Blades of More Box Office Gold
For the second week in a row Will Ferrell is the top box-office draw as Blades of Glory remained the highest-grossing picture of the holiday weekend, according to the Associated Press. The film took in $23 million, followed by Disney’s animated Meet the Robinsons with $17 million. Ice Cube’s Are We Done Yet was third, with $15 million.
Grindhouse, the hilarious send-up of B-movies made by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, earned $11.6 million, according to early estimates. This is considered to be a disappointing showing, as it was expected to top the box office with grosses in the $27 million range.
"With these two filmmakers’ pedigree and the overall cool factor that this film had going for it, you would have figured it would have done a lot more business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. However, with a three-hour-plus length, the movie could be shown only half as often as the other films.
Grindhouse played to big crowds on the East and West coasts but failed to click with audiences in the Midwest and South, Weinstein said.
With theatrical receipts, overseas sales, television and home-video revenues, Grindhouse"will turn a profit on its $53 million budget, Weinstein said. The company hoped that word of mouth from those who did see it would sustain it at theaters in coming weeks, he said.
I don't see how word of mouth is going to help Grindhouse. I found it boring as hell (especially the first half), and only mildly amusing. It's basically two self-indulgent directors amusing themselves by making a couple bad movies.
I gave it a glowing review to anyone who asked my opinion about it. I haven't had such a fun movie going experience in quite some time. But, it is the type of film that is very appreciated by those who get the genre and tone they're going for. I fear that many won't understand what they were going for, and write off Grindhouse completely. Still those that loved Grindhouse will tell their friends, and see it multiple times. I, for one, would love to see it again.
I loved Grindhouse. I was so worried it would be sold out, I bought my tickets extra early. The Saturday night showing eventually filled up, but not to capacity. The audience reaction was great, though. I was very surprised to see it do so poorly, especially behind that Ice Cube movie.