Exactly! Just two years ago when Spiderman came out there were numerous stories about how many comic book movies were in development. Pretty soon there will probably be just as many stories lamenting the saturation of comic themed movies. That's how it always is with trends in hollywood.

Punisher may have tanked but Kill Bill Volume 2 didn't exactly set the box office chart on fire either. 25 Million for the first weekend? Sorry guys, but that's only moderately impressive. Nothing to shout about.

It is when you consider QT's rather small audience. Also, both movies (or the one movie) cost around $55 million, so it made its money back.
I really do wish people would quite trying to judge a movie's success based on its opening weekend alone. If Kill Bill II had cost $70+ million and opened with that much, it might be a problem. Seeing as how it probably cost about $27 million, 25 is quite well. You guys need to quit making judgment calls until you know all of the facts about the movie's budget before yelling "BOMB!"

Final Figures for Weekend April 16 - 18, 2004
TW	LW	Movie	Studio	Fri - Sun Gross (Millions)	Pct. Chg.	Theater Count	Change	Screen Avg.	Total Gross	Cost	Weeks
1	N	Kill Bill Vol. 2	Mira.	$25,104,949	-	2,971	-	$8,449	$25,104,949	$30 / $25	1
2	N	The Punisher	Lions	$13,834,527	-	2,649	-	$5,222	$13,834,527	$33 / $20	1
3	3	Johnson Family Vacation	FoxS	$5,950,280	-36.50%	1,326	9	$4,487	$20,977,918	$12 / $8	2
4	2	Hellboy	SonR	$5,652,030	-47.80%	2,897	-146	$1,950	$50,308,617	$66 / $25	3
5	6	Home on the Range	BV	$5,507,064	-32.10%	2,735	-323	$2,013	$37,782,081	- / -	3
6	7	Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed	WB	$5,227,232	-34.80%	2,810	-320	$1,860	$72,307,969	- / -	4
7	5	Walking Tall	MGM	$4,601,007	-45.50%	2,444	-392	$1,882	$36,634,257	$46 / $25	3
8	9	Ella Enchanted	Mira.	$4,241,089	-31.30%	1,939	8	$2,187	$13,579,980	$31 / $15	2
9	4	The Alamo	BV	$4,138,571	-54.60%	2,609	-	$1,586	$16,402,427	$107 / $30	2
10	1	The Passion of the Christ	NM	$4,051,112	-73.40%	2,848	-392	$1,422	$360,761,619	$30 / $20	8

Chris

Uh. no one was expecting it to break the bank. Infact it did well over what was projected. It was looking to only break the 20 million mark. It made 5 more then expected. It was expected to do about as much as Vol 1 in theaters, which also wasn't a box off blockbuster. For a QT film, it's limited audiance and all the other factors it did Better then expected. You seem to have your head in the sand or a total lack of common sense when it comes to box office numbers.

Punisher didn't tank either. with a budget of 33 million, it did roughly half of it's budget back in the first week. DVD sales and oversea's releases will bring those numbers up and it will be a profit for Lions Gate. It wasn't ever expected to be #1 on the board. it's lower budget then even Hellboy, and for a lions gate film that is more then expected. It made it's mark.

Please do your research on what is expected from a film before you call anything a bomb.

Of course it's all a matter of perspective. I remember the days when a movie making 35 or 40 million was breaking records left and right.

(But the reverse is - just TRY and make Raiders of the Lost Ark on it's 20 million budget now. That's barely covers the catering nowndays.)

Yeah, but now a days if a film doesn't make a 50+ opening weekend they consider it a total bomb even though the budget is well below that. Thats why the best advice is to keep your mouth shut if you aren't sure if it really actually is a bomb.

Rivero was stating last week that Hellboy was considered a bomb because of it's expected % drop in it's second week even though it still held it's own and was #2 pushing it 3/4th's it's way to making back it's budget.

Both Punisher and Hellboy are getting sequels because they were a success for their budget and openings. Very far from bombing.

I've been following Box Office BS religiously for years now, for no good reason ( I really have no life), a $14m opening for a movie like Punisher - with a relatively unknown lead, a remake of a bad movie, R-rated, an unknown/first time director and cheesy ad campaign - is actually quite strong imho - not everything MARVEL is bound to ignite the box office. A movie is considered a "Success" when it surpasses its production budget domestically (I don't think they count in advertising costs), and both Punisher and Kill Bill Volume 2 will likely cross that (both had a $30m budget).

heh, by comparison, last year when House of the Dead opened (same weekend as Kill Bill v1) and made more than $5m I considered it successful, not because it set the box office on fire - just because of how god awful it looked and was.

Also, from what I understand, while $100m is the "blockbuster" level, $30m is the "respectable" level - not for opening, but for total domestic gross (of course, this is for films in that range budget wise, if The Alamo with it's $110m budget and $30m advertising campaign, $30m would still be horrible. And it'll be lucky to get that)

Faster a movie tanks at the theather the faster it reaches DVD.

