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Box Office Roundup: ‘MIB 3′ Wins Weekend Weakly

Damon Houx — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:02:58 +0000

Sorry about the alliteration, but Men in Black 3 was conceived as a a blockbuster. Often when a film is a big huge thing it does near $100 million for its three day (sometimes more). Though MIB 3 may get to a near-$80 Million total by the end of the Memorial day weekend, this isn’t much of a win, which follows everything that’s come out post-Avengers.

	Film	Weekend	Per Screen	Total
1	MIB 3	$55,000,000	$12,947	$55,000,000
2	The Avengers	$36,987,000 (-33.5%)	$9,440	$513,672,000
3	Battleship	$10,800,000 (-57.7%)	$2,917	$44,300,000
4	The Dictator	$9,600,000 (-44.9%)	$3,185	$41,448,000
5	Chernobyl Diaries	$8,000,000	$3,288	$8,000,000
6	Dark Shadows	$7,515,000 (-40.3%)	$2,208	$62,998,000
7	What to Expect When You’re Expecting	$7,150,000 (-32.2%)	$2,367	$22,171,000
8	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$6,350,000 (+96.6%)	$5,150	$16,553,000
9	The Hunger Games	$2,750,000 (-6.8%)	$1,935	$395,209,000
10	Think Like a Man	$1,400,000 (-47.2%)	$1,781	$88,272,000

The big news this weekend is that The Avengers crossed half a billion domestic, and will – without question – pass The Dark Knight on the all time list, likely at the start of next weekend. The Avengers is still a steamroller, and it should top out at $600, and I’d guess that they cross that round number just barely. But, post-holiday weekend, there’s going to be a sag at the BO, and probably a sense that it’s time to find a new shiny ball. But last I checked, tracking on Snow White was weak, so it may just be that nothing does well next weekend.

And that’s the interesting thing about this summer. If you take The Avengers out of the equation, this summer has been terrible so far. Only one film in the last three weeks has any chance of crossing $100 Million domestic, and that’s Men in Black. But there’s no silver lining to that, as the film is not going to cross $200 Million domestically, and next weekend it should fall at least 50% from this three day, which means it’s likely to do Men in Black 2 numbers, maybe a little less than that film’s $190 domestic. Which is why international is a big deal. You can’t trust the reported budget, so it’s likely the film will have to do $600 worldwide to even turn a profit. Which is possible, and with video, etc. it will likely not lose money, but it’s not Will Smith‘s triumphant return.

Right now the chart’s mostly filled with misfires and disasters. The Dictator, Battleship and Dark Shadows are all going to need international business to break even – though that’s more and more the case these days, and Chernobyl Diaries is going to struggle to do much more than $25 Million with the standard horror business drops.

The Hunger Games is going to cross $400 Million at this point, and it looks like Think Like a Man is sinking too fast to get to $100. Marigold is doing well for what it is, and outside the top ten Moonrise Kingdom did exceptionally strong on four screens. We’ll see if it expands well, at this point The Royal Tennenbaums is Wes Anderson‘s most successful film at $52 Million.

Reality Check: My predictions were close-ish. I went a little high on MIB and Battleship, and a little low on The Avengers, but not too shaby.

$1,781

Box Office Predictions: Will ‘MIB3′ Dethrone ‘The Avengers’?

Damon Houx — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:05:22 +0000

The Avengers has so dominated the box office – and we’re looking at a holiday weekend – that it’s possible that Men in Black III might not put The Avengers into second place. It’s also inevitable by weekend’s end that Avengers will be over half a billion domestic. That said, it’s also possible that MIB3 could do a hundred over the four-day weekend. There are variables at play.

With Men in Black, the question is: What is success? With all of its players, and a supposedly very expensive production, we could see the film do a half a billion worldwide and still not make money. When you’re talking about big studio tentpole releases the scales and measurements are different. Currently the film has no listed budget, but we’ve heard rumors that $300 Million or more is possible (even likely) because of its long shooting schedule and multiple re-shoots.

The film could open to $100 Million over the four day, and get over $200 domestic (maybe even $300 Million) and normally that would be a big hit. But the math says that the film will have to do over $600 Million worldwide to break even if it cost as much as it was rumored to. That’s a lot of money for a film that’s mostly a trifle.

And though we may see a near-$80 Million opening, does that even mean people care or wanted this film? Or is it just the new event movie? MIB is an odd franchise that lost a lot of goodwill with its second entry, and even if the film opens big, it may not be because of the name or the star. And if it opens to weak domestic numbers, expect Sony to pimp its international business.

