ROTTEN TOMATOES: Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man Rocks, Speed Racer Stalls

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man Rocks, Speed Racer Stalls

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Four recent comedies with a combined cume of $148M followed with each dropping by less than 50%. In its second weekend, Sony's Made of Honor fell by 49% to an estimated $7.6M pushing the ten-day tally to respectable $26.3M. Budgeted at $40M (a tad high for a laugher), the Patrick Dempsey vehicle should find its way to a mediocre $40-45M domestically.

Universal's pair of comedies Baby Mama and Forgetting Sarah Marshall followed with estimates of $5.8M and $3.8M, respectively. The Tina Fey-Amy Poehler pic dropped 43% and lifted its sum to $40.4M. Judd Apatow's latest R-rated concoction dipped by only 38% and has laughed up $50.7M to date.

Falling 49% was the stoner sequel Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay with an estimated $3.2M giving New Line and parent Warner Bros. $30.7M to date.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li claimed the number eight spot with The Forbidden Kingdom which took in an estimated $1.9M, off 55%, for a $48.3M total for Lionsgate. Fox's kidpic Nim's Island fell 51% to an estimated $1.3M giving the adventure film $44.3M in its sixth week of play.

Sony Classics expanded its martial arts drama Redbelt after a week in limited release and landed in the top ten with an estimated $1.1M. Averaging a weak $827 from 1,379 locations, the R-rated action film upped its total to $1.2M and should conclude its run with less than $4M.

Sony saw two hits and a flop fall out of the top ten this weekend. The teen thriller Prom Night tumbled 56% to an estimated $1.1M boosting the cume to $42.8M. Produced for only $20M, the PG-13 fright flick should end up with a solid $45M. The card-counting drama 21 enjoyed a six-week streak in the top ten but dropped 58% this weekend to an estimated $835,000. With a robust $80.4M in winnings earned to date, the Kevin Spacey flick looks to cash out with around $82M which was much better than anyone had expected.

Al Pacino did not have much luck with audiences as they ignored his latest crime thriller 88 Minutes. The dismal entry collapsed by 69% this weekend taking in just $485,000, according to estimates, to push its embarrassing sum to only $16.4M. Not much more will be added.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $115.4M which was up a healthy 24% from last year when Spider-Man 3 remained on top with $58.2M; and up a sturdy 43% from 2006 when Mission: Impossible III stayed at number one with $25M. Both of those action sequels were in their second weekends.

Author: Gitesh Pandya, Box Office Guru

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(1-20 of 48 posts) | Reply

knowingtoast85 writes:
on May 11 2008 07:18 PM

Speed Racer crashed and burned. This report makes it only sound like a minor misfire.

Personally, it fell into so-unbelievably-disastrously-bad-it's-awesome territory for me, and while I was completely entertained the entire time, it was thanks to a healthy sense of irony, which I can imagine isn't shared by most of the country.

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jneverman writes:
on May 11 2008 07:42 PM

I honestly enjoyed speed racer. It had it's flaws, but still really entertaining. It saddens me that speed racer is getting such a bad rep.

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jokerboy1991 writes:
on May 11 2008 07:54 PM

Yeah I thought Speed Racer was pretty cool (8/10). I was really hoping it would do well, and to see it become a trilogy. I hope this doesnt mean were gonna get a crappy special featuresless DVD. It had flaws, like I wish they took out Speed's one liners when hes driving, the effects were amazing but some looked unfinished, but overall it was pretty good and cool, and Ill definately get this on blu-ray.

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JakeTheSnakeMane writes:
on May 11 2008 07:58 PM

Speed Racer, I thought was terrible. It bored me to death and did not have me entertained at all. I was really disappointed because I thought it was going to be good.

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magic32 writes:
on May 11 2008 08:38 PM

THOR's gonna be cool. think awesome Marvel superhero origin pic meets the scope and scale Lord of the Rings.

