FILM FOCUS
Christmas In July? Try Summer In January
For Two Unlikely Blockbuster Hit Movies
Box office bulls eye: Liam Neeson in "Taken"
and, right, Kevin James in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop". Both are January
releases with low budgets released two weeks apart, and reaping huge rewards
domestically
at the box-office, three months later. (Photos: Twentieth
Century Fox and Sony Pictures respectively)
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com SHARE
Monday, April 6, 2009
Who says you have to wait until the summer
for action blockbusters or sleeper hits? Just add January (and the current
economic recession) and you as an opportunistic Hollywood studio mogul may just
find yourself reaping huge benefits. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Taken",
released in January two weeks apart in North America, have struck gold and are
still going strong at the U.S.-Canada box office as the calendar hits April,
dropping off only marginally each weekend in the case of "Taken". To date both
films have grossed near or over $140 million in the U.S. and Canada alone.
Clearly, the adverse economic conditions of the moment have to take the credit
(pardon the pun) for the surge of popularity in movie titles that wouldn't
otherwise be on the radar screen in January, a month traditionally cited in
Hollywood as the most forgettable, where abandoned or delayed releases from the
previous year are showcased just enough to die a swift death. Studios typically
cut their losses with these types of films, but in 2009 the month of January has
meant golden profits.
In some ways the growing audiences for films in troubled financial times are
nothing new, as in the late 1920s and early 1930s in America when the Great
Depression took hold, movies were the great escape, and business
boomed. And with the most recent economic crisis, now global, films have once
again taken center stage as a headquarters for cathartic release and
escapism. And amazingly, just a few years after talk in Tinseltown that
the domestic box office was beginning to sag, a potent revival to big studio
coffers has come at just the right moment. According to recent
statistics provided by Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles-based company that
tracks North America box office gross receipts, the box office for this past
weekend was 89 percent higher than the corresponding weekend in 2008. And
year-to-date the box office is running almost 10% higher than at the same point
in time last year, as of yesterday, with a 9.6% increase according to Exhibitor
estimates.
The uptick in January appears to be borne of several factors: the awards season
boost, where nominations for a film can spell an uptick in audience attendance;
the aforementioned economy, and the types of film genres that have typically
served Hollywood well as fail-safe options regardless of the time of year. But
what is especially intriguing is that the quality and appeal of the films in
question were also a key to the success of several January releases.
"Gran Torino": Clint Eastwood's Biggest, And For More Than A Few Dollars More
"Gran Torino", a film expected to be nominated for Academy Awards,
received no nominations at all yet was
Clint Eastwood's most successful film ever as a director and star.
Released in mid-December in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and one or
two other large media markets in the U.S., and expanded nationwide on January 9,
"Gran Torino" is still performing well, having what Hollywood insiders and trade
publications commonly refer to as "legs", currently at $146 million and counting
in the U.S. and Canada. The film, about a bitterly racist Korean war veteran
forced to look within and examine his bigoted ways when a family of Hmong
immigrants move into to suburban Detroit next door to him, will be released on
DVD in North America in June.
Mr. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalsky, a Polish-American man who has an axe to grind
against anyone who doesn't look like him. "Gran Torino" is also doing
phenomenal business overseas, where it has something of a sensation in parts of
Europe and in the Far East. Mr. Eastwood is currently in South Africa and
various other locations filming what is tentatively titled "The Human Factor",
with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Mr. Freeman is playing former South African
president Nelson Mandela, a role he has executed before in a television film.
"Gran Torino" had a melancholy about it. Mr. Eastwood's film wasn't one
you'd expect audiences to escape the economic doldrums for, given its subject
matter -- racism, old age, immigration -- all touchy subjects in America, but
audiences and critics alike loved the quality of the film and its strong
screenplay, written by first-time scriptwriter Nick Schenk.
"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" Equaled A Laugh And A Half Plus
"Paul Blart: Mall Cop", released wide in the U.S. and Canada on January 16, was
the year's first comedy. In it, Kevin James (of the television series "The King
Of Queens" and the film "I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry") plays an
over-zealous security guard in a shopping mall. He takes his job seriously, but
the film doesn't - and for audiences the laughs just kept on coming, with Mr.
James happily obliging. The film spent two consecutive weekends at the top of
the box office, including its debut weekend. One can expect that a sequel will
no doubt be in the works. (Interestingly enough, a film also about a
letter-of-the law security guard at a mall, "Observe And Report", starring Seth
Rogen, will be released this Friday and has already received strong advance buzz
from several prominent film critics in the U.S.) "Paul Blart" is a
Sony Pictures release which will outpace all other films released as of late
March except
"Monsters Vs. Aliens", which after a strong
$59.3 million opening for the weekend concluding on March 29 will likely finish
in the region of $250-$270 million. After a poor 2008 which saw two Will
Smith films bust critically or commercially ("Hancock"
and
"Seven Pounds"), Sony has rebounded with "Paul
Blart". Next up for Sony is
"Obsessed", a film released by Screen Gems, the studio's specialty
division. ("Obsessed" opens in the U.S. and Canada on April 24.)