Chernobyl Diaries is also opening. Yeah, no one’s going to even remember this film existed in two years.

So, numbers, what do they look like (for the three day)?

MIB3 – $58.3 Million
The Avengers - $32.8 Million
Battleship – $12 Million
Chernobyl Diaries – $9 Million
The Dictator – $8.5 Million

The big surprise would be a surge from the men in black. Which is possible, but unlikely.

What are you going to see this weekend?

Box Office Roundup: ‘Avengers’ Crushes ‘Battleship’

Damon Houx — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:05:08 +0000

As the second contender to be swatted away like a fly, Battleship stood no chance against the mighty Avengers, which is now the sixth highest grossing film of all time, and will beat Stars Wars by Monday evening. The next big hurdle for the film’s domestic gross is $533 (aka The Dark Knight‘s take), which it may be able to clear by the end of the month. Really, the only question left is if it has enough steam to do over $600 domestic.

	Film	Weekend	Per Screen	Total
1	The Avengers	$55,057,000 (-46.6%)	$12,958	$457,078,000
2	Battleship	$25,300,000	$6,856	$25,300,000
3	The Dictator	$17,415,000	$5,790	$24,456,000
4	Dark Shadows	$12,770,000 (-57.0%)	$3,401	$50,908,000
5	What to Expect When You’re Expecting	$10,500,000	$3,476	$10,500,000
6	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$3,250,000 (+21.6%)	$18,258	$8,257,000
7	The Hunger Games	$3,000,000 (-33.4%)	$1,453	$391,631,000
8	Think Like a Man	$2,700,000 (-53.6%)	$1,568	$85,888,000
9	The Lucky One	$1,765,000 (-57.0%)	$880	$56,921,000
10	The Pirates! Band of Misfits	$1,450,000 (-53.9%)	$788	$25,362,000

There are two ways to look at this weekend and this summer so far. One is that The Avengers is so powerful that it’s keeping other films from doing well that might have gotten bigger openings were they not facing a juggernaut. The other is that so far there’s only one movie that really passed the sniff test from audiences.

With Men in Black 3 and Snow White and the Huntsman looking weaker than previously thought, we could see a much less impressive summer than normal, where audiences mostly go to pictures that they trust and films that might have stood a chance with a more curious audience are going to die. I think this is partly because ticket prices are getting to the point that families are being more discerning when they can wait three months for home video for that much cheaper.

And what we must do is re-think (or understand) that the gold standards for success of ten years ago have evaporated. Hitting $200 Million is no longer a guarantee for a success, and even doing $100 can mean that a film bombed. Yes, those are big numbers, but when the reported budget of The Dictator is $65 Million – even if that film somehow gets to $100 Million – it’s no guarantee of profit. Which is partly why international has become so much a part of the conversation. Budgets have gotten stupid, and the system is working like a high stakes poker player on a coke binge. There’s few safe bets for films that aren’t franchises.

And Universal, god bless them, bet dumb on Battleship. The international opening should help some, but if they’re not making much overseas any more then it’s going to lose them quite a bit of money. The film opened here to $25 Million, which is $8 Million less than Think Like a Man did. The point of mentioning that is it means that Battleship is unlikely to get to $100 Million domestic. And even if the film gets to $300 Million internationally, Universal is going to lose money. If they can get near a $400 Worldwide cume, they’re not going to lose much, and DVD/TV/VOD should get them in the black, but it’s one of those films that never got over the regular audience’s dumb hurdle. Transformers might be based on a toy, but the idea of seeing live action (well, CGI) robots transform on screen has appeal. Battleship offers nothing cinematically interesting from the title or concept. Throw in a cast of TV actors and weird name brands (ooh, Brooklyn Decker! Rihanna!), and a film that was reportedly studio noted to blandness, and you get a $25 Million dollar opening for a movie that cost over $200 Million.

This follows Dark Shadows, which also is curiously inert at the box office. Blame a title that means nothing, and likely a sense of deja-vu. With Men in Black 3 reportedly costing in the $300 Million range, we may see another weekend where the main contender is a disappointment. And this may also explain The Avengers numbers. People get what they want out of that movie. Why bother with anything else?

What to Expect When You’re Expecting may have a name cast, but – as I said on Thursday – dudes have no interest in going to a movie about women being pregnant while on a date. Romantic comedies need a premise that suggests love, but not the consequences of it, and this opening is likely the best result for the film (though it is a misfire).

