Early Reports: Looks like Muppets will be #2 (next to Twilight)

[zoebell]

that's an interesting point about TV being the place where they shine. i really think that's the truth and always has been. because there they can be themselves and skew more adult-y sometimes, which they have ALWAYS done on tv

plus, they became stars on TV first, that's the reason the movies were big in the first place. i say bring back the muppet show and make them stars in that venue again- they'll gain their audience with their specific humor that shines best on tv

but as for the drop, it is very surprising because this is the kind of thing you expect when a movie has horrible word of mouth (like what happened to Watchmen a few years ago). but it didn't, it had an "A" cinemascore and everything. so, therefore to me, the only explanation was the little nugget last week that mentioned the huge majority of the audience being over the age of 25

what that says is that most of the people who were interested in this movie were adults who already knew and loved the muppets, and saw it opening week. that's not the kind of audience that repeats.

so i think to really reintroduce them to a genuinely new generation you gotta make them stars on TV again, where they really belong

 

[Drtooth]

Let's put it in perspective here... last week was pretty much a 3-Day weekend vacation day. And we had from Wednesday to Sunday last time as well. This is a considerably slower week, it's only the Canadian and US box office, AND it has 3 kid's movies to contend with (look how sharply Happy Feet fell in its third week, and Arthur Christmas is still doing pretty meh. Hugo, however, seems to have surged a little. Still, it made it's budget back and will probably get a 10 million bonus added onto that. 52 million, give or take, is still higher in 2 weeks than Muppet Christmas Carol did in its entirety. It's only a few million short of MTM and MTI. So far, it's the fifth highest grossing Muppet Movie (and it out-grossed both Sesame Street Movies combined by Friday), and it's only it's second week. It's reaching for 3rd by the end of next week even if they only manage 10 million then.

And it's still only a national release. It will blow up internationally. And that doesn't count Merchandise and classic DVD sales, which as I'm told is pretty sweet so far. The movie did what it set out to do, and anything after this is raw profits. It's still a strong second, even though it's not quite as high as the busier weekend last week... kids are back in school after all.

And no movie is a true success UNTIL you count the DVD sales and rentals. That's going to be huge.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Even though this will make a good amount of money, I find it absolutely disgraceful it won't be able to surpass the grosses of some of this year's pieces of garbage (Green Lantern, Hop [Tim Hill's cinematic opus ], Gnomeo and Juliet) It's even doubtful it'll pass the 3D re-release of The Lion King. Still great that it's making the money it should be and the Muppets are in fact back, but still...

 

[beaker]

It's a lot to cheer for. It beat CGI kids films, that's incredible!

OK, for once I'm surprised at the negativity here, lol. I mean the whole point of the movie was that even if they didn't technically reach their goal, the important thing is that they tried. Plus they still had a ton of fans rooting for them. The same applies to real life I think.

Indeed. The sharp drop off to me is unfortunate and strange, given its coming off unanimous praise from critics and fans...but its not enough to appeal to the dumb plebean masses who mostly are into garbage like Transformers(sorry michael bay, but you truly did destroy a beloved franchise), fast in the furious, braindead rom coms and of course Twilight. But hey, its number 2 for a second week in a row.

Piggy says one is the new two, I say two is the new one!

 

[beaker]

Let's put it in perspective here... last week was pretty much a 3-Day weekend vacation day. And we had from Wednesday to Sunday last time as well. This is a considerably slower week, it's only the Canadian and US box office, AND it has 3 kid's movies to contend with (look how sharply Happy Feet fell in its third week, and Arthur Christmas is still doing pretty meh. Hugo, however, seems to have surged a little. Still, it made it's budget back and will probably get a 10 million bonus added onto that. 52 million, give or take, is still higher in 2 weeks than Muppet Christmas Carol did in its entirety. It's only a few million short of MTM and MTI. So far, it's the fifth highest grossing Muppet Movie (and it out-grossed both Sesame Street Movies combined by Friday), and it's only it's second week. It's reaching for 3rd by the end of next week even if they only manage 10 million then.

And it's still only a national release. It will blow up internationally. And that doesn't count Merchandise and classic DVD sales, which as I'm told is pretty sweet so far. The movie did what it set out to do, and anything after this is raw profits. It's still a strong second, even though it's not quite as high as the busier weekend last week... kids are back in school after all.

