Monday Morning Quarterback Part I
By BOP Staff
July 14, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the latest summer comic book adaptation, opened to $34.5 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?
Max Braden: That's not a bad opening, but for a visually impressive mid July opener full of action I would have expected closer to $50 million
David Mumpower: I feel this is a solid result for the project. Hellboy opened to $23.2 million and inflation-adjusts to about $26.5 million. Clearly, it's outperformed the original by quite a bit in terms of ticket sales. The total also almost matches the entire domestic run of Pan's Labyrinth ($37.6 million). So, while this might be a middling result for a comic book movie, it has to be a success given the considerations above.
Kim Hollis: I'm pretty pleased with it, as I would say it performed precisely to expectations. No more, no less. I do think this one is a harder sell than some other properties that aren't as well known, particularly as the lead characters are so...strange. So, to increase over the first film by a significant amount has to be considered a huge win. They've grown the audience.
David Mumpower: Kim makes an excellent point. The comic book characters here are the strangest we've seen on screen since League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and they're among the oddest mainstream ones this side of Doom Patrol. Selling the idea of the devil's son being a good guy was something Adam Sandler couldn't do, so Ron Perlman's accomplishing this feat is impressive.
Sean Collier: Hellboy 1 didn't hit $60 Million. The star is a talented workhorse, but a non-draw. The source material is known by few. This summer is soaked with superheroes. A week in advance, the only words moviegoers can utter are "the," "dark," and "knight." The upshot? $35.9 Million is an excellent opening for Hellboy. A quiet hit was all that producers could hope for, and they've got it. Hellboy 2 is a big success story.
Brandon Scott: I'm surprised as hell. This shows the power of a cult film and character whose phenomenon grows through rentals and strong word-of-mouth. I still have no idea who Hellboy is, yet early talk is this film could see nine figures, though I'll go out on a limb and say the chances of a repeat first place finish are shorter than his horns.
Scott Lumley: I consider this a disturbing result. This is one wacked out and unique visualization of one of the more original characters in film history. The film is surreal, if disjointed, and I'm not entirely sure it's going to have legs as this character doesn't appeal to all groups and actually has a negative appeal with specific groups. This needed to do better. As it stands, if this doesn't show some serious legs this may be our last Hellboy film and that would be very much a shame.
Daron Aldridge: Its weekend number is a bit lower than I hoped for, based upon the Johnny-come-latelys that made the first one such a huge hit on DVD. I thought the rush would have been greater but it still could have decent legs if people were just waiting to make Dark Knight the next superhero movie they see. Despite the superhero angle, I think Batman and Hellboy can coexist and Hellboy won't be cannibalized.
Reagen Sulewski: It might be middling for some of the comic book movies we've seen in the past couple of years, but Hellboy is about the closest thing there is to an indie comic movie, especially given who's the creative force behind it. It's a fantastic result when viewed through that lens. Also David, don't forget that Ron Perlman isn't using the most annoying voice ever for his character.
Pete Kilmer: I think it's a terrific result for a comic book movie that doesn't have the name pedigree of a Marvel or DC Comics hero. It grew its audience from the first movie on DVD and they came out for the second Hellboy film.
The ring. We wants it!
Kim Hollis: Based on Hellboy II's performance and the quality of Pan's Labyrinth, do you think Guillermo del Toro is the right choice for The Hobbit?
Sean Collier: I'd answer that, but I'm already too busy nerding out.
David Mumpower: I'm not sure the box office of Hellboy II comes into play much with this decision. What does matter is the way he handles the fairy tale aspects of this storyline as well as the one in Pan's Labyrinth. Those play directly into the J.R.R Tolkien mythos. Given how creature-happy del Toro has gotten and this, I think he's inspired choice for the films.
Shane Jenkins: I agree with David that del Toro's definitely creature-happy, but I'm a little worried he will become so obsessed with designing all the various Middle Earth oddities, that he will lose focus on forwarding the narrative. I think HBII has demonstrated this tendency a little.
Kim Hollis: I still think I might have liked to have had Sam Raimi as The Hobbit director instead, but I do think Guillermo has a lot of stylistic similarities to Peter Jackson, so he is probably the best choice to keep the transition to Bilbo Baggins' past more seamless.
Reagen Sulewski: I expect that del Toro will be reined in a little stylistically by the already existing Lord of the Rings movies. "No, Guillermo, you can't put eyes on Gollum's fingers."
Pete Kilmer: After watching the battle at the end between The Prince and Hellboy, I was thinking that I couldn't wait to see what del Toro does with The Hobbit with Peter Jackson guiding him.
Daron Aldridge: I can't wait to see what del Toro does with Tolkien. Remember that prior to Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson wasn't exactly an accomplished director, even though I would argue that The Frighteners is criminally underrated. With that comparison, del Toro is more proven and excels in capturing the visuals, tone, and atmosphere of the fantasy world like none other.
Brandon Scott: I agree with Daron. It looks like critics and audiences alike are falling for his imaginative spell and he'd be the right guy to do for Hobbit what Peter Jackson did for Lord of the Rings...assuming that's what would make people happy.
Scott Lumley: Guillermo couldn't be a better choice for the Hobbit if he was Peanut Butter and the Hobbit was chocolate. Seriously, who else do you want touching that classic? Bay? Bruckheimer? Tarantino? Guillermo is perfect. He was born to direct this film.
Journey to the what who now?
Kim Hollis: Journey to the Center of the Earth opened to $21.0 million. Should Warner Bros. be pleased with this result?
David Mumpower: Given that this is a relatively low-budget film by blockbuster standards at $45 million, I think so. The odd aspect is how/why a Real-D movie was done for such a paltry amount. This strikes me as a cheap grab at more expensive ticket sales, and it's worked once. I doubt this success will be duplicated soon, though. It lessens the intent of charging more for 3-D if the consumer is not being offered a special production from a technological standpoint.
Daron Aldridge: With a $45 million budget and Speed Racer still a fresh failure, WB has to be happy that this one might actually recoup its production cost and then some if it lives up to normal family film expectations.
Shane Jenkins: I think the trailers, at least in 2-D belied the small budget. The effects made me feel like I was (nerd alert!) playing The 7th Guest on my PC back in the day (while drinking an Orbitz and listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket!). I honestly think Warner Bros. should be ecstatic that this even opened in the double digits, based on those trailers.
Kim Hollis: I do agree that they should be really pleased with this result. The trailers and previews never screamed quality, but they did seem to offer some safe fun that families could be comfortable with. Without the 3-D theaters, though, I think it would have been an epic bomb. The 3-D is possibly the one thing that sets it apart and makes it feel a little different than other Walden-type flicks. This is proven by the fact that $11.7 million of its $20.6 million came from its 3-D exhibitions, which comprised less than a third of its overall screenings.
David Mumpower: Kim's comment about the body of Journey's business coming from 3-D speaks to a larger point than this movie on its own. This is really good news for upcoming releases such as Coraline, Avatar, and the Toy Story re-releases. Those are titles with much more intrinsic demand than Journey did. So, they could be huuuuuuge performers due to the 3-D pricing structure.
Reagen Sulewski: There's a fundamental problem with advertising a movie that's in 3-D on 2-D screens. "We've got something really awesome here, just trust us." Someone's going to come along with the perfect blend of story and effects and it's really going to catch on, but the movie part of this looked so stale that it's not much of a surprise that it didn't set the world on fire.
Scott Lumley: Would you be pleased with this result? Of course not. Here's a better question. Would you have greenlit this hunk of crap in the first place? I wouldn't have. There are a lot of film properties and ideas that people are absolutely clamoring to see. This was not, and never was one of them.