by Shane “The Discusser” Hnetka
It’s been a while since I discussed the box office and there has been some interesting things happening. It’s probably because we’re in the space between the end of the award season and just before the start of the summer blockbuster season.
Okay. Now I will begin the discussion.
Smaller Films Can Make A Difference
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel made it into the top 10 at the box office after three weeks of playing in a limited run. Increasing to a mere 304 theatres, the film grossed $6,750,000. Not too shabby when the latest Muppets movie only managed $16.5 million in over 3,194 theatres.
The faith based film God’s Not Dead made it to number five at the box office with healthy $8,564,000 in only 780 theatres. You’d think God could do better. Maybe he’s shy about self-promotion. Typical artist.
The Kickstart-ed Veronica Mars has done dismal business in theatres. Of course, it’s also available on VOD so it’s more likely that everyone is just staying home. Without the VOD numbers and the eventual DVD and Blu-ray sales it looks like Veronica Mars will fall short of its $6 million budget.
So what does all this teach Hollywood studios? Probably nothing. Studios are slow to learn anything new.
Around The World
Need for Speed bombed at the American box office, which is good and correct. It looks terrible and it was poorly reviewed. And yet, the film has been cleaning up around the world — it made more money in China than in the U.S. and it hasn’t stopped there. Worldwide it’s now almost made $96 million.
It’s been clear for awhile that the world market has an effect on movies. What needs to happen is audiences learn to distinguish crap from quality. Need for Speed should not make enough money to make a crappier sequel. The last thing the world needs is crappier sequels.
I now declare the discussion to be over.
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Shane Hnetka is a Regina film and comic book nerd. He also writes Dog Blog’s weekly “Sunday Matinee” column at prairiedogmag.com.