Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
June 24, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: Whose career is helped the most by Get Smart - Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway or Dwayne Johnson? And which of them do you consider to be the biggest draw at this point?
Pete Kilmer: It helped Steve Carell the most as it solidified him as a movie star. It helped Dwayne Johnson with his current streak of family-friendly comedies. And it showed that Anne Hathaway is still a draw after Devil Wears Prada. I honestly don't know who benefited more.
Dan Krovich: One thing all three of them have in common is that they're just naturally very likable. That will serve them well with audiences.
Joel Corcoran: I have to agree - it's a tie. Get Smart really helped all three actors to roughly the same extent, but in very different ways. However, if I had to pick one, I'd say Anne Hathaway will gain the most benefit in terms of her overall career. She's now proven herself as a dramatic actor (in Brokeback Mountain and Becoming Jane), someone who can appeal to kids (in the Princess Diaries movies), and as a purely comedic actor in more adult-oriented movies (like Get Smart). I think her performance here will open up more roles for her in the future, while Get Smart will reinforce and solidify the reputations of Steve Carell and Dwayne Johnson.
Shane Jenkins: I admire the fact that Johnson took a small role, reportedly to have the experience of starring in a half-decent comedy for once, and didn't demand a whole bunch of rewrites to give him more screentime. His part is smaller than you might guess from the ads, but he nails it, which should solidify his "likable" reputation for viewers and studios alike. This is a significant step for him, and I hope it's a turning point, because if he were just a little more selective with his material, I think he could be the next Will Smith.
Matthew Huntley: I go with Anne Hathaway. Even though she shares the advertisements with Steve Carell, it's her beautiful face and playful attitude that most people will remember. Ever since 2005, Hathaway has been shedding her good girl/Princess Diaries image and has shown she can handle more risque and adult-themed roles, and Get Smart will prove that even more. However, her roles have not been too extreme where she couldn't return to the family genre if she wanted to. The key is she's showing range, and if you give her a starring role with top billing, one that she's able to take to the bank, she'll solidify herself as a marketable actress.
At this point, Carell remains the biggest box office draw since he's become most familiar to so many types of audience members, from families and kids (Dan In Real Life, Horton Hears a Who) to teenagers and adults (The 40-Year Old Virgin). He also has the advantage of being on a TV series. Hathaway still has to have a starring role of her own and Dwayne Johnson needs to work at dropping his "Rock" image. When people start to see him as something other than a WWE wrestler, his bankability should go up.
Reagen Sulewski: I'd have to say Johnson. This is probably the first role (in a movie that's going to be a hit - sorry The Rundown) that doesn't seem like stunt casting for him.
Scott Lumley: As much as Carell needed a summer hit to prove that Virgin wasn't a fluke, I think this helps Dwayne Johnson more. It's really his first major role film that should be successful and it showcases his comedy chops at the same time. He's getting almost as much play in the commercials that I've seen as Carell is, whereas poor Anne Hathaway is reduced to 'Are you looking at my butt?' Butt vs Stapler to the head, the stapler wins every time.
Daron Aldridge: For career boost, it's a toss up between Carell and Johnson. Most TV ads that I saw prominently featured Carell and Johnson. After Evan Almighty, Carell needed something to show he could open a movie as an above the title star. Get Smart appears to prove that. Similarly, Johnson builds on his persona of being more comedy than action and audiences like that side of him. The biggest draw is probably Anne Hathaway. She already has a decent track record, so it solidifies her current drawing power, plus I would argue that the 40% under 25 reported by Warner Brothers is likely due to Hathaway's presence.
Jason Lee: Hathaway and Johnson are solid draws in their respective demographics on their own. I think Carell is the one who had the most to prove after the disaster that was Evan Almighty
James D. Ruccio: I think it's a tie between all three although I can't speak to Hathaway as I can't say I've seen much of her work. I think it helps Carell in that continues to show he can pick projects that either stretch his resume or as it is in this case solidify his particular type of character. I'm most happy about Johnson, though. I was somewhat shocked that Scorpion King didn't do better and absolutely propel him into Ah-nuld circa early '80s. I worried as I watched him search for scripts and projects that would allow him to tap into his natural talents and charms. So it's nice to see what I suspect is a genuinely nice, talented, charming actor find some success.
Now, I have to go back into my room, practice arching my eyebrow and come up with pithy lines about my made up enemies...
Ew. Stinky cheese.
Kim Hollis: The Love Guru earned only $14 million against a budget of $62 million. Does this place it in contention for the Bomb of the Year?