And no movie is a true success UNTIL you count the DVD sales and rentals. That's going to be huge.

TMTM only made 25 million in the US, so The Muppets has already soared past that. I dont like the whole adjusted gross thing, as its way too speculative. It doesnt take into account matinees, senior discounts, 5 dollar days, wildly differentiating price differences, etc. Most use an "average", but I think it's shifty math as much as I respect boxofficemojo's methods.

Another issue is the marketing saturation. Back then you only knew of a film via the newspaper, tv or word of mouth. Now theres so much ad penetration into every known facet of our lives, I definitely think that and online reviews play a role.

Even though this will make a good amount of money, I find it absolutely disgraceful it won't be able to surpass the grosses of some of this year's pieces of garbage (Green Lantern, Hop [Tim Hill's cinematic opus ], Gnomeo and Juliet) It's even doubtful it'll pass the 3D re-release of The Lion King. Still great that it's making the money it should be and the Muppets are in fact back, but still...

Well the Lion King film is considered one of those masterpiece films, so I wouldnt expect it to top that...however, quick rereleases while something is already on the home markets don't tend to make that much of a theatrical splash. Yeah DC cant make a decent superhero movie outside of batman it seems. Well, cept Watchmen I guess.

Yeah, Hop...my skin crawls everytime I see cgi over live action kid film trailers.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Everywhere I go when I wear my Kermit shirt people get excited and ask if I saw the movie

Funny story. After seeing the movie I had to go to two auditions. I decided to take my Jim Henson: The Works book with me so I'd have something to read. I was waiting for the subway and asked a couple of guys for directions. After they helped me, one of them said, "So, did you see the new Muppet movie?"

I said, "Um...actually I just did. Funny that you'd asked..."

And the guy goes, "Well um...your book."

Duh! I'd forgotten I was holding that, lolol.

 

[Avilos]

While this is a older franchise it's a restart. These days sequels tend to make more because of interest build by the memory of the previous film. The next Muppet film will benefit from it. Also this is the rare franchise where there are no stars who are going to be demanding higher paychecks. This will be seen as a luxury to Disney.

 

[CensoredAlso]

From what I've observed it's not unusual for movies to take a sharp down turn after their initial release. And I think nowadays it's more normal for people to flock to opening weekend in large numbers (so the next groups will look smaller by comparison). The Bloggers who are trying to spin this negatively are really overreacting.

 

[Avilos]

That's true, it may be helped by being out this time of year. Even if there are drops it will likely have a llong run. There are few new releases in the month of January. So November and December movies with good word of mouth tend to have good legs than.

 

[Drtooth]

Even though this will make a good amount of money, I find it absolutely disgraceful it won't be able to surpass the grosses of some of this year's pieces of garbage (Green Lantern, Hop [Tim Hill's cinematic opus ], Gnomeo and Juliet) It's even doubtful it'll pass the 3D re-release of The Lion King. Still great that it's making the money it should be and the Muppets are in fact back, but still...

In perspective, Green Lantern barely made it's budget worldwide even though it DID come in #1 its opening week. It had bad word of mouth, too, being a confusing film with way too much infodump crammed inbetween Ryan Renoylds hot dogging. A second film could only be an improvement.. at least by then we'll have Sinestro instead of some weird thing that was only around in the 80's. Gnomeo and Juliet, unlike the Muppets was the ONLY family movie out there during a winter vacation period. Again, This came out Thanksgiving weekend, and was set to make the bulk of it's BO gross then. The better time would be over Christmas vacation, but it would have been eaten alive by savage CGI Chipmunks. This is a busy shopping weekend, and school IS in session. Given the fact 3 other Kid's movies (Hugo surged to #3) opened in the same 2 week period, it's doing pretty good. And Twilight only beat it by a paltry 5 million.

It's already the fifth highest grossing Muppet film, beating the World wide Box office for Muppet Christmas Carol in its second week domestically. It has barely 5 million to beat 2 more, making it the third largest grossing (still domestically)... it can easily clinch that by next weekend. The Muppets has one more good weekend before The Chipmunks 3 comes out, and it can easily get to over 60 million, even 70 million by then.

Plus, the night's not over yet. It's 6:30 on the east coast. There's still a few more showings it can squeeze out by tomorrow.