New Moon and The Blind Side helped make this past holiday weekend a record breaking one for Hollywood. It seems that this weekend, grosses were upwards of $275 million breaking the mark set in 2000 by 12%. The interesting thing is that none of the films that actually opened for the holiday made any dent in the box office.
What does that mean? It means that the women ruled the box office for the second weekend in a row.
New Moon suffered a massive 70% decline in ticket sales, but since it started off so well there was no place to go but down. The precipitous drop does really show that the film does not appeal to guys and all the people who want to see the film will have seen it pretty soon. But even though it had a huge drop is still made over $42 million over the weekend and in two weeks has grossed over $200 million domestically (and an additional $243 million overseas) and will end up with over a half a billion worldwide gross. All on a budget of $50 million.
New Moon is already number 6 on the list of the top grossing films of 2009, and it will probably beat Star Trek to enter into the top 5 for 2009.
BUT the bigger story of the weekend is the INCREASE in box office of The Blind Side. That movie went up 18%. That’s virtually unheard of. Most films decline in their second weekend when there is additional competition, but The Blind Side has great word of mouth and will play for weeks. It will be one of the those films that when other things are sold out through the holiday season people will go to because they heard from someone that it was good. The Blind Side almost beat New Moon for the top spot grossing approx $40 million. The movie has already past the $100 million mark. All on a budget of $35 million. That’s two hundred million dollar movies this year for Sandra Bullock. I really hope she got some serious backend dollars for this flick.
How did this happen? How did this movie that everyone was dismissing a couple of weeks ago as a “lite Sandy Bullock film” become a hit? First, it’s a good movie. It does exactly what it is supposed to do. It makes you feel good. You smile at the end of it. Yes, it’s sappy, but it’s supposed to be. Second, it’s a family movie. Kids and parents (and men and women) can see this together and all enjoy it. Third, underestimate Sandra Bullock at your own peril. She is really helping to redefine what roles women can play in their 40s. This year she played the evil boss, and crazy stalker and a fierce mom.
Also, Precious which is playing in over 600 theatres declined 34%, and personally I think that the success of The Blind Side will make a dent in Precious’ numbers for now. Once the year end nominations start coming in people will want to see Precious because they will want to be in the know. While I am not saying that the films are alike, one could look at the ads for the two movies and want to see a more upbeat film that deals with hard issues in a more upbeat way like The Blind Side does instead of Precious which everyone knows is brutal and intense.
New Moon Tops Box Office Again (Hollywood Reporter)
Thanksgiving box office record blown away despite absence of new hits (LA Times)
I was also surprised to see Precious start declining but I guess people would rather see lighter movies over the holidays. Once Awards season kicks off it will do better.
Sandra Bullock is really kicking ass, especially given her gender and age. But I’d like to see a time when a woman can look as slovenly and “ugly” as say–Jack Nicholson and still be raking in the cash. Sandra’s in her 40s, but she doesn’t look it.
Given a choice between a film featuring unattractive people being abused by other unattractive people, and Sandy Bullock being sweetly noblesse oblige to just one unattractive person, which film will America reward with box office? This is a no-brainer — people will see PRECIOUS as if it were a vitamin, THE BLIND SIDE like fortified Cap’n Crunch. It has less to do with race and skin color as it does with class — but the ‘fish out of water’ scale wouldn’t register if bourgeois blacks saved a black kid from the sticks….
So exactly why are feminist supposed to be happy about new moon being so popular?.
In any case am not surprised one bit about the blind side.
If you are not into emmerich destructionfests or a a teen girl into sexy vampires and werewolves Sandra bullock looks infinetely more watchable. And precious well dont get me started on this sensationalism that critics are eating up this days.
But Sandra Bullock has always been great and is likable so whatever issue i have with that movie i can overlook it.
While I really enjoyed ‘The Blind Side’, I think Susan Boyle’s story would make a really good underdog Hollywood movie. TV Guide Network’s already airing a documentary about her on the 13th. I’m a huge Susan Boyle fan so i can’t wait. I heard it’ll only be playing on TV Guide Network…
More info on it here:
I Dreamed A Dream… The Susan Boyle Story
How do you guys feel about Susan Boyle’s life being adapted into a movie? Anyone else excited for the documentary?