In any summer month if one had put
"Watchmen" up against "Paul Blart", the overriding consensus would be
that the famous graphic novel with an adoring following would easily outpace
the comedy film in gross receipts. But the "Watchmen" opening, while solid for
a near-three hour film, was also underwhelming in its U.S.-Canada debut last
month. Mixed to negative reviews of Zack Snyder's film didn't help either and
domestically at least, Warner Brothers will end up losing millions
on "Watchmen", which will top out at about $115 million in the United States and
Canada. The film to date has grossed a disappointing $105.3 million after
four weeks, following its March 6 opening. By contrast, as of yesterday,
in just its tenth day of release, "Monsters Vs. Aliens" has grossed $105.7
million.
The "Taken" Phenomenon
Even more impressive in January was the opening of
"Taken", a small-budget, perfunctory action-thriller set in France.
Pierre Morrel's film stars Liam Neeson as a retired U.S. government
operative sprung into action after his daughter is kidnapped on the first day of
her vacation in Paris. Mr. Neeson had not been in a leading role in a Hollywood
film for sometime, but not only did he excel in the lean, mean drama, he
established himself as a credible thinking man's action star, the kind of domain
that Harrison Ford once roamed in such films as "Frantic" (also set in
France), "Clear And Present Danger" and "Patriot Games".
"Taken", released by Twentieth Century Fox, has been by far the studio's most
successful film in at least two years, grossing $139.4 million as of this
writing. The film was produced by "La Femme Nikita", "The Professional" and
"Angel-A" director Luc Besson and opened in North America on January
30, just two days before Super Bowl Sunday, a specific Sunday that traditionally
spells weak box office return. But it was clear that "Taken" was going to
exceed expectations, and when raw estimates became final figures the film was
number one at box office when February 2 arrived, a day after the great NFL
Super Bowl game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals.
"Taken" continues to do well, dropping only 27 to 40 percent in successive
weekends even as theaters drop the film or add newer films or holdout successes
like
"Slumdog Millionaire", the winner of eight
Academy Awards back in late February and a recent DVD release. Mr.
Morel's film even climbed back up to number two on the U.S.-Canada box office
chart in recent weeks and remained in the top ten-grossing films in North
America as late as March 30.
(The untimely death last month of Natasha Richardson, the wife of Liam Neeson,
may or may not have an affect on any future grosses for Mr. Neeson's film, but
it is clear that audiences who saw "Taken" were galvanized by its thrift,
simplicity and directness. The film received mostly positive reviews from some
of the nation's top film critics. "Taken" also stars Maggie Grace, Famke
Janssen and Xander Berkeley.)
No April Fool or Buster: A Ferocious "Furious"
With April ushering in more new films, what has also stunned people in Hollywood
is the astounding take of
"Fast & Furious". The film franchise had
been sagging mightily after an auspicious first film ("The Fast And The
Furious") but the return of Vin Diesel and the economic downturn has catapulted
it to the 27th highest opening in U.S.-Canada box-office history according to
Exhibitor Relations, whose final numbers on "Fast & Furious" will be available
later today. Universal Studios actually revised its report upward for the
film for this past weekend, which according to the studio actually grossed $72.5
million, not $71.8 million. Not only is it the highest opening in the
quartet of "Fast/Furious" films, it is also the highest opening in April in North
America box office history.
With films typically making 25 to 30% of their total box office gross in one
week, "Fast & Furious" is projected to make somewhere between $290 and $320
million in North America alone. The action film featuring fast cars, drug
running, and a fugitive who won't be caught is directed by Justin Lin ("Better
Luck Tomorrow") who directed the previous "Furious" film
"Tokyo Drift" and will no doubt be sought after
for another sequel and other action projects. "Fast & Furious" made over
$100 million worldwide according to Exhibitor. With no other major
blockbuster films in the U.S. and Canada to stand in its way this month until
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on May 1, Mr. Lin's film is poised to
dominate at the top of the domestic box office for at least two or three more
weekends. Even with the start of the new Major League Baseball season in
the U.S. and Canada, which began last night and gets underway in earnest today,
"Fast & Furious" looks as unstoppable as the cars that screech and burn rubber
in the film. With the Easter holiday coming this weekend, "Fast & Furious"
looks like a runaway freight train building more speed as it rumbles along.
Though "Furious" is a film that has stunningly restored a sense of normalcy --
it was expected to top the box office, just not so overwhelmingly -- the January
release "Taken" is a film that also stands on its own. While it is not
certain that Mr. Morel's film would have done as well had it been released next
month in competition with "Star Trek" or in June with the "Transformers" sequel,
it will likely end up being more profitable for Fox than either film at the
studio's competitor Paramount because of its small budget. The
success of "Taken" would appear to be a model that Hollywood studio executives
can take note of.
"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" could probably have been a
sensation at any time of year, and its star Kevin James has a teddy bearish
appeal (from "King Of Queens") that audiences appreciate. The film will be
more profitable than the comedy "I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry", the 2007
movie in which Mr. James starred with Adam Sandler, whose last few films have
sputtered domestically. Mr. Sandler is likely to rebound however, with
"Funny People", opening in July, directed by Judd Apatow.
Whether Christmas comes this July for Mr. Sandler, once the consistent golden
guy of American comedy films, remains to be seen.
One thing's for sure: in January, "Taken" and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop",
along with "Gran
Torino", took audiences in the U.S. and Canada for a big thrill ride.
SHARE
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2009. All Rights
Reserved.
ADVERTISEMENT