Halloween decorations at the mall.... |
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I love living near the Southern California coast. The weather suits me; so do the political and social climates. I adore the easy access to the best arts and entertainment.
At this time of year, I'm aware of seasonal, recurring So Cal experiences. If I go to a mall in search of summer shoes or beach accessories, I find, instead, Halloween accoutrements. Should I shop Costco, as I did last week, where the Hawaiian shirst were two weeks ago, I now see Nativity Scenes and Angels Heard on High. Opening the most recently delivered monthly print magazines, models are dressed in clothes that will always be too heavy for me to wear in my little corner of the world.
Let's face it, Match-Flickers, whether you reside in Redondo Beach, or Boston, MA, box-office summer is over. It's time to review how the box-office and its seasonal flicks fared in this Summer of the Great Recession. Is the box-office healthy? Or does the motion picture industry need to fund its own version of a Cash for Box-Office Clunkers program?
The Great Recession notwithstanding, the Summer of 2009 has already yielded one new member of the domestic $300 Million Club, TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF 
and Nativity with Angels Heard at Costco.... |
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THE FALLEN, with more than $396 million in the domestic coffers. UP was a soaring $290 million winner. With $290 million and counting, HARRY POTTER & THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE may yet join the elite $300 million group. Even the recession couldn't trump the magic feats this adolescent wizard does at the box-office.
There's your Top Three Summer of 2009 flicks. Let's take a moment to acknowledge happily that the season has been free of any SPEED RACER, THE LOVE GURU, or THE HAPPENING-size bombs. However, a few movies have under-performed, among them, YEAR ONE, FUNNY PEOPLE and ANGELS & DEMONS.
Most industry analysts expected Ron Howard's THE DA VINCI CODE prequel to perform at least as well as the original. It didn't. Dan Brown's pre DA VINCI tale of a plot to torpedo the Roman Catholic Church amassed a mere $133 million, domestically, as opposed to DA VINCI's muscular $217 million. Most Summer of 2009 box-office predictors put FUNNY PEOPLE in their picks for the Top 10 movies of Summer. It wasn't. The Judd Apatow comedy stalled at about $50 million, ranking it approximately #20 among the summer's major box-office releases, and #40 for Box-Office Year 2009. 
Mean B.O. Summer 2009 is a wrap! |
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Regrettably, the Match-Flickers who paid to see the pre-historic yock-fest, YEAR ONE, decided the trailers and the posters were far funnier than the movie.
When the final numbers are in next month, expect Summer of 2009 to be down somewhat from the Summer of 2008. But, all things considered, including the Great Recession, the box-office continues to prove that it's recession-resistant, if not recession proof. Or, in other words, give Match-Flickers what they want, and they'll flock to the multiplex whether or not they're employed and financially solvent.
The media are abuzz with the story that the Summer of 2009 box-office was theme - not star - driven. The media are correct. Look at the season's Top Five-grossing flicks: TRANSFORMERS, UP, HARRY POTTER, THE HANGOVER, STAR TREK. There's not a box-office superstar in any of their casts. On the other hand, the summer's most notable disappointments had plenty of star-power: Tom Hanks in ANGELS & DEMONS, Adam Sandler in FUNNY PEOPLE and Jack Black in YEAR ONE – just to name three.
SUMMER BOX-OFFICE WATCH: Call it an August Surprise. Homo sapiens embraced warmly the aliens stranded in South Africa's 
What was it like? How did we do? |
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DISTRICT 9, making the suspenseful flick the Number One Attraction in America, for the weekend of August 14-16. GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA captured a winning $22 million for second place, Another science fiction themed movie, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, opened to a timely $19.2 million, in third place. In fourth position, JULIE & JULIA sated the appetites of foody Match-Flickers, to the tasty tune of $12.4 million.
Last weekend, the box-office was "a rockin' and a rollin'," up a whopping 20% from the same frame last year, with the $37.6 million debut of INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. In its second week, DISTRICT 9 didn't alienate Match-Flickers, the spacey South African yarn added $18.9 million to its coffers. G.I. JOE and THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, in third and fourth places, respectively, dropped more than forty percent from last week. It was "Bon appetite" again for JULIE & JULIA, a tasty fifth place with another $9 million box-office haul. Largely due to the movie's popularity, MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, Julia Child's 50-year-old magnum opus, topped the New York Times Best Sellers list for the first time ever.
And, as they say, "Match-Flickers, that's a wrap!"
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Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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