Writethru Sunday, 8:00 AM: Sunday estimates are in and we have a new boss at the top of the box office with DreamWorks Animation’s 34th title The Boss Baby will cash an opening weekend check of $50.3M at 3,773 theaters via 20th Century Fox. (Fox thinks it’ll end the weekend with $49M). Disney’s Beauty and the Beast isn’t far behind in second with $47.5M and the weekend gross brings ever so closer to the $400M mark with a $395.4M after only 17 days in play. It’s also getting close to the $500M mark overseas.
Some believed that this would be a close battle for No. 1 all weekend long, however, Alec Baldwin’s tough guy baby will be the last man standing. Not cracking at the box office is Ghost in the Shell from DreamWorks/Reliance/Paramount with a much lower than expected three-day of $18.6M at 3,440 locations and a listless B CinemaScore. The picture dropped 13% Friday to Saturday. Paramount estimates $19M. It played on 380 IMAX screens which accounted for $3M of its domestic total. We’ll do an autopsy on that cyborg movie in a bit.
Three pictures were in their second weekends of play. Lionsgate’s Saban’s Power Rangers, from which the distributor was hoping to generate a new franchise, fell 64% and now sits at $65M. While, CHIPS from Warner Bros. dropped less (if you can believe it) with a 48% decline to nab only $14.3M to date and Sony’s Life (which last week garnered only a C+ CinemaScore) was down 55% with a total cume of only $22.3M. Sayōnara.
This past week at CinemaCon — the annual convention where distribution and nation’s exhibition industry come together — some industry insiders were surprised how Boss Baby was rallying in its advance ticket sales with the potential to upset Beauty and the Beast. Let’s face it: Fox in conjunction with DWA ran a hysterical campaign, with Baldwin’s charisma at the center of it. In addition to the traditional PR appearances, the multi-award-winning actor did extra voice-over recordings in support of custom animated content pieces, trailers, Vlogs, radio spots, and media promotions.
The movie over-indexed in some markets including in Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver. Top-grossing theaters came from Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and Houston. With roughly 20% Kindergarten through 12th grade out of school in the U.S. and Spring Break on the horizon over the next three weeks, Fox expects a nice run for its baby. Sixty-two percent of its audience were under 25 whereas the primary audience for Ghost in the Shell was ages 18 to 44.
And while it’s a hoot to hear Baldwin’s baby scream ala his Glengarry Glen Ross executive in the trailer, “Put that cookie down, cookies are for closers!”, the ultimate comedic coup in Fox/DWA’s marketing was trailering on Beauty and the Beast two weeks ago, and reaching that enormous moviegoer bandwidth with a brand new trailer that knocked the Disney movie. In it, Baldwin’s toddler character mischievously plays with the clock and candlestick from the Disney movie, telling the audience that they made “an excellent decision” to see Beauty and the Beast, but that when it comes to Boss Baby, “We don’t have any talking candlesticks, but if that’s a deal breaker, we’ll cram one in there.” Sixteen percent bought tickets because they’re Baldwin fans according to CinemaScore, with 73% attending because Boss Baby is an animated film. Overall, moms are repping the majority with 61% females turning up, 54% over 25. Those under 18 who made up 41% of Boss Baby‘s attendees gave it an A+.
Even though Jeffrey Katzenberg has long left the DWA building, it’s great to see that the toon house hasn’t lost its sense of humor. Most of the animated movies that Katzenberg put his fingerprints on possessed a satirical sense of humor in the Airplane-sense of the word, going back to Disney’s Aladdin and continuing well beyond Shrek. Boss Baby‘s campaign continues to carry that comedic sensibility, and that’s paying off at the B.O.
Social Media monitor Relish Mix points out that in regards to online conversation for Boss Baby, “Baldwin’s performance of a know-it-all baby in a suit comes at a very opportune time. Convo confirms that his portrayal of President Trump on SNL, now coupled with his iconic voice as a Boss Baby speaks to parental moviegoers. Couple this casting/portrayal with DreamWorks Animation’s social reach – and automatic access to millions of kids’ eyeballs, and the campaign was off and running early, with millions and millions of views for the teaser and other quick clips posted to DWA’s YouTube channel.”
The teaser trailer for Boss Baby debuted online on Oct. 17th, and in theaters Nov. 4th with Trolls, becoming the best-performing trailer online in DWA’s history at over 100M Views. The full trailer followed online in sync with the opening of Rogue One and at 71M, it charted the second-highest performing trailer online in DWA’s history.
On top of these social strengths came Jimmy Kimmel’s activation (he stars in the film as the baby’s father) with the late-night talk show host interviewing an animated-version of Baldwin’s baby. Over the last four days, that bit has earned 3.1M views on Facebook. RelishMix is gobsmacked by the size of Boss Baby‘s social media universe which counts 344.3M, well above last year’s average for a family-animated films (263M). “It is a little unusual for a film to be without an official Twitter and Instagram page, but, DreamWorks Animation has completely rolled over their official feeds on TW and IG to promote Boss Baby with a sizable social reach (7.9M),” reports RelishMix. Pic’s videos are going viral at a rate of 13:1 which is higher than the average for the genre last year (9:1).
