New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

It's Priest - Just in time for Rapture Day!

Kim Hollis: Priest, the $60 million Screen Gems production starring Paul Bettany, opened to $14.9 million. Is this a good enough result?

Josh Spiegel: I think the most positive thing I can say about this movie's opening is that it could have been worse. But, with the 3D ticket prices, the amount of people who actually saw this movie is kind of low. I'm guessing that this movie won't make back its budget here, but it could easily do well overseas. At best, Screen Gems isn't going to eat a lot of money here, but I bet they wish it did better.

Tom Houseman: Can somebody please convince Paul Bettany to stop making such terrible movies? Nobody is going to be happy with this result. This is the sort of movie that should have been dumped in January like Legion was. It is going to get pummeled next week by Stranger Tides, and will be lucky if it drops less than 60%. It's going to be praying for success overseas and on DVD, but if God is at all just that won't happen.





Edwin Davies: Someone's going to have to come and read the last rites for Priest. The pre-Pirates release meant that if it had any chance of making its money back, it was going to have to do well this weekend because it is going to get slaughtered next week. That didn't happen, so we can expect a colossal drop followed by an ignoble afterlife on DVD.

Bruce Hall: No, but they can't all be Gems. Get it? Come on, that was gold Jerry, Gold!

I can't think of much to add other than to say if you wanted to see Priest, you either already did or you'd better do it fast. It was a non-factor this week and will vanish along with everything else next week, when Captain Sparrow comes to town.

Shalimar Sahota: It was pushed back to allow the film some time for a 3D conversion, probably because Screen Gems knew how awful the film was and so thought that they could recoup a bit extra with the inflated 3D ticket prices. But then they decide that the best thing to do is to open it the week before On Stranger Tides, which will use up all those 3D screens next week! It has a trashy, Sci-Fi channel look about it, which makes me believe that maybe a TV series would have been a better option. As well as Screen Gems, it's interesting to see that Tokyopop is also listed as one of the production companies (the publisher that released the original comic for the West). Given their recent financial circumstances, this'll probably be the only feature film to their name.

Continued:       1       2       3