It looks like The Hunger Games will limp to a $400 Million dollar grand total, which is worth noting, though it may not get there until June. And Fox Searchlight deserves praise for their work on The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Having a small film get to $15-$20 Million without a huge ad campaign is a miracle these days.

It’s possible some of these movies could flatline next weekend for the holiday. That would be the best case scenario for the new films. But The Avengers isn’t going anywhere.

Reality Check: I went higher on Battleship and Expecting, thought Avengers might surprise a little more this weekend (at this point it’s going to start dropping around 50% for the rest of its run), but was right on with Dictator and Dark Shadows. With new stuff there’s always hope that the last minute ad buys will get butts in seats. That turned out not to be the case here.

‘The Avengers’ is a Cash Cow! Now the Sixth Highest Grossing of All Time

Damon Houx — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:51:03 +0000

The Dark Knight Rises has some real competition this summer, as The Avengers has now made over $1.07 Billion dollars worldwide. That puts it as the sixth highest grossing film ever, and it crossed $400 domestic last night – making it the fastest film to do so – which puts it at the number twelve spot for all time domestic grosses.

This means by the end of this weekend – where the film is projected to do anywhere from $50-$60 Million domestically – the film will have the record for fifth or sixth highest gross for domestic totals, either right behind or just above Star Wars. Yes, The Avengers will have made more money than Star Wars shortly – and it already has internationally. It’s also in the position to be the fourth highest grosser worldwide by the end of the weekend, which would put it ahead of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

When you start adjusting for inflation, the picture is much different. The film will have to crack half a billion to enter the top fifty domestic grosses, and even a $600 Million total wouldn’t crack the top twenty five. So the film will have to settle for being the third highest grossing film worldwide, and likely the third highest grossing film (unadjusted) domestically.

What does this mean? More Marvel, more comic book movies and more Avengers.

How many times have you seen The Avengers?

Box Office Predictions: Will ‘The Avengers’ Sink the Boat Movie?

Damon Houx — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:27:11 +0000

As of today, The Avengers is the eighth highest grossing picture of all time worldwide. By the end of this weekend it should be the fourth. There are only two movies to have grossed over two billion worldwide – Avatar and Titanic – and it’s looking unlikely that The Avengers will make it to that territory. But it should be able to capsize Battleship this weekend. Easily.

There are two ways of looking at Universal’s release plan for Battleship. The film came out internationally a month ago, and has accrued over $200 Million already – though it’s slowed recently because of Avengers. One is that international, now more than ever, is the name of the game. And if there’s been more and more talk about international numbers, it’s simply because they can and often do twice as much if not more than domestic.They are the ones who show if a film is profitable or not.

A decade ago, we saw more and more co-productions from studios, where they would split the cost and one studio would keep domestic and another would hold foreign rights. Films like Starship Troopers and Master and Commander would often have two or sometimes three studios attached. It was because the films were then so expensive that they would rather not shoulder the $100 Million dollar budgets (or more) under one roof.

Now that we’re in an era of franchises, why would anyone want to share rights? The only studios that do that now are companies like MGM, which are so beleaguered that they don’t have a full release schedule, and don’t need to keep people around who would be working on two or three titles a year. And if international is the name of the game, then opening in America first – piracy concerns or no – is secondary. In some cases, we’ve seen Japan or England get the jump on America by a couple of days, but we may see more event films follow Battleship‘s lead.

The other way of looking at it is that Universal was scared of their film doing mediocre business against some of the more well known titles like The Avengers and Men in Black 3, and wanted to get the jump on the competition, and avoid any conflicts with soccer. They have $200 in the bank now because of their strategy, but had they gone with a worldwide date, it may have been much, much less.

Box office has been moving to report international more and more, and eventually – within the next couple years – we should see those international numbers come in at the same time as the domestic numbers. And not just when Disney needs to suggest that John Carter wasn’t a failure in its opening weekend.

The down side is that with more global thinking, it means – as the industry has been doing for some time – that they’re going to focus on films that are that much easier to export, and not titles that are necessarily wordy or smart. Often times, not even movie smart. Make no doubt about it, we’re in the era of fast food cinema.

The Dictator opened on Wednesday, and should do okay, but likely didn’t cost much. Sacha Baron Cohen is a known quantity, and it could do some business as a comedy-comedy (unlike Dark Shadows). What to Expect When You’re Expecting is also opening, which is going for the counter-programming business. Pregnancy is a harder date-night sell, though.