Now for the bad news. Once again we have a situation where Paramount has a very expensive picture on their hands, and it’s not opening. “When Jim Gianopulos settles in, this type of thing isn’t going to happen!” roared one rival distribution executive today. Talk about deja vu. It was only two months ago when xXx: Return of Xander Cage with a reported production cost of $85M and the social media star power of Vin Diesel made zero impact stateside with a $20.1M opening/$45M final domestic, but all the difference overseas with a $301M take. Hopefully, Ghost will have the same luck abroad where Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy sparked to $336.69M in its international run. For a look at all international and worldwide tallies, read my colleague Nancy Tartaglione’s overseas box office report.
In November, Johansson traveled to Tokyo for a massive Ghost in the Shell event where the global trailer was first dropped ultimately earning 1.2M views. So Paramount will be hoping and praying that its overseas audiences will come running.
Frankly, it’s baffling to see Ghost in the Shell going to hell domestically: The visuals rival Blade Runner and it wasn’t too long ago that we saw Johanasson opening movies (original IP no less!) on her own with Lucy ($43.9M opening, $126.7M domestic take off a $40m cost) sans the Avengers gang. Furthermore, Paramount was very passionate about this movie, and made waves during the Mr. Robot finale back in September with enigmatic glitch commercial interstitials (pieces from the film). Online it was revealed that the glitches were in fact related to an early brilliant promo for Ghost.
Currently, LAX is blitzkrieged with Ghost one-sheets and banners. There’s an even an Osculus Rift virtual experience that was produced for the film, putting users into the shoes of Johansson’s Major character whereby she swan dives from the rooftop and battles geisha robots.
But somewhere along the way, Ghost fell apart whether it was in the marketing or the film itself. Some might point to the white-washing controversy that bubbled on the internet in casting Johansson in a Japanese anime feature adaptation. But really, that type of thing doesn’t weigh heavily on average moviegoers’ minds (but it did on critic’s — the film started out with 71% on Rotten Tomatoes before critics continued to hammer away on the controversy of the casting). Despite the uber-cool, visual trailers that were cut for Ghost, rivals believe it was all eye-candy with zero substance. “You don’t know what the storyline was. Is Scarlett’s character good, or is she bad?” assessed one marketing maven who added the look of Ghost was “too Wachowski-esque.”
RelishMix sharply observed that the film was challenged by an overall non-social and inactive cast. Even though Johansson doesn’t shy away from PR when it comes to her movies, there’s a wasted opportunity here in regards to her absence from social. This is an actress who is a millennial pin-up girl, beloved by males and she’s not meeting that audience head-on with a Dwayne Johnson promo sensibility. The proof of her fanbase resides in the audience polls: On CinemaScore, 39% came out to Ghost because of Johansson with 61% males attending, 76% over 25. Meanwhile, Screen Engine/ComScore’s Posttrak showed 62% males buying tickets with the pic’s largest demo being guys over 25 at 42%.
Now a studio will always make-up for a star who is personally non-social by doing other social media stunts with them, but this movie (and Johansson’s career here) could have benefited from her own personal tubthumping, and igniting even more fans to attend. Six years ago, in an Interview with Arianna Huffington, Johansson dissed social media: “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less than have to continuously share details of my everyday life. I’m always surprised that certain actors have Twitter accounts. I guess they use it in a way that works for them. But I’d rather that people had less access to my personal life.” However, social media is whatever you make it, and it’s certainly the best currency for a star and a wannabe tentpole nowadays (duh).
Another reveal here is that despite the box office-to-production cost fail here with Ghost, if a Johansson film is made for the right price ala a Resident Evil, a fanbase will show up and shell out a certain amount of cash.
Lastly, in regards to Ghost, whenever a studio hides a movie from the press, you know something is up. Here in L.A., Paramount scheduled an all-media screening last Wednesday when the bulk of the industry’s vital press corps were covering CinemaCon. Well, there’s no such thing as a coincidence, and Paramount didn’t offer up any earlier screenings for those journalists wanting to see the film ahead of the exhibitor confab. The studio also didn’t screen the movie at CinemaCon because they were holding their exhibitor screenings ahead of time. All of this was odd given the Melrose Lot’s mojo for selling Ghost back in the fall. But then it was clear: Ghost logged a 41% Rotten Tomatoes score with high brow critics declaring “It gets bogged down in aesthetics that are stimulating only for the sake of stimulation, seemingly without a flicker of thought behind them. Shell indeed, but there’s no ghost at home” (Tribune News’ Katie Walsh).
On the specialty side, Focus Features’ Jessica Chastain movie The Zookeeper’s Wife looks to break into the top 10 with a solid $3.2M on 541 runs. That weekend gross is 66% better than the $1.8M logged by Chastain’s fall title Miss Sloane, and that movie was playing on close to three times the amount of theaters than Zookeeper. Another movie with similar themes to Zookeeper that played to upscale spring audiences was Weinstein Co.’s Woman in Gold two years ago. That pic opened to $2M at 258 sites and legged out to $33.3M.
