Vince Vaughn seems like he’d be a good guy to have a beer with and I kind of respect the fact that he can just show up somewhere in his street clothes and make millions for reading a few lines and making a few confused faces. But I also haven’t seen his last four or five movies because they all looked terrible. Not even terrible, actually, just incredibly mediocre, which is so much worse. And so goes America, it seems, because Delivery Man earned just $8.2 million this weekend, less than half of The Internship‘s opening, which wasn’t so hot to begin with. In its defense, Vince Vaughn’s core audience of teen girls were probably off watching Catching Fire.
Vaughn’s remake of the French-Canadian sperm dramedy out-bombed The Internship ($17.3 million), The Dilemma ($17.8 million), and even The Watch ($12.75 million), though it did have the lowest budget of the four by far. This while earning such glowing reviews as:
“Vaughn stumbles through the movie looking perpetually annoyed, as if he’s just been woken up from a nap.” -TVWithoutPity
“insignificant, unfunny, and uncomfortably artificial.” -BluRay.com
“Nothing quite seems to fit, as if the movie’s been assembled from bits and pieces of other movies.” -Vulture
“An awe-inspiring achievement: a movie that is 100% disconnected from reality, without a single plausible moment or believable character.” -Eric D. Snider
“The moral here is that you should never try to learn the identity of your biological father because he might be Vince Vaughn.” -Laremy Legel
You see? This is what Hollywood gets for not listening to our Vince Vaughn movie ideas. Come on, people! Resident Dadvisor was gold!
Elsewhere, and I hate to relegate this to second-place news, but The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened to an estimated $161.1 million, the best opening ever for November. Depending on how much the actual numbers (as opposed to the early estimates, which is what these are) change tomorrow afternoon, it could be the fourth highest opening ever, and the best opening ever for a movie not showing in 3D. But let’s be honest, we knew this was coming. The first Hunger Games opened with $152 million, and the second one had the benefit of being both the highly anticipated sequel and a much better movie (my review).
Catching Fire‘s debut ranks behind The Avengers, Iron Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, all of which had the added benefit of 3D ticket pricing. The previous record-holder for a 2D-only movie is last Summer’s The Dark Knight Rises ($160.9 million). Catching Fire‘s estimate is less than $250,000 ahead of The Dark Knight Rises, though, and there’s a good chance it winds up lower when actuals report on Monday. [BoxOfficeMojo]
With all this success, Jennifer Lawrence is probably just going to get an even bigger head, and at this rate she’ll never marry me. If I’m ever going to have a chance, she’s going to need something that significantly lowers her self-esteem. Like maybe she loses an arm in an accident. I could deal with that.
1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate) – $161,125,000
2. Thor: The Dark World (Buena Vista) – $14,117,000 ($167,837,000)
3. The Best Man Holiday (Universal) – $12,522,000 ($50,391,000)
4. Delivery Man (Buena Vista) – $8,125,000
5. Free Birds (Relativity Media) – $5,300,000 ($48,594,000)
6. Last Vegas (CBS Films) – $4,400,000 ($53,926,000)
7. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Paramount) – $3,450,000 ($95,451,000)
8. Gravity (Warner Bros.) – $3,305,000 ($245,503,000)
9. 12 Years a Slave (FoxSearchlight) – $2,800,000 ($29,293,000)
10. Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features) – $2,770,000 ($6,450,000) [Indiewire]
