Muppets Most Wanted Box Office Numbers

[Muppet fan 123]

I hate how movies are labeled as "flop" on it's opening weekend. It's really unfair to films to do that. Can we wait like, three weeks or something and see how much money it's making in the long run instead of projecting everything from just two days at the box office?

Anyway, it makes me happier when I go back and look at Disney's other March movies from past years: First we got Mars Needs Moms, which only made $21 million at the END of it's run. Yes, after four weeks of playing, they completely dropped it because it was mostly screening to empty theaters. Muppets Most Wanted made four million short of that just on it's opening week.

Next we got John Carter, which budget was $250 million (to be honest I have no idea how they were expecting to get that kind of money back in the middle of March) and it only had $30 million in it's opening weekend (especially bad for sci-fi films with that big of a budget). At the end of it's entire run, it only made $73 domestically, MMW is at $50 million domestically right now, and it still has yet to open in many more countries.

Besides Oz: Great and Powerful and Alice in Wonderland (2010 film by Tim Burton) Disney's past few March movies haven't done so well. This makes me feel a lot better about the money, but makes me wonder why they dumped the movie in March. I think that the last movie worked well around Thanksgiving, so they should have gone with that date again for the sequel. That's generally the way it works in Hollywood.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

 

[DutchMuppet]

The problem is the expectations of the company. And we simply don't know what they are for this movie. I think the expectations were too high for this movie by the public. They look at the numbers of the last movie and this movie and say "That's a lot less, thus a flop". But last movie opened on Thanksgiving. One of the busiest times of the year for kids movies. The other one is Christmas. Disney uses this spot the attract more audience and hope that the people stick. Let's make one thing clear: Disney knew that there would be lesser audience.

What bothers me is that there were a lot of tv appearances in the US. You could turn the tv on and there they were. But in Europe, where the movie actually takes place, there is nothing. Last week Ricky Gervais was on Graham Norton (the Jimmy Fallon of the UK) and I though "Finally some Muppet stuff". But he was invited to talk about his next project. And that irritated me a lot. The only promotion I see here are some cardboard banners in the cinema's. It's like Disney's given up totally! I'm still looking forward to the movie but like someone said here before:. When the The Muppets were in cinema everybody send me a text, like "Hey, did you know there is gonna be a new Muppet movie in cinema." Now? Nothing.

And when I heard they changed the premiere date, so it would premiere in the holidays, I thought "Now they are gonna promote the out of it. But no. Openingsday is in 2 days and still nothing. To compare: Rio 2 is just everywhere. Busstations, tv ads, billboards, merch. So I think the box office numbers in Europe are gonna be lower than expected. A local warehouse in the Netherlands who own the rights for making merch like Muppets glasses, plates and other things said to me they will not make new merch for this movie and just wait for the box office numbers. And if they are solid, then they are going to make some new stuff. But then it would be in the shops around the dvd release (because Blu-Ray flopped bigtime in the Netherlands, a lot of movies don't get a bluray release).

 

[Pinkflower7783]

"You're assisting the audience to understand; you're giving them a bridge or an access. And if you don't give them that, if you keep it more abstract, it's almost more pure. It's a cooler thing." -Jim Henson

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I didn't necessarily dislike Viva Rock Vegas (I was referring to the box-office figures - it pulled in about $35 million, nearly $100 million off the 1994 Flintstonesupdate, which was likely very disappointing to the studio and everyone involved).

Oh, okay. Gotcha. I seem to have a track record with this kind of thing- I like the movie as it is and think it's great- and then later realize that everyone apparently thinks it's horrible and thus, no good- and so the box office numbers are bad. (point in case- Superman Returns [I did have some issues with it, but I really enjoyed it for the most part], X-Men III: The Last Stand, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Nancy Drew [2007 movie], Muppets From Space, etc.) Of course, I'm also the comic book fan that enjoys "Batman & Robin" (saw it in theaters- it's really not all that bad of a movie when you keep it in context for what it is), "Supergirl", "Superman III" AND "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace"...so- I go against the grain a lot- lol. I even recently watched most of "Catwoman" on TV and .......okay- no, sorry- that one's still bad. Some aspects might be okay, but since I wasn't that interested in a Catwoman movie to begin with- and the storyline is completely changed from DC Comics outside of some general similarities- and the costume is very skimpy and looks kinda stupid- yeah, it's just not very good.

