Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
October 20, 2009
Josh Spiegel: I think Sony miscalculated when to release The Stepfather. With competition from Paranormal Activity (granted, a movie that a rival studio may not have assumed would do well) and Law Abiding Citizen, there was just a bit of overcrowding at the theaters this weekend. Moreover, Where The Wild Things Are attracted the teenage and college crowd, so that film's performance also drew away people from this one. Also, all those crossover fans from Lost hoping to see some random cameo from the original Stepfather, Terry O'Quinn, didn't show up in droves...or not.
Jim Van Nest: Considering I'm pretty up to date on my movie releases and trailers and all of that stuff and considering that if I didn't have a gig at BOP I would never have heard of this remake...they should take their $12 million and have a party. Other than what I've seen on this site, I know nothing of this movie and saw nothing about this movie on TV. With the hype surrounding Paranormal Activity, I had actually forgotten that The Stepfather opened this week until I read the forecast.
Reagen Sulewski: Seriously, they must have been sending word out about this one by smoke signal or something as there was just no heat for it. Spillover from Paranormal Activity makes the most sense to me. Horror fans seem most likely to go for their second choice rather than just turn around.
Tom Macy: I'd be surprised if the studio even bothered to check the numbers. Like I said, the horror genre is as reliable as there is. And The Stepfather this appears to be - after watching the trailer for the first time 30 seconds ago - as cookie cutter as they come. Was there ever any doubt about how this would do? $11.6 million opening against a budget of around $20 million? They'll make the budget back easily in the domestic run and reap the rewards of Best Buy bargain bins for years to come. This whole production was probably set up just to pay Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst's Spider-Man 4 salaries anyway. Whether or not Sony is pleased will depend on how that film opens.
Brett Beach: Yes. The studio should be very happy, even if it was from teens buying tickets to this and then venturing off to Law Abiding Citizen or Paranormal Activity. Three films opened wide, a fourth went wide and all of them could be aptly described as performing at or above expectations. With a Rotten Tomatoes reading (12%) only marginally better than director Nelson McCormick's previous PG-13 rendering of a 1980s slasher film, Prom Night (9%), Screen Gems demonstrated that you just can't tell what the teen market for horror (re: girls making their dates take them to) will accept or go "meh" to. Or perhaps they all thought that Penn Badgley's threesome scene was on the big screen? Alas, my love for Sela Ward requires that at some point I will have to see this.
Jason Lee: This always seemed a film destined for a Sorority Row type of performance to me: tepid remake of a horror film that was only passably good to begin with.
George Rose: It went up against Paranormal Activity on the weekend before Saw VI and still broke $10 million. Considering the cast is made up of C-list TV stars, much like the abysmal Sorority Row, I'd say this is a giant win for everyone working at the CW network. I'm sure Stepfather 2 has already been greenlit with the cast of 90210.
Max Braden: I saw plenty of ads for it, but nothing about the trailer really stood out. I recognized Dylan Walsh more immediately than Amber Heard, and even I don't watch Nip/Tuck anymore. And I don't think putting the movie against any other competition was going to help it any more. So it wasn't going to earn the kind of money that thrillers like Disturbia and Obsessed made, but to show in the double digits is pretty fortunate.
Sean Collier: Anything this generic looking should be glad to make a dime.
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