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mssk8erboy writes:
on May 11 2008 08:45 PM

I loved speed racer and i can't wait til i get to see it again, hopefully in Imax this time. The visuals in that film are completely breathtaking and countless steps ahead of anything else i've seen, everything is just so vibrant looking. I'm glad that iron man had a good second week though i want that film to do well.

-MIKE

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berzo12 writes:
on May 11 2008 09:02 PM

I dont like it when movies fail usually but Speed Racer is just a bad movie and i took some advil half way through. With Iron man I think it shows that studios are finally starting to understand that the source material is much more compelling than any movie dumbed down to broaden appeal(ex. Sin City,and Batman Begins). Hopefully the same thinking will be put into The Incredible Hulk from Marvel.

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Y4USay writes:
on May 11 2008 09:05 PM

You wan visual? No waste money on Speed Wacer. Take many drug. Much better time.

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thereign writes:
on May 11 2008 09:42 PM

Speed Racer sucked A$$ at hyperspeed. It was one of the worst films I've seen in a long time, and I just couldn't understand why the Wachowskis went so overboard visually. It was CGI overload with characters you couldn't possibly care about for ten seconds. I am so glad this is dying a quick death at the box office(with the final blow to be dealt by the upcoming Prince Caspian), I could do handsprings.

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FantasyFan07 writes:
on May 11 2008 10:19 PM

Haha, funny stuff. I'm glad to see Speed Racer crash and burn. Oh the irony...

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u1sart writes:
on May 11 2008 10:23 PM

I think speed Racer was great. The wachowski made a turn by directing and producing a show for kids and i carried ma little nephew and ma daughter and they were wowed by the special effects. I dont know why some of u people are so lame. Speed Racer was reall good. I think the wachowski should come strong next time. I'd love for them to do Gears of War.

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-apocolyptic- writes:
on May 11 2008 10:53 PM

Man the Wachowski brothers haven't made a good movie since "the matrix".
The trailer for speed racer looked sloopy and tooo much of " how much can we do with visuals(CGI)".
They have become the Hollywood idea of overindulgence.

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CoUcH ToMaToE DoUgIe writes:
on May 11 2008 11:16 PM

well it seems the rt community is divided..but if i could add my

two cents I think its shame for any movie to barely beat out such a crappy

mov ie, like What happens in vegas. I'm sorry but speed racer is a definitely

a worth while experience and i still believe people are just hatin too

harshly. The movie was nowhere near as bad as everyone is proclaiming and I

just believe the people who hate came into the theater wanting to destroy it!

I still really liked very much and for all the haters out there, if you want

to see a god awful movie that is so disgusting and putrid then watch What

happens in vegas or made of honor!!!

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GGear0323 writes:
on May 11 2008 11:55 PM

ever since the matrix the wachowski's have been so obsessed with CG it is frightening. the 2 matrix sequels threw out a competent storyline for expensive CG work and big words hoping nobody would catch on that they had no clue what they were talking about, then Speed Racer took an already sorta cheesy anime, made it even cheesier and took visual cues for the race scenes from Ridge Racer, Wipeout and Twisted Metal(though car weapons were part of the anime anyway) and then made everything EXTREMELY shiny and ultra reflective and try to pass it off as some new landmark in Theatrical CG work.

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thereign writes:
on May 12 2008 12:59 AM

I love the fact that if you don't go with the flow of loving a movie simply because it's got gosh-gee-whiz effects in it, you're automatically a "hater" or "lame". People have different viewpoints on what makes a good movie, and everyone has the right to their own opinion. Personally I hoped Speed Racer would be a pleasant surprise...and it WASN'T.

The threadbare story was lame, the acting sucked because the actors obviously weren't comfortable working with so much green screen and effects they had to visualize in their head rather than being able to REACT to something REAL, and the CGI was just an overindulgence by the Wachowskis, who really have nothing good(aside from V for Vendetta) besides The Matrix to coast on for their careers.

