State of the Franchise: RED

By Jason Barney

July 24, 2013

This movie is *not* going to win an Academy Award for costumes.

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With this eclectic list of actors involved, everything just came together for RED.

The major competition going into opening weekend was Jackass 3-D. Not exactly a film vying for the same demographic, it was never assumed that RED would take down the younger audience pleaser. However, like a person who shows up for work every day, punches in, and just does the job expected, RED earned a solid $21 million, good for second place. Summit Entertainment put in a decent chunk of change to make the film, $58 million, and the start ensured they hadn’t made a bad investment. At the very least the film was going to break even.

If the first weekend was the guy doing what is expected of him at work, the second frame meant RED had earned a stellar job evaluation. The new arrival over the October 22nd weekend was Paranormal Activity 2, an effort to attract Stephen King type audiences. Red fell to number three, but had a fantastic drop of only 30% of its audience. For an action film skewed toward older viewers, this was an amazing accomplishment.

Week three provided more of the same stellar news. Another entry into the Saw franchise opened at number one, but Red maintained its number three position at the box office. Jackass 3-D, the picture which had opened so far above it on opening day, fell to fourth. Red experienced another great hold of about 70%, which is as leggy as you can get. To top it all off, Red had effectively matched its production budget after three weeks of release. Everything else was going to be gravy.

And there was plenty of it. RED went on to collect $90 million from the domestic box office.




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The international workforce turned out as well, and at the end of the day RED had amassed a surprising $199 million in theaters. For those counting, that’s more than Jackass 3D, Saw, or Paranormal Activity.

What was that equation again? If enough money is made…what happens?

Red 2 (2013) - 6/10

We are just past the middle of the summer box office, and things are calming down a bit. The movies which had the biggest summer anticipation, Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, and Despicable Me 2 have all hit the screens and are raking in loads of cash. There may still be a few huge earners out there, but tracking for the rest of July and most of August has a lot of films opening in the $20-$40 million dollar range.

That is probably what Summit was hoping for when they pegged the release of RED 2 for late July. It wouldn’t have huge competition from the heavyweights, and it had some interest based on the positive reception of the original. A second installment does not make a franchise, but you can bet the studio was looking at the calendar, wanting to scribble in future release dates involving these characters.

Based on the initial results for RED 2, this may not develop into a franchise.


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