ROTTEN TOMATOES: Spielberg Wages "War" on the Holiday Weekend Box Office

Spielberg Wages "War" on the Holiday Weekend Box Office

by Scott Weinberg | July 05, 2005

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No, it didn't break any records ... but no, it didn't exactly underperform, either. No matter how you look at it, Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" zapped a healthy chunk of change from our pockets during the July 4th weekend. Three-day frame: $64.5 million. Throw in the Monday holiday and the figure rises to $77.6 million. Toss the Wednesday opening and Thursday into the mix and you're looking at a "War" chest worth just over $113 million.

Needless to say, the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller handily snatched the #1 box office spot. Hanging on with impressive tenacity is "Batman Begins," which grossed $18.7 over the four-day weekend ($154m total), while third place went to the also rather buoyant "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," which added over $12.5 million to a total tally of $146m.

Fourth place went to "Bewitched," which pulled in an extra $10.8 million, and "Herbie: Fully Loaded," which added $10.5m to its bottom line. Aside from "War of the Worlds," the only other wide release newcomer was the Martin Lawrence kids' comedy "Rebound," which landed in 7th place with a $6 million weekend.

Next Friday sees the release of two new heavyweights, the Fox comic-book adaptation "Fantastic Four," and the Jennifer Connelly thriller "Dark Water."

As always, please feel free to stop by the Rotten Tomatoes Box Office Page for a closer look at the weekend monetary numerals.

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(1-18 of 18 posts) | Reply

mr_movie_maniac writes:
on Jul 05 2005 03:08 AM

Okay....a question for all. "Who did not like War of the Worlds?" I'm just curious to see the ratio, but I think I already know what the outcome will be.

(Reply to this)

sox1919 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 07:03 AM

[b]the ending ruined it[/b]
there must be three alternate endings, cause the one they tacked onto it received full audience laughter in the packed theatre I was in.

The movie overall was great, but the ending ruined it for me.

i've now posted my own.

(Reply to this)

polnikes writes:
on Jul 05 2005 07:19 AM

i thought the movie was realy good actually. and the ending although abrupt and not realy well explained worked for me, at least its not as bad as the water killing off aliens in signs.

(Reply to this)

Saint_Angst writes:
on Jul 05 2005 09:24 AM

In reply to this comment (#823889)
the thing is though, I think a lot of people think that's what happened. They just went in on the droplet of water on the leaf at the end... it didn't mention viruses or anything at all. Just these little squigly things in the water.

(Reply to this)

r_curl04 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 09:31 AM

In reply to this comment (#823890)
but doesnt the man at the end say that the most simple life form killed off them? being bacteria?

(Reply to this)

jeremyd4 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 09:42 AM

[b]I really liked Batman and War of the Worlds BUT...[/b]
They both had two really fundamental flaws in them. Without revealing the plots too much... #SPOILERS#

...Batman had that microwave water evaporator device (which was cool) but why didn't it fry/vaporize all the humans around since we are like 90% water???
...and WOTW had its super advanced aliens which have been calculating/planing their attack for ages but why on earth would they fail to understand evolution/bacteria/micro-organisms??? And why did the shields on the tri-pods get affected by this too, as they seemed to de-activate???

(Reply to this)

cabezone writes:
on Jul 05 2005 10:41 AM

In reply to this comment (#823892)
WOTW didn't show you anything that the central character didn't know. He didn't know why the shields went down, so we didn't. Maybe we nuked the mothership? Maybe it was an apple laptop virus delivered by a rapper?

(Reply to this)

ChickenWing89 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 10:55 AM

Overall, I loved it. Superbly enterteining, and perfectly paced.

cabezone is right. This is a story about a family, not about the army trying to stop this alien attack. The only thing I didn't like is how

*SPOILERS*

all the main characters lived. I thought Robby should have died. Totally hollywood ending.

(Reply to this)

jeremyd4 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 12:09 PM

In reply to this comment (#823893)
*SPOILERS*
OK maybe... but doesn't seem very plausible - the shield really should've stayed activated even though the little fellas inside were dead. Unless the shields were manually activated by some sort of peddle or something? hehe.

