Despite the near-unanimous critical consensus that Dracula Untold should’ve stayed that way (not to mention my own assertion that it was the f*ck you potatoes of movies), the Luke Evans vehicle managed a frankly shocking $23.5 million debut. That was behind Gone Girl’s $26.8 million take in its second weekend, but let’s be honest, it’s not really fair to compare Dracula Untold to a real movie now is it.
With a $70 million budget that I have to imagine went mainly to fine leatherwork and CGI bats, Untold beat out other debuting wide releases Alexander and the Terrible No Good I’m Not Going To Finish Typing This Etc. ($19.1 million on a $28 million budget) and The Judge ($13.3 million on a $50 million budget). Holy hell, The Judge cost $50 million? Jesus, green screen waterfalls must cost a lot more than I imagined.
[Dracula Untold] played 57% male and 61% over-25 years old. It played 31% Hispanic, 29% Caucasian, 24% Afr. American, 10% Asian, and 6% “others.”. […] The film has also earned $62.6m overseas thus far, bringing its worldwide cume to $86.1m. [Forbes]
Those of you who paid money to see it will only have yourselves to blame for them making Dra2ula Un2old: The Un2old S2ory a year from now.
Elsewhere, Alexander Yadda Yadda earned a respectable $19.1 million and even got sorta okay reviews, which I suppose makes some sense considering that it was directed by Miguel Arteta, who last directed Cedar Rapids, which I love. Of course, that still wasn’t enough to get me to see a movie about some dumb wiener kid having a bad day. If I wanted to hear about some kid getting gum stuck in his hair I’d hang out with my married friends.
The Judge managed a middling-to-poor $13.3 million opening. WB marketed it sort of like it was an Oscar movie, which it absolutely is not. Maybe that was a poor decision or maybe not. Frankly I’m not sure there is a right way to market a star-studded, way-too-long attempt at light dramedy that isn’t funny.
The next biggest new release was Addicted, with $7.6 million on 846 screens, for the highest per-screen average of the top 10. The Lionsgate release, based on the novel by Zane, played 72% African-American, 15% Latino, and 82% female. This one completely slipped under my radar, which is a shame because there are few phrases I enjoy typing so much as “based on the novel by Zane.”
Addicted had the lowest RottenTomatoes score of any new release, which seems unfair given that I doubt many critics judged it on the basis of how many male models got shirtless. That’s how I judge everything, even funerals.
Next week brings us The Best of Me, Book of Life, and Fury, with St. Vincent and Men, Women & Children expanding.