Muppets Most Wanted Box Office Numbers

Drtooth

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Wow, such mixed reviews online from audiences. People either loved it or hated it. Hard to tell what I'm going to think when I (hopefully) see it this weekend.
No... it wasn't a love hate thing... it was a love, slightly disappointed so it's the worst thing ever situation. I hate when people don't know the distinction between "disappointment" and "actually a terrible film."

The hype machine was there, but the audience just wasn't energized to see a movie in March that isn't the Hunger Games with a couple name and cosmetic changes. If it is indeed because Jason Segal and Amy Adams weren't on most of the movie that scared people away, they're as misguided as some of the idiotic reviews it got.

As a Muppet film, it's far better than the lack of attention it's getting is letting on. The Muppets was the movie we needed at the time, Muppets Most Wanted is the movie Muppet fans deserve. And it sucks that it's not getting a strong showing because people just aren't seeing it.
 

Twisted Tails

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I don't understand this. I went to see this movie last week, because I had nothing else to do. I can't believe I am disappointed by a lack of a full audience. Well, second time around is worth the charm. Mixed reviews do bother me, but that does not mean that I will stop seeing this move again. This movie was better than the first and my mind has not changed about it.
 

Drtooth

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On the other hand, this has been a weak month for movies. March is usually strong enough (not enough for the big boys of May-early July) for films, and nothing's really doing all that well anyway. I only hope at least Peabody and Sherman is deemed successful enough that Dreamworks licenses out the Classic Media properties for merchandising and stuff.

Hopefully, the revised box office will at least bump this thing to 20 mil (I still fail to see how calling it Weekend Box Office when Sunday doesn't count), and this manages to perform decently enough to make back the budget so it can be considered enough to not chuck the franchise overboard for more "CGI upstart talking vehicles that learn the exact same lesson each time" films.
 

goldenstate5

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Actuals are out... and it's actually good news: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

MMW bumped up .5 mil to debut with a 17 million weekend.

Before you start celebrating, this is actually the first initial number before the estimates came in with 16.5, and back then it was still a disappointing number.

To clarify some things: the fact that this was released in March has nothing to do with anything. Movies can break out at anytime, it just needs the audience attention. The Lego Movie opened with near 70 million in the first week of February! This was merely the classic case of too much family competition combined with a tough YA opener. Can we blame Disney? I don't know... they had this release date locked in for a very long time, and I'm not sure how long ago Divergent came into the picture but honestly I thought Muppets was the only opener until three weeks ago so that shows how much I paid attention to it.

Like Drtooth said, marketing comes into play with this. The Mouse spent probably a cool couple dozen or so million on marketing alone, and that does not figure into the film's production budget. The Muppets were showered EVERYWHERE and this is what they have to show in return: a tepid showing. It's just... not good.

Hopefully things will start improving, I really do hope.
 

Drtooth

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Actuals are out... and it's actually good news: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

MMW bumped up .5 mil to debut with a 17 million weekend.

Before you start celebrating, this is actually the first initial number before the estimates came in with 16.5, and back then it was still a disappointing number.
Headdesk... That's much better? is that still the "we aren't counting Sunday because we're impatient" number, or did it only get .5 million over Sunday? Either way, the fact it didn't even nudge up to 20 mil (the lowest number they'd expect for it to be considered successful enough, and almost 10 mil below the already low estimate) just grinds my gears. Unless it's indeed the Sunday morning estimate, then they're just ignoring a slightly helpful increase. People see movies on Sundays. It's a thing.

To clarify some things: the fact that this was released in March has nothing to do with anything. Movies can break out at anytime, it just needs the audience attention. The Lego Movie opened with near 70 million in the first week of February! This was merely the classic case of too much family competition combined with a tough YA opener. Can we blame Disney? I don't know... they had this release date locked in for a very long time, and I'm not sure how long ago Divergent came into the picture but honestly I thought Muppets was the only opener until three weeks ago so that shows how much I paid attention to it.
I agree. it just takes a very energized base to see a movie. Lego was a monster. It was hyped up, it was something that hugely appealed to kids. But some crap like Nut Job and Gnomeo and Juliet manage to make money for being the only films out. The Muppets was released with 3 weak kid's movies (one of them being a vanity project that no one that isn't a film student would care about). MMW opened opposite Peabody, which was still performing strong (held at number three). And it's really tough as a fan of BOTH Muppets and Jay Ward. I'd hate to have seen P&S spanked by Frozen and Thor, but I'm very conflicted that MMW didn't even have close to Peabody's momentum.

Clearly, other than most fans, there wasn't that much momentum for the Muppets despite the new plushes selling out and the cereal boxes flying off the shelves. That's what confuses me. Which brings me to...

Like Drtooth said, marketing comes into play with this. The Mouse spent probably a cool couple dozen or so million on marketing alone, and that does not figure into the film's production budget. The Muppets were showered EVERYWHERE and this is what they have to show in return: a tepid showing. It's just... not good.
Which ticks me..the...heck...off. Unless there was some violent hype backlash about it, there is NO WAY this movie should have been ignored more than the first one. Disney did everything right this time (except for releasing anything on DVD), the Muppets were everywhere. That should have translated to a bigger opener than the last one. Divergent had absolutely no marketing of any kind up until 2 weeks, when they blitzed with 2 talk show appearances and a commercial. But then again, it seems word of mouth of the book was the only thing it needed. It's not really the same audience, but still... that's going to be a thorn in our sides. The real competition is Peabody, but still... stop writing these terrible books and making movies out of them.
 

goldenstate5

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That's the actual, hard number for how much the film made this weekend.
 

Drtooth

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Wait...

Didn't they announce 17 million earlier Sunday? I'm confused.

Still, it should have at least managed to get to 20. This is very bleak for us Muppet fans. I'm not holding out any hope for much more.
 

MrBloogarFoobly

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Divergent had absolutely no marketing of any kind up until 2 weeks...
Disagree. Divergent is basically just marketing. 2 hours of marketing. A collage of popular things thrown into one huge blockbuster package.

The book sucks. The movie is awful. But people eat it up.
 

Drtooth

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Trying very hard to not be passive aggressive about the competition, but even if the Muppets came in at number one with 80 million dollars, Divergent would still suck.

I agree. The film needed no marketing because it's all hype on a series of books that, frankly I've never heard of. Twilight and Hunger Games I heard of well before they became movies. This one just came out of nowhere and caught fire for no reason. The ones eating it up are tween-20 year old girls are over the moon that they have some flat heroine to look out for. Young Adult Writing Computer #563 stole elements of Hunger Games and the back cover summery of The Matrix and then someone decided to make it a movie because somehow a book I've never heard of that came out of nowhere was popular somehow.

Yes, hopefully it will see a huge drop off next weekend, but still... it's hard to be optimistic when the Muppet franchise can't manage to squeeze even 20 million out on opening weekend. Sure, maybe we'll miraculously get some weekday college student traffic or something, and if we're really lucky, it could bump those numbers up. But at this point, things look bleak. I'm trying to hold out optimism for a second week, word of mouth and repeat business surprise, but... well...
 
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