That's fine by me

I watch some movies at the theater but lately I just wait for DVD rental / purchase.

LOL...a dark action flim? that movie was a comedy...(people that watched it knows what im talking about)...the whole movie was a joke...its a good thing that it tanked.

That's what I did with Kill Bill vol1 and what I'll be doing with Alamo , KB2 and the whole ten yards.

The joke is your post! I"M RICK JAMES BITCH!

Is it cool to jump into a thread, read little to no amount of content and then respond out of your ass?

The Punisher DIDN'T tank. It was a smaller budget picture with 33 million and it brought in 14 mil. It's not a surprise to see that Lions Gate is very pleased with it's take in and considers it a film that will make Lions Gate a nice amount of profit.

They are open and happy to do a sequel under the same grounds of having a reasonable budget and a right promotion just like this one.

As for kill bill, It was the biggest R rated film for april and one of mirmax's best openings for an R rated film. Both are a success. The funny thing here is folks don't go for the real bombs of the week. Last week the Alamo bombed, the new girl bombed and both were ignored because of hellboy bashing. this week Connie and Carla opened up in 13th place. It didn't even make the top 10. sure it was only in 1,014 theaters, but it still only dragged only 3 mil for the weekend.

I remember getting excited when Spidey did well as I realized that many comic books would now finally get to be realized on the silver screen. Unfortunately, that also meant that only about two out of every ten would be handled well. I really do wish that if Hollywood doesn't intend to do a comic book movie right, they shouldn't do it all. Why? Because when approached the wrong way, comic based movies are barely watchable to both comic geeks and general audiences alike.

Dr. DVD, Do you think Punisher was handle correctly?

Hollywood tries. You do realize that they don't want to make a bad movie. It's not some sadistic kick from a studio. No studio head is sitting in the high towers of a building thinking

"Man, how the hell can we screw up (insert comic character) beyond all belief so that we can piss off (comic character)'s fans sooo badly"

the main thing is coming to a compermise on what the general audiance would be open to see and what the comic fan would be willing to get without totally tossing it. Some work, some don't. then again you get comic fans pissed off because of little things such as Spidey's web fluid being made by his body instead of by his science. It's a tough crowd to please.

What? I NEVER said that! Please find that quote and post it, or just quit makin up lies, Jacko.

In every and I mean EVERY "making of...." DVD feature of comic movies you'll always have the writers and directors talk about balancing story for the comic fan and the normal viewer. It needs to be balanced....too much comic geekness could hurt the movie and too much re-tuning of the source material can ruin the movie for the comic fan. That's just the give and take of having a sucessful comic movie.

As he quickly deletes his post from last week... jokin' Riv

FWIW, I think they did a decent job with Punisher on the compromise; I just feel that Punisher is one of the comic books that didn't need to be made into a movie as it is really nothing special. I felt the same about LXG. Not that it wasn't special, I just knew it was a comic where a compromise could not occure without totally changing the story and characters.
Other comic movies that shouldn't be getting made:

Man Thing-not much of a character, and definitely not mainstream.

Elektra-again, not much special about her. I just think they wanted to have a movie that just touted: "Look, we signed Jennifer Garner!"

Overall, I feel that there are some things best left on the printed page. If it weren't for the fact that Robert Rodriguez and and QT are taking a swing at it, I would be very skeptical about Sin City. I might have need to be such, but I have confidence in the filmmakers. The best factor about this project is that both RR and QT have a niche market that overlaps strongly with the Sin City fans, therefore little compromise is necessary.

Do you mean comic book movies or all movies in general? I have seen many movies so horrid that I just don't see how they couldn't catch the drift that it was a bad movie/idea.

Cases in point:
-Battlefield Earth
-Cutthroat Island
-Showgirls
-Kangaroo Jack-Okay, the kid factor made it money in the bank, but have they no sympathy for the parents or adults who have to take the kids?

I actually wonder if there are some movies that a studio commits to and wishes it could back out when it sees some of the lackluster quality. I would think such a thing might have happened with Cutthroat Island but they couldn't due to the amount of money already invested.

Better be!

Just don't joke about Passions, that would make you a marked man GMC.

damn, deleted post. In any case, In last weeks weekend reports a lot of folks were jumping on hellboy for dropping to #2 on the list while still making 10+ for the weekend.

Blame Scientologist..
They were ahead of there time I tells you. If they only waited they could made PotC money. ok.. maybe not...
Who would have guessed that the rated R+ audiance wasn't that interested in softcore porn..
Dude, this movie rocked!!

You might want to add You got served to that list. Yeah, studios make a lot of screw ups. The majority of those are either pictures that are made on a smaller budget in hopes to make a decent profit to make the bigger pictures or terribly gone wrong films.

They all can't be winners or else we wouldn't know what a good film actually is.