Last post I'll make complaining about this:
It amazes that people always complain that these movies destroy their childhoods by making the characters CG and such, but they become huge hits. When a movie is made that presents beloved childhood characters the same exact way we know and love them, people stay far away from it. I don't get it!
EH... the people who complain about it virtually never see them and have nothing to do for or against them other than complaining. Sure, some will see it out of spite so they have something to complain about (bows), but most of them will just complain about it and not bother.
Chipmunks is a "cultural phenomenon" because the little ankle biters wanna see it. They have no clue who these guys were other than
maybe the fact that they sing something during Christmas. And it's that loose connection TO Christmas that made that film a success (and the fact there really wasn't any other big kid's film since). In fact, Fox clearly didn't realize how big the film could have done. No body did. Still, other than poor casting of Dave, the fact that they made them small to comply with the very first Chipmunks albums for no reason, and the consumption of fecal matter in one scene... there really isn't much to the Chipmunks other than the fact they were a novelty record that was deemed good enough for a couple cartoon shows. The first one was enjoyable, nothing great... the second was just poorly executed, even though the concepts of them going to High School and the Chipettes being die hard fans used as a ploy to get revenge on the Chipmunks were pretty good.
Still, this wasn't the case with the Muppets movie. Most of the comments varied from "I want to see this badly" to "please don't suck" (meaning that they will watch it, yet complain if it indeed was terrible), there was a lot of internet buzz, and clearly the college nostalgia crowd heard. The Simpsons put it best last night, "All the things I loved as a kid and hated as a teenager I love again as an adult!" Kids and parents are seeing the film in droves, but there ARE some kids still seeing the other 3, much lesser quality kid's films. but the thing is, they aren't by a long stretch close to the Muppets. I'm actually surprised (happily) that Happy Feet 2 is doing so meh.
This Weekend was SLOW all around for the same reasons I've stated. The Muppets probably wouldn't have done that well during Summer (where they'd be lost in the shuffle) or closer to Christmas even without Chipmunks 3. Somehow the holiday season is much more competition that summer was. Summer has the luxury of releasing a bulk of blockbusters for 3 months (May-July), and even though every film came in week after the next, they all managed to do well enough, at least have one number 1 weekend in cases. Thor one weekend, POTC a few weeks later... and like that. This season, everything's coming out in 2 months. 4 Kid's films in just 2 weeks. There were, like, how many summer kid's films in 3 months? 3 Major ones, Smurfs, Cars, and Kung Fu Panda (all evenly spaced), plus the disappointingly weak performance of Winnie the Pooh (which was BRILLIANT), a poorly performing movie based on a kid's book and something else with Selena Gomez. Not counting Spy Kids 4... August again. There was less competition in 3 months than there was in 2 weeks.
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