Whilst doing a bit of research for what was starting out to be a teary-eyed lament for the poor Easter weekend opening of the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double-feature Grindhouse, I learned an interesting factoid about 300, that, if you’re Warner Bros., Frank Miller or a comics fan, might bring a smile to your face.
With its $8.8 million take last weekend, 300′s domestic gross surpassed in just six weeks what the Oscar-winning Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe Gladiator made in its entire run ($188 million), according to Box Office Mojo.
As far as reasons why Grindhouse underperformed ($11.6 million) versus future comedy “classics,” Blades of Glory and Are We Done Yet?, Box Office Mojo hit the nail on the head in their weekend update posted yesterday.
“Grindhouse was sold on the directors’ names, the style and the novelty instead of story or character. Much of the promotional campaign was dedicated to explaining the term “Grindhouse,” blanking out on the point of emulating niche cinema from the 70s in the first place. It couldn’t work as a spoof because it lacked identifiable references for today’s audiences that patronize similar trash, and it suffered the usual horror comedy dilemma that afflicted Snakes on a Plane and Slither among others: Too funny to be scary, too scary to be funny.”
As for this Austin transplant and his Ms., getting tickets to see Grindhouse at the directors’ theatre of choice — the nearest Alamo Drafthouse — was a losing proposition until early Easter Sunday morning… but it was well worth the wait, especially for the way cool faux trailers.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Yeah the way this movie was received in austin you’d think it was citizen kane 2: battle for skull island. but, i haven’t seen it yet, so… maybe it is
April 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Caught this opening night at one of the Chi-burban googolplexes. Gotta say PLANET TERROR was the better film: kills, characters, writing, and cheesy effects all packaged in one yummilicious humor/horror happy meal. PLANET TERROR was way better than DEATH PROOF. Tarantino had some good lines and a few quality kills, but he took way to long for the pay-off. Nor was the pay-off any better for the delay. Sitting through a bunch of chicks’ interminable kibitzing just to see Rose McGowan get her beezer bounced off the dashboard? Not worth it. Then the big tease hits us with MORE senseless girlie gab before we see them in actually in trouble! ZZZZZZZ.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Adjusting for inflation, Gladiator would have made $222 million in 2007 dollars
300 will probably beat that figure (figure next week’s take will probably be about 5-6 million, then 3-4 for a couple weeks, then 1-2 for a month or so) but if so, only barely.
It also has the advantage of being a known quantity (a sword and sandal movie) whereas Gladiator basically reintroduced the genre back into Hollywood, so there’s that to consider as well.
(I can’t believe I’m defending Gladiator, a movie I unreservedly disliked – but meaningless hype is still meaningless hype.)
April 10th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Thank you Christopher Bird, I was wondering about adjustment for inflation as well, but too lazy to actually go and check. Thanks.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Good analysis – however at the end of the day the primary problem with this movie is that Death Proof may be the most boring movie of the year – you could see it on the faces of the people in the theater and hear it in their comments as they left – QT needed to follow the radio model of “less talk more rock”. Planet Terror was fun but took a long time to get going. I have a theory that what killed opening box office for all but the diehards was the fact that people heard the movie was more than 3 hours long and it sounded too daunting.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
“Tarantino had some good lines and a few quality kills…
Most frightening thing I’ve read in awhile.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Wow, this is definitely a good read. It is close to what I’m experiencing. I’m really pleased to have come across this.