Star Trek passes $200 million in U.S., $300M worldwide and still flying high
By Keith Williams
Ed Asner career gets UP
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/31/09 — Up, up and away soared the latest Pixar animated feature, their first in 3D, with a grumpy old man and a fat boy scout rising way above everyone else in the top ten with an estimated $68.2 million from 3766 balloon rides. Drag Me To Hell, Sam Raimi’s “quickie” after his Spider-Man movies, grossed out $16.6 million at 2508 seances, a bit of a disappointment for something expected to do considerably better.
Ever since Toy Story burst onto an unsuspecting world back in 1995, Pixar have continued to amaze and delight audiences with their witty scripts, dazzling visuals, and uplifting emotional themes. Quite simply, nobody does this genre (or any other) so consistently entertaining and inventively. Up, their tenth foray into the world of animated adventures that entertain adults as much as, if not more than kids, continues that trend, attracting some of their best reviews so far.
The Incredibles holds the record for Pixar’s biggest opening weekend to date, $70.4 million back in 2003, while last year’s Wall-e took $63 million en route to $224 million (domestic). Considering Up’s opening grosses are arguably inflated by the extra cost of those Gree-D glasses, $68 million is still a remarkable figure for a company that went from animating a desk lamp to opening the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, something not even a Mr Mickey Mouse achieved.
Horror fans, older ones that is, as in pre-Scream, may recall a classic from the 1950′s directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews. Based on M. R. James’s Casting the Runes, Curse of the Demon (aka Night of the Demon) was a model of restraint and eerie atmosphere, bar an infamous tacked-on ending featuring a suspiciously rubber-looking demon.
All those who ever wanted a remake, look no further than Sam Raimi’s new horror flick, Drag Me to Hell, which arrived in third place. Featuring Alison Lohman and Justin Long, not only does it abduct key elements and themes from that former adaptation, but manages to screw them up in a juvenile and tension-free way. Being neither hard horror like Saw or The Strangers, nor fun and witty horror such as the Final Destination series, this non-scary, non-gory, non-anything effort plays more like Evil Dead for pre-teens where loud bangs and other cheap theatrics are intended to evoke shocks. Its less-than-stellar opening grosses suggests that while all the great reviews it garnered came from people who don’t go out much, its credibility for true horror fans will determine what kind of legs await it over the next couple of weeks.
Trailing behind Up in second place, Night at the Museum 2 took a tumble of 52.9% for $25.5 million, Terminator Salvation in 4th plummeted 62.1% for $16 million, followed by Star Trek which slowed down by 44.1% for $12.8 million. The grand total so far for the rebirth of the Starship Enterprise is now $209 million domestic (in one month!), making it the first film of 2009 to cross the much-desired $200 million mark. Internationally you can add another $100 million, making J J Abrams the most popular guy at Paramount right now for delivering the most successful Trek film of them all.
Falling to sixth place by 48.4%, Angels & Demons collected $11.2 million in Sony’s poor plate, at 7 Dance Flick turned out to have flat feet by stumbling 54% for $4.9 million, X-Men Origins: Wolverine at 8 found its claws manicured by 51.7% for $3.9 million, leaving Ghosts of Girlfriends Past to haunt the no 9 slot with $1.9 million on a spiritless drop of 50%. Farewells are in order this week for Obsessed, knocking on the top ten exit door with a mighty 66.3% drop in stalking and $665,000 ($67 million total).
The only film already in release to register an increase in business turns out to be The Brothers Bloom, rising to 11th position in the charts by 69.6% to enchant $652,000 for a grand sum of $1.3 million, so maybe, just maybe, it could nudge itself higher next week, which would be nice.
Weekend Estimates courtesy boxofficemojo.com
1 response so far ↓
1 Russell Mulcahy // Jun 1, 2009 at 8:04 am
Thank you Keith for your report on the animated film ‘UP’. Pixar have done it again, making a film spearheaded with an intelligent script and concept, then fine tuning it with terrific direction, fine acting and topping it off with spectacular 3D. This is not at all surprising from a company that made a entertaining short about a desk lamp so many years ago.
But my main concern is the longevity of 3D itself. I am worried that the surge charge on the 3D glasses will turn people off. Why can’t it be made simpler. Have the glasses in a zip lock bag, the patron takes the glasses home and returns to any other 3D film with his or her own pair of glasses. NO surcharge! If you don’t have a pair, you pay a ‘one off’ charge to get a pair. They are now the patron’s ‘own’
glasses to take home. When you go to see another 3D film you merely show your glasses and are NOT charged the surcharge for a ‘new’ pair. It will be cheaper for the theatre as they will not have to clean and re cycle used glasses.
This extra cost attached to 3D films because of this surcharge is a short sighted move.
The move in the industry is to release more 3D films. Fantastic! But distributors and theaters should be careful not to become greedy (not a good word these days) with this ‘extra charge. There is a simple and fair solution.
Leave a Comment