Posted on 05/08/2006 7:32:02 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Mission: Impossible III," the first big action film of the summer, opened disappointingly at the weekend box office in North American, despite a whirlwind publicity tour by its pricey star, Tom Cruise.
The spy thriller sold $48 million worth of tickets in its first three days in theaters across the United States and Canada, distributor Paramount Pictures said on Sunday.
The Viacom Inc.-owned studio said the figure was within its expectations of a bow in the $50 million range, but it was gratified by the international showing, where it earned $70 million after opening virtually everywhere except Japan and India. The movie did bomb in Germany, where Cruise has historically had a tough time, the studio said. The movie cost just under $150 million to make.
Rival studios said they had expected the film to open to at least $60 million domestically. Industry analyst Brandon Gray at boxofficemojo.com said he had expected the movie to kick off with about $70 million, which is where the last two opened after adjusting for ticket price inflation.
"A truly successful sequel needs to open bigger than its predecessor," Gray said, noting that follow-up movies usually burn out more quickly.
He doubted that Cruise's unconventional antics in the past year -- such as jumping on talk show host Oprah Winfrey's couch and his strident support of Scientology -- played a role in the film's underperformance, and instead pointed the finger at a marketing campaign that made the movie seem less fun than its predecessors.
Comparing North American sales with those of the first two "Mission" films is not easy, as those opened during the Memorial Day holiday weekends at the end of May when overall business was stronger.
The first film, directed in 1996 by Brian De Palma, earned an unadjusted $45.4 million during the Friday-to-Sunday period, but its figures would have been higher if not for Tuesday previews and a Wednesday opening. It ended up with $180.9 million. Four years later, John Woo's sequel earned $57.8 million for the same period, ending up with $215.4 million.
The new film ranks No. 2 among North American openings this year, far behind "Ice Age: The Meltdown" with $68 million a month ago, and only $8 million ahead of "Scary Movie 4."
It marks the first release to get the green light from the studio's new chairman and chief executive, former talent manager Brad Gray, who came aboard early last year after the previous regime suffered through several years of underperforming pictures.
Paramount production president Rob Moore preferred to use last year's "Batman Begins" as his yardstick, since both movies resurrected a dormant franchise. The Caped Crusader opened to $48.7 million on its way to $205 million.
The critically acclaimed film marks Cruise's third turn as superspy Ethan Hunt. Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Capote") played the bad guy. After plugging the movie at several major cities overseas, Cruise spent Wednesday on an unusual mission in New York leading media and fans on a wild goose chase around the city.
The film also marks the feature directing debut of TV veteran J.J. Abrams, creator of such shows as "Alias" and "Lost." He stepped in after David Fincher and then Joe Carnahan exited. That was not the only behind-the-scenes drama. Cruise reportedly had to cut his fee after Paramount's new bosses balked at the escalating budget.
While there were some reports that the youthful 43-year-old was losing his female fan base, Paramount said the demographics were exactly the same for all three "Mission" movies: 64 percent of viewers were aged 25 and older, and 56 percent were male.
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Yeah Poseidon is going to flop. The real 70s disaster movies are only fun to watch on late night, they were all stupid. If you're watching one in an environment where you can't make fun of it (like a theater where you're supposed to be quiet) you're doing it wrong. Which is good news for MI3, that basically gives it a second opening weekend with basically no competition.
A theater where you're supposed to be quiet???? Wish we had one around here! :)
You've got it, disaster movies are only fun when they're out of date and cheesy. The ones that try to be Serious Films like Day After Tomorrow are among the most depressing movies one can watch.
I recall Pauline Kael giving the only proper review of Earthquake; she said "You can't call this a cheat, because it serves up the destruction." She was the only one who seemed to get this kind of bad movie.
I can`t believe they made a remake of that...On the other hand I can, being that Hollywood nowdays has the creativety and originality of an eggplant. I mean what`s next, a remake of Casablanca? The orginal with Gene Hackman I will never forget, you just can`t beat it no matter how many computer generated effects they use in a remake.
I saw the original when it first came out in the 1970`s with my parents when I was about 12 or 13 and it totally freaked me out. When 911 happened I couldn`t stop thinking about that movie. All those people who died and the ones who escaped. Life is truly like treading water and death can come at anytime.