Zookeeper is based on Diane Ackerman’s New York Times bestselling book about Antonina Żabińska and her husband, Dr. Jan Żabiński who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the WWII German invasion of Warsaw. Among the pic’s campaign highlights, there was an extensive outreach to Jewish thought leaders and institutions including screenings at several key U.S. Jewish film festivals, the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, the Anne Frank Center & Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, UJA Federations of Los Angeles and New York and International Rescue Committee. Focus reached out to fans of the book on social with special screenings at the American Library Association and New York Public Library. In addition, there were digital activations surrounding International Women’s Day on March 8th including custom content featuring Chastain, a Facebook Live with the Oscar-nominated actress and thesp Niki Caro, as well as numerous partnerships with outlets including SmartGirls and NowThis.
For the weekend of March 31-April 2 based on industry estimates as of Sunday AM:
1.) The Boss Baby (20th Century Fox/DWA), 3,773 theaters / $15.6M Fri. (includes $1.5M in previews) / $20.2M Sat. (+28%) / $14.15M Sun. (-30%) / 3-day cume: $50M+ / Wk 1
2.) Beauty and the Beast (DIS), 4,210 theaters / $13.1M Fri. (-34%) / $19.6M Sat. (+51%) / $14.7M Sun. (25%) / 3-day cume: $47.5M (-47%) / Total cume: $395.4M / Wk 3
3.) Ghost in the Shell (PAR/DWA/REL), 3,440 theaters / $7.6M Fri. (includes $1.8M) / $6.67M Sat. (-13%) / $4.3M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $18.6M /Wk 1
4.) Saban’s Power Rangers (LGF), 3,693 theaters (0) / $4M Fri. (-73%) / $6.1M Sat. (+53%) / $4.3M Sun. (-30%) / 3-day cume: $14.4M (-64%) / Total cume: $65M / Wk 2
5.) Kong: Skull Island (20th/Legendary), 3,141 theaters (-525) / $2.3M Fri. (-37%) / $3.78M Sat. (+59%) / $2.6M Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $9.1M / Total cume: $147.78M / Wk 4
6.) Logan (Fox), 2,323 theaters (-840)/ $1.71M Fri. (-34%) / $2.5M Sat. (+55%) / $1.8M Sun. (-30%) / 3-day cume: $6.2M / Total cume: $211.8M / Wk 5
7.) Get Out (UNI), 1,844 theaters (-630) / $1.73M Fri. (-31%) / $2.48M Sat. (+44%) / $1.6M Sun. (35%) / 3-day cume: $5.8M / Total cume: $156.8M / Wk 6
8.) Life (Skydance/Sony), 3,146 theaters (0) / $1.65M Fri. (-63%) / $2.3M Sat. (+45%) / $1.5M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $5.5M (-55%) / Total: $22.3M / Wk 2
9.) CHIPS (WB), 2,464 theaters (0) / $1.1M Fri. (-55%) / $1.68M Sat. (+43%) / $1.77M Sun. (-30%) / 3-day: $4M (-48%) / Total: $14.3M / Wk 2
10.) Zookeeper’s Wife (FOC), 541 theaters / $998K Fri. / $1.3M Sat. (+31%) / $800K Sun. (-40%) / 3-day: $3.2M / Wk 1
2ND Update, Friday 12:08PM: With 20% of K-12 schools off, DreamWorks Animation/20th Century Fox’s The Boss Baby is having a vibrant day with $13.5M including last night’s $1.5M, putting it on course for a $42.5M opening. Even though Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is ahead based on matinees with a $44.3M third weekend and a $12M Friday, it won’t be shocking if Boss Baby dashes past the Disney couple, given tomorrow’s daily business.
Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliance’s Ghost in the Shell is looking at $8M-$8.5M for today, including last night’s $1.8M. This puts the Scarlett Johansson film at a $23M three-day. That number in regards to the pic’s $110M production cost before P&A, isn’t going to cut it in regards to stateside success, but the pic has all the eye candy for an overseas audience. Lucy, even though it crossed $120M at the domestic B.O., accumulated 72% of its global take ($463.4M) overseas, and it’s conceivable that Paramount — after it saved xXx: Return of Xander Cage‘s hide with a $301M foreign take to its $44.9M domestic cume — will practice the same M.O. in ensuring that Ghost in the Shell is an overseas destination.
Lionsgate’s Saban’s Power Rangers is filing fourth with a $14.8M second weekend, down 63%, evidently a mega-front-loaded film. The cume by Sunday should stand at $65.4M.
1st Update, 7:28AM: Spring break is still in effect, and even though it’s not in full bloom, we’re bound to see another great weekend at the box office.
Last night, Paramount/DreamWorks/Reliance’s Ghost in the Shell grossed $1.8M in previews at 2,229 theaters, but DreamWorks Animation/20th Century Fox’s The Boss Baby refused to be squashed earning $1.5M from 2,700 locations starting at 5pm.
Ghost in the Shell marks another solo effort for Scarlett Johansson post her success with Luc Besson’s Lucy ($43.9M, $126.7M), is based on the 1989-1990 Manga series by Masamune Shirow, which spawned a series of anime films beginning in 1995.
