RichC2

Figured I'd post this, considering how mixed the reaction has been to Interstellar, I'm really surprised it held up as well as it did. It grossed $42m in China of the weekend, which brought its overseas take to $106m for the weekend and a little over $200m overall. In the holdover markets it dropped only 22% and was actually up 11% in South Korea (pulling a total $35.8m over its week and a half in release, which makes it roughly the 7th highest grossing movie of the year there.)

Deftones

i found and article that said that dumb and dumber to's budget was $35 million. if that's true, that's crazy and it's already profitable. although, i'd imagine carey and daniels both got back end points.

fumanstan

Impressive take for Dumb and Dumber To. The negative reviews have me waiting until home video release, but I guess all the "no one was asking for a sequel so it'll bomb" guys were wrong.

Happy for Big Hero 6

hanshotfirst1138

The audience was built in, especially with with the nostalgia factor today. What critics thought made zero difference to anyone interested in seeing it.

Ash Ketchum

So, INTERSTELLAR's been denied two #1 weekends in a row. And it's doubtful there'll be one at all. Box Office Guru is predicting:

hanshotfirst1138

Looks like Nolan's clout and the cast's weren't enough to get people into seats to see something as ambitious as it was. Or the audience were too smart to fall for Nolan's smoke and mirrors, depending on your point of view . Any word on if the celluloid screenings were of any interest? I assume they were at best a passing novelty. There's no way it'll stand up against HG BO-wise, that'll dominate for at least a week, if not two. The only two "winter blockbusters" left after that are Scott and Jackson.

Matthew Chmiel

I just think November was the wrong time for the release of Interstellar. Between Big Hero 6 (Disney's first animated release since the behemoth that was Frozen) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay which will do $400M+ domestically, it really wasn't going to have strong legs. Warner should've considered aiming for a Q1 2015 release for optimal box office performance domestically, but it's already pulled in $224M in its first week of international grosses... so they're not worried.

Nobody expected Dumb and Dumber To to pull in near $40M this weekend; earlier projections in the month had it tagged around $25M. This was a film that New Line rejected distributing (and they were never going to finance it to begin with) and now they're probably kicking themselves over. I don't see Horrible Bosses 2 doing that even over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Universal must be thrilled considering they're now in the business of releasing sequels that the original studios want nothing to do with.

Why So Blu?

This. If Big Hero 6 had not been released at the same time then Interstellar would be #1 twice. Hey, blame whoever thought it was a great idea to release it next to Disney's animated film.

Why So Blu?

I'll never see Dumb and Dumber To, because I don't care. Fuck nostalgia. I remember the first film well enough and it's dated beyond belief. Some jokes from the first film still hold up but it's not a good film at all.

This one, though? Oh yeah, I don't care.

d2cheer

That is the way all movies should be.

Hokeyboy

Interstellar's doing fine. It doesn't have the same number of showings as Dumb and Dumber and Big Hero 6 (the latter of which has locked up family audiences), so it's BO take is going to reflect that.

fumanstan

I disagree; I can be interested in a concept or the people behind a certain movie, but that doesn't mean it will actually turn out well and i'm glad that I have critic and user reviews to help me make a final decision on seeing something.

Jaymole

Same here.

There are many movies I would not have seen if it weren't for positive critical reviews and word of mouth.

It also helps that my tastes are not limited to the average mainstream films that are thrown into the theater.

superdeluxe

Gone Girl continues to kick ass. Who knew this was going to make 150+ million.

hanshotfirst1138

The audience for the novel, most likely .

inri222

They were probably thinking about Oscars.

RichC2

Naw, they successfully avoided both slow weekends and other big projects by opening when it did. One could argue a summer or xmas release is better, but those are risky as well. This movie has made nearly $100m in about 2 weeks time which is very solid for a movie like this, even with someone like Nolan attached. The movie has raked in $322m worldwide thus far.

While I think Gravity and Interstellar as exceptions, I do hope we get some more "real world" space movies, even if they aren't exactly realistic.

