Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
March 11, 2015
Kim Hollis: This is just about what you'd expect from a sequel to a modestly successful art house film. Or maybe it's not. Perhaps the shock is that the movie was made at all and that we're talking about it after a pretty solid debut weekend. No, it's not going to have quite the same earning potential that the original Magnolia Hotel did, but it definitely speaks to its audience. It's going to be an earner for the studio.
Edwin Davies: This is a perfectly fine result. Considering that the first one was a word-of-mouth success that didn't really demand a sequel, it's not too big of a surprise that the follow-up opened well (i.e. because a lot of people saw and like the first one) but wasn't exactly a smash (the fanbase for the film probably weren't THAT passionate about the first one). If the film skews older like the first did, then I could see it getting close to the original's final tally, though the wider release means that it'll be in danger of losing screens as we move into blockbuster season, a fate that the first one avoided by always performing really well on a small number of screens. It's doing better overseas than the first did at this point, and the budget doesn't appear to have ballooned too much, so even if it fails to crack $40 million domestically it should still make out okay.
Kim Hollis: Vince Vaughn's Unfinished Business earned just $4.8 million as it finished in 10th place for the weekend. What has happened to Vaughn?
Jason Barney: Unfinished Business arrived into the market place with a trailer that wasn’t funny and with an actor who hasn’t done well for a couple of years. I think the writing should have been on the wall. Personally, the only interesting part of the lead up to this film was the involvement of Tom Wilkinson, who is a very underrated actor. Everything else was in the blah range.
I don’t want this to come across as too harsh, but I have never seen the appeal of Vince Vaughn and I don’t understand why people think he is that funny. At all. I don’t enjoy his roles, and I am surprised studios continue to roll the dice on him. His recent track record is pretty uninspiring. Delivery Man did okay, but The Internship flopped badly. The Watch did even worse. The Dilemma didn’t do very well either. His last real significant money maker was Couples Retreat and that was back in 2009. That is saying something.
Michael Lynderey: For the record, while this likely finally reveals me as a space alien, I prefer Vaughn's recent The Internship (very funny) and Delivery Man (it works) to his Old School, Starsky & Hutch, Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up, Fred Claus, Four Christmases, and Couples Retreat. That is a remarkable series of hits, although the last four films I mention don't have a lot of fans. Vince Vaughn himself is simply following the career pattern of basically every single major comedic leading man in film history - some little-seen but perhaps well-reviewed early work, a series of massive juggernaut hits, and then an inevitable number of flops. Many such careers have comeback phases, and that's what Vaughn has to be looking for. Luckily, he has an avenue, since he's one of the leads in the second season of True Detective. Perhaps that will help Vaughn re-invent himself as a dramatic actor, which couldn't be too hard since that's exactly what he was before Old School re-drew the map. As for Unfinished Business, I thought it had potential, but once the reviews came in (it's among Vaughn's worst films) there wasn't anything that could be done and the film was a non-starter. Let's put it in the past now. I have faith that Vaughn will turn this around.
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