Posted on 05/30/2006 12:24:57 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
The media buildup of The Da Vinci Code is now history.
(Or, at least, should be; though, it was curious a week out—at the start of the Memorial Day weekend when everyone was relaxing at the beach, or the equivalent—to see all the Code coverage, including Dateline’s Dan Brown interview and Anderson Cooper’s 360º “decoding” feature.)
Now, it’s time to weigh the hype against the raw numbers.
(Which, no doubt, the media conglomerates are watching closely, as well, and may explain NBC’s and CNN’s renewed attention to yesterday’s news.)
According to IMDb Box Office figures, the “all time” top 10 grossing films “for USA” are:
Titanic (1997)—$601 million Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)—$461 million Shrek 2 (2004)—$436 million E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)—$435 million Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)—$431 million Spider-Man (2002)—$404 million Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith (2005)—$380 million The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)—$377 million Spider-Man 2 (2004)—$373 million The Passion of the Christ (2004)—$370 million
Except for the sleeper hit ET, the top 10 films released at or around the same time of year as The Da Vinci Code, packed real punch in their first week—with U.S. box office totals ranging from $148.5 million for Shrek 2, released May 15, 2004—to $207 million (i.e., first eight days) for Star Wars: Episode I, released on May 21, 1999.
Star Wars: Episode III is, perhaps, a better comparison, given its release on May 19, 2005—exactly one year to the day before The Da Vinci Code. The week one U.S. take? A cool $191,363,000.
The Da Vinci Code, on the other hand, grossed a mere $102,481,037 (U.S.) its first week.
Now, $102.48 million is not exactly chump change. But, when you consider Ron Howard risked $125 million of Sony’s money making the film and another $125 million marketing the film, it’s underwhelming.
The comparison to The Passion of the Christ, dramatically depicting the last three days of Christ’s life on earth—faithful to the Gospels—is illustrative.
The Passion’s first week U.S. take was $144.6 million—a figure all the more impressive considering that it cost less than one-fourth (i.e., $30 million) what The Code cost to make and significantly less to market—much of the buzz generated under the radar screen among Christian communities across America, who, viewing the film, then sent out multitudinous e-mails to friends and family, encouraging them to see it. As with The Code, while The Passion’s impending release generated much free media, unlike The Code, that media was largely negative—not exactly a harbinger of a runaway hit. But, The Passion stands firm at No. 10 on the list of top grossing films.
But then Hollywood should know what Cecil B. DeMille, producer of The Ten Commandments, knew: Blasphemy doesn’t pay. For even now, this Memorial Day, The Da Vinci Code, IMDb reports, has now fallen to No. 2, behind X Men: The Last Stand and has grossed, as of Day 8, $145.5 million in U.S. sales, which falls well behind the compared films when, at the same point, sales all exceeded $150 million—most hovering around $200 million.
As did other people who've seen it. I haven't seen any of these films being discussed, but I probably will as DVDs... The theater is what we hate :~D
Dog doo-doo tastes bad.
Crouching Tiger cost $15 million and looked like a $100 million dollar film.
DC cost $250 million,received zillions in MSM fee hype and looks like a $50 million dollar production.
Considering it has brought in $465 million in two weeks, I'd say no time soon.
"50% is pretty bad."
Spiderman 2 & SW:EpIII dropped about 50% and they're considered successful movies. Well known titles seem to do this. DVC did drop more (a good thing IMO) but it's nowhere near the bottom of the barrel in drops (at least according to BoxOfficeMojo charts). I'm not sure how you're getting a 63% drop if not for the holiday weekend... DVC's 56-57% drop was for the 3 day weekend, if compared from last weeks (3days) to this weeks 4 day weekend the drop is 44%.
I agree the movie industry would make more money if they put out a quality product but they don't seem to care about that. Perhaps they're counting on the international box office to lap up their drek.
"I heard the Code was doing enormous box office in Catholic countries, e.g., Spain and Italy."
I heard that anyone who ever attended catholic school is purchasing a ticket just to see the albino slug the nun.
It's a MOVIE. It's FICTION.
I just don't care.
I think the movie makers knwo that they can slap hype on a blank screen and people will see it.
The angel in x men appears in 5 scenes (only two with the actor and special effect) which could be edited out of the movie for commecial time and not affect the movie.
We spent the time after the movie tearing it appart for every flaw and cliche and phoned in performance.
They slap it on 3000+ screens to beat the bad text message and word of mouth.
They are playing to a global market now.
Well, I would argue that the Spider Man and Star Wars are about the *best* recent examples I can think of movies which failed to build off their inherent fan base. (Recognizing, of course, the difference between modern sequels and the old, and thankfully bygone, marketing mentality of, "Let's make a cheesy B movie on a shoestring budget, but stick the name of a blockbuster on it and see how much easy money we can get." Surely, there is an enormous difference between Spider Man 2 and Superman 3!) In fact, on my own column, I singled out Star Wars as precisely the comparison to make with the Da Vinci Code.
The difference, of course, between Sith and De Vinci, of course, is that Sith destroyed the existing first-day sales records, running on what was essentially a six-day opening weekend (by opening on a Wednesday), so that the entire weekend-going, premiere-seeking audience was largely spent.
Again, no-one is talking about there having been a lack of initial interest in the Da Vinci Code. All the talk about the so-so 2nd week take is about the failure of the movie to have legs.
if they could "just ignore" america they would not even make movies for the US market.
For now they still need the US market.
PS Xmen the DVD is now available in all asian markets for $5 us.
The best and funniest review I've read so far!
Both the writer and the director of the DeVinci Code wanted their readers/audiences to believe that the story is really real. Overly earnest movies like "The DeVinci Code" and "Left Behind" remind me of Mormon missionary movies.
Hi singfreedom,
You mentioned that you and your husband love the film "National Treasure"---it's very popular in our family, too! Last summer my wife and I and the kids took a trip to Philadelphia and walked the "National Treasure Tour". We saw many of the locations they used for the movie, including some small, obscure places. Remember when the female lead hides behind the deli counter? We found that exact spot. The people there were even able to give us little tidbits of inside information! After we left Philly we headed up to Washington D.C. and continued the tour.
By the way, before we started the "National Treasure Tour" we stopped outside Philadelphia and saw the field where "The Village" was filmed. I contacted the owner and he let us take a look around. Nothing is there now, just a big empty field, but it was neat to see it. And yes, we all wore red!
Brian
Good question. I think maybe what's going on is that some people will be against anything it seems to them, say, Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell is for, and for anything they are against.
By the way, the guy sitting across from me has almost as annoying as the Da Vinci Code... it's a Lyndon LaRouche pamphlet... That people buy into nutty stuff like that is proof enough for me that the "it's only a book" argument is dead wrong. Book, pamphlet or movie, ideas have consequences and any nutty ideas presented as fact should be resisted.
*snort*
I did not see DiVinci Code, but are we going to have to compare Passion to every movie that comes out for the rest of our lives? I mean come on Passions was a good movie, but it is done and in the 5.99 bin at Walmart too. What does that mean? I am not trying to be disrespectful to a pretty descent movie, but the comparing on every movie is a bit much. I guess Cars is the next movie to be compared to the Passion. We started with Farenheit 911 and kept going....
I agree.
Best line in the movie: "Grow those back!"
A quarter billion dollars is not underwhelming. geez.
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