THE WEEKEND’S WINNERS: Sony’s Ferrell-Wahlberg mismatched-cops comedy The Other Guys opened to $35.6 million, finally dethroning Christopher Nolan’s Inception — which placed second with $18.6 million, bringing its domestic cume to $227.7 million after four weeks in release.
THE WEEKEND’S LOSERS: Wet, three-dimensional dancing — Disney and Summit’s Step Up 3D came in third with $15.5 million.
HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN: Sony’s having a great summer, releasing three hits in a row. All three of them were original films — or at the least The Other Guys, Salt, and Grown Ups all lacked a numeral at the end of their titles. Coincidence?
(A Columbia Pictures spokesman confirmed that Other Guys tilted a bit male [56 percent] and somewhat younger [55 percent under 25; 18 percent under 17], so enough already with the argument that young men don’t go to the movies any more, Hollywood.)
So, how’d Sony do it? Explains one head of marketing at a rival studio, “Everyone says, ‘You gotta go outside The Box!’ — but, here’s the thing: The box still kinda works just fine. The Other Guys had a funny trailer and funny TV spots. Then the publicity hit the weekend before last, and all of last week. If you have a Cloverfield, a Where the Wild Things Are or an Inception, sure, go outside the box. They know when to use the box.â€
Meanwhile, Disney’s Step Up 3D proved that your grosses don’t always look bigger through cheap, plastic 3-D specs: Step Up 3D made only $15.5 million this weekend — and that’s with over 80 percent of Step Up 3D’s receipts coming from 3-D theaters, where tickets can cost $2-$3 more than a traditional 2-D showing.
Compare that to the first Step Up, which made over $20 million in it’s opening weekend and eventually grossed close to $65 million, or to Step Up 2: The Streets, which opened to almost $19 million on it’s first weekend, and grossed almost $60 million domestically, and you see how the third film’s far more modest opening represents a clanging alarm bell for Hollywood studios and theater owners deluded into thinking 3-D was a panacea. It would seem that those who saw the third Step Up this weekend went in spite of the fact (and not because) it was in 3-D. As one rival studio marketing chief put it, “This should have been the easy one, not the hard one.â€
If only Disney had heeded the instructive words of Step Up 3D protagonist Luke (Rick Malambri) in the film’s trailer: “Some people learn to dance — others are born to.†Teach ‘em, Luke!
YOUR TOP TEN:
1. The Other Guys ($35.5 million)
2. Inception ($18.6 million; $227.7 million)
3. Step Up 3D ($15.5 million)
4. Salt ($11.1 million; $91.9 million)
5. Dinner for Schmucks ($10.5 million; $46.7 million)
6. Despicable Me ($9.4 million; $209.4 million)
7. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore ($6.9 million; $26.4 million)
8. Charlie St. Cloud ($4.7 million; $23.5 million)
9. Toy Story 3 ($3 million; $396.3 million)
10. The Kids Are All Right ($2.6 million; $14 million)