If Hollywood want`s to do a TRUE remake, they should have Bush playing the Gene Hackman part, and have every liberal pond scum trying to drag him down in the water every step of the way.
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but they already DID remake it...for TV.
The orginal with Gene Hackman I will never forget, you just can`t beat it no matter how many computer generated effects they use in a remake.
What was interesting about that was the sheer SIZE of it. That's why it was such a hit--it was HUGE. It certainly wasn't a great movie, but it was pulpy junk with all that loud overacting that we could criticize day and night, but it's still, you know, fun!
I saw the original when it first came out in the 1970`s with my parents when I was about 12 or 13 and it totally freaked me out. When 911 happened I couldn`t stop thinking about that movie. All those people who died and the ones who escaped. Life is truly like treading water and death can come at anytime.
One of the first movies I saw in the theatr was Earthquake. It ruined me, I wanted to see cities collapsing every time I went to the movies after that.
If Hollywood want`s to do a TRUE remake, they should have Bush playing the Gene Hackman part, and have every liberal pond scum trying to drag him down in the water every step of the way.
One day at a warehouse job I was working a friend and I had the place in stitches designing the Greatest TV Miniseries Ever, about a skyscraper packed with celebrities that snaps and falls into the ocean, but most of the cast survives...until the building settles on an alien spaceship...
I think we stopped at 127 "co-stars"... "Also Starring George Kennedy as 'Sarge'...With Lee Merriwether as 'Katheryn Carmichael Chandler III' ...Extra-Special Guest Co-Starring Todi Fields as 'Beth'...
Well Poiseden might have been pulpy junk (especially "the Morning after" theme song), with bad acting, but at the time the orginality of it over-ruled all that. It showed people how easily death can come at the most unexpected moments, something a kid like me at the time never even thought of before. Till that time death was always "you grow old and die"... Then later on it was cemented in my phyche even further when my neighbor was maimed in a FALN explosion, the same terrorists that were later pardoned by serial rapist Bill Clinton so his cunting wife could play Senator.
When 911 happened I couldn`t stop thinking about that movie, people reacted the same way. When the first plane hit people were told to remain where they were "Help is on it`s way" (something you can also hear on the 911 emergency calls)...and this went on even after the second plane hit, it was always "Help is on the way". Of course help was impossible.
I remember when I was a kid coming out of that theater having a sense of taking more responsibilty for myself rather than depending completely on my parents. The movie was a metaphor for life, you can`t sit and wait around waiting for someone to do things for you, you must do things for yourself, make decisions for yourself and the fact that Hackman played a Reverend made it all the more intense for me. At the time I looked up to a Reverend at my church as a father figure as my real father was rarely around. I don`t care what you say, that movie was incredible.
Oh yeah, don`t tell me.. In this remake, the "Reverend" character doesn`t exist. Need I even guess? Either that or he is replaced by a Muslim who is oppressed by a Texas rancher.
Easy...
I don't think the movie was incredible. I think you had an intense reaction to it.
There's a big difference. It's not a putdown to observe that we have strong reactions as young people to junk. I LIKE junk, most of my favorite movies are ones I consider good junk.
It doesn't make them great art just because elements of them stirred emotions in me. Poseidon Adventure has a ton of hammy dialogue, laughable character stuff (Shelley Winters...?) and cardboard characters. It's not a classic. It's pulp.
That doesn't take away from anyone's enjoying it, or it having had an effect on them. But trying to argue it's some kind of incredible work of art? Uhhhh...no.
Yep, I was right...Nowhere in the cast of this remake does it mention a "Reverend"...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409182/
Oh yeah, and they got Richard Dreyfuss in it... Yeah OK..We know where this is going. They probably have scenes of Muslims being tortured and being thrown overboard by some Texan wearing a big cowboy hat.
According to IMDB, there's no reverend in the cast. I am not sure but I think Kurt Russell, the star, plays a divorced father.
Either that or he is replaced by a Muslim who is oppressed by a Texas rancher.
Would you believe Richard Dreyfus as a gay guy? (True.)
Well i was just saying how much it affected me, but you are probably right. I haven`t seen it in about 20 years
This has nothing to do with Poseidon Adventure, but take my advice and enjoy your memories and don't see it again. Too often I've seen movies I loved as a kid and been totally bored by them.
