This week, Neil Calloway looks at a bad weekend at the US box office…
As Spectre took box office records in Europe on an upside down helicopter ride, then blew up their desert base last weekend, things at the US box office were a very different matter.
The latest Bond didn’t open in America until Friday, and last week, as Vulture reported, was the worst weekend so far in 2015 in terms of takings. The Martian, in its fifth week of release was still number one, Goosebumps and Bridge of Spies – both out for three weeks – making up the top three.
The highest new entries were Burnt, at number 5, taking just over $5 million, and Our Brand Is Crisis, which took around $3 million. The lack of success for these two movies may be important mostly because of who they star.
The apparent failure of the Sandra Bullock starring Our Brand Is Crisis is worth noting because she starred in Gravity, which was not only the sixth biggest film of 2013, but also hold the record for the biggest October opening for a film. It turns out that you need more than just the right month for a Sandra Bullock movie to do well; you need space and George Clooney too.
Burnt proves that the combination of Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller doesn’t guarantee success; American Sniper made $500 million, making it the highest grossing film released in 2014 (though most of its earnings came in 2015), but while audiences may flock to Cooper as Navy SEAL, they are obviously less impressed with him as a chef. Just as they’ll go to see him with Jennifer Lawrence if it’s set in the present day or in the 1970s, they won’t go to see them if the film is set in the 1930s, as with Serena, which made just over a tenth of its apparent $30 million budget back.
The era of the star being able to open a film purely on the basis that their name is above the title is over for all but a few names, but one actor who can all but guarantee success is Adam Sandler. Much maligned for the apparent low quality of his output (watch Funny People and Punch Drunk Love to end that school of thought). Up until the release of Spectre, the top three Sony films released this year at the box office are Hotel Transylvania 2 with $156 million, Pixels with $78 million and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 with $71 million. Sandler starred in two and produced the third. The disconnect between received opinion about films and what makes money has never been wider. That won’t last long as Spectre is a Sony movie and will surely put Sandler in his place. Previews of the latest Bond in the US on Thursday made $5.25 million, more than twice Skyfall‘s Thursday preview takings, though Spectre opened on more than 3000 screens, when Skyfall was shown on less than 500.
While agents scramble to reassure studio executives that their stars are still relevant and should command big fees, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and James Bond dominate the box office. It could be any time between the 1970s and now. All we need is a new Star Wars film to blow away the competition.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=W04aXcyQ0NQ
Originally published November 8, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
