Well, X-Men Origins: Wolverine started the summer box office season on a winning note with an opening weekend haul of $87 million, the best opening so far in 2009. It also falls into the range of what most of the tracking and industry experts were predicting for it. Some people were predicting a little bit more, while I went out on a limb and predicted it would outperform everyone’s expectations and top $100 million, but that was not to be.
I guess the story here is that Wolverine met expectations but did not exceed them, unlike so many other movies this year which had come in well above what people were predicting for them (such as Fast and Furious). $87 million is nothing to sneeze at, though Iron Man did do better last year at this same time at $98 million. It’s also the second-highest X-Men opening after X-Men: The Last Stand in 2003. For the weekend, Wolverine opened to $35 million on Friday and then took in $29.7 mil on Saturday. The Friday midnight showings took in about $5 mil and the per theater average for the weekend was an excellent $21,225.
I know there were some people readying their knives for Wolverine by predicting that not-so-hot reviews, the piracy issue, fanboy fatigue with superhero movies and even the swine flu would dampen the box office, but I think those were all the usual ready-made excuses that people were preparing to give. At the end of the day, though, it all comes down to one question: whether people wanted to see the movie. In this case they did, so that’s that. As for the piracy issue, I think it has an impact on every movie out there to some degree. But these flicks are still making boat-loads of money if you factor in the impact from Internet downloads and the rantings of columnists like Roger Friedman about it.
So it is another strong start at the top of the charts for the crowded month of May. Still, I must point out that the “feast-or-famine” trend we have seen so far in 2009 has continued for the other new movies that debuted this weekend. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past came in at a not-so-terrible but still mediocre $15.3 million, while Battle of Terra took in a paltry $1,064,000. You can’t blame the swine flu for that number either. People simply didn’t want to go to the movie, it’s that simple.
The totals from the weekend are as follows:
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine - $87,000,000
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - $15,325,000
- Obsessed - $12,200,000
- 17 Again - $6,355,000
- Monsters Vs. Aliens - $5,800,000
- The Soloist - $5,600,000
- Earth (2009) - $4,184,000
- Fighting - $4,173,000
- Hannah Montana The Movie - $4,075,000
- State of Play - $3,655,000
Stay tuned later this week as the Reject Report returns with more movie predictions and goes where no man has gone before. Right now, though, I gotta run.
译文:
《金刚狼》票房收入：八千七百万美元
《X-战警之金刚狼》于暑期开始上映，周末首映就获成功，狂赚八千七百万美元，是2009年以来首映票房的最好成绩。这也与之前大部分业内人士所预期的结果一样。有些人的预测并不这么乐观，但我对此看法不同。我认为这部影片的票房会大大超出人们的意料，将突破一亿，但事实并非如此。
这里我认为《金刚狼》达到人们的预期但并未有所超越，不像今年许多其它影片票房都比人们预计的要好（例如《玩命关头4》），它八千七百万美元的收入仍不容忽视。虽然去年同期上映的《钢铁侠》取得了更好的票房，收入九千八百万美元，但《金刚狼》的收入是继2003年《最后之战》X-战警系列第二大票房的卖作影片。本周末，金刚狼周五收入三千五百万美元，紧接着在周六又赚进两千九百七十万美元。周五午夜场收入大概为五百万美元，周末各影院收入平均为两千一百二十二万五美元。
我清楚有些人已准备对这部影片不佳的反映进行批评，剽窃问题，超能英雄影片的疯狂粉丝对此类电影的热情减退，甚至猪流感这些不利因素也将它的影响票房。但我认为所有这些都是惯有的理由，是人们为不佳票房找的借口。不过，归根结底就是一个问题：究竟观众想不想看这部片。在这样的情况下电影的主创人员做了他们应该做的事。至于抄袭问题，我认为它在一定程度上对每部电影都有所影响。但如果有人把影响电影票房的原因归结于网络下载影片和Roger Friedman 这类专栏作家对电影的中伤，那么这些繁琐的问题都或多或少会对电影票房造成负担。
所以，在各类影片争相集中放映的五月，这部电影就是榜单首位的另一强劲之星。但我必须指出，在2009年风起云涌的电影市场上，激战还将继续。因为本周末又将上映一部新的电影。《前女友们的幽灵》上映以来票房并不十分理想，只收入了一千五百三十万美元（仅为普通票房），而《泰拉星球》却只有一百零六点四万美元的票房。但这并不是因为猪流感而影响了两部影片的收入。而是人们并不想去影院看电影，仅此而已。
周末电影票房总计：
- 《X-战警之金刚狼》-87,000,000 美元
- 《前女友们的幽灵》-15,325,000 美元
- 《纠缠》-12,200,000 美元
- 《重回十七岁》-6,355,000 美元
- 《怪兽大战外星人》-5,800,000美元
- 《独奏者》-5,600,000 美元
- 《地球》-4,184,000 美元
- 《街头格斗》-4,173,000 美元
- 《汉娜.蒙塔娜》-4,075,000 美元
- .《政局密云》-3,655,000 美元
本周经过对影片宣传的调整后， Reject Report 将带来更多有关电影的预测，电影《金刚狼》的票房会取得前所未有的成绩。但现在，我得离开（论坛）了。