Top 12 Film Industry Stories of 2007: #2:
Summer of Three-quels Does Not Disappoint

By Kim Hollis

January 1, 2008

Cha-ching!

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
The fun wasn't over, either. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was yet another three-quel that saw theatrical release in May. There was substantial discussion over its chances at beating Spider-Man 3's opening weekend record within the span of a couple of weeks. Pirates 3 gave it a good go, but in the end could only lay claim to being the second biggest opener of all-time, with $139.8 million in the kitty. You may be sensing a theme here, but once again word-of-mouth was not strong, and At World's End barely limped over the $300 million mark in North America with a grand total of $309.4 million. Its overseas numbers were actually a bit better than Dead Man's Chest, though, bringing it to a mighty worldwide tally of $958.4 (Dead Man's Chest actually crossed the billion dollar mark). So even though we puzzled over what was causing audiences to "reject" these films in comparison to the number two movies in the series, the honest evaluation is that three $300 million movies released in the span of 30 days is ludicrously amazing. Summer hadn't officially arrived on the calendar, but the box office was blazing hot.

We still had three more three-quels yet to arrive, too. Ocean's Thirteen debuted in early June, and had a debut weekend of $36.1 million. People talked about this as a slightly disappointing number when compared to the first two movies, but Ocean's Thirteen had some mountains to climb from the get-go. Many will remember that Ocean's Twelve was considered a serious dud, and backlash was strong against the series. Also, both of the first two films opened in December, a time frame that is super friendly for longevity and ability to build big overall box office numbers. Therefore, $117 million should be considered a solid result despite the fact that Ocean's Thirteen fell significantly short of its predecessors.

August brought the final two three-quels, and the first of them was a glorious success in every sense of the world. Many prognosticators were expecting The Bourne Ultimatum to match or slightly exceed the opening weekend of The Bourne Supremacy ($52.5 million). Instead, it had a stunning $69.3 million debut frame. Word-of-mouth and critical reception was absolutely stellar as well, which meant that the movie held on to make an amazing $227.1 million in North America (and $213.5 million overseas). It was by far the most successful Bourne film yet, and is even looking to continue that success with the possibility of Oscar attention in a couple of categories.




Advertisement



The summer of three-quels saw its end arrive when Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker returned to theaters with Rush Hour 3. Both of the first two films were considered surprises with regard to box office performance (Rush Hour 2 had a gaudy opening weekend of $67.4 million). However, it had been a long time - six years - since the release of the previous movie in the series. As a result, Rush Hour 3's opening weekend of $49.1 million was considered acceptable and its cumulative domestic gross of $139.9 million a general disappointment (it barely matched the original's total and couldn't quite find itself in the black compared to budget). Once overseas numbers and video are added in, of course, it's going to look a lot better on paper.

Of course, it wasn't all about the three-quels. There were an amazing number of films in summer of 2008 to have fantastic box office runs that ultimately contributed in a big way to that overall $4 billion that I mentioned before. These include Knocked Up ($148.7 million domestic), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($131.9 million domestic), 1408 ($72 million domestic), Live Free or Die Hard ($134.5 million domestic, $377.5 million worldwide), Ratatouille ($206.4 million domestic, $615.9 million worldwide), Transformers ($319.1 million domestic, $701.1 million worldwide), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ($292 million domestic, $937 million worldwide), Hairspray ($118.8 million domestic), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry ($119.7 million domestic), The Simpsons Movie ($183.1 million domestic, $525.5 million worldwide) and Superbad ($121.5 million domestic). That's 16 movies that earned in excess of $100 million in North America. The box office wound up having a record year in 2007, and it's clear that without the summer bonanza, it wouldn't have even been worth talking about at all.


Continued:       1       2

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Friday, March 29, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.