There really isn’t much worth writing about as we near the end of this box office weekend. But what keeps jumping into my view is a kind of irrational enthusiasm.
I will be brusque…
Who the fuck cares about which movie is #1 when the box office weekend is under $100 million for the 2nd weekend in 3 September weekends in a month that started with just four box office-hopeful releases, one of which was basically removed from the theatrical marketplace (Wolfs) and another barely opens in spite of the movie being embraced pretty much across the board (Transformers One)?
I am a big fan of Transformers One… but you could see the trouble in the marketing effort, as Paramount kept changing strategies, trying to find a bigger audience. I respect that effort.. but that very rarely leads to a win.
Wolfs might not have won this weekend had Apple and Columbia released it for real…but $15 million to $20 million was a legit likelihood, whatever the tracking was 6 weeks ago. Pitt’s last 4 domestic openings were $41m, $19m, $30m, and $3.6m… the last one being Babylon, which opened Christmas weekend, including box office bad day Christmas Eve… not a light comedy with all kinds of issues Paramount was fighting with. (Not counting The Lost City and it’s $30m launch, as it was an extended cameo.) This is only Clooney’s 5th starring role in the last decade. $22m, $33m, $11m, $15m, $17m. So do ya think the pairing could open to $15m - $20m and top $50m domestic easily with a legit shot of something closer to $100m? I don’t know if Apple and Sony are sticking with theatrical internationally… but with this pair, you can be sure it would do as much as double whatever it might gross in America and Canada.
I am sympathetic to whatever scared Apple into pulling the domestic theatrical for the film… it’s their money, not mine. But Wolfs is not Fly Me To The Moon. It’s only slightly ahead of the Scarlett/Channing film at Rotten Tomatoes (with less than 1/3 of the reviews), but Brad and George are unquestionably stronger leads in a comedy being sold based on their big heads on the poster.
So this weekend…
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