Comments on: Box-Office Wrap-Up: Mar. 20 – Mar. 22, 2009 http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/box-office-wrap-up-mar-20-mar-22-2009/ The best and latest movie news, reviews, features and editorials - updated daily Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:35:27 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: JM http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/box-office-wrap-up-mar-20-mar-22-2009/#comment-14137 JM Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:51:34 +0000 http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/?p=#comment-14137 As I've said before, Fox just needs to stop making movies and instead snap 'em up from people who have already made them and market them. Greenlighting movies in hopes of repeating Taken's success? Can anyone say Z-grade copycats coming in 2010? Can't they just spend their time finding the next "Slumdog Millionaire" or "Juno," or else go to Europe and snap up another action film? "Run Lola Run" could have done with some nice Fox marketing and a cool $100 million domestic run (it got $7.3 million; quite decent for a foreign film, but nothing compared to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or "Pan's Labyrinth"). But of course I'm being fantastical. As for Tyler Perry's latest falling quicker than expected? Not at all. It's falling no quicker than his other films; in fact, in its 3rd and 4th weekends it fell significantly less. All 5 of its weekends are by far the best amongst Tyler Perry's films. I was expecting it to do just as well as "Madea's Family Reunion," but even I didn't see it doing $90 million by the end of its run. But it makes sense. Think: 1) We all know that Madea is by far Tyler Perry's most popular character, so 2) If the movie has Madea's name in the title, it'll be more popular than if it didn't. Observe that "Madea's Family Reunion," the only previous Tyler Perry movie to have her name in the title, was also the previous highest grosser. 3) So we have established that since "Madea Goes to Jail" would have always done at least as well as "Madea's Family Reunion," what made it even more popular? Why, the promise of her going to jail, of course! What's funnier: A loud, crass, fat black lady at a family reunion, or a loud, crass, fat black lady in jail? Okay, so it's debatable, but we all know what the masses would choose. And the numbers prove it all. As I've said before, Fox just needs to stop making movies and instead snap 'em up from people who have already made them and market them. Greenlighting movies in hopes of repeating Taken's success? Can anyone say Z-grade copycats coming in 2010? Can't they just spend their time finding the next "Slumdog Millionaire" or "Juno," or else go to Europe and snap up another action film? "Run Lola Run" could have done with some nice Fox marketing and a cool $100 million domestic run (it got $7.3 million; quite decent for a foreign film, but nothing compared to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or "Pan's Labyrinth"). But of course I'm being fantastical.

As for Tyler Perry's latest falling quicker than expected? Not at all. It's falling no quicker than his other films; in fact, in its 3rd and 4th weekends it fell significantly less. All 5 of its weekends are by far the best amongst Tyler Perry's films. I was expecting it to do just as well as "Madea's Family Reunion," but even I didn't see it doing $90 million by the end of its run. But it makes sense. Think: 1) We all know that Madea is by far Tyler Perry's most popular character, so 2) If the movie has Madea's name in the title, it'll be more popular than if it didn't. Observe that "Madea's Family Reunion," the only previous Tyler Perry movie to have her name in the title, was also the previous highest grosser. 3) So we have established that since "Madea Goes to Jail" would have always done at least as well as "Madea's Family Reunion," what made it even more popular? Why, the promise of her going to jail, of course! What's funnier: A loud, crass, fat black lady at a family reunion, or a loud, crass, fat black lady in jail? Okay, so it's debatable, but we all know what the masses would choose. And the numbers prove it all.

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