1. Wreck-It Ralph - $49.1M - $49.1M
2. Flight - $4M - $4M
3. Argo - $10.2M - $75.8M
4. The Man With The Iron Fists - $8.2M - $8.2M
5. Taken 2 - $6M - $125.6M
6. Cloud Atlas - $5.2M - $18.2M
7. Hotel Transylvania - $4.5M - $137.5M
8. Paranormal Activity 4 - $4.3M - $49.5M
9. Here Comes The Boom - $5M - $39.5M
10. Silent Hill: Revelation - $8M - $8M
After
disappointment by all the new releases last frame, studios will be
hoping for something of a rebound this weekend, but are aware that the
effects of last week's terrible storm are still being felt by many. The
big release is the animated family feature Wreck-It Ralph, joined by
Robert Zemeckis' return to live action fare with Flight, and the
directorial debut of the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA with martial arts mash-up
The Man with The Iron Fists. This weekend marks the start of a big movie
run, which will lead right up to Christmas Day. Next week brings us the
23rd James Bond film Skyfall, followed a week later by the final
Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn Part 2. Further ahead there's the
long-delayed Red Dawn remake, literary adaptation Life of Pi and the
animated Rise of the Guardians.
Easily expected to be the biggest
film this weekend, Wreck-It Ralph is the latest release from Disney
Animation. The plot follows Ralph, the protagonist in the fictional
videogame Fix-It Felix, who tires of being the bad guy and leaves his
game to find another in which he can become a hero. Along the way he
encounters Tamora Calhoun, a sergeant in the Call of Duty/Halo style
game, Hero's Duty and Vanellope von Schweetz, an 8 year old girl in
racing game, Sugar Rush. But while Ralph is trying to realise his dream,
Schweetz discovers a problem within her own game, one that could have
dire consequences not only for the cast of Sugar Rush but the entire
arcade - and it looks like Ralph leaving his own game could be the cause
of all the problems. Development on Wreck-It Ralph began a number of
years ago, as an idea from story artist Sam Levine. At that point the
picture was known as Joe Jump and featured an over the hill character
attempting to make the transition into modern videogames. Levine was
making good progress on the project (enough for a rough synopsis to turn
up online) but when John Lasseter took over as head of Disney Animation
in 2006, the status of Joe Jump became unclear. While the Pixar honcho
let Levine (and his writer) work on the project for a further year, it
began to languish, and with little sign of moving forward, Joe Jump was
put on the shelf and Levine was assigned to another project. While
Lasseter was impressed by the core idea, he wasn't sold on the story
itself. Moving forward to October/November of 2009 and another project
that wasn't working out - the still missing in action, King of the
Elves, on which all work was halted while it was retooled. Requiring a
project for 2012-2013, Disney dusted off Joe Jump and set Rich Moore to
direct. Moore got his break working on TV shows like The Simpsons, The
Critic and Futurama, amongst others, and also did sequence direction on
The Simpsons Movie. He took on Joe Jump and completely reworked what
Levine had done, erasing almost all trace according to those familiar
with both versions.
The picture also received a title change, to
Reboot Ralph and now resembled the plot detailed above. In order to add
an air of authenticity to Ralph's world, Moore and his creative team
opted to write in a number of cameo roles for famous (and not so famous)
video game characters, with the idea to secure the rights when
scripting and storyboarding was complete. The vast majority of copyright
holders granted permission (though Nintendo were said to have requested
too high a fee to allow the use of Mario and Luigi), with some going so
far as to work alongside the animators to ensure there was no
misrepresentation. In all, there are said to be over 185 of these cameo
appearance in the finished film, including Sonic The Hedgehog,
Streetfighter's Chun Li and Zangief, alongside the cast of Q-bert and
Pac-Man. For the voice behind the character of Ralph, Moore chose John
C. Reilly, with Sarah Silverman as Schweetz and Jane Levy as Sergeant
Calhoun (30 Rock's Jack McBrayer takes on the role of Fix-It Felix).
Originally set for a March 2013 release, the picture was actually pulled
forward to November 2012 thanks to being ahead of schedule. In June
2011, Reboot Ralph got its final name change, to Wreck-It Ralph, and the
first footage debuted a couple of month later at Disney D23 conference.
