While Karina (and indieWIRE) sits off to the side celebrating the recent indie box office record-breaker, most of the interweb is talking about the weekend’s mainstream achievements. Well, actually people are mostly focusing on just the shocking success of Friday the 13th, which I believe broke records for its franchise, its genre, its rating and for President’s Day weekend (though not for the month of February). As for the other monumental marker, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, I’ve seen maybe two bloggers comment on how it’s just passed $100 million. How is this a remarkable feat? Well, not only does this make Paul Blart the highest grossing January opener ever, but the oft-derided comedy is also the first film to debut in January to reach the $100 million point (not counting the special edition re-release of Star Wars, that is).
As this is a holiday and most of the web cinephiles are celebrating appropriately by watching North by Northwest or Point Break, there isn’t much else being written about, so here are some noteworthy quotes and links regarding the stunning box office figures:
- Let’s begin with a comment from horror expert Scott Weinberg (of Cinematical and elsewhere), from whose Twitter I learned of the F13 tally: “Wow, $42m for “Friday the 13th”? Get ready for a bunch of dumb articles about how horror is “back!”"
- And not even just from the mainstream media, Scott! As one of the very excited F13 fans at Bloody-Disgusting.com writes: “2009 is going to put horror back on the map! Could we see a repeat of the 80’s? As one person said, MBV 3D got 50 million and this is predicted 100 million. Back that up with the earnings that New Line will rake in with Final Destination 4 plus Vincenzo Natali making a return with Splice and niche horror titles coming to DVD such as Hush, Shortcut, Triangle and God knows universal will get returns on The Grudge 3. THAT is something we can cram down peoples throats and say, “Yeah, mock our genre now, bitches!” HORROR RULES!!!!!!!!!!! THIS YEAR WE WILL CHECKMATE THE FILM INDUSTRY AND TAKE THE BOX OFFICE BY STORM!!!!”
- In what seems to be an analogy relating Jason Voorhees to Richard Nixon, Stu at Defamer writes, “Fittingly or not, the biggest President’s Day weekend in box-office history was led by a bloodthirsty, unlikable and unkillable man who’s spent the last 30 years strategically decimating his opponents. Jason Voorhees’s landslide triumph reaffirmed his supremacy and mandate for years to come, or at least until David Frost corners him to ask why he didn’t burn the tapes and if he would like to apologize to the American people for anything in particular. Actually, Frost/Jason doesn’t sound half-bad.”
- It might sound better if Frost/Nixon wasn’t considered the opposite of Friday the 13th in terms of box office success. In yet another analysis of yet another weekend in which “the Oscar bump” was nowhere to be seen despite the otherwise stellar box office numbers, Patrick Goldstein at The Big Picture notes, “It’s time for filmmakers to grasp the new reality: The Oscars have become a hollow brass ring. They may be the ultimate status symbol to everyone inside the industry, but outside–in the real world, where Oscar ratings have been steadily dropping–the awards have less and less impact.”
- Minute details about the box office numbers are worth paying specific attention to, by the way. While Nikki Finke ponders the following, “I don’t know which is worse: that moviegoers flocked to horrific Friday The 13th 2009 from New Line/Warner Bros because it’s Friday the 13th. Or that they also saw a machete-wielding psycho killer with a loved one on Valentines Day.”
- Radar points out, “That’s impressive, though the signs for continued success aren’t so good: nearly half that total was netted on Friday, meaning that the die-hards went to see it and didn’t necessarily recommend it to their friends. And — okay. Maybe it wasn’t the best date movie in the world on Saturday for Valentine’s Day.”
- Gabe Toro at The Playlist still sees continued success: “Though the dropoff was steep after a nearly $20 million Friday (I guess couples didn’t want to spend Valentine’s Day watching people hacked and slashed to death?), don’t be surprised to see the franchise suddenly have new legs after this becomes by far the most successful of the series. The awful, reductive, embarassingly simplistic series.”
- Screen Daily comments on the triumph for the R rating: “That the number one launch was R-rated compared to [former horror top-grosser] The Grudge’s less problematic PG-13 certification is all the more impressive and vindicates Warner Bros’ decision to release this latest New Line bequest over Valentine’s Day weekend.”
- Of course, it’s worth reporting that The Grudge still sold more tickets.
- At Film Threat, Scott Mendelson has some quick thoughts on another remake: “I guess the $50 million 4-day Friday the 13th opening means the feared Nightmare on Elm Street remake is about to get fast tracked, right quick (when are we going to see that Martin Campbell remake of The Birds?). For the record, the movie could actually use a remake. The original still holds up as a creepy and surreal horror film, but all of the kid actors are pretty mediocre (yes, even Johnny Depp). And good on Platinum Dunes for getting a hungry, artistically talented rookie to direct the thing. Better a hungry music video vet with something to prove than a theoretical auteur just in it for the glory (think Rob Zombie).”
- And finally, for no other reason than it has to do with the other record-breaker, a trailer mash-up of Paul Blart and the similar yet darker upcoming comedy Observe and Report (via Best Week Ever):
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog