This weekend marks the release of the 9th (or is it the 10th?) CG feature of the year, Everyone's Hero, from IDT. The Friday numbers don't look so great...
...with Screwy the baseball and his pals in 4th place with about a million and a half. That looks like an opening weekend of probably around $5 million, and projects out to a domestic theatrical run of $15-20 million. IDT was recently bought by Liberty Media and turned into Starz Animation, and has the films Space Chimps and Sheepish scheduled for 2007 and 2008, respectively. We'll update this post as the weekend progresses...
UPDATE: The weekend estimates are in, and Everyone's Hero climbed to third place and $6,150,000. Unfortunately, the per-screen average was the weakest of the four films opening this weekend, and this isn't looking like a case of a film that will develop "legs."
Speaking of good legs, Barnyard was 14th this weekend ($69.1 million) and will probably pass Monster House ($71.4 million) before long, despite a significantly smaller opening weekend ($15.8 million vs. $22.2 million).
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Not quite Everyone's Hero
This weekend marks the release of the 9th (or is it the 10th?) CG feature of the year, Everyone's Hero, from IDT. The Friday numbers don't look so great...
...with Screwy the baseball and his pals in 4th place with about a million and a half. That looks like an opening weekend of probably around $5 million, and projects out to a domestic theatrical run of $15-20 million. IDT was recently bought by Liberty Media and turned into Starz Animation, and has the films Space Chimps and Sheepish scheduled for 2007 and 2008, respectively. We'll update this post as the weekend progresses...
UPDATE: The weekend estimates are in, and Everyone's Hero climbed to third place and $6,150,000. Unfortunately, the per-screen average was the weakest of the four films opening this weekend, and this isn't looking like a case of a film that will develop "legs."
Speaking of good legs, Barnyard was 14th this weekend ($69.1 million) and will probably pass Monster House ($71.4 million) before long, despite a significantly smaller opening weekend ($15.8 million vs. $22.2 million).
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Hey, but it won the Heartland Award for being a "truly moving film". That must count for something. >:P
I've heard it's a pretty good film. Still, I'm afraid the CGI animation overdose is kicking in. There's only so much product today's audiences can take.
I fear we're beginning to wear out our welcome. A new animated film use to be a special event. Not anymore.
what worries me is, Liberty/Starz Entertainment, the new owner of IDT Entertainment, is looking at this film closely. "Hero" does well, and they keep making cgi animated features. But if it tanks...well, I'm not sure they'll keep their feature unit going.
At least, that is what a manager at IDT Entertainment implied to me.
Steve, with Open Season opening on Sept. 29, I think your estimate of a $15-20 million gross for Everyone's Hero might be on the high side.
Even if Everyone's Hero manages to gross $4 million next weekend, it's going to drop significantly the weekend after.
Mark, that estimate was mine. A while back I posted a box-office rule of thumb that says a film will typically make a multiple of 3-4 times its opening weekend. That multiple tends to hold up regardless of what other films come out in supsequent weekends.
I was guessing that "Everyone's Hero" was going to make about $5 million this weekend, based on the Friday numbers. Hence the $15-20 million guess. The preliminary weekend numbers put "EH" in third place with a little over $6 million, so my estimate might be a tiny bit low.
That said, whether the film has a domestic gross of $15 million or $25 million, it's going to be a disappointment. This doesn't look like the kind of film that will do much better overseas (like, say, Ice Age 2), so even with foreign grosses and DVD sales it'll likely end up firmly in the red. What all that means for the films Starz currently has in production is anyone's guess, but here's hoping they at least get to finish their second film.
I dont know you guys. Id say in my opinion this movie was really really good. it's hard for me as a 2d animator and being a big fan of Pixar to give other cgi films a chance. I did give this one a chance and I loved it. This is the second best film I've seen all year, the first was Cars.
I did'nt see a whole lot of promotion for this movie...
Did IDT or Starz Media really think it would succeed without promoting it?
Cory, I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know how good it is. A couple of friends who saw it said it was pretty good, but full "dated" references, and aimed at pretty young kids.
Regarding the promotion, it's now become so insanely expensive to promote a wide release film that studios try hard to figure out if a film has a decent chance to succeed before they invest too much in advertising. If they don't think a film will be a hit despite heavy promotion, they'll scale the marketing way back. For example, a solid marketing campaign can easily cost $40-50 million (and more), so if a studio doesn't think they'll get the return on that investment, they'll try to cut their losses.
I also wonder if the marketing would have been stronger if IDT hadn't been bought up several months ago. The people now in charge likely have much less of an emotional investment in Everyone's Hero.
I saw plenty of advertising. I don't think that was the problem. At least not here in the Bay area.
The problem is (imo) that the movie is depressing looking. I mean, the thing takes place during the depression. People in the states like to see bright colorful cheery cartoon movies. Not this dated depression era crap.
It strikes me as an unfunny and unlikeable cartoon for the kiddies. Of course I could be completely incorrect. Judging by the box office, I'm probably not far off.
As far as Starz shutting down their animation feature division. Then I hope so. I really didn't want to see these guys succeed with their business practices in the first place.
wow, that's so judgemental! And even without the benefit of actually watching the movie!!
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