The first trailer appeared in June 2012, timed to coincide with the E3
videogame festival. The studio went all out on marketing the picture,
producing fake commercials for the Fix-It Felix and Hero's Duty arcade
games, retro-style posters and even going so far as to create an actual
Fix-It Felix videogame for online and mobile devices. A second trailer
appeared with the 3D release of Finding Nemo in September. Disney were
hoping that Wreck-It Ralph would play to both the old and the young,
with the former recognising the retro characters from their youth. In
terms of competition, Ralph would face the six week old Hotel
Transylvania, which had had the family market almost entirely to itself,
becoming the film of choice by default (Frankweenie aside). Reviews
were incredibly strong, with 85% of critics awarding the film a positive
notice.
On its first day out Wreck-It Ralph comfortably secured the top spot
with a solid $13.4M, much stronger than the aforementioned Hotel
Transylvania's opening day ($10.9M) but weaker than some of the other
animated releases of 2012 - though arguably, Ice Age 4 and the
Madagascar sequel had something of a built in audience (and the summer
holidays) to help. Audiences who saw the feature on Friday rated it
highly, giving it a 'A' Cinemascore, which certainly didn't hurt despite
word of mouth generally being of little concern for an animated
release. With the expected Saturday and Sunday matinee boost, Ralph
powered on ahead towards an impressive $49.1M three day figure, once
again leaving the Adam Sandler flick in its shadow (HT opened to $42M).
With that $49M, it has also completely eclipsed the entire box office
run of Frankenweenie (Disney/Buena Vista's previous release) in just one
weekend. The studio must be pleased with that figure, more so
considering that it wasn't a cheap film to produce - estimates put its
production costs at $165M. But the sky is the limit here as there is no
direct competition until Rise of the Guardians in a few weeks time. That
aside, the only thing that will push Wreck-It Ralph down the chart is
the number of films due in the next six weeks - and even they won't have
much impact on a family-friendly, well-reviewed animated release.
Expect Wreck-It Ralph to give Brave's $235M final figure cause for
concern over the coming weeks.
Flight marks the return of
Robert Zemeckis to live action directing after a 12 year hiatus and
stars Denzel Washington as airline pilot Whip Whitaker. When a flight
runs into trouble, Whitaker manages to execute a safe emergency landing,
saving everyone on board. However, during an investigation into the
events, it's revealed that the pilot had alcohol in his bloodstream,
something that could lead him to be prosecuted and face life in jail.
John Gatins scripted the film, the idea coming during a flight he made
in 1999, when he sat next to an off-duty pilot. He began sketching out
the basic plot and air crash centre piece, but unable to get much
further, he moved on to writing and making his directorial debut on
Dreamer. When Dreamworks' Adam Goodman (who had signed up Oren Peli's
Paranormal Activity and worked with Gatins on Dreamer) asked him to
write an outline for a new film, he turned in Flight. Despite the idea
(at that point) being both unconventional and largely non-commercial,
Goodman would bring it with him when he moved from Dreamworks to
Paramount. Teaming Gatins with producers Walter Parkes and Laurie
McDonald, the trio spent months working on the script, experiencing
particular problems with its ending. The project still didn't move
forward and eventually Gatins departed to work on the screenplay for
Real Steel. In 2010, the script ended up in the hands of agent Ed
Limato, who in turn showed it to his client, Denzel Washington. The
actor liked what he read and met with Gatins, but wanted a more
experienced director to helm the feature. Around this time, Robert
Zemeckis found himself without a project and came across the script for
Flight.
Motion Capture had been the reason for Zemeckis' absence
from live action filming since 2000's Castaway. Beginning with The Polar
Express in 2004, the costly festive release (produced through his
company ImageMovers) did turn a profit but came in for criticism for the
'dead eye' nature of its characters, something the director attempted
to rectify with his 2007 follow up, Beowulf and 2009's A Christmas
Carol, to varying degrees of success. However, it was 2011's costly
flop, Mars Needs Moms (that Zemeckis produced via ImageMovers Digital - a
partnership with Disney) that was the final nail in the coffin,
becoming the biggest bomb in cinematic history. After pre-production on
his fourth motion-capture film, Yellow Submarine, was scrapped due to
budgetary issues and concerns over the success of the mo-cap system, he
opted to return to live action (though hasn't ruled out a return to
motion capture particularly in regard to a long-gestating Roger Rabbit
sequel). In April 2011, it was announced that Robert Zemeckis had
signed on to direct Flight, with Washington's participation confirmed in
June. Don Cheadle, Melissa Leo, Bruce Greenwood and John Goodman would
all join the picture by late September, with a view to begin shooting
mid-October 2011. Thanks to a huge tax incentive by the state of Georgia
and the director and main star foregoing their usual salaries,
Paramount were able to bring Flight to screens for just $31M (adjusted
for inflation, the smallest budget Zemeckis had worked with since 1980's
Used Cars, according to an interview he gave to the LA Times).
