With flavorful Add On.
To nobody's surprise, Monsters Vs. Aliens has a very pleasant Friday opening of $16.7 million.
The Nikkster provides interesting data:
[MvA] could have a $57 million weekend. This would make it the 2nd biggest non-sequel for DWA, behind 2008's Kung Fu Panda. And it's not even a summer or Easter weekend. That's high compared with two past March releases of toons aimed at kids: Ice Age, which opened to $46M and ended up earning $173M, and Horton Hears A Who, which debuted to $45M and went on to take in $154.
The Nikkster also slops out a generous dollop of snark, calling the flick "Review Proof," even though Rotten Tomatoes pegs MvA at 69% favorable. Go figure.
Meanwhile ... and this is a shocker ... Coraline has dropped out of the Top Ten.
Add On: Monsters Vs. Aliens lands at the top end of estimates, collecting $58.2 million for the weekend, a huge amount of that take coming from 3-D screens. (So ... whatever you think of stereo viewing ... Is it a temporary gimmick or the Next Big Thing? ... It's proven itself in the marketplace thus far.)
And Coraline gets slammed with an 85% market drop. Yeowch.
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17 comments:
It's really NOT a very good movie. The writing is lame, and the charcterizations are shallow. And it was just plain visually annoying.
For all the complaints I've heard about Cloudy's character designs, the humans in MvA were outright scary. It was a bizarre mix between Spitting Image style puppets and Bratz inspired grotesque googly eyes dolls. Not to mention BOB was a 3D carbon copy of Blue from Foster's, Dr Cockroach looked like he was ripped from Monster's Inc, and Susan was eerily reminiscent of a wide-eyed version of Mirage from The Incredibles.
Did anybody feel like a TON of the lipsync was really soft, and sometimes very late in the sync?
All that said, DW has nailed the stereo 3D.
69% at Rotten Tomatoes is faint praise. It's a tepid recommend. But yeah, the term "review proof" is generally reserved for outright stinkers.
I don't disagree with anything Ryan wrote, except to say that I think the lipsynch wasn't as much a synch problem as an overall mushyness problem with all of the acting.
None of the characters really nailed any of the lines. They just kind of said them. It felt like a dubbed movie in that while the characters were saying the lines, it still felt like everyone was on novocain.
I haven't seen the movie yet. But the box office says a lot. If it continues to do well, it will say a whole lot more.
A feature director I know gave it the same grade I did: B
I've talked to other industry people, and some give it a C+, raised to a B due to the solid 3-D.
It flowed along all right, but had no high, "Wow!" moments. Mildly amusing, but that's about it. I thought "OVer the Hedge," a DreamWorks animation that didn't do too well, was funnier and more energetic.
> All that said, DW has nailed the stereo 3D.
No surprise, with Captain 3D on the case. :-) Can't believe Disney let him go.
KG
$58.2M
DW is on a roll.
Congrats to DW, Jeffrey and the wwhole crew. Keep it going!
Regardless of my personal opinion (I still somehow had fun while I was watching it), congratulations to DW for continuing to succeed in spite of what has to be incredible pressure from the financial world. They continue to hang their future on 1-2 feature films a year and they consistently find a way to do wicked big box office. It's hard to believe we still have as many big players in the animation world as we do, especially as the shiny new fad of computer animation starts to wear off. Let's hope Blue Sky, Pixar/Disney, & Dreamworks can continue to hold the line as some of the smaller players make their way in.
Let's not forget that Nikki Finke has, in the past, spouted a rather ridiculous theory of her own, which states that " animated movies that feature a character with fur are bigger hits."
As for me, I don't really care what Finke has to say about animation, as long as I get to nestle deeply within her sumptuous bosom.
Ah, the Nikkster.
Often wrong, but never in doubt.
dreamworks is definitely on a roll and right on the heels of their Northern competitors.
58!?!?!
Holy crap! Congrats Dreamworkers!
"dreamworks is definitely on a roll and right on the heels of their Northern competitors."
Well...at least in the money area anyway. As for story, DW is still missing the mark by a mile.
M vs A is horrible, and Mad2 wasn't much better. I thought that DW turned a corner with Kung Fu Panda. But it looks like it was merely a fluke.
As long as Jefferey is at the helm that studio with be destined to be a money making machine that produces films with no soul.
A shame really.
"As long as Jefferey is at the helm that studio with be destined to be a money making machine that produces films with no soul.
A shame really."
If you think trophies will keep a business running, then you have to get your head out of your a$$.
This person must have gotten turned down by Dreamworks and has no idea what its like in the industry. Such bitterness!
Dreamworks is a great place to work and treats their people well.
As long as Jefferey is at the helm that studio with be destined to be a money making machine that produces films with no soul.
And Mr. K. will cry all the way to the bank.
Dreamworks is an extremely loyal studio and like it or not JK has been consistent in keeping his peeps busy and well paid.
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