Monday Morning Quarterback Part I
By BOP Staff
June 4, 2013
David Mumpower: Quantifying the appeal of Fast and Furious 6 is a tricky proposition. Most of the time, we discuss the dangers of over the top action in trailers, pointing out that they are regularly considered a cry for help. The sixth F&F film features a car driving through a plane (!) yet I find myself thinking HELL YEAH! every time I watch it. As I mentioned after the Super Bowl, I always expected the movie to raise the bar for opening weekends, and it did. Fast and Furious 6 narrowly missed a $100 million weekend but still managed $117 million in four days. It effectively swallowed the hopes and dreams of competing "blockbusters" Epic and The Hangover III in the process.
After only ten days, Fast and Furious 6 is already the second most popular film in the franchise in terms of domestic and global box office. It appears certain to surpass Fast Five in both areas in short order. I really have to tip my hat to Universal for what they have accomplished here. After the disastrous 2 Fast 2 Furious performance and the largely unwatched (but good) Tokyo Drift, they rebuilt a franchise on the fly. They admitted a mistake in letting Vin Diesel walk and they found a worthy foil for him in The Rock, thereby reducing the importance of Paul Walker in the equation. The end result is that F&F has leveled up as a franchise and is now one of the legitimate anchor tentpoles in our industry.
Kim Hollis: The Hangover Part III fell 61% to $16.4 million this weekend, good enough for sixth place. It has earned $88.5 million and is a mortal lock to become the least successful film in the trilogy(?). Why do you believe consumers turned on the Hangover franchise?
Jay Barney: I think it has a lot to do with the quality and shock value of the original, and how beloved that film was. When we all saw The Hangover back in 2009 it was fresh and nostalgic at the same time. A lot of people watching thought of their own experiences and were able to laugh with a bit of embarrassment. Nights out or bachelor parties were bad...but not as bad as what was presented in The Hangover. The film captured something special - scary drug induced adventures we all had to cringe at.
When the second was slotted in for Memorial Day Weekend in 2011, a lot of people rushed to see it because they loved the first one so much. The second Hangover film isn't as bad as a lot of people say it is. However, there is little new there, and I am not sure the concept allows much exploration beyond what we have already seen.
With the release of Part III, people have the attitude that they have already seen anything that might come up from Part I or Part II. Also, aside from May, the box office numbers have been down all year. People don't want to pay to see something they may have already laughed at a couple of years ago.
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