New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

David Mumpower: I agree with Felix that based on the quality of the trailers, the opening weekend is nothing short of miraculous. I also want to head off any criticisms of Edwin regarding his seemingly harsh criticism of the film's potential profitability. Matthew is correct that the budget was reported to be $70 million. In reality, it became $130 million and the negative cost is just a shade under $200 million. That difference of a factor of nearly three fundamentally changes the dynamic here.

Yes, Dracula Untold surprised, nay, shocked with a $23.5 million debut plus overseas revenue of $63 million. Given the above, it is still going to struggle to break even worldwide, remembering that studios keep a much smaller share of international box office. The fact that the film has already fallen to third place domestically behind the Steve Carell Title That Never Ends is also alarming. At this moment, Dracula Untold is a temporary triumph but a (presumed) long term failure.

Kim Hollis: I'd echo Felix's comment that this movie looked just absolutely terrible, so I think it's pretty impressive that it made as much as it did. Dracula Untold's performance doesn't really justify the franchise Universal was hoping for, and in the long run it's not going to be overly profitable. It'll go down as yet another forgettable vampire flick.

Kim Hollis: Alexander And the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a Disney film featuring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner, opened to $18.4 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Edwin Davies: This is pretty solid, considering that movies like Alexander and The Unwieldy Title are few and far between these days. Between this and The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Disney seems to be determined to cultivate an audience for these kind of modestly budgeted live-action movies aimed at young kids and co-starring Jennifer Garner, and this seems like a marked improvement on that film's performance, both critically and commercially. It won't be a runaway hit, but with little direct competition it should hang around for a while and do okay business overseas, which will turn this into a solid, unspectacular win for Disney.

Felix Quinonez: This was a very good opening. The movie had a modest budget and it should have some decent legs so it will turn out to be a very solid investment. I'd consider it a win for everyone involved.

Bruce Hall: I'm glad to see both Carell and Garner in something both appropriate to their level of appeal and suited to their individual strengths.

Not a home run, just the good, solid success it needed to be.

David Mumpower: First off, please find the person who named this movie then slug them for me. I mean hard, too. Really give it to them. Now that I've said what we're all thinking, this story is Disney's wheelhouse. It's a comfortable story featuring a pair of likable stars, not unlike Garner's other recent Disney project, The Odd Life of Timothy Green. That film had a $40 million budget while earning about $52 million domestically.

Alexander and the BlahBlahBlah cost even less at $28 million, and it has already grossed $22 million domestically. It's going to be another quickly forgotten 2014 release that provides a solid but unsexy return on investment for everyone involved. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Kim Hollis: Given that there haven't been many films targeted to families and kids recently, this is a slight breakout above what I would have expected for Alexander, etc. Disney has had a bunch of these live action flicks over the last 40 years or more, and this one fits nicely within that niche. It's going to do exactly what they want it to - which is make a bit of money in theaters before going on to find success on home video and ABC Family.

Continued:       1       2