Mania Box Office Report: Avengers Sinks Battleship (Mania.com)

By:Robert T. Trate
Date: Monday, May 21, 2012
Source: Box Office Mojo

Does anyone know anybody that actually went and saw Battleship? I know three people. Yes, it might seem hard to believe but I know three people who actually saw Battleship. Rob Vaux, well he had to, as he had to review it. I also met two little boys this weekend, Justin and Hunter, who saw it and they loved it. They both thought it was really “cool”. So if Hasbro’s audience was a five and six year old then they truly are the box office champions for this weekend. 

In all seriousness, I had two thoughts for the Box Office Report this week. The first is that despite Hasbro co-producing Battleship with Universal Studios they are still selling a lot of Avengers toys. So their bottom line isn’t going to be all that bad. Plus it got kids hearing of this thing called a bored game again. Will they put aside there Wiis, XBox 360s and PS3s? Maybe for a day or two. What I really wanted to ask you is something that our own Rob Vaux brought up in his review of Battleship.
 
“Remember when they first announced the creation of a movie based on a board game and the filmgoing public tried with all its might to convince the powers that be that it was a really really bad idea? We should have tried harder. We should have hopped off those trams at Universal Studios, stormed the Hasbro bungalow (with its convenient Mr. Potato Head statue for easy identification), shaken the decision makers by their $2,000 coat lapels, and screamed “If you make this movie we will hunt you for sport!” Maybe if we had done that we could have prevented this… thing from seeing the inside of movie theaters.” - Rob Vaux, Mania.com

It reminded me of an idea I had for Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake. The very idea of that remake made me ill. I wanted to go to my local movie theater and protest the idea. Yeah, the whole sign on a stick and everything. Internet bitching and complaining carries very little weight. Imagine someone or a group of someones standing outside of a theater and protesting the likes of Battleship. Why? Because we want more from the studios. We all knew this was a shitty idea from the get go but why did everyone with the power think, yeah Battleship, like in the board game; here is $200,000,000. Perhaps it is not too late, perhaps a sit in or a protest for the next universally bad movie idea is necessary. Stay tuned Maniacs. This idea isn’t going to go away because the next Battleship is just out there, waiting. 


 
Rank
 
Movie
 
Weekend
 
Theaters
 
Average
 
Total
 
Budget
1
The Avengers
 
$55,057,000
4,249
$12,958
$457,078,000
$220
2
Battleship
 
$25,300,000
3,690
$6,856
$25,300,000
$209
3
The Dictator
 
$17,415,000
3,008
$5,790
$24,456,000
$65
4
Dark Shadows
 
$12,770,000
3,755
$3,401
$50,908,000
$150
5
What to Expect When You’re Expecting
 
$10,500,000
3,021
$3,476
$10,500,000
-
6
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
 
$3,250,000
354
$9,181
$8,257,000
-
7
The Hunger Games
 
$3,000,000
2,064
$1,453
$391,631,000
$78
8
Think Like a Man
 
$2,700,000
1,722
$1,568
$85,888,000
$12
9
The Lucky One
 
$1,765,000
2,005
$880
$56,921,000
-
10
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
 
$1,450,000
1,840
$788
$25,362,000
$55


This week there are two genre pics to choose from. The first is a sequel that practically nobody asked for and no one here at Mania seems to care about. Yes, I have been watching your comments and hits on the Men in Black III posts. The other has some potential in The Chernobyl Dairies. Tune into Mania this week for Rob Vaux’s review of both.   



Series: