Weekend of May 11-13, 2012
Dark Shadows – $33,000,000 estimate – My prediction: Over – $29,685,274 actual – Under
Dark Shadows had an anemic start at the box office as The Avengers continues to break records. Tom, Carlos, and I tried to be the cool kids and go with the minority choice, but we sadly failed. Way to be a part of the machine, the rest of you.
The Avengers smashed the record for best second weekend of all-time. The previous record was held by Avatar with $75,617,183. The Avengers made $103,052,274. Yeah. It has also cleared the $1 billion mark over the weekend for worldwide gross. It should have no problem reaching $500 mil domestically and become the #3 highest grossing movie of all-time.
Dark Shadows underperformed, but when you look at its budget of $60 million, it shouldn't have too much of a problem making that up in international sales and eventual DVD release. This is opposed to Alice in Wonderland which had a $200 million budget and made far more during its run in theatres. To keep things in perspective though, Dark Shadows' $29.7 mil is less than Sleepy Hallow's $30.1 mil opening in 1999! That's not even factoring in inflation. There are a few things one can blame for the lack of enthusiasm for Dark Shadows, but the main thing has got to be the unfamiliarity with the franchise. We're not dealing with familiar territory here like we did with Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I picked Over just for the fun of it, really. I think it could have gone either way of $33 mil, so no worries.
The Avengers and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel were #1 and #2 again in terms of per theatre average. Dark Shadows did well enough in 3,755 theatres to snatch #3, but the 4K restoration of 1937's Grand Illusion was right on its tail since it was only on one screen.
We've got a Wednesday opener this week with The Dictator. The Larry Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen re-team film is expected to have a decent release, but won't blow the box office out of the water with The Avengers continuing to pound the competition. Jason has already seen it and he says it was good. On Friday, we'll have the wide release of Battleship. It's the fourth franchise feature film to come out of Hasbro toys and games and is expected to have a good turn out. It has already made $215,300,000 worldwide with its Transformers look in story and effects. The other wide release for Friday will be Lionsgate's What to Expect When You're Expecting. The comedy loosely based off of the #1 bestselling pregnancy book will likely score some points with women in theatres with nothing else really being appealing since The Lucky One.
There are quite a few noteworthy indie films coming out this weekend. First up is Hysteria, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy, which is a comedy about the invention of the vibrator. It should be more controversial than it sounds, but from what I've read about the movie, it's actually fairly tame. Then there's Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary about a few no-name video game makers talking about their ideas and the culture of gaming. Eduardo Sánchez is still trying to have a big follow up to The Blair Witch Project, but it's likely not going to be Lovely Molly, which will see a few screens this weekend. Also out May 18th is Mansome, the comedy-documentary from Morgan Spurlock, Will Arnett, and Jason Bateman. It basically covers men's idiosyncratic grooming habits, but in a funny way. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for 13 César Awards, Polisse from France follows the daily lives of a tight-knit team of men and women working in the Child Protection Unit of the Parisian police. It will finally see a limited release here, along with The Samaritan, an action-thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson. Last, and what probably should be least, is Virginia starring Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, and Emma Roberts. It was actually filmed in 2009 and played at the Toronto International Film Festival to some not-so-good reviews. The director went back and re-cut the film and is releasing it limited this weekend.
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