Matthew Chmiel

They could've also released it in 35mm, 70mm, and 15/70 IMAX on Christmas Day and then expanded it in January. However, Warner's very own American Sniper (which is opening to mixed reviews) already has that release pattern in place. It would've made bonzo bucks in the wasteland of January. However, Warner really has nothing to worry about. The flick is doing fantastic overseas alongside the fact Nolan completed the film $10M under budget. Regardless of how the film is performing, it'll be interesting if Nolan's stays with Warner for his next film.

Also, the only nominations it will get are all technical. I do believe they'll walk away with Best Cinematography (the only main competition I see is Inherent Vice) and Best Visual Effects wins.

Yes and no.

Interstellar is in more theaters and on more screens than Dumb and Dumber To, but not as many as Big Hero 6. Using Vegas as an example, Dumb and Dumber is in one-to-two auditoriums per theater whereas Interstellar and Big Hero 6 are in three-to-five auditoriums per theater. My local 18-screen multiplex has Interstellar in five auditoriums (15 showings per day) whereas Big Hero 6 is in four auditoriums (7 3D showings and 10 2D showings per day)... which also explains why Big Hero 6 can pull in more per screen: 3D surcharge. Interstellar has IMAX, but its not as prevalent as 3D.

RichC2

More screen times or not, the movie had the reception I expected from material like this -- actually superior to what I was expecting. Nolan spent his gimme movie making a rather strange mainstream movie, and that alone earns him points in my book. While it borrowed quite liberally from 2001, it is still unique among what we get out of $150m+ budgeted movies.

It doesn't work as well as Inception, but I found it more entertaining than that one.

So for all its flaws, this and The Guest were two of my more enjoyable movie watching experiences this year, in large part because I wasn't quite sure where either was going. Though I have seen The Guest 3 times now, and I don't see that happening with Interstellar. Both highly flawed but largely interesting movies, and that to me is way more entertaining than perfectly made repetition.

I am curious if the fact it's subtitled helped out in the foreign markets

RichC2

Interstellar was #1 again yesterday and will pass $100m today. Dumb and Dumber To is in 2nd and Big Hero 6 in 3rd. All three are doing well, though Dumb and Dumber To looks like it's going to collapse this weekend. BH6 and Interstellar should do well despite facing Hunger Games.

Other weekend stuff:
The Maze Runner crossed the $100m line over the weekend.
Foxcatcher opened in 6 theaters and grossed $45,146 per theater for a $270,877 total.
Jon Stewart's Rosewater opened in 371 theaters and grossed $3,111 per theater for $1.154m total.
22 Jump Street is coming to the end of its run and is now at $191.7m domestic - currently 10th for the year, just ahead of TMNT.
Dear White People came in 25th and has grossed $3.9m domestic
Guardians of the Galaxy is currently at $330.49m domestic

davidh777

I wanted to see Interstellar, kids wanted to see Big Hero 6. I lost, but I enjoyed BH6.

Inhumans99

I just want to thank RichC2 for creating this thread...I was really bummed that the weekly box office thread had disappeared, and kindly ask that this type of thread not go away anytime soon.

I still hit the usual suspects (boxofficemojo/guru, deadline hollywood), however, I have always enjoyed the discussions that developed in the past dvdtalk box office threads (folks predicting box office gross, expressing surprise/disappointment, general gushing about a film that was a pleasant surprise, etc.).

Again, really glad Rich also noticed this void in the Movie Talk board and took it upon himself to do something about it.

fumanstan

You know, you can always do something about it too

Inhumans99

I confess that I am more of a lurker, and most of my posts pop up in threads like what is the last Blu Ray you bought/watched, what film did you last see, what graphic novel did you read, and you get the idea. If you take away most of my posts in those threads, I would not even be remotely close to 600 posts.

I definitely appreciate folks like Rich and Lizard for doing the heavy lifting and providing me with content to enjoy on this site.

I think I was just relieved this was not a what film franchise had a third film with a better second act than the third act in the series first film type thread.

RichC2

No problem! I used to do it a long time ago but discussion pretty much stopped in them for a while so I quit.

To answer that question though, it's Men in Black.