How Ghost in the Shell stacks up: Johansson’s Lucy minted $2.8M in Thursday previews before delivering a $17M Friday, but the thought is that this Rupert Sanders movie isn’t going to make it that high. Par is comping Ghost in the Shell to last year’s 10 Cloverfield Lane which posted a $1.8M Thursday night before generating a $9M Friday and $24.7M weekend.
Ghost in the Shell, which Paramount has been tubthumping since the fall, arrives with a reported estimated budget of $110M and estimated stateside start in the mid-$20m, maybe $30M in third place. At that range, and with a mediocre Rotten Tomatoes score of 49% rotten, Ghost in the Shell needs to hope it catches an overseas B.O. wave in the 50 countries it’s also surfacing in this weekend. Added bonus for Ghost‘s B.O.: It has a China date on April 7, as well as the stateside benefit of 3D and Imax surcharges. Ghost in the Shell is rated PG-13.
Family animated films outside of summer rarely have huge starts on Thursday, but Boss Baby‘s booty is pretty remarkable blowing away DWA/Fox’s Trolls ($900K Thursday, $12.3M Friday, $46.5M weekend) and the spring 2015 original Home which made $650K.
On paper, the Alec Baldwin-voiced title is expected to rank second with a mid-$30M opening to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast which is projected to finish first with $42.5M (-53%) in its third weekend. But don’t be surprised if Boss Baby swells and tosses Beauty from No. 1, even if it does have a 44% Rotten Tomatoes score: DWA’s Home was projected in the mid-$30M range, had a 47% Rotten Score and then opened to $52.1M beating Get Hard‘s $33.8M debut (By the way that Will Ferrell-Kevin Hart comedy also had Thursday previews of $1.8M).
Yesterday, Beauty and the Beast posted $6.1M taking its two week tally to $347.9M. If the Emma Watson movie hits its weekend forecasts, pic will raise to $390.4M at the domestic B.O.
Starting at 5:00pm? How ridiculous that gets totaled into Friday. They’re gonna start screening movies on a Wednesday and count all it earns from then onto the Friday.
Nobody in the theatre for boss baby. Word of mouth it’s horrid. Dw probably bought out the tickets baldwin loser.
Please Trumpy, find a more productive way to spend your time.
Ucky. Baldwin needs his diaper changed.
Whhaaaaa.
I will say no prove your case you got nothing
I agree with you. Grosses for Thursday shouldn’t count for Friday.
Thursday’s audience would have shown up Friday if that was the first day the movie was released. So yes, it absolutely counts towards Friday’s total.
ScarJo isn’t box office draw. It’s like with Jennifer Lawrence, they’re getting overpaid by studios and then their movies flop. Studios are too willing to pay that much money upfront to people who haven’t prove their box office powers and then they cry the stars are getting too much money. Lawrence or Johansson need to have more than couple of original movies perform well in box office to earn that kind of money upfront. They’re not Diaz, Bullock or Jolie who proved year after year they can sell movies on their name alone.
Yeah.. Lucy’s US$ 400 million haul, ten times its budget, disagrees with you. But, really, not even her can save a white-washed project in 2017. Hollywood should know better.
The whitewashing charge was nonsense. A robot body made of alloys and synthetic materials isn’t “white.” The director of the 1995 anime completely agrees with the whitewash accusation, corroborated by the premise outlined by the original material.
I would have liked this movie to fail or succeed on its own merits, instead of breaking under the irrational protests from politically obsessed websites. I also hope irrational protests over this movie don’t discourage studios from greenlighting other cyberpunk movies. Anything to break the monotony of superheroes and Disney-owned franchises year after year.
I agree. Best movie I’ve seen in a long time.
Nonsense? To many people of color is not nonsense. That’s the reason we skipped this movie, and why it’s not doing well as expected.
‘That’s the reason we skipped this movie, and why it’s not doing well as expected.’
Cut the bullcrap seriously. Its not getting a hot reception due many other reason primarily. Its more of a cult franchise for one, secondly its low on plot high on visuals despite Scarlett’s performance(these kind of films are a hit and miss), and frankly the film just doesn’t seem to stand out among its competition.
*The director of the 1995 anime completely disagrees
When these groups rage at any target, and their grievances don’t make sense, their credibility is damaged. A Hollywood science fiction action movie underperforming is a short-term victory.
I understood the protest against something like Ridley Scott’s Exodus, but in the case of this movie, the whitewashing charge is false and willfully ignores the point of the fictional setting.
ghost in the shell sucks
Well her “Shell” being the way it is, is part of the movie, which was a good movie btw. The arguments saying it was whitewashed cropped up before the movie came out, but the story makes sense of it all in a way that I thought was pretty clever.
I saw Lucy twice in theaters, but not for her. I did it because Luc Besson is a excellent director. ScarJo was boring as hell in it, but it was a beautiful film to watch.
LUCY is Besson’s only $100-million-plus hit ever as a director (hell, it’s his only movie over $65 million ever as director), and as producer, his only other hits on that level were the first two TAKEN films. Methinks Johansson had something to do with LUCY’s success.