Samuel Delany, who used to be a good writer, once made a great observation about this phenomenon: We gradually add on to or fill in details in our memories of books and movies we loved at an early age, so when we see them again they are separate things from these memory constructions we've built.
LOL! I KNEW it!!! EIther a Muslim or somebody else Hollweird feels is oppressed by Bush, and of COURSE a gay guy! Oh maaaan, like a friend of mine says you can predict Hollywood better than the weather. He told me it was only a matter of time before they do the Cindy Sheehan story with Susan Sarandon, and I couldn`t believe it, last month they announced "The Cindy Sheehan story" starring who else? Susan Sarandon!
I am a bit perplexed as to why more people didn't see United 93 this past weekend for its 2nd week in release. I expected it to be in the #3 spot for the week...but it has already made a profit domestically which is nice. But more people should be seeing this film...it's a disgrace that MI3 got the amount of cash it did and United 93 didn't make a dent in those figures.
On the bright side of things...looks like Robbin Williams has gotten the first flop of the summer season...RV is tanking with numbers much lower than expected.
Poseidon starring who else as the title character? Rosie O'Donnell! :P
I just read that Poseidon cost $140 million. And it's got BAD word of mouth...
Anyway, yeah, Susan Sarandon in The Cindy Sheehan Story = Worst Date Movie Ever
Tell me about it, I joined Netflix a few months ago and when I was a kid one of my favorite shows was Land of the lost which I always thought was the greatest TV show ever made. I rented a few shows and daaaaamn, what the hell was I thinking? It`s true, like my Grandfather use to say, the best movies and TV are in the imagination...He grew up on radio so I assume no movie ever reached what was in is head. Like you said, less is more... Good writers have to consider the imagination when writing, leave room for it. It seems to me todays movies are too defined, too detailed which also explains music. They concentrate on the singing too much while the writing is left second rate.
Considering his only previous screen credit is to the ghastly The Cell, this is depressing as hell.
Oh that is good news.
Wife and I saw Mission Improbable this weekend. Wife liked it, she never saw the original television series, I hated the movie, I had seen the original series.
Great point, it's all throat gymnastics now. Nothing to think about or feel, just to be wowed by what weird or high noises the singers make. Pop and rock radio are like bad Vegas acts now.
There are exceptions to the "Don't watch childhood faves" rule, though. I recently picked up the DVDs of Space:1999. I liked the first season, but loved the second season (mostly due to Maya, a hot alien chick).
Well, these shows were a revelation. They were hit hard for wooden acting and bad science when they came out, but at least my favored season 2 was colorful. Now, Season 2 is almost unwatchable for me, lame stories pushed by the new producer, who produced the third and last season of Star Trek.
But Season One is amazing. I *get* it now, and I don't think most critics at the time did. The characters are far more realistic than Star Trek's. These are adults. The science is laughable, but the show often touched the same mystical streak that 2001 did. There are several episodes that touch on a Mysterious Unknown Force--"God, if you will" Martin Landau says in one episode--and you really get the sense of being alone in a scary universe. The new Star Trek especially makes the universe feel like a cozy airport lounge. Space:1999 shows you a hostile universe with a touch of horror in some episodes, touches of religion in others.
So, tread carefully on past loves...
Oh maaaaan, I saw that a few days ago, flight 93. Damn was that made well or what? I had no idea that one of those scum mutts had a bomb. A friend of mine told me the bomb was later proven to be a fake but I can`t see how that could have been proven after that crash, everthing was pulverized in the crash. On the other hand, the way the plane basically disintergrated in that field it makes me wonder if a bomb did in fact go off.
Oh damn that movie an eye opener, what the hell could those people have done? What could they have done? And the mother talking to her daughter "This is the present, let us not thing of the future"...Oh God, I was crying at that! The freggin` psycho had his thumb right over the bomb button, that was really all that was holding them back.
What I would like to know is if it was possible for C4 to pass airline security like that. I suspect it was possible being that Al Gore was put in charge of airline security in the late `90`s and was bought off, which I suspect caused his mental breakdown from guilt after 911. Is there any evidence that bomb detection was taken off the security?
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