Monday Morning Quarterback
By BOP Staff
February 5, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Matthew Huntley: I think this result is best described as "expectations pleasantly met." There were no real surprises here, but at the same time no disappointments. Given the film's mix of two stable and well-liked genres, the funny trailers and ads, and the skewing toward the female demographic on a heavy sports weekend, it was more or less a no-brainer (no pun intended) Warm Bodies would excel on Super Bowl weekend. The strong reviews didn't hurt, either. And given Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away, the movie should be well on its way to a marginal profit. It's another win for Lionsgate.
Bruce Hall: I can't really add much to that other than to say how incredible it is that it took zombies to make a romantic comedy everyone can love. And to make two thirds of your budget back opening weekend and still have not just Valentine's Day but also an inevitably strong home video run to look forward to leaves nothing to complain about.
Brett Ballard-Beach: Even post-Twilight, with every YA novel (and their kid sister to boot) being adapted into a movie, this struck me as a ridiculously hard sell so kudos to the promotions department (although I had always thought of Shaun of the Dead as the first rom zom com, though, truthfully more of a bromance). I am happy that Jonathan Levine followed up 50/50 with an equally challenging concept to bring to the mainstream masses, and the fact that something quirky and oddball struck home with both its target audience and the critical community, brings me almost as much cheer as P. Phil letting us know we're in for an early spring.
Reagen Sulewski: First of all, I have an angry Simon Pegg on line 2. Secondly, I find the comparisons to Twilight kind of misplaced, in that this movie seems to have a great deal of a sense of humor about itself. So yes, it's a sort of "cross-species" romance, but that's like saying Batman & Robin and Road to Perdition are both comic book movies. So while it was never going to be a huge phenomenon (I wouldn't have had a clue it was based on a series), the fact that they were able to embrace the ludicrousness of it helped tremendously to sell it.
Tim Briody: All right, the only similarity between Warm Bodies and Twilight is that Summit released them both. End of story. This was a clever concept that was well marketed and released on a perfect weekend for this type of film. It drew more females than males and was fairly cheap to make. Good on all those involved.
Felix Quinonez Jr.: I don’t think there's really much to say about this one. It performed well enough but it didn't exactly smash expectations and it sure didn't bomb. It's a nice performance everyone involved can be happy about. I'm really more excited about the positive reviews.
Jim Van Nest: I think it's a nice opening aided by the fact that zombies are "in" right now. With the success of The Walking Dead, everything with zombies right now is a far easier sell than it ever has been. Kudos to the studio for capitalizing.
Shalimar Sahota: Yeah, it certainly helps that zombies are currently prominent in our films, TV programs, videogames and comics right now. But Warm Bodies stands out by not just being a run-of-the-mill mindless zombie killing movie. A romantic comedy where one half of the romantic leads is actually a zombie is a risky idea that could have turned people away. I just think it's great to see that people were willing to take a chance on something that's a bit of a break from the conventional. Now we just need to have this followed up by a zombie musical... Dead Side Story.
Max Braden: I agree that Warm Bodies is the non-Twilight. This is the movie for rebellious teens who think Twilight is too commercial and a sellout to the undead genre. This is where the cool teens go... while still consuming a clearly teen movie. I think the better comparison is Zombieland. Zombieland had a higher profile cast, and opened to just under $25 million three and a half years ago, so I'd say $20 million is a nice opening. I really liked seeing the ads each time they came on TV, so I expect that they had something to do with this opening too.
David Mumpower: Reagen is wrong, but he is also right. Simon Pegg should put down the phone because Shaun of the Dead is not a zomromcom; it's a zombromcom. Bromance before romance, dude! He is right that Twilight and the young adult-inspired dreck released in its wake isn't the target here. Warm Bodies is the closest thing to Zombieland we have seen since that movie came out three and a half years ago.
Every aspect of Warm Bodies demonstrates a novel amount of creativity. This goes straight down to the posters for the movie, which are the most clever and thematic batch in recent memory. The last group that stood out to me like this were the posters for Watchmen. No, that is not a great comparison in terms of overall movie perception but I am just talking about print branch of the marketing. BOP's front page is inundated with Warm Bodies posters right now. Each and every one of them cracks me up.
People demonstrate this sort of attention to detail that people only when A) they are paid to do so or B) they are genuinely proud of a film. Warm Bodies falls into the latter category. It is a small scale masterpiece in terms of good ideas brought to fruition. I am thrilled that it did so well on opening weekend. I get the vibe that it will be remembered as the best zombie movie of 2013, not the much more heavily marketed World War Z.
Kim Hollis: I'm really happy this film did so well. I like Nicholas Hoult (largely because of About a Boy, but I also enjoyed his performance in X-Men: First Class), and Jonathan Levine is an interesting director (50/50 is seriously a *great* film). I don't really think this film even has a comparison, because while it has bits and pieces of Shaun of the Dead, Twilight, Zombieland and probably other things I'm not considering, the film has emerged as its own unique little entity. I think it's fascinating that you can see shelves upon shelves of this type of supernatural romance in stores. It's become quite the cottage industry.