Well, the Batman was not strong enough to get the box office slump. The streak has now reached 17 weeks, tying the unwanted record set back in 1985.
It's not like the quality of films is in that sharp a decline. Granted, there are a lot of sub-par films out there, but at any given time there are generally a few worth seeing. Maybe it is time for studios to start picking up on the smaller, independent films and try pushing them. Who knows, maybe one will catch on and become a big hit. Or maybe the film goers, or would be film goers, should try seeking out the arthouses and independent theaters to see what they have to offer. The good films are out there, sometimes it just takes a little looking.
Anyway, while it underperformed based on analysts predictions, Batman Begins performed well enough to handily beat all comers. I think that word of mouth will keep this in the top ten for quite some time. It will probably also be the top getter next weekend, but will fall to the upcoming Spielberg juggernaut, War of the Worlds.
On another note, The Perfect Man was DOA, coming in 8th place in it's opening weekend.
Here are the top 10: (Title, Weekend, Total, Weeks in release)
- Batman Begins $48,745,440 $72,896,986 1
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith $26,037,023 $6,697,986 2
- Madagascar $10,737,325 $146,831,846 4
- Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith $10,038,498 $348,140,685 5
- The Longest Yard $8,239,853 $132,144,471 4
- The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (3D) $6,692,907 $24,015,408 2
- Cinderella Man $5,572,285 $43,893,695 3
- The Perfect Man $5,300,980 $5,300,980 1
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants $3,127,232 $30,160,110 3
- he Honeymooners $2,648,330 $9,551,584 2
Figures courtesy of www.BoxOfficeMojo.com
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Article comments
1 - Aaman
Strange - $45 of those millions are mine and they didn't help - 2 movies.
Maybe it's the $150 I spent on Netflix+cable+AOL - 20+ movies
Hmmm - perhaps they should drop ticket prices like other industries do when their product becomes a commodity delivered through multiple channels.
2 - Tan The Man
It doesn't help that some of those movies in the top 10 are awful. This pre-summer slate was not exciting.
3 - Aaman
This explains the merger between Loews and AMC - someone should do a separate post
4 - visualsimplicity
I'm of the group that believes it's not the quality of the movies, it's the price of the tickets. People are finally not willing to pay the price of admission.
5 - Tan The Man
The price does affect it. I usually see films at matinee hours and I've noticed over the years that many more people go now at the same hours. But it's mostly older people seeing it earlier. Young people still go mostly at night because they don't care because it's not their money that they are spending.
6 - Tom Johnson
It's the price of the tickets paired with a slew of unappealing movies. Of the top 10, I've already seen Star Wars and only have a slight interest in seeing Batman Begins.
For my wife and me, however, there is one of the big non-monetary issues that keeps us out of theaters is, plain and simple, the CROWDS. I'm sick of paying all that money to sit and listen to people talk to each other like they're sitting in their living rooms. We can't be the only ones who feel this way. If a lot of people are like us, and from talking to coworkers and friends, they are, people will only venture out to the theater for a few very big things, otherwise they wait for DVD or just skip movies altogether.
I would seek out the little arty theaters except, in Phoenix at least, they don't tend to bring in all that many small films anymore. I've been waiting for Rock School to open here for weeks - it had been scheduled for June 10, then never opened. Filmmakers, even small ones, can't complain that no one's going to see their films if they're not even showing up in the theaters they were scheduled to show up in!