So Top Five it is:

The Avengers – $62.4 Million
Battleship – $38.7 Million
The Dictator – $17.8 Million
What to Expect When You’re Expecting – $15.3 Million
Dark Shadows - $12.5 Million

And then Sunday will see if Battleship can surpass expectations, or if it gets sunk.

What are you going to watch this weekend?

ABC Is Set To Make ‘The Hulk’ A TV Show In 2013

Travis Woods — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:57:05 +0000

Despite writer-director Joss Whedon’s gift for florid and witty wordplay for powerful actors, ironically, the breakout star of Whedon’s Avengers was a CGI Hulk who utters exactly two words (amidst some grunting and yelling) throughout the film’s two and a half hour running time. Positive fan reaction to the Hulk has been so strong that Marvel has announced they may repeal their “No More Hulk Movies” policy, and now, ABC is pushing to make the Hulk the star of his own TV show.

There has been a long-discussed plan for ABC to broadcast its own Hulk show for some time now, with Guillermo del Toro producing. However that plan appears to have laid dormant for some time. Until now, it seems.

During the ABC upfront presentations today, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee stated that he wants “some Marvel projects come to television,” which, given Marvel’s current dominion over the box office, audiences, and pop culture itself, makes sense.

As for the big green guy, Lee stated that Hulk wasn’t quite ready for the 2012 season—but that he should be shirt and pants a-ripping by 2013. “Hulk is in development,” he continued. “It wasn’t going to be ready this season but we hope it’s going to be ready for next season.”

Very little is known in terms of what the Hulk show would consist of—will it take place in the Marvel films continuity? Will it be set in its own serialized world, a la the original show? Would Mark Ruffalo be willing to star? Looks like we’ll have to wait until 2013 to find out.

Would you watch a Hulk TV show (again)?

Source: THR

Joss Whedon Wants To Add More Female Superheroes To ‘The Avengers 2′

Travis Woods — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:06:59 +0000

Between such works as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse, Joss Whedon is known for featuring strong female characters in his TV shows and films. And while The Avengers did have Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow kicking ass and helping to save the world, the film was still a festival of testosterone between Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and pointless archer that gives Jeremy Renner something to do. Now, Whedon says he wants to up the female hero quotient in Avengers 2.

In a recent roundtable interview with Entertainment Weekly, in which the Avengers cast and Whedon spoke about the film, Whedon stated that powerful women was something that The Avengers lacked:

Whedon joked, “I think we need to get some more men on the team,” while Thor’s Chris Hemsworth looked around Johansson at Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Samuel L. Jackson and agreed, “Yes, there are too few of us.”

Whedon went on to say that studios will argue that “a woman cannot headline an action movie,” but that “after The Hunger Games they might stop telling you that a little bit. Whatever you think of the movie, it’s done a great service. And after The Avengers, I think it’s changing.”

While Whedon’s aim is an admirable one, the problem now is to find a way to organically introduce new female superheroes into a franchise that is already overstuffed with major characters. Further, which Marvel female heroes make the cut? Wasp, She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch? And how do they get introduced into the Marvel franchise? Via Captain America 2, Iron Man 3, or Thor 2? However they appear, Avengers 2 might have to lose a major hero or two to make room for some new blood, as this franchise is starting to get rather crowded.

What do you think of Whedon’s Avengers 2 plan (assuming he’s given the nod to direct)?

Source: /Film

‘The Avengers’ Smashes $1 Billion Mark In Under 20 Days

Travis Woods — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:04:31 +0000

We get it, The Avengers—people like you. People like you a lot. But $1 billion in global box office receipts in 19 days? Now you’re just showing off, Tony Stark-style. Turns out people really, really want to see four superheroes (plus one athletic super-spy and one pointless dude with a bow and arrow) beat the hell out of New York City.

That’s right—by Monday’s end (the 19^th day of the film’s release), The Avengers will have raked in $1 billion dollars in box office totals. The Avengers will be the fifth Disney film and first Marvel film to cross into that mega level.

The film also busted another record this weekend—The Avengers is now officially the first film to take in over $100 million domestically for its second weekend in a row. And, as you’ll recall, the film also busted records for its opening weekend by pulling in $207.4 million. The Avengers was produced with a budget of $220 million.

