weekend box office: ‘Bangkok Dangerous’ leads, barely, a BO bloodbath
Ugly is the only word for the abysmal performance of just about everything at North American multiplexes this past weekend. Variety says it the “shakiest start in years” for the fall box office -- things haven’t been this bad since 2000. Just look at how dismal these numbers are:
1. Bangkok Dangerous: $7.8 million
2. Tropic Thunder: $7.5 million
3. The House Bunny: $5.9 million
4. The Dark Knight: $5.7 million
5. Traitor: $4.6 million (dropping 41 percent in its second week)
Could be it was simply the lack of new quality stuff that kept moviegoers away. Bangkok Dangerous, the only new wide release, was not screened for critics, which means no reviews were available on Friday. It was probably easier for the studios to disguise that fact in the days before the Net, when all a potential moviegoer had to go on was the local paper... and might miss the fact that a review was missing while heading for the theater showtimes. Now, all a geek need do is check out Rotten Tomatoes... the Net demo knows what no reviews on opening day means: stinker. And the Net demo was the audience for Bangkok. Even bad reviews (those critics who checked it out over the weekend, like yours truly, collectively give it only a 13 percent Fresh rating) probably would have been preferrable to none. Maybe teenage boys don’t pay attention to reviews -- that’s the studios’ party line, anyway -- but they sure do like to rag on us clueless critics, which they could have been having a lot of fun doing last week, perhaps even to the point of being driven to the film out of pure spite for us clueless eggheads. Instead, that obviously didn’t happen: hardly anyone went to see Bangkok at all.
Hardly anyone went to see anything. Per-screen averages, which are usually quite high for indies and foreign films, indicating massive interest in the few cities where they’re playing, were low this weekend. The highest were earned by:
• Sukiyaki Western Django: $5,100 on 1 screen
• I Served the King of England: $4,241 on each of 17 screens
• Frozen River: $3,461/91 screens
• Elegy: $3,394/142 screens
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona: $3,066/718 screens
For comparison’s sake, Bangkok’s per-screen was $2,943.
Upcoming milestones: Both Tropic Thunder and Step Brothers will pass $100 million this week, and will become the 15th and 16th movies to do so in 2008 so far.
[numbers via Box Office Mojo]
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comments
posted by Brad (Mon Sep 08 08, 10:02AM)
In these days of rising ticket prices, ready access to Netflix, video games, competing MMOs, hell even that lime-induced beer (Bud?)...why bother wasting so much time and money on bad movies like Bangkok Dangerous? I'm a proud member of the "bullets, explosions, fight scenes and hopefully a sex scene" target demo, and even I thought it looked awful and stayed away. When even the trailers look bad, that's a sign. The fact that it's known to be a remake doesn't help.
posted by the rook (Mon Sep 08 08, 11:59AM)
high unemployment and the shitty economy might have something to do with it also.
posted by MaryAnn (Mon Sep 08 08, 2:53PM)
Yes, there's no reason to waste money on bad movies. But movie attendance was highest during the Great Depression, which surely had as much to do with a desire to escape as it did to do with the limited other option for escape. I don't think the shitty economy will stop people from going to see good movies... it'll only stop them from paying to see bad ones.