Muppets Most Wanted Box Office Numbers

[Drtooth]

I think one of the biggest reasons the 2011 film did so well was that reviews and word of mouth were unbelievably good. Seriously, wasn't it one of the very best reviewed movies of that year? That's an accomplishment. Everyone wants to see a movie like that. Additionally, it was a novelty to see the Muppets in theaters again, since it had been 12 years since the last one. People were moved by the film, and for the most part it hit all the right nostalgia buttons for it's audience. I enjoyed MMW, but to me and my wife, it really didn't compare to the first one, and the reviews seem to reflect that. Maybe rushing a sequel less than two and a half years after the last one might not have been the best idea. Most people I know seem completely ambivalent about it. Heck, we saw it Friday night at 9pm and the theater was maybe half full. That wasn't a good sign.

I'm sorry, but most of the reviews were bullcrap and based on Jason Segal not being involved. If people actually listened to them and avoided this movie because of those frankly poorly written and amateurish (for professionals) reviews, they are NOT true fans (true fans sit through much worse than "slightly disappointing") and only have themselves to blame when the franchise slowly sinks into the sea of Disney ownership and seeing 5 more Planes movies (which get even worse reviews- ones that actually have a point and aren't written like Youtube comments) get greenlit instead.

Meanwhile a bunch of terribly reviewed movies manage to make craptons of money. There's a huge discrepancy here. The main (and stupidest complaint) is it wasn't the same exact tone and same exact movie as last time. You can't follow up a comeback with an equally huge movie. It can't be done. The comeback was to make more movies like this to keep the franchise going. How come they're expecting The Muppets 2: The Mission Pack sequel? Then they'd complain it was exactly the same. Kobiyashi Maru.

But saying "rushing out a sequel in 2 years" is bull. That's usually the time most sequels get made and they usually do better. What, we have to wait 5 years for a slow hand crafted piece that's still not the same as the first one?

 

[Muppet Master]

It's the week with the highest number of schools being out, on record.

Divergent, btw, was #1 obviously with 3.3 million.

Most schools around here aren't on spring break until the week ends. 3.3 mil for Detergent is HORRIBLE considering how you said that a number of tweens are on spring break. Movies that start with a nearly $60 million opening should be pushing the big bucks out, I mean like $4-$7 million. So let's do a little breakdown. Compare Detergent to MMW on opening weekend. By rounding it $60 million vs. $20 million, and now the weekdat $3 million vs. $1 million, now both are 3x greater but still. Personally I thought MMW would get less than $1 million on weekdays, so it's doing fine. By next weekend Detergent is going to plummet hard as **** like how Link, Lew, and Fozzie fell in the Lynda Carter episode. Meanwhile I see most wanted either easing a tad or actually making more money than opening weekend. I know many of my friends waiting for Friday to rush out and see it and I hope the public really goes out to see it. Everyone with a facebook please try to promote MMW.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Schools here aren't on spring break either...

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

New York had spring break. So did Connecticut, NJ... It's not because of spring break, guys.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

This is why I always prepare or the worst and home for the best. And that isn't just for Muppet movies.

 

[LouisTheOtter]

However, my beef isn't that CGI films exist. My beef is that when there's no other kid's film available except for one righteous piece of trash like Alpha and Omega, The Nut Job, and Gnomeo and Juliet, they make "get the kids out of the house" money. MMW does have that one kid's movie as competition, a strong competition... so that means, while in addition to the general movie going public not being energized to see this, they just aren't taking their kids out to see movies this week.

I'm a sensitive, God-fearing man who wishes no ill will on people and will happily pat a passing kitten on the head.

But you don't want to see the look on my face when I visualize MMW grossing less than a derivative, intelligence-insulting, talent-wasting piece of garbage like The Nut Job.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Or even some Geewunner crap about loving the characters but refusing to see anything past MTM (except for ironically MCC) and then wondering why the franchise isn't current.