Agreed Pedro, our family spends plenty at the box office; however, if characters have been white washed we won’t patronize the film. Dr. Strange looked like a great film, but we couldn’t get past the Asian character played by Tilda Swinton. Until jollywood gets a clue, we’ll continue to boycott whitewashed films and encourage family and friends to do likewise.
I’m sure Doctor Strange are bothered about your money, when they managed to make almost 700 million dollars.
Yes, but unlike ScarJo, Benedict Cumberbatch who was the main character in Doctor Strange was not whitewashed. I think that is why it still did well in the states. So, it was a bit different. But generally speaking, films like the Great Wall, Aloha, Exodus and now GITS did suffer at the domestic box office. Even the Pan film with Rooney Mara bombed! So I do think it has some impact.
Hey Paula, Benedict wasn’t whitewashed, but what about Tilda?
The whitewashing of Major Motoko Kusanagi is balanced by the casting of the Togusa character, so it works out.
I’m more upset about Aramaki’s missing beard.
i like boss baby!!?! 8)
This is the second Scarjo movie we have to judge her box office prowess on since her boost from the Marvel films. Lucy was a big box office success. Your statement is somewhat premature.
No, hyping her a bone fide boxoffice draw after just one (lucky) opening was premature. The studio that put 110M into GitS believing her hype is now looking like an idiot.
If Johansson’s Hangover-style comedy underperforms, it’s safe to say she isn’t really a box office draw, instead of blaming GitS’ poor performance solely on controversy.
From the trailer, the film looks like what we’ve seen before from LUCY, UNDER THE SKIN, and EX MACHINA. The first was a hit, the others less so. LUCY was a surprising turn much like the first TAKEN movie but the others were turgid and some of the scenes in the GHOST trailer look identical to EX MACHINA. This genre seems to have run its course, dependent on other films for ideas, PASSENGERS, LIFE, not ALIEN clones. Let’s hope Ridley’s film takes us somewhere new.
Ex Machina did great for its size and release. It was also a damn good film. What’re you talking about?
The post was about the derivation of GHOST not the quality of EX MACHINA. By the way, EX MACHINA wasn’t a profitable film.
Jolie and Bullock both had movies that flopped hard on their name alone. Diaz, maybe, but she’s now retired.
Even Diaz has had movies that flopped hard.
These days pretty much nobody is a box office draw.
Ghost in the Shell needs to do well with INTL. going to struggle domestically. I bet it is closer to 18m.
All hail the Boss Baby! A CGI about two brothers is the anti-Beauty draw for family’s. While it might seem like feminism has run amok at Disney, it’s just business. The last demo data for the USA & Ca estimates between 185-190M fems. With Beauty getting mostly premium sales, we can say 10% of fems has been worth about $200M.
Surprisingly, THR loves Boss Baby, calling it “a delightful blend of clever and tender that’s certain to tickle audiences of all ages and stages.” To a lesser extent, Variety agrees but ultimately feels the plot of the film is less comfortable with the characters than we saw with Inside Out.
The two have split somewhat on Ghost in the Shell too. Variety loves it calling it “fast, flashy, frequently ravishing.” THR doesn’t dispute this but feels the crux of the story from both the manga & the anime films & series has been pushed into the background for a cleaner good vs evil Hollywood yarn. With respect to whitewashing, it’s simple. Johansson looks more like the manga/anime Motoko/Major than any asian actress with great global appeal. It’s a nonsensical criticism.
Yeah I enjoy Boss Baby a alot as well. Heartwarming and hilarious. Another great DWA movie. But I don’t understand why compare it to Inside Out? It isn’t like movie that came out the same year or the plot is similar.
Scarlett has been in a lot of big hits as a supporting character. Those movies would still have made bank with any other actress in the role.
That being said, Lucy was a hit, and her new movie targets the same audience. So I expect it to do well.
Makes you wonder if Alec doing trump was really a subliminal publicity ploy for this film, as they are essentially from the same mold.
I mean at least on sooooommeee level it’s possible.
Well, you could say the same thing about MATCH GAME. Despite what the haters claim, Baldwin is one of the busiest actors in the business, so it’s not at all unusual that his projects would overlap with one another. As for BOSS BABY itself, if anything it seems to be a spoof of his beloved turn in the film version of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, even down to parodying his dialogue (“Cookies are for closers!”).
49% RT won’t help the domestic box office. Ghost is a fun movie thou. RT is taking over the bussiness here in the US. Ghost will do great overseas. Paramount killed with XXX and Rings, they made $346M and $83M worldwide.
So the Rings reboot was profitable? That movie came and went in the theatres in 2 weeks. The budget was $25M and Paramount probably spent another $25M on marketing, so what was the breakeven number?
Wow Rings is doing better than Sinister 2 and Ouija 2, well done Paramount. Ghost in the Shell needs to do well with Intl…
Just got back from Ghost in the Shell and it was just okay. I haven’t read or seen any of the other iterations and was just looking for a fun action movie, but it disappointed. The movie just felt cold like there was no emotions from the actors. Special effects looked cool and dazzling, but after awhile it just felt like staring at a bunch of CGI. The action was good for the most part, but again was just lacking that “ONE” sweet set piece. I’m not sure how well this film was adapted from it’s source material, but it just didn’t feel like it translated well to a live action movie.
