I have to thank the critics of Brave: by judging the movie way more harshly than it deserved, my expectations were lowered enough to make the movie seem even better than it was. I mean yes, Brave was a little more of a Disney movie than a Pixar movie, but I like Disney movies, and I thought it was actually a pretty good movie. Not the best movie they’ve ever done, but still better than either of the Cars movies. Regardless, the movie was still #1 at the box office, bringing in $66.7 Million over the weekend.
After enjoying two weeks atop the box office, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted has finally been felled by the Scottish dame with the red hair. Anyway, despite taking a dip, it still managed to earn a respectable $20.2 Million, thus pushing their domestic gross over their budget.
I have a feeling Hollywood may have slightly overestimated how many people would voluntarily see a movie where a beloved U.S. president is retconned into a demon slaying bad-ass, because Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter placed third after two movies featuring cartoon bears. The good news is that it still earned a nice sum of $16.9 Million, almost a quarter of its budget, so it could at least stand to break even. Still, this kind of puts the kibbosh on George Washington: Zombie Slayer and Theodore Roosevelt: Bear Sexer.
It’s important to remember that it’s more important for a movie to be entertaining than interesting. Look, you can make the smartest movie in the world, but no one is going to go see it if its boring and confusing. Unfortunately, Prometheus kind of forgot about this integral part of the movie-making process, as it seemingly split their audience down the middle: You either thought it was awesome, or that it sacrificed entertainment for overly-cerebral mind-fucking. Either way, it added another $10 Million to is revenue.
Sadly, Rock of Ages continues to under-perform at the box office, which I think proves that musicals don’t always translate to the big screen as well as you would think. Either way, it brought in another $8 Million, which isn’t the worst thing in the world, but still not great.
And what of the other openings? Seeking A Friend for the End of the World brought in $3.8 Million, which sounds bad until you remember that it was made for an impressively frugal $10 Million. Meanwhile, Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love brought in $379,000 on only FIVE SCREENS, which is absolutely bonkers. Never underestimate how much people love a Woody movie.
Jeremy Feist is an (ahem) entertainer from Toronto, Canada. He writes, acts, and performs on stage, and has been a writer for Popbytes for almost three years now. He lives in Toronto with his boyfriend, his incredibly dumb but cute puppy, and his immortal cat.
