Posted on 05/19/2008 4:34:55 AM PDT by netmilsmom
The second coming of Narnia had a less passionate opening reception than its predecessor and, being the sole new nationwide release of the weekend, led to one of the softest mid-May periods of the decade in terms of overall foot traffic at the movies.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian captured a sizable estimated $56.6 million on approximately 8,400 screens at 3,929 theaters to top the weekend, but the reportedly $200 million sequel heralded a theatrical lull for the franchise based on C.S. Lewis' series of religious fantasy novels. The previous adaptation, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, roared in December 2005 with a $65.6 million start (or over $70 million adjusted for ticket price inflation) from fewer screens and wound up with $291.7 million by the end of its run. The disparity is compounded by the fact that, buoyed by the holidays, first weekend grosses in December generally portend higher final grosses than they do in May.
Despite the success of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series, it was unrealistic to expect Prince Caspian to exceed its predecessor as blockbuster franchises normally don't maintain interest. Beyond The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Caspian's literary source was not as popular as what propelled Rings and Potter. Storywise, Lord of the Rings was designed as a trilogy while Potter had the recurring school year and coming-of-age themes. With Narnia, Caspian's just another adventure as the first movie had a complete journey. That's how the picture was marketed as well, as no strong villain or new high stakes were presented, and the Prince Caspian character took center stage with no context or reason to care shown for those who haven't read the books.
(Excerpt) Read more at boxofficemojo.com ...
It was hyped so much that my girls don't even want to see it, eventhough we LOVED Narnia. This will be a DVD rental.
Maybe kill your television?
It’s a shame you’re going to wait for DVD for it. It is definitely worth the big screen.
It will make a lot of money next week-end though I expect Indiana Jones will blow everything out of the water. Caspian will be a profitable movie!
Yup - waiting for Indy4. Paying for balcony/restaurant seats at the best theater in town.
Yep, our family plans to see it this coming weekend.
Honestly, we like out television for what it is. Not the center of our lives, but that tiny diversion.
And without the tv, we can’t play Wii Sports.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian captured a sizable estimated $56.6 million on approximately 8,400 screens at 3,929 theaters to top the weekend, but the reportedly $200 million sequel heralded a theatrical lull for the franchise based on C.S. Lewis’ series of religious fantasy novels”
I’m not sure it’s all that religious...the stories were allegories of Christian stories true but they didn’t outwardly portray any religion.
I’m looking forward to seeing Prince Caspian, I really enjoyed the first movie. It was neat to go to the Narnia exhibit at Disney World, too.
Yes it is. The vistas from the coastline and the war scenes - all of it - big screen gorgeous.
(And I am not a regular big screen movie goer either - but Prince Caspian is definitely worth the price of big screen viewing).
I believe Indy will bust all competion. Then The Dark Knight, because of Heath Ledger’s death.
Personally, I would skip them all for Ironman.
We are camping next weekend down by Cleveland. My nephew runs a theater there. Maybe we’ll see it on the big screen with his boys.
It is a good movie, though it suffers in relation to the first movie. Then again, most movies would.
I don’t know how well this movie would work as a DVD, since it is so dependant on the big-screen spectacle for it’s appeal. Clearly it was designed to be seen on the big screen. The biggest distraction in this movie is the soaring musical score. It was just too much, too often. The music was calling for the movie to be much more than it was.
How can anyone afford these movies?
The prices for a ticket and some noshies are insane. I can’t imagine taking a family.
We have four people. We hit an early show and skip the popcorn.
That’s 32.00.
I thought the same thing. I read the series over and over as a kid, and while it has distinctly Christian overtones, the books are not religious.
The worst part for music, though, was the jarring vocal piece that came in at the very end. As end credits, okay, but it started too soon.
That part was already dragging, with all the meaningful looks and such. But then that awful vocal was like posting a DNR on any hope of a big ending.
It comes down to the leftist dominated media wanting this series to not do as well as their Golden Compass anti-Christian film.
Took my wife and daughter to see Caspian (and we all loved it!). We had a snack before going in (daughter and I split a sandwich, wife had a cup of soup). The tickets were $16.50.
We don't have Disney channel in our home (actually, only PBS), and have not been bombarded with commercials, so I cannot fully empathize with your exhaustion. Nevertheless, let me recommend this as a movie that benefits from the big screen.
I just watched “The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe” last night, in preparation for viewing the sequel.
It is far too deep and Christian to be well promoted in today’s culture.
Also, the weather across the nation was spectacular, and had many enjoying the outdoors.
I saw it this week. Go and support it.
I saw it last night and enjoyed it more than the first. I thought the story moved along more strongly and smoothly than the first one. There were some interesting plot twists. The computer animation was virtually seamless. The Christian themes were evident, but not in your face. Go see this great film.
Sequels never do as well as the first movie. This is an understood constant.
Ironman greatly exceeded my expectations. Thinking about going back. I rarely want to do that.
Well, yes and no.
The studios expect some dropoff, but not on this scale. Especially when they up the budget for the sequels.
Doesn't bode well for finishing the series. We'll see, they can still turn this around, but there's some monster competition about to open.
We just got the Ironman PS3 game with all the original voices.
I don’t play but Dad does and it’s like a whole new movie!
Maybe it’s not surprising this is a retreat. After all most of the TLTWTW audience were evangelical protestants. The allegorical Gospel of Lewis’s fantasy parallel universe was a big draw with Christians of all sorts.
The Narnian analog of the conversion of Constantine (overlaid with a bit of the plot of Hamlet) might be popular with us traditional Christians (whether Orthodox, Latin or the remaining traditionalist Anglicans) but it’s not going to light a fire among the sort of protestants who like vilifying the Equals-to-the-Apostles Helen and Constantine on this board and elsewhere.
I suspect the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (as a meditation on the Holy Mysteries or Sacraments) won’t be a wildly popular one either (though it’s got lots of room for sticking close to the original story and getting in lost of very cinematic special effects).
The protestants should be back in force for the critique of secularism in The Silver Chair (assuming Hollywood has the guts to stick to the story, and leave Puddleglum’s speech unaltered), and the creation and the eschaton.
An even bigger question is whether Hollywood will have the guts to leave Lewis’s implied prophecy that the Antichrist will be a fraud put up by an unholy alliance of secularists and Muslims unaltered when they make The Last Battle.
At least it wasn't the near-slobbery-smoochfest at the end of the LoTR trilogy!
Remember the lame-o medals ceremony at the end of Star Wars?
Why couldn’t they just blow up the Death Star and roll the credits?
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