Michael Lown
BartoMichael Myers vs. Hippies: Box Office Predictions for 8/28/'09
August 26th 2009 01:35
A brand new batch of films, ranging from horror to indie flicks, go up against Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the unexpected smash hit, in the final week of the Summer season.
Halloween II
When's the last time there's been a decent Halloween flick? Seriously? For the past few decades its been nothing but crap after crap, so much so that it's hard to remember how influential John Carpenter's original was to the horror genre back in the late '70s. After the last crapfest, it was decided to reboot the franchise (which the "cool" thing to do nowadays). This time around it was put into the hands of musician-turned-director Rob Zombie, whose work behind the camera ranges from dreadfully mediocre (House of a 1000 Corpses) to just plain mediocre (Devil's Rejects). Like all his films, Zombie's reimagining was shot down by most, if not all, critics, but the box office receipts were decent to warrant a sequal, creatively titles Halloween 2
Zombie basically copies the exact storyline of the first film, with (judging from the trailer) the same results: Myers goes around killing people in the most gruesome ways possible during Halloween for two hours. If you enjoyed it the first time around, enjoy. If you didn't, avoid this bitch like the plague.
With most of the original cast returning (including Malcolm McDowell, who deserves a lot better than the crap he's been in for the past few years), fans of the first well probably flock, but rest will probably stay away, thanks to tasteless amount of gore and a confusing release schedeule (why they're not releasing this in October and/or the Halloween season is beyond me). Still, it should still round up a strong $25,000,000 opening weekend.
Taking Woodstock
When you think about, director Ang Lee sure has had a rollercoaster carreer this decade. After critical hits like [I[Sense and Sensibility[/I] and The Ice Storm, Lee found box office gold with the foreign language, martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, making Hollywood's next big blockbuster director. The result was 2003's Hulk, which was derided by critics as an indulgent, talky mess, and underperfomed vastly at the box office. However, Lee rebounded with Brokeback Mountain, which became a critical darling and made stars Heath Ledgar and Jack Gyllenhaal into household names. It even won Lee an Oscar for best director, even though the film lost to Paul Haggis' Crash (which most consider to be the greatest blunder the Academy has ever made in its existence). Lee then went back to China with the erotic thriller Lust, Cuation, but thanks to lukewarm reviews, racy subject matter, plus an NC-17 rating, the film was overlooked by the general public.
Now Ang Lee returns with something he's never done before: comedy. This time around he tackles the true story behind the infamous Woodstock concert, which marks its 40th anniversary this year. The film, with a cast including newcomer Demetri Martin, Liev Schriber, and Emile Hirsch (who was supposed to be the "next big thing" a fews years back but never panned out thanks to flops like Speed Racer), the film was met with much hype and anticipation by critics when it arrived Cannes earlier this years. Unfortunately, like many films that year, it was met with only so-so reviews. I can't say I blame them, considering the trailers make look like a bland indie comedy that lacks any of the Oscar-winning director's charm.
Will people go see this? I pretty sure they'll rather shell out money for theawesome boxset of the great documentary than this movie. Expect a gross of around $10,000,000 this week.
The Final Destination
Boy, studios really are getting lazy when it comes to naming their sequels. First this year wasThe Fast & The Furious and now its The Final Destination, the forth film in the horror franchise. The film, directed by Final Destination 2's David R. Ellis (hot off the success of his magnum opus, Snakes on a Plane), is pretty much a copy and paste of the previous three: a group of annoying teenagers manage to avoid death, only to be killed in the most gruesome ways possible. It also helps that the film will be presented in 3D, the "it" thing when it comes to unnessecary sequels (Ice Age 3).
Will it reienvent the wheel? Hell no. But enough teens will flock to see this lite-weight horrorfest, making around a cool $20,000,000.
Halloween II
When's the last time there's been a decent Halloween flick? Seriously? For the past few decades its been nothing but crap after crap, so much so that it's hard to remember how influential John Carpenter's original was to the horror genre back in the late '70s. After the last crapfest, it was decided to reboot the franchise (which the "cool" thing to do nowadays). This time around it was put into the hands of musician-turned-director Rob Zombie, whose work behind the camera ranges from dreadfully mediocre (House of a 1000 Corpses) to just plain mediocre (Devil's Rejects). Like all his films, Zombie's reimagining was shot down by most, if not all, critics, but the box office receipts were decent to warrant a sequal, creatively titles Halloween 2
Zombie basically copies the exact storyline of the first film, with (judging from the trailer) the same results: Myers goes around killing people in the most gruesome ways possible during Halloween for two hours. If you enjoyed it the first time around, enjoy. If you didn't, avoid this bitch like the plague.
With most of the original cast returning (including Malcolm McDowell, who deserves a lot better than the crap he's been in for the past few years), fans of the first well probably flock, but rest will probably stay away, thanks to tasteless amount of gore and a confusing release schedeule (why they're not releasing this in October and/or the Halloween season is beyond me). Still, it should still round up a strong $25,000,000 opening weekend.
Taking Woodstock
When you think about, director Ang Lee sure has had a rollercoaster carreer this decade. After critical hits like [I[Sense and Sensibility[/I] and The Ice Storm, Lee found box office gold with the foreign language, martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, making Hollywood's next big blockbuster director. The result was 2003's Hulk, which was derided by critics as an indulgent, talky mess, and underperfomed vastly at the box office. However, Lee rebounded with Brokeback Mountain, which became a critical darling and made stars Heath Ledgar and Jack Gyllenhaal into household names. It even won Lee an Oscar for best director, even though the film lost to Paul Haggis' Crash (which most consider to be the greatest blunder the Academy has ever made in its existence). Lee then went back to China with the erotic thriller Lust, Cuation, but thanks to lukewarm reviews, racy subject matter, plus an NC-17 rating, the film was overlooked by the general public.
Now Ang Lee returns with something he's never done before: comedy. This time around he tackles the true story behind the infamous Woodstock concert, which marks its 40th anniversary this year. The film, with a cast including newcomer Demetri Martin, Liev Schriber, and Emile Hirsch (who was supposed to be the "next big thing" a fews years back but never panned out thanks to flops like Speed Racer), the film was met with much hype and anticipation by critics when it arrived Cannes earlier this years. Unfortunately, like many films that year, it was met with only so-so reviews. I can't say I blame them, considering the trailers make look like a bland indie comedy that lacks any of the Oscar-winning director's charm.
Will people go see this? I pretty sure they'll rather shell out money for theawesome boxset of the great documentary than this movie. Expect a gross of around $10,000,000 this week.
The Final Destination
Boy, studios really are getting lazy when it comes to naming their sequels. First this year was
Will it reienvent the wheel? Hell no. But enough teens will flock to see this lite-weight horrorfest, making around a cool $20,000,000.
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