Pete Kilmer: Oh, yeah. And with all the stories that have comes out over the last two weeks about Mike Myers...until and unless he gets Austin Powers 4 going, this is the last time he gets a movie greenlit with him as lead.
Dan Krovich: It's not a Speed Racer level bomb, but it's definitely the second clear cut bomb of the summer.
Joel Corcoran: I disagree with Dan - I think it's THE bomb of the summer. Speed Racer opened to $18.6 million at the beginning of May, when the summer movie season was just beginning to heat up (no pun intended). And even with its lackluster performance, it should still reach the break-even point before DVD sales kick in. But Love Guru ... that's an entirely different story. I think we're looking at a bomb on the order of Stealth or The Core.
Max Braden: Two weeks ago we were talking about how Adam Sandler is still going strong. Myers actually has the stronger box office record of the two SNL alums. He should have had a his fan base from the Austin Powers series to support him, and theoretically open as big as Zohan did. He could argue that there was competition from the Sandler and Carell comedies, but in another universe he should have been able to beat both. That's a huge bomb.
Shane Jenkins: I have to side with Dan on this. Love Guru is a huge disappointment on every level. But with that budget, it will make back half its production cost in domestic theaters, and will attract plenty of suckers when it's released on DVD. Speed Racer's budget was double Guru's and will make roughly the same amount of money domestically. Plus I'm pretty sure Speed spent considerably more on advertising. I'm certainly no Guru fan, but I think Speed Racer easily wears that dubious crown.
Matthew Huntley: It's definitely one of the summer's big bombs. Besides earning only a fraction of its budget on opening weekend, The Love Guru was also panned by critics, which is never good for legs at the box office. Even worse is how little audiences are actually responding to it theaters. During my screening, more people were scratching their heads and rolling their eyes than even chuckling. Speed Racer will definitely take the Bomb of the Year Award, but The Love Guru will come in a close second, and it's safe to say it will earn its fair share of Razzies. Such dis-honors are things you don't expect from a Mike Myers' movie.
Reagen Sulewski: Expectations had dropped so low that it almost seems like this couldn't feel like that bad of a bomb - and then it threw under those. There's still time for another blockbuster to really tank, but this might be the clubhouse leader. As far as Speed Racer goes, audiences didn't really like, or get Speed Racer, but it seems like they hated The Love Guru, so even though Speed Racer is a bigger disaster monetarily, Guru feels like a bigger bomb.
James D. Ruccio: I think Speed Racer still takes the title but I'm more happy that Love Guru bombed than any movie of recent memory. I'm almost insulted by how bad it looked.
I hate to trash anyone's artistic endeavors as I can only imagine how difficult it is to create a movie from first concept to finished product but Myers doesn't even appear to be trying. It's recycled jokes from the Austin Powers movies (which were mostly recycled or I'll rephrase, refined, as I found the sequels pretty funny), dumbed down.
And Max is right...I think the box office of Love Guru is surprising. Myers, as mentioned, has proven to be the bigger box office draw than Sandler, more consistent and recent. But again, those commercials were some of the worst movie comedy spots since some of Robin Williams recent bombs.
Scott Lumley: Uh, yeah. This pretty much places Myers in the 'has been' or 'lost it' category. He doesn't quite drop to 'M. Night Shamalyan' status and he's a fair way from Uwe Boll, but I'm betting Mike's not getting a lot of people answering his calls right now. The studio's got to be praying that the drop on this is ONLY '70%' so that they have a reasonable chance to recoup most of their money worldwide and domestically.
Daron Aldridge: That is a bold statement and if I can wish it into reality, then consider it wished for. Given the expected collapse in weekend two, Bomb of the Year would definitely be a lock, if not for Meet Dave or Starship Dave with Eddie Murphy on the horizon. With a reported $100 million price tag on Whatever Dave, Mike Myers might be saved from having the year's biggest pink slip generator by his Shrek co-star.
Sean Collier: Despite being a total failure in just about every measurable sense, The Love Guru will probably at least limp its way to making half of its budget domestically, breaking even worldwide. Bomb of the Year is all sewn up as the only contest that Speed Racer will win.
Jason Lee: This is by far not the bomb of the year. If anything, this film is the "Movie That Renews My Faith in the Intelligence of the American Moviegoing Audience" of the year. I think Speed Racer takes the Bomb of the Year title so far . . . as I found it to be a really strong film that didn't nearly receive the audience that it deserved.