Power Rangers is safe at #4 but #5 could be a battle between Logan & Kong. Just $30/theater separated them on Thu & Ghost figures to do more damage to Kong.
Logan passed a milestone this week eclipsing adj Wolverine (2009) to become the undisputed #1 Wolverine film. It will pass 300 (2007) on Sun, & both Saving Private Ryan & Ted in the weeks to come. That puts it 9th all-time on the unadj R list. The Exorcist (1973) is #8th with over $233M & even if by some miracle Logan were to get there, it would be highly disputed given that adj Exorcist is a whopping $957M.
No one believes that if Exorcist were to premiere today it would gross more than SW:E7. But it did gross nearly 4x as much as Damien (1976) which makes me believe it would pass $300M today.
exorcist was an event and force awakens as great as it was…is Disney and star wars films ALL make money.
So you think Ghost in She’ll which is playing to more men will hurt Kong more than Logan? Why? Based on what? Kong & Logan are both male skewing films that are playing to older men too
Seems like it didn’t hurt either of them much. Ghost just didn’t perform.
Stop the whitewashing or the embarrassing grosses will continue.
What is “whitewashing”?
“White-washing” is a pejorative term that has arisen to criticize the film and television industry when a Caucasian actor is cast in a role that traditionally (or thematically) has been played by a minority or person of color. For example, the live-action adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” Tilda Swinton in “Doctor Strange,” Johnny Depp in “The Lone Ranger,” Jake Gillenhaal as “The Prince of Persia,” or the old habit of casting white actors (in “yellowface”) to portray Asians.
There was a great deal of criticism when it was announced that Scarlett Johansson would be playing the lead in the live-action “Ghost in the Shell.”
Now a lesson for your ignorant brain about actual whitewashing. Scarjo’s character was never mentioned to be a Japanese in the anime, and it has caucasian features in the anime. Now none in Japan is protesting, they were more than happy that an actress as famous as Scarjo is playing one of the classic anime character. And regarding Tilda Swinton, she is playing a celtic character, not an asian character in the movie. Enough of these SJW bullshit. Whitewashing refers to the casting of a white actor where he/she plays person of another ethnicity.
I will say no
Spoiler alert::) In the movie, its revealed that major, played by scarlett, was originally an asian woman before being captured and put into a cybernetic body. I can see people being upset over that.
She doesn’t have caucasian features in the manga/anime – most manga/anime characters have that wide-eyed stylised look, even when they are explicitly identified as being Japanese. The most that you could say is that she ‘looks’ either white or Japanese. But then again, since she is also called ‘Motoko Kusanagi’ (sp?) I’d say that it’s a fair bet that she was perceived by her creators as being Japanese…
“a Japanese” ?
Really?
Yes japanese
Considering the Major’s name in the anime is Motoko Kusanagi, it’s pretty asinine to insist the character was originally white.
They put a white actress in an asian role, and it’s obvious that audiences rejected that. You’d think the studios would learn from all the past failures. Prince of Persia, Gods of Egypt, Exodus among many others. People can defend whitewashing all they want but the movies keep failing.
The “whitewashing” charge doesn’t make sense in the movie or the comic/cartoon adaptations. Your misdirected outrage isn’t going to hold our society hostage.
It’s a live action remake of an animated film that had an asian character who is now played by a white actress. Making excuses that the movie makes it OK isn’t going to convince the general public.
The original Japanese comic book stated that her name is “obviously an alias.” If you’re familiar with what “Kusanagi” means, that name sounds about as outlandish as an American woman named “Julie Excalibur,” which also sounds like “obviously an alias.” They intentionally did not confirm in the comic/cartoons if the character really was originally Asian.
And in this sci-fi fictional world, just because a human brain is cased in a mechanical body, with alloys and polymers that resembles “Scarlett Johansson,” doesn’t mean that human brain thinks its white. It’s like a Japanese person driving a BMW– it’s just what they use, it’s not who they are.
I read the manga when I was a kid, and I can’t help but facepalm at all these impassioned assertions about Ghost in the Shell that are totally wrong.
Excuses, excuses. It’s telling that it’s necessary to dig that deep to argue that the character isn’t asian. And even if those arguments are valid, those are obscure enough that the public isn’t aware of them. The average person sees this and sees a remake of an asian property with a white lead.
Not really. Good movie, white washed or not, will make money.
The whitewashing will hurt Ghost in Asia. And it doesn’t help that ScarJo isn’t aging well.
Speak for yourself. ScarJo still looks great! She just needs to pick better solo projects than GHOST.
Asia won’t care about the “whitewashing” if it flops there it won’t be because of that really. Doctor strange had a similar issue with the whole Ancient One thing & made a load in Asia…
It will do huge business in Asia, just like Dr. Strange did, unless the film is really, really bad. The Asian market loves artistic and visuallyrically stunning films like this. But the casting of her in the main role will ultimately have nothing to do with its failure or success.
