Monday Morning Quarterback
By BOP Staff
March 19, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Brett Ballard-Beach: Although it looked generic in some aspects and Halle Berry isn't the box office draw she once was, I think this had enough of a high-concept hook that it stood out from all the dudes with guns and explosions movies that have tanked over the past 10 weeks (in that sense, it stood out like Mama did though this wasn't strictly a horror movie). Either that or the dirty old man contingent who wanted to see a teen Abigail Breslin terrified and screaming and with her shirt off turned out in droves. On a side note, this is director Brad Anderson's largest opening weekend (as well as his first film to ever open and/or play wide). In fact, opening day just about surpassed the combined final grosses of his previous six feature films.
Jay Barney: This is a huge win for WWE Films and I think a lot of us are wondering just why this did so well. A budget of $13 million isn't too high, but for it to do $17 million in the first weekend is just incredible. It made back its production budget before the first weekend was over. Not many movies can claim that sort of success. This should hang around in the top 10 for the next couple of weeks, all the while just improving on this outstanding number. Maybe it did so well because it is the counter-programing choice for the weekend, but boy, was tracking off on this one.
Felix Quinonez: I'm pretty shocked by this. The closest thing to an explanation that I can come up with is that perhaps it was seen as counter-programming choice of the weekend. Or maybe it just seemed odd enough to attract attention.
Matthew Huntley: I think Felix was right to suggest counter-programming as the primary reason The Call did so (unexpectedly) well. With March Madness brewing, the NHL hitting its mid-season, and Oz eating up the family crowd, The Call gave young women their own option this weekend and they (along with any other demographics that happen to see it) ran with it. With that said, I think its success can also be attributed to the trailer/marketing, which put women in control of a high concept, and perhaps this is just the beginning of a new phase in cinema, where women run the show in action movies. But, to be fair, I hated the trailer, not only because it gave everything away, but because it made the movie look like a joke. Granted, I haven't seen it yet, but those were my impressions. Honestly, I could have seen this movie either doing really well or really badly. Obviously, the former was the way it went.
Bruce Hall: I think that if you wanted to see something new this weekend, your choices were either this, or Burt Wonderstone. Add to this Oz the Great and Powerful having a pretty strong second weekend, and it was always going to be a two horse race for second, between a movie most people didn't want to see, and a movie nobody wanted to see. I guess the difference was, one had a hook and the other had Steve Buscemi in a wig.
Edwin Davies: The Call was just interesting enough to stand out on a weekend when there wasn't much else going. It had a premise which was easy to grasp (It's Die Hard...in a Call Center!), predominantly featured women in the major roles, which works on both a counter-programming level and, somewhat unfortunately, makes it an exception in American action cinema, and the trailers were pretty effective at getting those key points across. Plus, there has been a dearth of decent action films/thrillers this year, and there was clearly enough here to make people think it was worth taking a chance on. I'm surprised by just how many, however.
Kim Hollis: I thought this would tank, and I'm kind of blown away by the fact that people would choose this generic-looking thriller over any other generic whatever we've seen throughout 2013. I barely saw any marketing (again, it was mostly limited to WWE promo stuff) and what I did see of the movie just looked blah. It sort of reminds me of Double Jeopardy back in 1999.
David Mumpower: I had mentioned in the forecast that the movie forcibly reminded me of Cellular, a 2004 movie starring Chris Evans. I always think of that movie as a bomb because it was. It cost $45 million to produce while earning only $32 million domestically. A key note about that performance is that it debuted to $10.1 million, which is the modern equivalent of $13 million. In other words, the movie opened well for a low budget film but failed relative to its inexplicably large financial outlay. The Call may be thematically similar (on the surface level, I would maintain identical) to Cellular, but the pertinent difference is that its budget of $13 million makes it a safer play. Making the same movie premise for 30% of the cost is an impressive feat. I still do not understand what about this project distinguished it enough to reach this sort of opening weekend box office, though. The ads I have seen are shamelessly generic. I guess we have reached a point where consumers are so desperate for a new movie that anything will do...unless it's a magic-based comedy.
Kim Hollis: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, a comedy featuring dueling magicians and starring Steve Carell and Jim Carrey, earned only $10.2 million at the box office this weekend. Why did this one bomb?
Brett Ballard-Beach: Based on some of the predictions for this, I may have been alone in thinking it was not going to break out of the single millions for its opening. The fact that it opened at a single screen art house theater (as well as all the multiplexes of course) here in Portland had me thinking for the longest time that they were going to end up trimming the theater count, and acknowledge that this was a cult film in the making and not much else. I know I may enjoy this in practice somewhere down the line, but in theory this looked like a single joke film where the joke weren't funny. I truly did not grasp who the wide mainstream audience for this was. A $30 million budget is hard not to make back for a 3,000 plus screen opening, but Burt Wonderstone might just pull off that unenviable trick.
