It’s a big weekend for DreamWorks Animations head Jeffrey Katzenberg. His first big budget 3-D movie is hitting theaters. And everybody in Hollywood is eager to find out how it fares. But before we get into Friday’s box office numbers, let’s take a quick look at what those sour critics had to say.
The first words on Monsters vs. Aliens aren’t praising, but the movie isn’t getting burned either. The Village Voice says it’s “approaching art” and “most certainly a milestone.” But Variety calls it a “film of chuckles, smiles and light amusement rather than big laughs.”
But still, Monsters vs. Aliens is doing much better than The Haunting in Connecticut. As expected of course. Variety says the movie is “Long on atmosphere, yet short on dramatic tension.” While the Village Voice says it’s “about as scary as a shower that suddenly changes temperature when someone flushes the toilet.”
Although Hollywood isn’t suffering much from the recent economic changes, it’s betting on 3-D to get even more people into theaters worldwide. It took a dramatic change in infrastructure with thousands of theaters changing their gear, but it’s happening. With James Cameron’s Avatar on the horizon, everybody wants to be ready for 3-D.
The reason is simple. Money. The average ticket price for a 3-D movie is $3 to $5 more than for a 2-D movie. Plus, the movies run longer, which translates in, of course, more money. The final gross can be up to three times as much as for a normal movie.
Although I don't think Monsters vs. Aliens will make three times as much as it would have in 2-D. It opened with $16.7 million on Friday. The Haunting in Connecticut made $9.6 million. And Knowing was third with around $4.6 million.
This means The Haunting in Connecticut will end the weekend with an estimated $20 million. And Monsters vs. Aliens will come in a little under $60 million. A good start, but it has yet to be seen how it holds up in the next weeks.
Low budget John Cena vehicle 12 Rounds is performing below expectations and will make around $5 million during the whole weekend.
Overseas numbers and the weekend totals, after the weekend.
12 Rounds other (2:25 minutes) added to the Cultjer video catalog on March 28th, 2009.