Home On The Range wasn't bad. Mrs. Otter and I rented it a couple of years ago and we liked it. It's a pleasant little time-waster if you have a hole in your schedule.

The Emperor's New Groove was OK - not spectacular, but good for a few yuks. Surprisingly, I thought the Saturday-morning ABC spinoff The Emperor's New School was quite well-done and had some of the funniest and sharpest moments I've seen in a non-Simpsons/Futurama animated show in quite some time.

Cool- I remember seeing some of "The Emperor's New School"- it is pretty funny, definitely. I still LOVE the movie though- I think it has a great moral message in there about compassion for others and learning to not be selfish- and of course, it's quite funny throughout- in my opinion, anyway.

P.S. Your signature is awesome. That is all.

Thanks- two of my favorite quotes. The former is what makes possible in the real world the fulfillment of the latter.

 

[Muppet Master]

Is MMW out of the domestic box office? It's not on the Monday BO chart on Box Office Mojo.

 

[goldenstate5]

Is MMW out of the domestic box office? It's not on the Monday BO chart on Box Office Mojo.

Most likely Disney has stopped tracking it daily due to insufficient theater counts. You may see updates on it in a week or so, because I'd be shocked if the Mouse pulled it right before hitting 50 mil.

I think it has a few countries to go, especially Germany (which will give it a small boost), but I don't see the movie doing over 80 mil worldwide by the end of it all. That, of course, is about the same total as the last movie did domestically. While this is above the 50 to 54 domestic total, it probably just matches the marketing budget which most likely added a hefty 20 mil on top of everything. Which means Disney just may, if they're lucky, end up netting about five million when everything is said and done. (pure speculation I must add) So it's just barely, just barely avoiding flop territory and winding into an extremely light modest performance in the end.

However I still don't feel like this will persuade Disney to greenlight a third film. Since the sequel showed severe diminishing returns instead of improvements, not to much mediocre to bad press about its performance, it would be seen as a boneheaded move to keep pushing the franchise in the theatrical direction. Personally I feel like the company right now will soon announce a July DVD/BR release date (gotta avoid that monster Lego Movie June release date like the plague), and eagerly see how it does on the home video circuit.

Afterwards they'll probably revise plans on what to do with the franchise. I don't think it's dead at all... that's insane. They're just gonna refocus. Honestly, if you ask me, I always thought doing MMW was a pretty inane idea. It squandered almost all of the talent away from doing smaller projects to keep the franchise alive, and instead relied on the hope that the March home video release of the 2011 movie would keep the light burning strong for two years until this new movie came out. It was absurd. Even MMW has Dominic stating: "You're hot. You're having a moment. What do you do now? You capitalize on it." I didn't think, "okay we're gonna take a recess of two years and then get back into the game" was a smart idea, since I don't think the Muppets is that sort of franchise you can just wheel out. You have to keep playing the game.

Putting them back on television, or various projects will help keep the light burning, IMO. I think this movie not being a huge success could wind up being a boon for the franchise (provided it doesn't sink like a rock on home video, but that's unlikely unless it comes out on June 17 haha)... think about it: if MMW was a big hit, Disney would immediately announce a third movie and everything would basically go back into mothballs til 2016/2017. And is that really what you guys want?

 

[Muppet fan 123]

I wanted to share this article that I wrote opening week of Muppets Most Wanted. The numbers were in and people were freaking out, so I wrote this article (which I hoped was re-assuring, and I sent it to The Muppet Mindset to address. Ryan and I decided in the end not to put my post up, to avoid any unnecessary debate to the blog, but since it's an ongoing discussion here, I wanted to share it with you guys. Let me know what you think.

Addressing Muppets Most Wanted's performance at the Weekend Box Office:​

Many people are at the edge of their seats and biting their nails because Muppets Most Wanted isn’t getting blockbuster numbers on their opening weekend. This weekend the Muppets are up against that tween movie Divergent. (Just another one of those dumb young adult novels that is being made into a movie.) I don’t think anyone on this planet or the surrounding planets expected Muppets Most Wanted to pull ahead of Divergent, not even anyone at Disney was thinking that the Muppets would win over mega-blockbuster tween novel. It’s like putting it up against The Hunger Games! Duh, it’s going to lose to the tween-book movie.

