Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
June 2, 2009
David Mumpower: Looking at them individually, Wolverine is a disappointment, Angels & Demons is a draw domestically and a blockbuster once we factor in international revenue, Night at the Museum 2 has done a bit less than expected but well enough, Up is a winner thus far, Star Trek is a sublime success story, and Terminator Salvation is a train wreck. Looking at the half dozen titles collectively, I have to admit I am disappointed on the whole with their combined domestic box office as well as most of their individual totals. 2009 started off with some unassuming titles absolutely shredding; May had an epic lineup of releases. The stage appeared set for something spectacular to happen, but that scenario never materialized. Instead, most of the films made about what I expected on opening weekend and have demonstrated larger than expected declines, save for Star Trek, which appears to have stolen every other title's mojo.
Tim Briody: This was being sold to us as the Biggest Month Ever, but the only two winners here are Up and Star Trek. While the rest of the summer should play out better, this is a pretty mediocre start, especially since we saw two huge unexpected January hits in Paul Blart and Taken.
Scott Lumley: In baseball terms, Up and Star Trek are Home Runs, while Angels & Demons is a triple on a weird bounce off the foreign markets. Wolverine is a ground rule double on fanboy interference. Night at the Museum 2 is a single with an error on the play and Terminator Salvation is a ground out into a double play.
I've seen most of these films now, and out of all of them, only Terminator was completely disappointing. I actually liked Wolverine quite a bit, and I really didn't see a lot of the flaws in the film that a lot of critics picked on. Star Trek was perfect, and Angels & Demons was enjoyable, if somewhat grim.
Jason Lee: Color me a skeptic but other than Star Trek, every film basically played out like I expected. You knew Wolverine would be primarily fan-driven, you knew that there was no way that either Angels & Demons or Night at the Museum 2 could live up to their predecessor (each for their own reasons), Up was always going to be a hit and Terminator Salvation was weighed down by a disappointing Rise of the Machines given the quality of Judgment Day.
That said, unless something stunning happens with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I think we're looking at a year with one $300+ film at most.
Sean Collier: Thanks for the masterful baseball analogy, Scott. We're all in agreement on Star Trek and Up, so moving on to the others - look at it this way. While Angels & Demons can be seen as a success based on international grosses, and Night at the Museum will certainly make some money, both of those franchises are probably done - they're incredibly expensive and interest has clearly waned since the first installment. Throw in Terminator - an unmitigated disaster for one of the biggest brand names ever - and you have three successful franchises killed in the space of a month. That's bad. Especially considering that, in January and February, we were talking about how the box office was bulletproof, and EVERYTHING was raking in money. There's a big drop-off here, and I wouldn't be surprised if these results continued to show up throughout the summer - if I was a Transformer, I'd be sweating. If they sweat.
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