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Sunday June 23, 2013
Hollywood B.O.: Mark Harris vs. Superman in the Battle of the Century!!
This morning, Mark Harris, author of “Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood” (much recommended), tweeted the following:
So how do the “Screw the critics, the people have spoken!” defenders of Man of Steel explain a 71% drop?
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) June 22, 2013
Apparently he got into some arguments last weekend about “Man of Steel” and is crowing this weekend. I tweeted this back:
@MarkHarrisNYC Box office is always the lamest argument--whether made by your opponents last weekend or by you this weekend.
— Erik Lundegaard (@ErikLundegaard) June 24, 2013
The 71% drop is Friday-to-Friday, as he later tweeted, but the weekend drop for Supes isn’t much better: -64.7%.
How bad is that for a movie that opened this big? Let’s look at the 25 movies that have opened with more than $100 million domestic and sort by the second-weekend percentage drop. This is what you get:
| MOVIE | 1st WKND | DROP | 2nd WKND | THTRS | TOTAL BO |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | $169,189,427 | -72.00% | $47,422,212 | 4,375 | $381,011,219 |
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon | $142,839,137 | -70.00% | $42,870,031 | 4,042 | $296,623,634 |
| The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | $138,122,261 | -69.80% | $41,683,574 | 4,066 | $281,287,133 |
| The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 | $141,067,634 | -69.10% | $43,641,448 | 4,070 | $292,324,737 |
| X-Men: The Last Stand | $102,750,665 | -66.90% | $34,017,247 | 3,714 | $234,362,462 |
| Man of Steel | $116,619,362 | -64.70% | $41,215,000 | 4,207 | $210,006,000 |
| The Hunger Games | $152,535,747 | -61.60% | $58,551,063 | 4,137 | $408,010,692 |
| Spider-Man 3 | $151,116,516 | -61.50% | $58,166,256 | 4,252 | $336,530,303 |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $114,732,820 | -61.50% | $44,206,660 | 4,362 | $309,420,425 |
| The Dark Knight Rises | $160,887,295 | -61.40% | $62,101,451 | 4,404 | $448,139,099 |
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | $108,966,307 | -61.20% | $42,320,877 | 4,234 | $402,111,870 |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 | $125,017,372 | -60.70% | $49,087,101 | 4,125 | $295,983,305 |
| Iron Man 2 | $128,122,480 | -59.40% | $52,041,005 | 4,380 | $312,433,331 |
| Iron Man 3 | $174,144,585 | -58.40% | $72,525,615 | 4,253 | $403,120,000 |
| Shrek the Third | $121,629,270 | -56.40% | $53,039,992 | 4,122 | $322,719,944 |
| Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | $100,137,835 | -55.30% | $44,754,615 | 4,260 | $317,101,119 |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | $135,634,554 | -54.00% | $62,345,264 | 4,133 | $423,315,812 |
| The Dark Knight | $158,411,483 | -52.50% | $75,166,466 | 4,366 | $533,345,358 |
| Marvel's The Avengers | $207,438,708 | -50.30% | $103,052,274 | 4,349 | $623,357,910 |
| Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | $108,435,841 | -49.10% | $55,205,972 | 3,663 | $380,270,577 |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | $102,685,961 | -46.70% | $54,727,138 | 3,858 | $290,013,036 |
| Toy Story 3 | $110,307,189 | -46.20% | $59,337,669 | 4,028 | $415,004,880 |
| Alice in Wonderland (2010) | $116,101,023 | -46.00% | $62,714,076 | 3,728 | $334,191,110 |
| Spider-Man | $114,844,116 | -37.80% | $71,417,527 | 3,615 | $403,706,375 |
| Shrek 2 | $108,037,878 | -33.20% | $72,170,363 | 4,163 | $441,226,247 |
Numbers via Box Office Mojo
Sixth-worst. Not good. And the five above it are sequels, which have a tendency to start fast and fade fast.
On the other hand, we are talking about Superman here. It’s not like people needed much of an introduction. He’s one of the most famous characters in the world. It’s a reboot, but fans were primed for it as if it were a sequel.
At the same time, “Man of Steel” has been a divisive movie, among both critics and fans, and the numbers reflect that. My own review reflects my own divisive feelings. But if I had to do the Siskel-Ebert thing, my thumb would be pointing up. There are some clever updates on the Superman myth. Plus a lot of POW! BAM! if that’s your thing. (It isn’t mine. Nor, apparently, Harris’.)
“Man of Steel” did face some tough competition in its second weekend, too: a sequel to a hugely popular Pixar film; and the zombie pic to end all zombie pics. Compare “Man of Steel”’s performance to “The Hunger Games,” since both are “new movies” with vast name recognition. “Hunger Games” did better to open ($152 to $116) and dropped less steeply during its second weekend (-61.6% to -64.7%), but it also weaker competition that second go-round: “Wrath of Titans” and something called “Mirror Mirror” rather than “Monsters University” and “World War Z.” The joys of opening in March.
In non-Superman-related news, “Monsters University” won the weekend with $82 million, which is the second-highest opening weekend gross for a Pixar movie, after “Toy Story 3.” “World War Z” finished second with $66 million, which is the best open ever for a Brad Pitt movie.
Is “Man of Steel”'s moment in the sun over already?