Why don't we come up with a new term for people who'll take whatever cinematic slop is served up to them? Something like "Money Shots"(standing ready to receive Wachowski-jizz all over their faces, i.e.: Wow, you Money Shots sure do love yourself some lame Speed Racer/Meet The Spartans/or what have you) or some other lame-as$ term? Maybe then folks can see that it's insipid to insult people just for disagreeing with them about something as simple as a damn movie.

And by the way...the rest of the country must be equally lame for staying away from Speed Racer IN DROVES. Or just in case one didn't read the full article, it's not even decided if SR is the #2 movie; the race is so close(no pun intended) it might turn out come Monday to be What Happens In Vegas, which while by no means was it a perfect film, it was damn sure more enjoyable than Speed Crapper. If this happens, I will laugh my head off for a week!

Damn Money Shots.

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Gimy writes:
on May 12 2008 05:53 AM

friday...i thought speed would do REALLY REALLY WELL, saturday...after seeing it, eh...not so much. its not a crap movie(like some kid's movies last year) but somebody please tell me what age they were shooting for. you have a pg movie with a stupid amount of curse words(almost ALL were unnecessary)...and its almost 2.5 hours long. doesn't surprise me that it made nothing. visually...stunning. but the story, some of the acting, and the seemingly thrown in curse words for no reason really made me wish they'd have went back and redid most of the flick before releasing it. it just didn't work. it could have been really really good but...in the end, it's pure rental. not worth 7 bucks

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Pengoo writes:
on May 12 2008 06:29 AM

Seems like the Wachowski's are the new Shamalyan

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on May 12 2008 06:53 AM

In reply to this comment (#1731891)
Couch; you and I seem to agree on this site as often as not, but I gotta say that in this case, Speed Racer can't get ENOUGH scorn. SR was *easily* the worst movie I've seen in the last 12 months, and that's including rentals.
There was virtually NO single shot in the entire movie that looked real-- and I don't mean 'real' as in "why can't I see that on the streets of NY" but 'real' as in "that looks absolutely NOTHING like what they're saying it is to the point where it is distracting me from this pathetic dialogue and unengaging story."

I actually was concerned that my unqualified LOVE for the Matrix as one of the finest achievements in Science Fiction cinema History would be diminished retroactively by how miserable a time I had, watching SR (it wasn't-- Matrix still RULES). The only thing I got out of it was my best friend enjoyed it for nostalgia's sake. So for those who enjoyed this, god f#cking bless.

And please, for those who are about to blow a load and say 'you just didn't GET it,' ..really, don't waste your time. I got it. There wasn't much there to get and I didn't like it. Next.

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Ashron writes:
on May 12 2008 07:07 AM

I'll throw my hat into the ring. I thought SR was enjoyable enough. The acting wasn't THAT bad (and who's to say the Wachowski's weren't going for some of that, to match the style of the cartoon). I do agree that some of the effects didn't look finished, which was weird, but overall I had a good time with it. Could have been about 15 minutes shorter and more wide shots to really see what was going on would have been nice.

I tell you what though, if real racing was like that, I'd be a NASCAR fan in a heartbeat.

And for those of you who didn't like it, that's cool. I can certainly see why and your points are valid, they just didn't bother me as much. I pretty much knew what I was getting into when I saw it.

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Runtun writes:
on May 12 2008 07:23 AM

I cannot believe that people actually thought Speed Racer would do well. I am not talking about the quality of the film, I have no real opinion since I have not seen it (and probably won't since the trailer didn't appeal to me), but the fact that people thought it would have nostalgia appeal like 'Transformers'. Speed Racer is a very old cartoon that is simply not remembered that much today and also the basic concept has little to no appeal to kids who have never heard of the show. Racing cars alone don't excite kids, unlike say giant transforming robots doing battle, especially with the extremely gaudy visual style. Look at Pixar's 'Cars'. It had the car theme, but talking 'cute' cars, with a bold, colorful and much less cluttered look. And the kids absolutely loved it. Speed Racer, I believe, it too obscure and too much, you even might say arty, visually to appeal to kids.

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