Monday Morning Mixer: 'Frozen' douses 'Fire's flames
Posted Monday, December 9, 2013 at 11:55 AM Central
Last updated Monday, December 9, 2013 at 11:56 AM Central
by John Couture
Brrr, what a weekend, eh? Unless you live in the extreme southernly reaches of Florida, this weekend produced a veritable ice box of cold temperatures. Apparently Disney can control the weather too these days.
The weekend following Thanksgiving is notable for its lack of business traditionally. It seems that people are more preoccupied with Christmas shopping and holding their collective breaths for the major films that are released around Christmas. This year won't disappoint as several Oscar contenders and tentpoles have staked out one of the busiest time of the year.
Elsewhere it was a relatively slow weekend in Hollywood as even celebrities have to take time out of their busy schedules to buy their Christmas presents. Speaking of, if you have a few minutes, grab a cup of your favorite beverage and give the MMM a spin. I promised that it will be a quick read this morning.
Box Office 411
It's funny, last week I made the comment that all of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire's success shouldn't overshadow the performance by Frozen. Well, this weekend Frozen made sure it didn't happen for a second consecutive weekend by having a better holdover that allowed it to leapfrog the powerful sequel for this weekend's top spot.
In its second weekend, Frozen pocketed $31.6 million to Catching Fire's $27 million. Although when it comes to total box office gross Frozen still has a long way to go. Through 17 days, Frozen has grossed a very healthy $134.3 million. The film looks to have great legs through the holiday season and should easily cross $200 million, en route to $225 million.
That would put the Disney Animation title on the same ground as Disney's previous offering Tangled and significantly better than this Summer's Planes. With more Disney Animation titles in the pipeline, it's nice to see that they can flourish without the Pixar label. At the end of the day, the quality of the film will speak for itself, but it is nice to know that people aren't stuck in a sort of Pixar snobbery where all they will watch when it comes to animation is PIxar.
This is good considering that 2014 will be the first year since Pixar's inception where they will not release a single film. If you fall in the Pixar crowd, don't worry, the studio will be back with two films in the over-crowded 2015.
As for Catching Fire, there really isn't too much cause for concern as the film is still ahead of the original's gross through 17 days and it is all but guaranteed to cross the $400 million barrier. I do think that it will struggle to challenge those upper $400 titles, but there's always next year and the next Hunger Games film.
The only new wide release this weekend, Out of the Furnace didn't fare too well in the flames of the box office. You could say that it melted from the competition and you wouldn't be wrong. That's too bad because the cast is top-notch and I have heard that they all deliver strong performances. The problem is that the marketplace is saturated and without a strong national marketing campaign, it's tough for these "fringe films" to find traction no matter how strong their cast is.
Elsewhere, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa trickled past $100 million this weekend making it the sixth R-rated comedy to do so this year. While none of the R-rated comedies really stood out from the pack, it's always a good sign of the market's willingness to accept them when so many perform so admirably. Hopefully Hollywood takes note and continues to service us adults with the raunchy comedy that we desire.
Quick Hitters
In news that I thought was already determined, Disney acquired distribution rights to future Indiana Jones films from Paramount. We already knew that Disney had acquired the property from LucasFilm in their purchase last year, but this deal is similar to the one they did when they acquired Marvel and later the distribution rights to The Avengers and Iron Man 3.
I think those deals worked out OK for Disney. This acquisition tells me two things. First, as many have speculated, Disney is going to create and release new Indiana Jones films. If not, then securing the distribution rights is rather meaningless and Disney wouldn't simply give Paramount money because 'tis the season. Second, with the lack of an announcement of Harrison Ford's (and the other cast really) casting in Star Wars: Episode VII, this announcement seems to lend credence to those rumors that he was holding out for more Indiana Jones films. Whatever the case, I think we'll see a pleasant casting announcement on Episode VII and more Indy films before Christmas.
This Disney/LucasFilm deal is the gift that keeps on giving, no?
Finally today, this website is my favorite find of the day. It basically whittles down all of the Rocky films to their core elements. I was surprised that there was as much dialog as there was in the first two films. If you're not into the talky talky aspects, then Rocky III and Rocky IV are more your cup of tea. It's a nifty little homage.
Well kids, that's enough for one Monday. I told ya that it was a slow weekend in Hollywood. Have a good week and until next time, Mix Well!