Monday Morning Quarterback

By BOP Staff

March 12, 2013

The World Baseball Classic is all about the spirit of sportsmanship.

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Kim Hollis: Dead Man Down, the new film featuring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, opened with $5.3 million this weekend. What do you think about this result?

Matthew Huntley: If ever there was a movie that even the most distant box-office follower could pin as a failure before it opened, Dead Man Down could be a candidate. With its generic title and premise, it sparked no interest from movie-going audiences, and that much was clear going into the weekend. How this even got into cinemas is somewhat of a mystery because it has "Direct to DVD" written all over it, and I'm betting the studio wishes they'd now gone that route to save on prints/advertising costs. Perhaps they thought it would serve as counter-programming to Oz, but I don't think they were betting on the latter's cross-over appeal. This is strike four for the action genre after the failed The Last Stand, Bullet to the Head and A Good Day to Die Hard. Collectively, they've barely made more than Oz's first weekend numbers. Ouch.

Jay Barney: This will be a totally forgettable product. One mark of how bad your product is would be measuring the amount of weeks that it spends in the top ten. Films without following tend to fall quickly. They don't maintain the screens they had already, and it is a negative spiral. Dead Man Down opened with a theater count of just over 2,000....and it is going to shed venues quickly. Look at A Good Day To Die Hard. It opened just a month ago and it is already out of the top 10. It is possible that Dead Man Down is out of the top 10 in five more days. That is not good.




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Max Braden: I'd criticize this for lack of any sort of advertising, especially since I have no idea what it's about, but it still opened bigger than Stallone's Bullet to the Head.

David Mumpower: Anyone looking for a prime example of box office poison should look no further than Colin Farrell. He keeps getting cast to headline movies for the simple reason that he's a great actor. Every time he does, North America collectively shrugs its shoulders. Miami Vice and Total Recall, the "hits" on his resume" were both $25 million openers that failed to match expectations. Everything else he's done save for Horrible Bosses where he played an antagonist failed to attract any potential consumers. The whole situation is baffling because he is such an engaging guy. People seemed to like bad boy Farrell better back before he became a better, more mature person.

Kim Hollis: I actually wanted to see this, but it's because I'm a mark for Farrell and also because I was intrigued by the fact that the director of the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was making his English-language debut with this. I'm disappointed that it's gotten such poor reviews, but I'm sure I'll catch it on home video when I have the chance. I pretty much think most people are in the same position as Max, where they didn't even see any marketing for it. The only reason I did is because I happened to catch a promo during WWE Monday Night Raw (in addition to being a mark for Colin Farrell, I'm also a mark for C.M. Punk).


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