Washington came to Flight off the back of the second biggest domestic
release of his career, February's Safe House, and has remained a
reliable (if not always huge) box office draw for a number of years.
Reviews
for Flight had been solid enough, with many pointing out Washington's
dramatic turn and the central plane crash sequence as particular
highlights (it's currently 76% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes). As a method to
further reduce costs and their own risk, Paramount opted to put Flight
into 1,900 locations this weekend, worried that the R-rated drama would
struggle to find an audience despite the recent success of the similarly
dramatic (and R-rated) Argo. One imagines the studio regretted that
somewhat reduced rollout as soon as they saw Friday's $8M figure,
knowing they could have easily added a further $2-3M with a bigger
theatre count (Safe House made $13M at 1200 more locations). Certainly a
good start for the flick, and proof of Washington's appeal once again,
along with the public's desire to see adult orientated drama. The
picture held very well over Saturday and into Sunday, finishing up with a
very impressive total of $25M. In comparison, Unstoppable did $22.6M
from 3,161 theatres while 2009's The Taking of Pelham 123 made $23.3M
over its first three days (as an aside, Safe House took $40.1M). There's
little doubt that Flight could have finished closer to $30M had it had a
wider release, and while Paramount will be pleased with the result
regardless, they know they missed a chance at an even bigger hit this
weekend. Skyfall will obviously take a little wind out of its sails next
Friday, but by that point the film will have all but recouped its
production budget. Another hit for Washington and a good return to live
action film making for Zemeckis.
Having achieved the somewhat
rare occurrence of moving up into the top spot, Argo once again
dominated through out the week too, and while it was expected to side
step while Flight moved in, it still remained a dramatic force to be
reckoned with. Before Friday, the Ben Affleck flick was up to $65.6M and
had closed the gap between itself and the director's previous release,
The Town, to within $2M. As we've seen, Argo lost the top spot to
Wreck-It Ralph this weekend, but still managed a $2.9M Friday haul,
despite Flight also playing well. By Sunday the feature, based around
the 'Canadian Caper', had made $10.2M for its fourth weekend (yet
another incredible drop of only 15%). That gives it an overall total of
$75.8M, putting The Town's $92M finish firmly within its reach. Argo is
already a resounding success - and there's every chance of award glory
in the coming months.
The wild card entry this week was The Man
with the Iron Fists, a Shaw Brothers style martial arts epic directed by
RZA, a member of the rap group, Wu-Tang Clan. The film was officially
announced back in 2008, but RZA and director Eli Roth had talked about
the project as early as 2005. Roth joined in a producing capacity in
2007 and the duo spent the next two years turning RZA's story into a
workable script, with the view that the Wu-Tang member would make his
feature directing debut on the movie. While still in development,
Quentin Tarantino agreed to get involved, offering to lend his name in a
'Presented By' capacity (RZA claimed in October 2012 that the two had
planned a crossover with Tarantino's Django Unchained which would see
the rapper cameo as his Iron Fist's character but time constraints meant
it didn't come off). With a $20M production budget in place, shooting
commenced in Shanghai in December 2010, with the legendary fight
choreographer Corey Yuen co-ordinating the action sequences. The premise
would see a blacksmith (played by RZA) forced to defend his villiage
when a group of warriors and assassins descend upon it in a hunt for
gold. Amongst its cast, The Man with the Iron Fists counts Lucy Liu,
mixed martial arts fighter Cung Le and former-WWE wrestler, David
Bautista. Joining them would be Russell Crowe, who had worked with RZA
on the Paul Haggis film, The Next Three Days. By March 2011, the
director was ready to assemble his first cut, which ran to an
eye-watering four hours. Initially the idea of releasing two films was
entertained but Roth convinced him to edit the film down to a tight 96
minutes (RZA admitted to leaving the editing process for two weeks in
disgust at having to chop his film down to size).
To promote the
picture, alongside the usual trailers (standard and ultra violent red
band which debuted in June and August respectively), the rapper turned
director embarked on an 11 city music concert tour, and also narrated an
animated prequel, detailing how the blacksmith had first encountered
Bautista's Brass Body character. Universal opted to put the film into
around 1,800 locations, perhaps a little unsure how the Grindhouse-style
flick will play with the general public. Critical opinion was above
average, with 62% of critics finding something they liked about the
picture. There was certainly an audience waiting for The Man With The
Iron Fists on Friday, when it slotted into third place with $3M, which
given its screen count, was a decent enough debut (Grindhouse only made
$5M on its opening day, with a lot more hype surrounding it). While Argo
managed to move ahead as the weekend wore on, Iron Fist added a further
$5.2M, to bring its overall total to $8.2M. For a genre picture in a
restricted amount of theatres, that isn't a bad start, and obviously had
the potential to clear $10M. Next frame will reveal whether it will
break out or witness a horror-movie style big drop. If nothing else, The
Man With the Iron Fists marks RZA out as a talent to watch.
