That Guy From Scrubs vs. That Guy From Heroes
So, if not for all the illegal downloading some estimate Wolverine would have grossed an extra $20 million this weekend to become the highest opening flick in the franchise instead of the second highest after X3. Others estimate that it doesn’t matter because they both sucked.
5/8
Wide
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Kirk Begins
WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is pretty much along the lines of “I need to change my pants.” Literally, one guy said, “It melted my pants!” That was after what had to be the best bait-and-switch ever.
I have to say this comes as a pleasant surprise. I have faith in J. J. Abrams and most of the cast, but writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have let me down before (Transformers). When teamed with Abrams, however, they tend to up their game (Alias, Mission Impossible III
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
There are blockbusters and there are blockbusters. This is the latter. $294mil.
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
If Guy Ritchie directed an “urban” comedy.
WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good. I’ll watch Donald Faison and Mos Def in just about anything.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
There will probably be a few people who can’t get into Star Trek. But they will probably go see Wolverine, since they couldn’t get into that last weekend. $15mil.
Limited
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Two brothers (Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna) vie for a professional soccer slot.
WILL IT SUCK?
From writer/director Carlos Cuaron (Alfonse’s younger brother). Carlos also co-wrote Y Tu Mama Tambien with Alfonse, so he’s got the chops. And the reunion of Y Tu Mama’s Bernal and Luna is almost too good to resist. Early buzz is positive.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Some trouble from Brothers Bloom next week, but love for Bernal and Luna should win out. $3mil.
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Apparently, Salvador Dali, Frederico Garcia Lorca and Luis Bunuel all knew each other back in the day, two of them in the Biblical sense.
WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good. Robert Pattinson (Twilight) plays Dali.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Will draw about as much of the Twilight crowd as December Boys did of the Harry Potter crowd. $2mil.
Next Week: Tom Hanks’ hair really got it together.
May 4th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
The sad thing isn’t that “XMO:W” is a bad movie – it’s that Fox will now use the success of “XMO:W” to build an “XMO” franchise around characters that haven’t been developed and the audience really doesn’t care about (or have been fundamentally ruined, mostly by the hack writing of “XMen: The Last Stand”).
Feh, I say.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I think there’s potential here. It was possible to make a good Wolverine movie, they just didn’t (really, a lot). It’s just that there’s far more potential with a continuation of the original franchise which, frankly, could have included origin stories a la Lost and been pretty bad-ass.
May 5th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
“This is the latter.” Nice casino royale nod – my favorite line in the movie.
May 5th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I’m glad somebody caught that. Thanks.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
[...] (which was as good as Wolverine was bad) may not hit the heights I predicted, but it should easily crack $200 million, making it the most successful of the franchise by far [...]