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

Max Braden: I had absolutely no idea this was releasing this weekend until I heard a roundup on the radio. I haven't been watching much other than the Olympics on TV, but I have seen a ton of Robocop advertising in comparison. I think $26 million for a February opening, Valentine's Day/holiday weekend or not, is impressive. Responses I've heard suggest that Hart and Hall, as the supporting character couple, actually steal the movie. Kevin Hart of course is on a decent streak, and having his name mentioned frequently (Let Me Explain, and Ride Along) no doubt helped push the numbers higher on opening day. I don't know if there's much crossover audience for this and the sci-fi TV show Almost Human, but I've really been enjoying Michael Ealy's performance on TV.

David Mumpower: At this point, the only way Kevin Hart could have had a better start to 2014 would have been providing voicework in The Lego Movie.

Kim Hollis: RoboCop, yet another '80s remake, opened to $21.6 million from Friday-to-Sunday and has earned $26.6 million since Wednesday. What do you think of this result?

Matthew Huntley: For lack of a better word, RoboCop's opening is more or less "standard," meaning it's fair and expected for yet another remake no one was asking for, but definitely not acceptable, not when you take into account its $100 million budget. Given the negative advanced buzz of this picture, and the underwhelming/mostly lame trailer, it's also a case of, "I could have told you this would happen."

It goes without saying the original RoboCop is still beloved and admired (it's actually aged quite well as far as its presentation and politics/satire), which makes this version an unnecessary venture by Sony/MGM. The audience that did see it this weekend was probably an amalgamation of fans of the first movie and newcomers to the character, but now that both groups have gotten a chance to sample it, I'm certain the word-of-mouth will be lousy and the movie won't end up with much more than $50 million in total. I'd like to think this would be put the kibosh on superfluous '80s remakes, but I'm not that optimistic.

Edwin Davies: I'm more positive about its prospects than I was on Friday morning. Those first two days were pretty horrible, and suggest that opening on a Wednesday was, at least from a PR perspective, a pretty poor choice. I don't know if those two days siphoned off much demand for the film, especially considering that it rebounded decently enough on the weekend itself, but the last thing you want when you release a film is for people to start talking about how bad the first couple of days are. For a remake that no one was that excited for, and which a lot of people seemed to be actively dreading, this isn't the worst result in the world, though it feels like it could kill off any franchise hope the studio has since it's pretty much guaranteed not to meet its $100 million budget. Unless it hits it big overseas (and I mean, huge, like earns-half-a-billion-dollars-worldwide huge) then I can't see this being anything other than a one-off, even if it might just squeak into the black when all is said and done.

Considering how iconic the character is and how much potential there is to make a good RoboCop movie (even if, realistically, that's actually only been done once before) this has to feel like a missed opportunity, from both a commercial and creative perspective.

Continued:       1       2       3