Before everyone freaks out about the numbers, let’s take a proper look at them. The last movie, The Muppets opened on American Thanksgiving, a day that everyone is off from work and tend to hang out at the movies. Thank goodness, most people chose The Muppets over Arthur Christmas, Happy Feet Two, and Hugo. In fact, Hugo was probably the biggest competitor to the Muppets, but either way, the Muppets surpassed their budget of $45 million and made $88 million at the end of its run in February. Obviously not blockbuster numbers, but it made its budget, so it’s therefore considered a success. Also in theaters at the time was Twilight: Breaking Dawn. But because there are a few weirdos out there who can’t differentiate great movies from terrible ones, they went to see Twilight, so of course, Twilight was in first place. All these YA novel-to-film movies always make blockbuster numbers. That’s no surprise to anyone, and the Muppets were in second place. Not bad financially. Not bad at all.

Now people are comparing the opening weekend numbers of the last film to this one. The last movie opened on Thanksgiving, an already busy time at the movies, so it made $29 million in its opening weekend, when Muppets Most Wanted opened with $16 million as of Sunday morning, March 23rd, which if you ask me is pretty good. A good opening for the movie would be around the $20 million mark and it’s only $4 million below that! The budget for this film is only $50 million, and I’m sure it’ll do great internationally, as they go on a world tour through Europe. Franchises that take place in international countries tend to be successful.

Also for the folks complaining about Disney putting it up against Divergent: This date is easily the best within the next couple months. There’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman two weeks ago, The Lego Movie a month ago, and Rio 2 opens in two weeks, so there’s lots of family films on the horizons, so Divergent was easily the best competitor on the market. Maybe March was a bad time for the Muppets, I think the Thanksgiving time worked best for them, but this is doing OK. It’s not the best opening weekend, but it will make money within the coming weeks, just as Peabody is picking up and it had a bad opening weekend. I don’t think Rio 2 will come out too strong, so Muppets should have a few good weeks and make its budget, and then it opens in international markets and somehow I have the feeling it will do very good in the UK, especially since the fact that most of the movie was filmed there.

Hang in there Muppet fans. This isn’t the end of the franchise. The last movie proved to be so successful and the Muppets are back in the spotlight. The last film proved that the Muppets are in demand and beloved once more. Even with one weak opening, Disney isn’t going to hide the franchise on a shelf in their archives, I can almost guarantee we’ll still be seeing awesome new things from the franchise, and this movie will end up with a decent grossing at the end of its run both nationally and internationally.

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But of course, YOU can help this film surpass their budget of $50 million! Have you seen Muppets Most Wanted yet? (If not, seriously? How could you not have? It’s so good!) If not, please go see it this week, and if you have seen it already: Have you got ten bucks and two hours to spare? Go see Muppets Most Wanted again this weekend. I can almost promise you won’t be sorry. It’s such a great film and requires multiple viewings. Every dollar counts and if you want many Muppet films and productions in the future, you’ll help this movie surpass its budget. The franchise isn’t dead, but the more money it gets, the more chance of another movie in the near future.

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[Pinkflower7783]

I don't know if anyone has been keeping up with interviews...but like the last film I have literally been keeping up with every single one since promotion of the film began that's means I google everyday for domestic and international material. But I just watched a few recent ones from their promotions in Germany and it almost makes me tear up hearing how much Kermit wants or wanted this movie to be a success so they can do more potential films in the FUTURE but really emphasising how much he wants to do TMS again. I really hope and pray that Disney sees enough in them to at least give them a shot on TV. It's where they started and IMO where they belong at least for a while. I don't think Disney will give up on them but I just dread the appearances might be few.

 

[dwayne1115]

I don't know if anyone has been keeping up with interviews...but like the last film I have literally been keeping up with every single one since promotion of the film began that's means I google everyday for domestic and international material. But I just watched a few recent ones from their promotions in Germany and it almost makes me tear up hearing how much Kermit wants or wanted this movie to be a success so they can do more potential films in the FUTURE but really emphasising how much he wants to do TMS again. I really hope and pray that Disney sees enough in them to at least give them a shot on TV. It's where they started and IMO where they belong at least for a while. I don't think Disney will give up on them but I just dread the appearances might be few.

I just don't understand what went wrong with this one, just the quality of the movie alone should draw people to it.