The super-hero team-up film has now passed The Dark Knight’s spot on the top grossing films list to claim the number 11 spot on the worldwide grosser list. And, of course and unsurprisingly, all of this means that there will definitely be an Avengers 2, which Disney officially greenlit last week. And probably an Avengers 3, 4, 5 and 6. And a Hulk movie. And maybe an Iron Man 4, with or without Robert Downey, Jr. At this point, the franchise may be self sustaining and self-aware at this point, and will probably rise up and strike us all down if we try to pull the plug (I might be mixing up this news with the Terminator 2 plot, I’m not sure).

Have you seen The Avengers yet?

Source: ComingSoon

Box Office Roundup: ‘The Avengers’ Avenges Again

Damon Houx — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:52:46 +0000

Only nineteen films have made over $350 Million dollars. The Avengers did that in ten days. Which means that the film should cross the $400 Million dollar mark after twelve to thirteen days – making it the tenth film to do so – and will surely make half a billion domestic, which only three other films have (and two of those were directed by James Cameron). It’s also one of the twelve films to gross a billion worldwide. Sorry Dark Shadows, you were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

	Film	Weekend	Per Screen	Total
1	The Avengers	$103,163,000 (-50.3%)	$23,721	$373,182,000
2	Dark Shadows	$28,805,000	$7,671	$28,805,000
3	Think Like a Man	$6,300,000 (-22.3%)	$3,070	$81,917,000
4	The Hunger Games	$4,400,000 (-21.3%)	$1,738	$386,902,000
5	The Lucky One	$4,055,000 (-24.5%)	$1,428	$53,721,000
6	The Pirates! Band of Misfits	$3,200,000 (-41.8%)	$1,039	$23,104,000
7	The Five-Year Engagement	$3,100,000 (-38.4%)	$1,207	$24,377,000
8	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$2,650,000 (+259.5%)	$14,888	$3,723,000
9	Chimpanzee	$1,624,000 (-34.6%)	$1,042	$25,586,000
10	Girl in Progress	$1,350,000	$4,193	$1,350,000

It’s hard to get a bearing on Dark Shadows. If it was done on a budget – but it wasn’t – a hundred domestic and solid international might be a good all-around total. As it will likely get to around $80 million domestically, and it’s unknown how well it will do out of the country, it looks like a loser. Warner Brothers sunk $150 Million into it, but they didn’t sell it as an event film, and now it has no chance of making money domestically. It’s hard to know if they had no faith, if they thought it just wasn’t going to play, or if they put their hopes in the international market.But everyone’s moving on to other things, so whatever.

The Avengers is insane. It’s one of the biggest movies of all time. Period. End of line. It should pass The Hunger Games‘ domestic cume sometime tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest, to become the highest grossing film of the year. And – of course – it’s not even done yet. Maybe Battleship will do a little bit of damage to it, but it’s hard to say. The film is already one of the biggest of all time, and even if – for whatever reason – it didn’t make another cent it would still very very profitable. At this point, beating Avatar‘s domestic record isn’t out of the question. That’s crazy money.

Reality Check: on Thursday I said $102 for Avengers and $36 for Dark Shadows. I was right on the money with the superhero film, and went high on the Depp/Burton. Oh well.

News Roundup: New ‘True Blood’ Character Posters, A New ‘Madea’ One-Sheet, The Best Heroes For ‘Avengers 2,’ And More

Laura Aguirre — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:00:30 +0000

This week, Tyler Perry revealed the poster for his upcoming movie Madea’s Witness Protection. HBO also released a set of 12 character posters for True Blood‘s fifth season. We’ve also got a new website we’d like you to check out–we promise it’ll help you make your Netflix experience so much easier. All that and more after the jump.

Serious Comedians: Few comedians have the gift of being both funny and serious on screen. Unreality Magazine put together a list of Comedians Who Did Well In Serious Rolls. Their list includes talented funnymen like Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, and Eddie Murphy.
A Better Queue: Thanks to /film, yesterday I discovered a wonderful website called A Better Queue. Basically what it is, is a simple but useful program that references both Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes to help you narrow down which movies you’d like to watch. This is helpful for those of us who don’t necessary like the ‘Top 10′ that Netflix puts forth on our home page. Do check it out, you might be pleasantly surprised.
15 Avengers: With the news that The Avengers 2 is on the way, Screenrant put together a cool list of 15 Avengers We Want to see in Avengers 2 & Beyond. Check that out.

Photos:

Tyler Perry Teaser Poster: Tyler Perry’s alter ego is returning to the screen in Madea’s Witness Protection. Below we have a teaser poster for the director’s latest movie. It’s got a sort of New York-vibe to it.
True Blood Gallery: HBO has unveiled 12 new character posters for True Blood season 5. The new season begins June 10th, so mark your calendars. Go to Shock Til You Drop to see the complete gallery.

