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Box office: 'Extraordinary Measures' loses to 'Avatar,' 'Legion' and 'Tooth Fairy'
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From the Los Angeles Times' Company Town.The No. 1 broadcast network got a lesson in big screen disappointment this weekend.
"Extraordinary Measures," the first release from CBS Films, debuted to an anemic $7 million, according to a studio estimate. "Avatar," meanwhile, once again dominated the box office charts with a very small decline, while Sony Pictures' post-apocalyptic thriller "Legion" had a good launch and 20th Century Fox and Walden Media's family comedy "The Tooth Fairy" started softly.
Continuing a string of underperforming adult dramas in 2009, "Measures,' which stars Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, failed to find much of an audience despite an extensive marketing campaign undertaken largely on CBS' own television shows and outdoor billboards.
The movie, which cost $31 million to produce, performed best in smaller towns in the Southeast and Midwest and particularly poorly in Los Angeles and New York City. In a glimmer of good news, the audience was mostly older and female, a demographic that turns out more often after a movie's first weekend than others, and the average grade by those who did attend was A-, meaning word-of-mouth should be good.
The news was just a little better for "Tooth Fairy," the new family comedy starring Dwayne Johnson that was co-financed by 20th Century Fox and Walden Media at a cost of $48 million. It opened to an unimpressive $14.5 million, below such recent family comedies starring Johnson as "Race to Witch Mountain" and "The Game Plan," which started with $24.4 million and $23 million, respectively.
"Legion," from Sony's low-budget genre label Screen Gems, sold $18.3 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada, a good debut for a movie that cost about $25 million to produce. Unsurprisingly, the bloody and effects-heavy thriller drew a mostly male crowd.
Once again, however, the big winner at the box office was "Avatar," which dominated for the sixth weekend in a row with a spectacular $36 million estimated domestic take, bringing its total to $552.8 million. Ticket sales declined only 16%, showing that the big budget 3-D blockbuster from director James Cameron isn't slowing down at all as it surpassed "The Dark Knight" this weekend to become the second highest ToSaveALifegrossing movie in the U.S. and Canada ever, not accounting for ticket price inflation. It should pass the $600.8 million total of the No. 1 movie, Cameron's "Titanic," in the next two weeks.
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I think its because it looked like a CBS movie. The lighting, the fuzzy filter... I seriously thought it was coming ON CBS not the theater. Gotta step it up if you expect people to go pay $20+ to see something.
I think the problem is these days people aren't interested in spending money on films that could just as easily be movies of the week on CBS or HBO specials. It's unfair to these sorts of films, of course, but the sad truth is right now people want to see movies of a type they can't see on TV. Avatar and Legion fit that bill. So does, in a perverse way, the Tooth Fairy. Fortunately Extraordinary Measures only cost $31M to make so it'll be a lot easier for it to make a profit, probably via DVD/BluRay sales later. Plus it'll probably get a boost later if it gets an Oscar nomination for Best Actor or something.
Hi, I'm Tim and I stalk every TV and movie board online trying to sell my second-rate video crap at ridiculous prices.
I want to see "Extraordinary Measures", but I couldn't see it this weekend as I'm a weekend behind on my movie going (snow 2 weekends ago threw me off schedule and lately there seems to be a good one that I want to see opening every week). Maybe next weekend. Hopefully it'll still be open, because it looks like a really good movie.
On another note, I cannot believe "Avatar" passed "The Dark Knight", which is far and away a better film. Looks like "Titanic" will unfortunately be next. I cannot believe "Avatar" is going to be #1. Sorry, but I just don't think its worthy of that title (of course, if you adjust all of these for inflation, "Avatar" @ $500K + is down in the 30's - a long, long, long way from #1 - GWTW, which in today's dollars has over $1 billion).
Man, I wish the "adjusted for inflation" qualifier would just disappear. All is not equal. Let's say a modernized version of "Gone With the Wind" came out today. Does it outgross "Avatar"? No. It would not even come close.
How many multiplexes were packed with numerous options when "Gone With the Wind" was playing? How much competition did it have?
It's just not the same and it seems like every film that performs well has to have this goofy "inflation" qualifier put on it. Heck, to me, it's MORE of an achievement to get this level of business in a movie theater TODAY than it was in 1939.
Doesn't matter Brandon, it is still #1 of all time.
"Tooth Fairy," which was co-financed by Fox and family entertainment company Walden Media, has somewhat less certain prospects.
Finally a great clean movie with a believable story and no trash added to it.