Jay Barney: Maybe the problem with this was the perception it was going to be a bit over the top? The cast certainly wasn't an issue here, with Carrey and Carell being huge names with a slew of other talent. Another problem here was no doubt poor word-of-mouth, as the critics are savaging this one. Audiences just have not embraced it, and it may be out of the top 10 within a week or two.
Felix Quinonez: I think to convince audiences to see something that looks this ridiculous you need a big box office draw. When movies are this silly, there is a risk of alienating audiences. Some people might feel like they aren't in on the joke. The comparison has been made on this site to Burt Wonderstone and Blades of Glory and while I do think that there are similarities between the two movies, Blades of Glory had Will Ferrell in the kind of role people love him in. Wonderstone has Jim Carrey, who is way past his peak, Steve Carrell, who is not the most reliable draw, and a bunch of famous people who are almost non-factors when it comes to the box office. I think having leads who are bigger draws right now may have helped in convincing people to look past the oddness of the movie.
But then again it does look pretty terrible and reviews are not good, so maybe making a better movie could have helped too.
Matthew Huntley: This is sort of a no-brainer to me since the trailer/ads didn't make The Incredible Burt Wonderstone look very funny. Example: there's a scene where Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi are trapped in a glass cage and one of them nearly falls out while pulling the other's pants down. Really? Have we reverted to that kind of humor again? The magic industry seems like one of the most satirize-able, but the filmmakers don't seem to have done their homework to make this one work, despite the talent.
Bruce Hall: I agree; despite the big names attached, this just looked like a half hearted collection of play it safe sight gags and basic cable dialogue. I also think that everyone loves Steve Carell, but not enough to consistently turn out for his movies. And those who say Jim Carrey is past his prime will not be dissuaded by what they see here. Some movies, you can just smell the stink on them months in advance. It seemed a fair bet early on that Burt Wonderstone was going to be one of them.
Edwin Davies: There were a number of problems facing the film going in to the weekend, chief of which was that everyone said it was mediocre at best and the ads failed to include any single moment that suggested that this wasn't the case. However, I think the problems run much deeper. Firstly, the premise is so very, very odd. If it came out a few years ago when "Celebrity magicians" were a thing, it might have attracted people as a comedy riffing on something in the popular consciousness, but when was the last time you thought of Siegfried and Roy in a non-mauling capacity, or of Criss Angel at all? Exactly. I don't think there was anyone interested in the subject matter to begin with, so why would anyone want to go out and pay to see it being mocked?
Secondly, the cast members aren't big enough draws to make up for the weakness of the premise. Steve Carell is a very popular guy who pretty much everyone likes, but without a strong premise (such as Date Night or Get Smart) he's not much of an attraction, which is why he's tended to do well in small-scale projects like Little Miss Sunshine and Dan in Real Life, where he can act without having to be weighed down by the premise. Jim Carrey, meanwhile, has tried to move away from these sort of films in recent years, instead appearing in kids films (Horton Hears a Who, Mr Popper's Penguins), thrillers (The Number 23, possibly the funniest film of his career) and the occasional critical darling (I Love You Phillip Morris), all of which have kept him working, but it's been ten years since he was a truly huge star in a wacky comedy. The audience that used to turn out for him in wacky comedies have moved on, and the people who have grown up in that time and would be the right age for Burt Wonderstone (mid-to-late teens) probably don't really know who he is as a comedy actor.
David Mumpower: Steve Carell had been Jim Carrey's good luck charm after their first two movies together. I think it's safe to say that the bloom is off that rose by now. I agree with the statements that the trailers are not funny, which reminds me of a movie that is wholly unrelated. When Hall Pass was announced as the next Farrelly Brothers comedy, we were optimistic about its chances. After the trailers aired, most of us decided they were not funny enough to sell a comedy. Carrey, like his Farrelly friends, is on the downward slope of his career. Audiences are so jaded about his film choices that the trailers need to distinguish themselves in order to entice consumers to watch. Note that this is the future Adam Sandler is facing right now. If the point of a comedy is to make people laugh but the commercials fail to do so, we should not be surprised when the movies disappoint. Also, between Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and this, Carell needs a hit or he will be in danger of suffering the same recent fate as Carrey and Sandler.
Kim Hollis: I love Steve Carell and will see him in almost everything, but when I first saw the title and concept of this movie, it felt like a joke. There was no way this movie could be real. And yet here it was, opening in more than 3,000 locations. I don't even think this one would have succeeded with bigger names. Maybe Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson like 10 years ago, but I guess that was technically Zoolander, just with male models rather than magicians.