Weekend Box Office Report for January 26-28

So, what went wrong with Chidren of Men? Critics loved it, I haven't heard any negative WoM. And yet, with a budget of ~$72 mil, it has made back ~28 mil or so here in the States.

I think Cuaron wanted an Oscar nod here, and therefore went out of his way to market this as NOT SCI FI. He knew that any genre film wouldn't be taken seriously. But a consequence of that decision was to tank his BO.

A better choice, imho, would have been to market it as a genre film, and as a powerful commentary on society. Let the chips fall where they may, but don't gamble on trying to game the Academy. If they disrespect you, oh well. But the method used here will leave the film struggling to break even.

That's just further proof on the concept I've been telling you for years now. People love simplified crap and don't treat the medium as a true source of art.
Most people don't want to have an emotional attachment to films. They just want to throw down popcorn drenched in butter and watch stuff blow up.

Sad ,but True.

But there are some good ones out there.

That's nothing new, people have been going to the movies for escapist entertainment for over a century.

I don't think CoM is doing bad at the domestic box office, for the type of movie that it is. It's dark, it's R-rated, it's dystopian, it's British. The most similar recent movie I can think of to compare it to is 28 Days Later. If one compares the week-by-week box office of both movies (not counting the first two weeks of very limited release for CoM), and they are actually tracking about the same, which isn't bad considering 28DL had the added hook of being able to market itself to the horror/zombie fans. 28DL went on to make about $45M domestically, and I would expect CoM to do about the same. The biggest problem from the studio's standpoint, is that 28DL cost $8M while CoM cost $72M.

Which links us back to the initial topic of quality movies vs. box office hits. There really isn't a competition between the two - the fact is, the profit from escapist fluff like Night at the Museum makes it possible for studios to fund riskier ventures like CoM.

One of Children of Men's problems is that it is not playing everywhere. Movie theaters would rather put "Night at the Museum" on 2 or more screens rather than put other films on one screen. They also seem to play movies long past their box office gross had fallen off the chart, such as The Santa Clause 3 playing past New Year's.

Good point jppintar326.
Personally, Chilldren of Men was the best film of 2006 that I saw.

However, I haven't seen half of the films nominated for best picture simply for the same reason you mentioned for CoM. They haven't been widely released yet.

Actually, three of the five Best Picture nominees are currently in wide release - The Departed, The Queen, and Babel. Little Miss Sunshine was in wide release earlier this year. Letters from Iwo Jima is the only one which has not yet been in wide release.

Epic Mvie was number one???

(SIGH)

Didn't people see the trailers? Didn't they realize that movie WASN'T FUNNY!!!!

Well, I know HansoSword got to see The Departed...not sure if he saw Babel. That and I know Hanso's golfing abilities improving lately. :-)

But The Queen and Babel were wide released "later" in their theatre run. The Queen just recently jumped a thousand screens...it's been out for 17 weeks in certain theatres but not wide enough to hit them all.

Good points too above, guys.

I could have went off "fanboy" style about how even when the Academy does nominate the Box Office champs for the lower tier awards, they don't even do that correct.

I realize this may be a "fanboy" arguement start up and some people endlessly bash the Prequels but I find it horribly hypocritical that the Academy didn't give the episodes their due in the "Sound Editing" award. Ben Burtt(the same man who brought us the sound effects of Indiana Jones films) deserved the Sound Editing awards from all of these films. So yes, the Academy won't even give the juggernauts the right awards on the lower tier levels.

It's ironic that the SAG and the Academy will give "Lifetime Achievements" to film creators of the Genre Box Office Kings but they won't reward them in individual awards the years of their creations.

Instead, the Box Office Champs get their trophies at the "Mtv Movie Awards" while being laughed at by the Academy.

Snally, you're right on the fact that these box office hits do help fund the risky projects for the studios. I guess that's another irony. The same juggernauts that get ignored fund the movies that do get praised by serious minded Hollywood...

I had to see Children of Men on a pirated DVD, because it wasn't playing anywhere near my home. I loved the movie, and if it hits the theaters around me I'll go see it because it's a terrific film. The Departed was probably the best film I saw this year, but Children of Men should have received an Oscar nod. I know I'm probably in a very small minority, but I didn't really care much for Babel, and while The Queen will get Mirren the Oscar, I didn't think it should have beaten out Children of Men for a best picture nomination. I really don't think much about the Oscars; the academy's always been a little snooty in my opinion. All award shows have their good and bad points, but are they really that important in the long run? It's the money that really matters, isn't it?