That’s the end of our round-up. Keep checking back at ScreenCrave for more entertainment news and features.

What are you excited for?

Box Office Predictions: ‘The Avengers’ Puts Competition in ‘Dark Shadows’

Damon Houx — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:36:33 +0000

When you’ve got a picture opening the week after another film has had the biggest opening weekend of all time, well brother, you’re in for a hard road. Even if The Avengers falls 70% this weekend that would mean a little over $60 Million dollars. That’s a steep hurdle for Dark Shadows. Surely no one is expected the film to do Alice in Wonderland numbers, but Shadows appears to be caught in the wake.

Dark Shadows offers a familiar combination of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Danny Elfman, all of whom have made at least five films together. And perhaps this is being sold as the latest iteration of their work together to the faithful. The lowest total that their work has garner is $50 Million domestic, while films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland have been big hits. The brand seems to work better when it’s kid friendly.

This is not as childish as some of those hits, and it’s based on a property that’s a cult favorite, but doesn’t have much mainstream pull. Warner Brothers didn’t start marketing the film until virtually a month before it was released, and word has been mixed critically. But Johnny Depp, right? Well, he couldn’t get The Rum Diary open, but perhaps he needs to be playing a freak.

And this should open, but is a near $40 Million dollar total good enough against The Avengers juggernaut? And can it play quietly (or quietly in the scheme of things)? How will this do internationally, where the name Dark Shadows means less? Perhaps Depp and Burton can save it there. It’s possible that the film will do okay, not a hit or a money loser, but the big news will be The Avengers when weekend numbers start rolling in. Such is the way of freakishly big movies.

So let’s say this:

The Avengers - $102 Million
Dark Shadows – $36.5 Million

And then a bunch of pictures doing under $5 Million. And we’ll know more come Sunday.

What are you going to see this weekend?

Joss Whedon Writes Thank You Note To Fans, Discusses ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Competition

Laura Aguirre — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:46:29 +0000

Joss Whedon is on top of the world right now. He just had a smashing opening weekend at the box office with a little movie called The Avengers; and his horror film The Cabin in the Woods is being hailed as a ‘game changer.’ But despite the recent mainstream success, Whedon knows he could never have done it alone. Today, he posted a lengthy letter thanking fans for their years of support on his many projects. If you’re a fan, you’re going to want to read this.

Props to Whedon for not letting a $207 million opening weekend get to his head. Instead, he took his gratitude and wrote very funny letter for fans.

Well, it’s been quite a weekend…People have told me that this matters, that my life is about to change. I am sure that is true. And change is good — change is exciting.

What doesn’t change is anything that matters. What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with ‘peeps’ — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all. A lot of stories have come out about my “dark years”, and how I’m “unrecognized”… I love these stories, because they make me seem super-important, but I have never felt the darkness (and I’m ALL about my darkness) that they described. Because I have so much.

I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I’ve yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating. I’ve thought, ‘maybe I’m over; maybe I’ve said my piece.’ But never with fear. Never with rancor. Because of y’all. Because you knew me when. If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you’re probably new here.

So this is me, saying thank you. All of you.

Whedon also took the time to talk about Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, just in case it topples his Avengers this summer.

I will feel sad. But let’s look at the bigger picture, and I can’t say this enough: THIS IS NOT A ZERO SUM GAME. Our successes, whoever has the mostest, are a boon to each other. We’re in the business of proving that superhero movies aren’t just eye-candy (they’re eye-TRUFFLES!). People seem intent on setting us against each other, and though I’m proud to be Woody Strode to Nolan’s Kirk Douglas, I think they’re missing the point. Whatever TDKR does on its first weekend, the only stat that matters to me is the ticket I’M definitely buying. Nolan and Raimi INVENTED the true superhero flick, yo. (Special mention to Jon Favreau and James Gunn.) Happy to be in the mix.

Later in the post, the writer/director/producer says he’ll focus his attention on his micro-budget black-and-white adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and will continue pursuing his adaptation of the comic series Wastelanders and a sequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

The rest of the playful FAQ makes reference to Dr. Seuss, Comic-Con, and Whedon’s ‘dark times’. Overall, it’s a nice gesture. The guy’s happy to be on top, and we’re happy for him, especially for taking the time to say ‘thank you.’ Not many successful directors do.

If you’d like to read the entire post, head over to his website Whedonesque.

Do you consider yourself a Whedon fan?

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