Sunday, December 25, 2011

Audience reactions & Early Box Office

I was hoping the film's scores on RT and Metacritic would improve on A Mighty Heart's but alas the subject and treatment proved far too divisive.  Not that the filmmakers weren't expecting such a reception since Matt Mazur early on acknowledged that they knew it could be potentially polarizing and misunderstood.  This factored into their decision to skip the festivals.  But the film is being well received by audiences as its Audience Score on RT currently sits at a an impressive 89% with a 4.1 out of 5 rating.  This contrasts with its pre-release score that had 80% of 200 users indicating they were looking forward to seeing it.

With total receipts of $18K for the weekend, the 1,300 users who've posted on RT obviously represent a sizable portion of the early viewers.  Their quick and enthusiastic feedback suggests that they are quite passionate in their support and word of mouth for the film will be strong.  In this regard I thought I'd share a personal anecdote.  I was having dinner at a restaurant in NY two weeks ago and two women at the next table were animatedly discussing films.  As snippets of their conversation wafted over, I heard The Descendants mentioned -- and then not long after I heard one say "The Angelina film...I haven't seen it but girl friends of mine loved it..."

FilmDistrict

Thank you all for seeing this weekend, and happy holidays!


 

Platform (1 — 99)

#Titleweekend
Locations
Avg.TotalWks.Dist.
1Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy$682,70349%5539$12,413$1,784,2853Focus
2A Dangerous Method$247,71164%5841$4,271$1,043,9385Sony Pictures Classics
3Shame$120,000-61%50-1$2,400$1,527,4174Fox Searchlight
4Carnage (2011)$70,435-12%72$10,062$188,0902Sony Pictures Classics
5Pina$62,300--3--$20,767$62,3001IFC Films
6In the Land of Blood and Honey$18,079--3--$6,026$18,0791FilmDistrict
7The Three Musketeers (2011)$8,000-84%37-86$216$20,357,91310Summit
850/50$5,000-87%31-80$161$35,005,11813Summit