Not really, but I was hoping it would do better, since it didn’t open against anything even remotely competitive and GI Joe is on a downhill slide. $37 million isn’t bad. But considering there was no one famous in the movie, it had none of Cloverfield’s buzz, and it’s going to be immensely profitable, I shouldn’t complain. I suspect it’ll have legs, too. And I imagine it will play really well overseas.
I think Sony did a really good job selling it here. I don’t watch movie trailers before a movie comes out, but I love going back to watch them after having seen a movie. I’m glad to see Sony was well aware they needed to sell District 9 to the brainless Transformers crowd, which they did quite well with this trailer, even if it did pretty much spoil the entire fucking movie. For everyone else – the people who aren’t tetarded – there was this trailer. And I loved the vaguely viral “Humans Only” advertising I’ve been seeing around town.
The film-makers have got to be pretty happy with $37 million, though. The movie (minus advertising) only cost $30 million to make.
Sadly, I tried to see this today but my idiot friend read the times wrong so we would have had to walk in an half-hour early, which means I probably won’t see it now until Blu-Ray, dammit.
I was eager to see the movie, and what spoiled my enthusiasm was hearing and reading that the movie was a thinly veiled political statement about Apartheid and South Africa or something. It isn’t that I have a thing against movies that make statements, or even that I buy into everything I read online, I just wasn’t in the mood for politics this weekend.
They’ll get my money eventually (read, probably on Friday) though, no doubt about it
Instead I ended up renting a movie this weekend based on some Qt3 suggestions of “Running Scared”.
I think word of mouth is going to spread about this one. I have no idea what their international coverage is like but they’ll pull in a pretty penny there.
My guess is about $90 million domestically over the next month.
Yeah, I regret that I saw that one before I saw the film, so things like the awesome robot were spoiled for me. It stops just short of giving away everything though, so the movie certainly wasn’t ruined.
(and we probably shouldn’t say anymore so as not to spoil anything ourselves)
That’s crazy talk. Science fiction films often have this and good ones can be enjoyed completely aside from any “point making” in the background. I did not think District 9 was preachy at all. It was just, like, good and crap. I know you said you are going to see it anyway. In the future, I am ordering you to not wait so as to aid in the boosting of first weekend domestic ticket sales. Just look at Tom’s OP. It is your fault he is sad.
I completely agree, but there’s politics (Dune) and there’s POLITICS (Stranger in a Strange Land). I love both, but I’m not always in the mood for the heavy handed when I just want to have a good time.
I did not think District 9 was preachy at all. It was just, like, good and crap. I know you said you are going to see it anyway. In the future, I am ordering you to not wait so as to aid in the boosting of first weekend domestic ticket sales. Just look at Tom’s OP. It is your fault he is sad.
I take complete responsibility for the opening weekend. I complained in my blog about the movie before having seen it and if reader response is any indication I single handedly reduced the box office potential by twenty million dollars.
As for the film not being preachy, it’s cool when I’m down with it, but this has been a brain-rending week for me and I wanted to zone out for a couple hours.
I agree that word of mouth is going to be big with this movie. I would look for a strong second weekend based on reactions to the film from people who saw it opening weekend and drag their friends back to the theater. Considering the film has pretty much already paid for itself, another strong weekend would allow the film to be considered a resounding success. This is also going to make very good money when it’s released on DVD.
I saw it last night as well and I was shocked by the turn out. The theater was sold out and they were stacked up for the following showing. Granted, it’s sweltering here in the city, but I think this film may have some legs.
I was surprised to see a big poster for this movie at the bus stop today (it opens this weekend in Denmark). Clearly, someone thinks this movie has something going for it, ticket sales-wise.
Did people really find the allegory to be that pervasive? It’s certainly there if you want to look for it, and it’s not exactly hidden, but it seems perfectly easy to enjoy the movie without being sledgehammered by any kind of subtext.
It actually did better than I was expecting. My pessimistic self was half-expecting GI Joe to take the weekend again.
