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

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

I want to acknowledge immediately that the first film is no great shakes in and of itself. This Da Vinci craze we have witnessed over the past few years is almost as much of a head scratcher as Twilight…but at least it focuses on history rather than goofy dudes with bad hair and nice abs. National Treasure managed to beat The Da Vinci Code into theaters by a couple of years, riding its wave of popularity to the tune of $173 million domestically and roughly double that worldwide.

The film is some convoluted story involving Diane Kruger before she started double crossing Nazis (you go, girl!) and Nic Cage’s impossibly receded hairline. There was also some stuff about Ben Franklin and the Declaration of Independence but who can remember details? What’s important here is that Taylor Lautner must work out a lot. And that neither Twilight sequel made this list.

Anyway, the sequel to National Treasure is the rare follow-up to an already popular property that proves to be even more triumphant at the box office. This is in spite of any reasonable explanation of its success. National Treasure: Book of Secrets is only 33% at Rotten Tomatoes as opposed to 44% for the first title. And it is also liked less on IMDb as well. Somehow, the movie earned almost $50 million more domestically and a full $110 million more worldwide. And it sucks. This film is like The Secret as a tentpole blockbuster. Do you know what the book of secrets truly is? Apparently, it’s an explanation about how to trick gullible consumers out of $457 million. Nic Cage gotta eat. And buy houses he’ll forget to pay for.

2 Fast 2 Furious

Nobody remembers this now but upon its 2001 release, The Fast and the Furious was a relatively well reviewed movie. Even to this day, it is 64% fresh with Top Critics. Everyone knew it was a Point Break rip-off but as we re-learned with Avatar, people don’t mind a clone if it’s done well. The first film in what would become a wildly lucrative franchise opened to a then-impressive $40.1 million on its way to $144.5 million domestically, as well as $206.5 million worldwide.

Here is what is sickening. 2 Fast 2 Furious, which only 39% of Top Critics find passable, somehow managed to drop the best part of the original, Vin Diesel, yet earn more globally. The second Furious film opened huge in North America with $50.5 million, briefly convincing studio execs that Paul Walker may be a draw. It then demonstrated remarkably poor legs for the era by limping to a final box office total of $127.1 million in North America. Nowadays, that would be a weak demonstration of legs; for 2003, it was a nightmarish one.

Continued:       1       2       3       4