Ehhh, that's like critcizing Marx Brothers fans for preferring Duck Soup over Day at the Races. There is nothing wrong with preferring the heyday of a franchise. Like I said, the hope I have for the Muppets is in channels like The Hub allowing kids to get to know these characters in their prime through movie or Fraggle reruns. Henson and Disney should have been doing that for years.

 

[goldenstate5]

I'm a sensitive, God-fearing man who wishes no ill will on people and will happily pat a passing kitten on the head.

But you don't want to see the look on my face when I visualize MMW grossing less than a derivative, intelligence-insulting, talent-wasting piece of garbage like The Nut Job.

To be fair unfortunately fair, The Nut Job came out when there were practically zero family films on the market aside from Frozen. MMW is hot off the heels of three, and Rio 2 is coming very soon.

I know you guys don't want to be pessimists about it, but facts are facts: Muppets Most Wanted is very likely going to wind up a domestic flop. Kicking and screaming is not going to change things. We just have to set sights on foreign grosses and hope that it bursts out huge on home video this summer.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Exactly. Attendance numbers don't typically increase as theater time goes on.
MMW will be lucky to break 45 million domestic. Hopefully the reaction in the international box office will be more welcoming, but even then, it's not likely Disney will be willing to make another huge gamble with such diminishing returns.

 

[beaker]

Disney hates releasing ANYTHING that isn't a movie. Even their current TV shows. You would have thought that Toy Story 3 was important and big enough to release Buzz Lightyear of Star Command on any capacity. Nope. And they didn't have to clear any music rights for that one either. Ducktales may have gotten a shiny new video game remake, but the last of the TV series never got finished on their bare bones, "oh well, at least it's something" DVD's. And even their current hits like Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Avengers Assemble... they refuse to release any of them on season or half season sets. We get crappy, incomplete, out of order episodes. That's it.

So the fact we even got the first 3 seasons of TMS at all is a boon. Now if it is indeed music copyrighting that's to blame for the (lost count of how many years) absence of the DVD's...yes. That's beyond Disney's control and the fault of the draconian musical rights system designed by miserly music producers that buy up song rights for the sake of owning them and making money off of them. But if it's Disney's on again, off again cold feet, then they only have themselves to blame for the weak opening.



You know, I kinda refuse to believe the characters are that obscure and inaccessible. People still buy Muppet movies for their kids. People know who Kermit is. The Muppets have a brand strength that's not extremely huge, but it's there. It's like those who would see this film are waiting till it comes out on home video. Either that or they're actually dumb enough to avoid this movie because Jason Segal isn't in it. The irony of "OOOH! Jason Segal saved The Muppets! he's the savior of our favorite thing! What? He's not in this one? I'm not seeing it and letting it fail" is lost on them.

However, my beef isn't that CGI films exist. My beef is that when there's no other kid's film available except for one righteous piece of trash like Alpha and Omega, The Nut Job, and Gnomeo and Juliet, they make "get the kids out of the house" money. MMW does have that one kid's movie as competition, a strong competition... so that means, while in addition to the general movie going public not being energized to see this, they just aren't taking their kids out to see movies this week.

What...Ducktales, Buzz Command, Tailspin, etc doesnt have FULL sets out? And Gravity Falls, THE BEST kids cartoon on tv(sorry Adv Time/Regular Show) doesnt have one season out? Man what's up Disney?

I don't think the lack of Segal or Adams has anything to do with lackluster support for MMW. I think it's just the fact a few critic sites like AICN and various aggregated meta-critic sites gave it advance bad word of mouth...plus society seems dumber than ever. Even the future twilight games movie Divergent I doubt has much to do with sales. Lego movie cleaned up, with near 100% fan and critic ratings(Still need to see it) Ultimately it matters little that you and I may think MMW is way better than 2011 TM...the fact is the public has been told that it's not a good movie, so therefore they are going to avoid it