2012’s biggest films of the early months are starting to hit DVD and Blu-ray, and we’ve got some of January and February’s surprise hits, and at least one of its failures. We’ve also got a great Criterion catalog title and a bunch of Disney films from the 1980’s and 90’s. Check out this week’s big releases below.
Now that the early buzz on both The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man has begun to come in, indicating that both films are set to be critical and financial winners, it’s time now for studios to look at previously released Marvel properties and ask “How the hell can we cash in on this?” The answer? Take an established, but soullessly awful, Marvel comic film franchise, and promising but inexpensive young director, and tie them together with a little something called “the reboot.”
Apparently, Sony agrees with our earlier news post today in which I stated that mainstream cinema only has, essentially, six primary types– films that Adam Sandler or Katherine Heigl would star in, films in 3-D, comic book adaptations, sequels, TV show adaptations, and genre vs. genre mashups—because they’ve let slip that they are working on a film that is both a comic book adaptation, a loose sequel, and something that would likely be in 3-D: a Venom film.
It is a holiday weekend – at least for some government employees and students – so it’s worth looking at the four day numbers, though there’s very little difference. The big winner is last week’s Safe House, which managed to hold stronger than The Vow, while Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance proved a weaker draw than expected. Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?
Despite the Super Bowl, the box office enjoyed another successful weekend. Both Chronicle and The Woman In Black opened to more than $20 million each, far more than we predicted. 20th Century Fox’s Chronicle was expected to make $12.5 million, but instead the superhero flick shocked with $22 million, debuting at No. 1. Daniel Radcliffe‘s first major role in a film outside of the Harry Potter franchise, The Woman In Black, also got off to a good start and came in at No. 2 with an estimated $21 million. Last weekend’s winner The Grey dropped to third place and brought in $9.5 million. Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski‘s Big Miracle didn’t do as well as the other new releases, but still managed to exceed our expectations with $8.5 million. And finally, rounding off the top 5 was Underworld Awakening, which brought in an additional $5.6 million.
Check out the numbers…
When you look at a list of the lowest grossing box office weekends of all time, you’ll find that the two months that pop up the most are January and September (and it’s often the last weekend of January, specifically). The reason for this is simple: The Superbowl. And it’s for film fans too – years ago, people would have just fast-forwarded through the commercials, now there are people who fast forward through the game. Last weekend The Grey trumped all, but now there are three new pictures to contend with it. Let’s see how it might shake out…
Piles of bits and pieces for the day:
- Mickey Rourke is getting his handprints immortalized at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The theater has recently been offering more people to get their prints in their cement, with the Twilight Cast also recently were announced to be hand dippers as well. Part of this is trying to bring new life to the theater, which has been eclipse fiscally by the Arclight theater down the street.
- Daniel Radcliffe‘s got a new movie that isn’t Harry Potter, and there’s a teaser for it. The film is called The Woman in Black. Check it out…
