, 2007 5:21 PM
Vic,
The per screen average was much higher on the 3D screens, but Ice Age: The Meltdown opened at the same time last year to $68 million. Even Chicken Little and Robots opened significantly better than Robinsons ($40 and $36). Disney isn't reporting a budget yet, but if it's in the vicinity of those two, they're going to have a hard time recouping, which will make it difficult to justify the added expense of 3D technology.
I'm not saying this is the end, or even a bad sign, for 3D, only that the per screen dollars in those theatres don't equal what Disney's big hits draw in without the bonus effects, which tells me audiences are interested, but not clamoring for it. But if anyone can make audiences feel they HAVE to see a movie in 3D, it's James Cameron.
2 of 2 | Posted by sutter kane | Posted on April 3, 2007 10:20 AM