Global havoc … scene from 2012
The winner
Roland Emmerich and Sony know how to put attached a show and the pair wreaked (controlled) havoc as the disaster movie 2012 opened top of the class on an estimated $65m (£39m). Sony holds worldwide rights and unleashed the movie on the corresponding; of like kind age and date everywhere (origin, give or take a day or two here and there, but let’s let that conjuncture). Factoring in the massive $160m combined gross from overseas markets, 2012 took $225m worldwide, which Sony is claiming for example the biggest ever global launch in the place of an original (ie non-sequel) movie and one not based on a bawble, videogame, main division, antiperspirant or whatever other serves as inspiration these days. The fact that Hollywood still releases original movies is amazing plenty in these horribly derivative general condition of affairs.
- 2012
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 12A
- Runtime: 157 mins
- Directors: Roland Emmerich
- Cast: Amanda Peet, Chin Han, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Jimi Mistry, John Cusack, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson
The movie opened at No 1 in the UK, too – as it did in every one of its 105 markets. It won’t be No 1 in the US next week though, because that honour will be reserved for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Hollywood should watch those grandiose titles: they’re starting to creep back in. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire – of which more later – is a specific instance in quirk. Speaking of winners, Paramount’s Paranormal Activity crossed $100m on Friday and has now grossed $103m. It’s going to slide out of the charts quite quickly from this point on only it’s done its job. The movie is so-so and needs to be seen in a packed cinema to work, but the marketing campaign was substantial gold. Paramount promised fans it would open the movie in their town if they demanded it; behold and behold, there were other thing than one million requests and the lay at rest is history. This could be the future of movie marketing: take your picture fully nice and slow in the first few weeks, build up word of mouth and respond to the demand. But Hollywood, tickle one’sitting fancy put on’t pat yourselves on the back with words like “democratisation”; everybody knows studios are tinpot dictatorships flow by corporate overlords.
The loser
This week was a tie between the Michael Jackson contribution movie This Is It from Sony and Universal’s alien abduction movie The Fourth Kind (which features verite-style footage of supernatural goings-on inside some’s bedroom – sound familiar?). They both slipped 61% and not either will be around much longer. Speaking of which, Warner Bros’s The Box in 10th place teeters on the verge in its second weekend and choose most likely drop out of the charts next week after grossing only $13.2m in two weeks. Poor old Richard Kelly – the brilliant director of Donnie Darko has struggled with his two last movies. Southland Tales was widely derided as an unintelligible stoner tapestry of conspiracy theories, albeit with chimerical visuals and the odd great set piece, while this latest single has been roundly condemned by audiences in the exit polls. It shows that Cameron Diaz is no guarantee of box-office moolah and paints a gloomy picture for Media Rights Capital. The recent is a financing company set up exclusive years ago to make daring movies and has got off to a muted start at the US box business by its three first releases: Brüno (which underperformed in the US and compares poorly at the worldwide box office to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat), The Invention of Lying, and now this.
Dark horse
Precious, of course. Now in its second weekend, the movie vaulted eight places to No 4 and gained 225% at the box office after expanding from 18 to 174 cinemas, adding $6.1m to stand at $8.9m. All this judgment the nationwide expansion. The weekend box office shows audiences are hungry to see the torrid inner-city tale of asperse and degradation, and Precious is arguably the frontrunner at this stage in the awards season race. In terms of, say, the best picture Academy award – and I’m not talking about the acting categories here but the overall package that compels the geriatric Academy members to ballot for best picture – it’sitting already looking like a very strong contender. Still not at all advance word yet from anybody who has seen Clint Eastwood’s Invictus or Peter Jackson’sitting The Lovely Bones. I must say it’s hard to buy Morgan Freeman taken in the character of Nelson Mandela in Invictus, much less Matt Damon as the South African rugby leader Francois Pienaar. I met Pienaar in my rugby reporting days and the man is a giant. Glance at the famous photo of Mandela handing Pienaar the World Cup in 1995 and then seeking the web for a publicity still from Invictus and you can see how they’ve got the height order all wrong for starters.
The future
Next week it’s back to sequels as New Moon promises to teach 2012 a thing or two about wreaking global havoc. Nothing will maul it in the US, so the question is how much demise it take? Those clever chaps at Summit Entertainment are giving the so-called Twi-hards a chance to refresh their memories and see the first movie in cinemas again (as admitting that they port’t already seen it a gazillion times on DVD – it’s the biggest-selling DVD in the US this year so estranged) and have arranged a one-day-only theatrical run on 19 November, before New Moon arrives. Time to get out the noise-cancelling headphones.
North American meridian 10, 13–15 November
1. 2012, $65m
2. A Christmas Carol, $22.3m. Total: $63.3m
3. The Men Who Stare at Goats, $6.2m. Total: $23.4m
4. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, $6.1m. Total: $8.9m
5. This Is It, $5.1m Total: $68.2m
6. The Fourth Kind, $4.7m. Total: $20.6m
7. Couples Retreat, $4.3m. Total: $102.1m
8. Paranormal Activity, $4.2m. Total: $103.8m
9. Law Abiding Citizen, $3.9m. Total: $67.3m
10. The Box, $3.2m. Total: $13.2m