The whole whitewash thing is mainly an American construct that is getting out of hand. It’s to the point now where even characters who have always traditionally been white, like Daniel Rand in Iron Fist, are now being called out that they should be played by an Asian. Hispanic, what have you. It didn’t bother Asians that suddenly the character became a Celtic woman in Dr. Strange and it won’t bother them with this. Now, as for people here who have made it their sole purpose in life to be offended by everything, well that ship has already sailed.
Asian/Polynesian/Choctaw- American here! Can confirm that many in my community and communities across America were really upset over “the whole whitewash thing.” Still am :) Which is why a lot of our communities are rallying together for more visibility in the industry. Hopefully you’ll stop sharing inaccurate statements about how Asians in general feel about this. Asians who live in Asia have a vastly different experience than Asian-Americans who don’t get to see movies and tv shows where we are headliners on a daily basis. So if you really want to claim knowledge of this situation, I would suggest to educate yourself more, otherwise you’re doing more harm than good. :)
Again, you argue about people in America being upset, not those in Asia. So again, it’s an American issue, not those in Asia.
If anything, companies in Asia, like the company who worked with Paramount to produce Ghost in the Shell, are apprehensive about appealing to the West because they’ve become so politically obsessed recently.
Only a tiny number of people care about white-washing.
What a clueless comment.
Unsupported claim, and hard to make considering the controversy and how poorly the movie is doing.
Sounds like Jack doesn’t know jack.
What Japanese actress could open a movie?
We’ll see what happens in Asia next week. But this is a very popular IP in the East. This might be a Pacific Rim or Warcraft situation where the movie flops domestically, but is such a big hit internationally, studios would have to greenlight a sequel.
Already the top film this weekend in several Asian markets. So, I guess, much like the Chinese in China had no issue with The Great Wall starring Damon, they aren’t too upset with her being the lead in this.
Ghost doesn’t have the massive following stateside of something like Hunger Games. It’s just not THAT well known of a property. I’m not sure if Scarlett is a draw. Lucy did great business, but was that due specifically to her, or to great marketing? Ghost was made to play overseas, because aside from a small fan base and curious onlookers, this isn’t making bank here. Being squeezed between the behemoths of BATB and F8 certainly didn’t help.
THANK GOD someone who finally gets it! It’s amazing how many people posting on this site claim to understand the film industry.
Yeah, I have no idea what GitS is supposed to be about, and the trailers didn’t sell me on the movie, it’s as simple as that. I do like Scarlett J, but no actor could get me to a movie given those circumstances.
Terrible number for Ghost in the Shell. I called it flopping from months ago.
Main problem with Ghost in the Shell is that I don’t understand what is it about. I saw trailer, they keep pushing promotion on me. Still have no idea what is it about and why I should care about main character and what is happening.
It’s Scarlett Johnasson running around and being badass. That’s all I get from it. And it’s boring and I have no desire to watch it too.
I suffered through “Lucy” and it was gawdawful. Ghost looks like EXACTLY THE SAME MOVIE. Same exact scene of Johannson running in slow mo down a hall filled with assasins. EXACT SAME AS LUCY. I honestly thought Ghost was a sequel to Lucy. Burn me once Shane on me…
Well this proves no movie will ever be number 1 for more than 2 weeks ever again
Didn’t star wars recently spend 3 weeks at number 1? & Civil Qar last year?
Monster Trucks, Rings, XXX3 and now Ghost in the Shell. Ahhh… Paramount!
According to BOMojo XXX $346M, Rings $83M worldwide and still earning, those are good numbers. Ghost will do great overseas. The movie is just Ok but visually stunning.
That, clearly, was an April Fool’s joke.
At least they have a movie with The Rock coming up. He hasn’t had a flop in a while and early word is good for Par’s movie with him
If this site had existed in the mid-’90s, the comments would have been full of statements that Alec Baldwin was “not a star” after a few of his movies underperformed. Now he’s a large part of BOSS BABY overperforming. The trolls and haters need to learn that careers are about longevity, not the box office of one or two films.
In the last 2 weeks the actuals numbers for Beauty and the Beast were higher by 4-5 millions from the predictions… if that happens again, it will be a tight battle for #1
I’m surprised that everyone’s so sure that Boss Baby will win the weekend when Beauty and the Beast has dramatically overperformed esp on the Sundays…. interested to see how this weekend will end!
Not surprised by Baby’s success. Families are just thrilled there’s finally an alternative to the pandering and mediocre Beast film. As for Baldwin, I’m a proud Trump voter and I have no issue with his Trump impression on SNL. It’s just like when SNL used to needle Joe Biden. Either everything’s funny, or nothing is.
Beast is mediocre but Boss Baby isn’t?aahahahahaha
So did Catwoman and Fantastic Four fail because of “shadowing”? You know, the casting of a black actor in a traditionally white character’s role. Or, was it simply that they were bad movies, which it seems Ghost is? It has to go both ways, right? Or is it sim0ly that a film is bad. Hmm…
Eartha Kitt, a black woman, played Catwoman in the 1960’s Batman series. So to say that the role is “traditionally a white character’s role” is nonsense.