Taken
2 refuses to go quietly into the night, and made $6M this weekend. In
its 31 day run, it has made an impressive $125.6M and remains a popular
choice (It was back up in third place on Thursday) for cinemagoers.
While it will fall short of the $145M made by its predecessor, this is
still a great showing for all involved, especially overseas, where it
has made over $200M to date. Liam Neeson might have ruled out a Taken 3,
but with a global total over $320M to date, the studio aren't about to
let him and his particular set of skills go without at least one more
fight.
With Wreck-It Ralph now on general release, the public
abandoned Hotel Transylvania in its sixth weekend on general release. A
lack of competition has really helped it play well during its run, and
only this frame has it seen a weekend to weekend drop bigger than 37%.
Given its patchy production history (and average reviews), there was
every chance Sony could have been left with egg on their face, but Hotel
Transylvania is looking at clearing $150M domestically, with almost
certainly more coming from overseas, where its current tally runs to
$91M. This weekend, the Adam Sandler comedy added $4.5M, to give it a
running total of $137.5M.
Despite their best efforts, the
Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer were unable to get much audience interest in
Cloud Atlas last weekend. The sprawling, time-spanning epic opened to a
very poor $9.6M, even worse than the $12-14M many had predicted. There
was talk that the incoming storm was partly to blame, but more likely
was its extended running time, R-rating and complicated plot which saw
the same actors portraying multiple characters across six time periods
(Warner Bros. marketing campaign and choice of release date also came in
for criticism). And for those that did see it, opinion was nowhere near
unanimous in praise, something that Cloud Atlas needed if it was to
bring in an unsure public. During the week it faired no better, seeing
its best day as Tuesday, when it made just over $1M. With Flight and
Argo more than ably covering the dramatic genre this weekend, Cloud
Atlas struggled to just $1.5M on its second Friday, down a high 56% on
an already weak opening day. With little to shout about, the feature
made only $3.7M more over Saturday and Sunday, giving it a second
weekend total of $5.2M, and a cumulative gross of $18.2M. With the flick
as good as dead domestically, expect WB to slash its theatre count as
early as next weekend, leaving the overseas distributors (and investors)
to hope for a better showing.
Paranormal Activity 4 may have
managed to move up into second place over Halloween (all three of the
current horror flicks moved toward the top spot on Wednesday) but by the
eve of its third weekend on release, it still hadn't surpassed what PA3
made over its first three days ($52.5M). By Friday night, the fourth
entry into the found footage franchise had dropped all the way back down
to seventh position, making $1.4M in the process. By the end of the
frame it was still trailing its predecessor and stands the very real
chance of not crossing $60M by the end of its theatrical run (its
current total is now $49.5M. Of course, given the micro-budget involved
it will still be incredibly profitable for Paramount, but like the Saw
series (which Paranormal Activity usurped to become the Halloween film
of choice) the law of diminishing returns will eventually start to bite.
With only one major release next weekend, Paranormal Activity 4 should
see one more top ten showing. Overseas the news is only marginally
better, with the picture currently sitting on a $50M+ total.
In
at ninth this weekend is Here Comes the Boom, Kevin James' teacher
turned MMA fighter flick. Despite seeing success both as a solo star and
alongside Adam Sandler, James has been unable to make a hit out of
Boom. It made $3.6M this weekend, bringing its overall total to $35.5M.
Like
all of the new releases last weekend, Silent Hill: Revelation
underperformed, but also scored the worst reviews by some distance. Even
though it bumped up into third place on Monday, the 20 day old Sinister
moved ahead over Halloween itself. By the time Friday came around
again, the sequel to the 2006 horror was sitting on a $10.5M total, just
over half of what it cost to produce. Revelation found itself shunted
down to eighth place on its second Friday, making $1.1M and dropping a
not unexpected 69% on the same day last week. All told, the [very loose]
videogame adaptation made $3.3M this weekend, bringing its ten day
total to a disappointing $13.8M. With international figures it will
break even and should end up making a small profit, but it seems safe to
say that if there are any further Silent Hill flicks, they'll be of the
straight to DVD/Blu-ray variety.
Skyfall continues to go down
incredibly well overseas - it made more money in its first seven days on
release in the UK than any other film in history.
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