Anyway... the bacteria being overlooked still seems quite ridiculous. Even we humans realise that if we visit some other planet we won't be immune to the environment - that's why we have space suits!

(Reply to this)

Biggestgeekever writes:
on Jul 05 2005 01:08 PM

In reply to this comment (#823895)
I think the Tripods where part organic, and once they fed on the humans (as shown when they got captured), they got the bateria which eventually weakened them and brought down thier shields

Also, I think the reason the bacteria was overlooked was because the aliens looked apon us as if we where microscopic organisms and probably thought that anything that didn't severaly hurt us, wouldn't hurt them.

(Reply to this)

Saint_Angst writes:
on Jul 05 2005 01:15 PM

another thing I just thought of... if they buried the tripods thousands of years before or whatever... why didn't they just take over earth then when humanity was much more primative, and there weren't as many people???

(Reply to this)

neophool writes:
on Jul 05 2005 01:46 PM

In reply to this comment (#823897)
they wanted to harvest the planet, using our blood. the more humans to turn into fertilizer, the better. besides, we couldn't defend ourselves any better today then 1000 years ago.

(Reply to this)

sox1919 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 02:41 PM

[b]SPOILER "WHAT IF ENDING"[/b]
SPOILERS

Everything went down the exact same way, Ray carries his daughter down the street and looks in terror....the camera pans and the rowhouses have been demolished by the aliens and people from the neighborhood are looking for survivors and begging to clean up the mess in the wake of the tragedy.

Rachel tears up as she realizes her mother and grandparents are dead. she looks up to her father and she sees him blankly staring at the destruction, he realizes he alone is now responsible for her and tears up as well.

He notices a person crawling from the basement and its the stepfather, Ray puts his daughter down and she runs to her stepfather hugging him. He shows joy and compassion that she is home and safe. she looks up to him and she sees in his eyes that the rest of her family has died. She sobs.

the camera pans back down the street to Ray who looks down at his blood stained shirt and the audience knows he feels guilt for not helping more people at the boat with Robbie, for letting Robbie go, and for killing Tim Robbins, knowing now he could have helped more people live if he had made more selfless decisions.

Rachel looks at her father crying mercilessly in the empty street and she looks at her stepfather, kisses him on the cheek, and pulls his hand to leave Ray alone with his consequences for all of his actions and the demons he must now face alone.

Cut to black.

(Reply to this)

Budd_17 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 06:47 PM

In reply to this comment (#823899)
Did you make that ending up or is it an "alternate ending" to the movie?

Overall I liked the movie. It ended just like it did in the book.

(Reply to this)

sox1919 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 07:47 PM

In reply to this comment (#823900)
Made it up

(Reply to this)

nordak writes:
on Jul 05 2005 10:52 PM

I had no real problem with the way the aliens died...cuz anyone that had even heard of the book knew what happens. But I would have felt allot better if Robbie hadn't lived. I thought him dying would have reflected the anger that he was showing throughout the movie...and the fact that he was in the middle of a huge explosion that demolished armored vehicles, but now a 17 year old kid.

(Reply to this)

jeremyd4 writes:
on Jul 05 2005 11:02 PM

In reply to this comment (#823896)
Yeah what you said about the shields makes sense... but I still have trouble with the aliens not realising that there are smaller microscopic organisms that humans (as the ending states) lost millions of lives to and earnt the right to be here. The aliens were the same size as us too, so they really shouldn't have looked at us as being microscopic organisms.... anyway....

CAN ANYONE SEE A WAY TO EXPLAIN THE FLAW IN BATMAN BEGINS??

(Reply to this)

brave.sir.rob writes:
on Jul 09 2005 11:42 PM

In reply to this comment (#823903)
I haven't actually read the book myself, but I assumed the aliens' failure to consider bacteria was Wells' idea. Doesn't really seem so hard to believe; just because a civilization is advanced enough to have travelled to another planet doesn't make them omniscient.

As for the Batman thing, that's actually a good point. Oh well, the ending was pretty much campy all around anyway... but at least no bat-nipples.

(Reply to this)