You’re joking, right? Kitt played the part for a whopping 3 episodes…3!…and the show was soon canceled after she took over the role from Newmar, who was busy filming a movie. Perhaps people weren’t happy with the character being “shadowed” as they put it and they stopped watching? Also, the producers completely changed the character, removing the attraction between her and Batman, because they knew the audience simply wouldn’t accept it. She was then replaced for the I’ll fated attempt at a movie. So nice try with that, but Catwoman was, is and always will be a traditional white character. Also, you totally missed the point of their comment. If a film can be said to have failed because a perceived character was played but a white actor, can the same be said when the situation is reversed? Maybe Batman would’ve lasted a few more seasons had Kitt not taken over the role. Who’s to say…
For the record, the BATMAN movie with Lee Meriwether as Catwoman was made right after the show’s first season, before Kitt took over the role. And hanging the series’ decline on Kitt’s casting is unfair; ratings were already falling when the third season began, and the producers foolishly got rid of the two-episode, cliffhanger format that season.
Again, that’s the point. The show was going down already, but why can’t you say a part of the reason was a black Catwoman? I mean, if to many here the only reason Ghost is not doing better is because a white actress was cast, then why can’t the same be true here? Or how Fantastic was perhaps the biggest failure of a film in the past 30 years? All because they just had to change the ethnic makeup of the storm family. I mean, it couldn’t simply be that the film was bad…right?
Wow. You really don’t know what you’re talking about, to post something so incredibly ignorant.
Excellent point, Question. Also, Michael Clarke Duncan in the traditionally white role of Kingpin was by far the best part of DAREDEVIL, and didn’t stop that film from underperforming.
Aa
No, it doesn’t have to go both ways.
But it should
Why should it? Virtually all lead roles go to white actors. It’s a good thing if minorities get represented more.
Not to mention that characters like Kingpin or Catwoman or F4 didn’t necessarily have to be any particular race, it doesn’t change the character at all. That’s different than a white actress playing a character in Japan named Motoko Kusanagi.
It doesn’t have to go both ways, and no it shouldn’t.
Milo, your obsession with “representation” is laughable and quite unhealthy.
The moment SJ showed up in that Anti-Trump infomercial (last year) this movie was doomed. No one’s a box office star without rural states.
How does that explain Alec Baldwin’s Boss Baby being a hit? Your justification is as stupid as the white-washing justification.
Voice overs are different, and let’s not kid ourselves, Alec Baldwin is not a huge box office draw… That’s why he’s stuck doing “Boss Baby.”
Must be rough to be “stuck” doing the lead voice in a #1 film. Hate him all you want but let’s not pretend he’s not working.
“Stuck?” Actors are clamoring to do animated films. As Chris Rock noted, “You don’t even need costumes and make-up. You just walk in, read some lines, and they pay you millions of dollars.” The last word any actor would use for doing cartoons is “stuck.” Are you trying to tell us Dwayne Johnson, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Ellen Degeneres, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Matthew McConaghey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlet Johansson, Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller, Ray Romano, ad infinitum really need the money?
He wasn’t in that stupid commercial. :)
So explain Boss Baby’s numbers coupled with Baldwin’s take on Trump on SNL…
GitS commercials look like a dozen other cyborg/bionic/killer robot movies. Robocop, Terminator. Even Marvel did this idea decades ago in the 1970s, long before the original GitS anime, in a sci-fi comic-book called “Deathlok.”
Gotta love Marvel Zombies like Jack who think Marvel originated every worthwhile idea in fiction. Deathlok was a grittier take on Cyborg, which was later adapted as The 6 Million Dollar Man. You could also say it was inspired by 8 Man, or Kamen Rider, or…..you get the point.
Deathlok first appeared in 1974. DC’s Cyborg first appeared in 1980. If you’re going to accuse “zombies!” better get your facts straight.
@Milo: Right. Also, Underground Anthem should reply to real statements, not figments of his/her imagination. I offer 10,000 No Prizes to the person who can show where i said that Marvel originated every worthwhile idea in fiction. His/her silly comment ended up giving more proof to my point — that GitS isn’t at all original.
Comcast’s Universal Pictures going to dominate Animated films from 2018 with both Illumination and DWA.
Who doesn’t like their crap animated movies.
Ghost in a shell was probably the best movie I have ever seen in a theatre. I watched it in 3D and was not disappointed even a little. The effects the story line the actors/actresses all way above Expectation. Scarlett Johansson Was a perfect fit and the racist propaganda aimed towards her was completely baseless and unnecessary. Again two thumbs up. . Really good
April Fool’s!! Obvious PARAMOUNT executive is obvious.
Not racist nor propaganda. The original character was asian, people don’t want to see a white actress playing that.
I think the bigger issue that there are so few roles in existing material that are Asian. When the few that are get re-cast in this way it hurts. Fanboys lose their shit with a Black Johnny Storm but twist themselves in knots sticking up for Scar Jo. It never ends.
This. Switching a role from an asian or other minority character to a white one wouldn’t be a problem if there were a representative number of minority roles. Same reason it isn’t a big deal when a previously “white” character is recast with a minority – 99% of roles have been white so it’s about time movies get more diverse.
It is a “big deal”, because it goes against how that character has always been portrayed. There are plenty of characters that can be adapted if you want representation without gender/race switching.
You clearly work for the movie company that produced this.