Weekend Wrap-Up
Witch Mountain Holds Off Watchmen
By John Hamann
March 15, 2009
After a $55.2 million debut last weekend, everyone was watching to see how Watchmen would perform in its second frame. Would it hold at all? Would it be devastated and find that the only returning patrons were the hardcore Watchmen fans? Opening this weekend were three films of the blah variety, Disney's Race To Witch Mountain, Universal's Last House on the Left, and Miss March from Fox. Hard to believe, but with three openers and the return of Watchmen, the biggest star in the top three this weekend is The Rock.
First off, let me tell you that Watchmen is not number one. The race to top spot was closer than expected, but for the wrong reasons. Our number one film this weekend is Race to Witch Mountain, Disney's reboot of the beloved (but hokey) 1970s Mouse House franchise. Mix in some nostalgia, special effects, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in a family role, and we have the recipe for success. That success turned into an okay weekend gross of $25 million for Disney, from a quite wide venue count of 3,187. It had a venue average of $7,844. Disney has had some live action success in March, but the opening weekend for Witch Mountain slips under the bar somewhat. Disney has had some luck o' the Irish with films like Bringing Down the House ($31.1 million opening in 2003) and Wild Hogs ($39.7 million opening in 2007), but not with films aimed at kids. Their best kid-friendly showing in March came from The Pacifier with Vin Diesel, which opened to $30.5 million in 2005. The studio had a similar miss in March 2006 with Tim Allen's The Shaggy Dog, which opened to only $16.3 million and finished just above $60 million domestic.
The Shaggy Dog performance must have been on the minds of Disney executives heading into the weekend, especially with what looks to be a bigger budget for Race to Witch Mountain. The Shaggy Dog inexplicably cost the studio $60 million to make, and Race to Witch Mountain, with its effects, looks to have cost more (no budget data is available). Disney will be looking for some Spring Break returns, or their probable franchise could be in trouble early. Reviews won't help. Race to Witch Mountain actually scored even more poorly than horror flick Last House on the Left in terms of reviews this weekend, finishing with a 39% fresh rating for Witch Mountain, compared to 44% for Last House on the Left. For The Rock, this is an okay opening for the former wrestling star, well above his low for Gridiron Gang ($14.4 million opening), but also not near his high for The Scorpion King ($36 million opening). For Disney, this marks the third consecutive low score for the studio, following sad starts for Confessions of a Shopaholic and The Jonas Brothers Concert Movie. The best news for Disney is that Race can work for another weekend, prior to the opening of the sure-to-be-huge Monsters vs. Aliens, from Paramount and DreamWorks.
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