Studios are constantly trying to create the next big tentpole movie franchise. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn’t. In the case of the Jason Bourne films, it’s been the former.
Based on one of the popular Bourne novels by the late Robert Ludlum, and previously made as a ABC TV miniseries, 2002’s “The Bourne Identity” was basically conceived by Universal Pictures as a one-off picture which, if successful, could perhaps spawn a sequel.
Those hopes were dashed when the film went through an endless string of production problems, the least of which was that star Matt Damon didn’t get along with director Doug Liman. And when execs saw the first cut, they were dismayed. It was a disaster. Hoping to salvage it, the film went though months of script rewrites, re-editing and reshoots, including filming a new final action climax.
After months of delays, pushing back the release date several times, Universal finally released the film and hoped for the best. The result was an unexpected box office monster hit that audiences went nuts over. And encouraged by its success the studio set up a sequel, “The Bourne Supremacy”, but this time with a new director, British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, whose previous experience was with mostly *smaller* films. But he and Damon got along extremely well, and the result was an even bigger hit.
Smelling that they had a major franchise on their hands, the studio made a third film, ‘The Bourne Ultimatum,” which made even more money.
After that film, both Damon and Greengrass decided the they had taken the character as far enough as they could and called it quits, moving on to other projects. Universal, however, wasn’t that eager to give up what had become a very valuable property for them, and so they came with a spin-off movie in “The Bourne Legacy,” which followed a similar character, but wasn’t actually Bourne. The film did well at the box office, about as well as the second film, “Supremacy,” but nowhere as successful as “Ultimatum.”
So Universal obviously made Damon and Grassgrass an offer they couldn’t refuse, likely including some big paychecks, and got them together to make at least one more Bourne film – this time simply called “Jason Bourne”.
However, reviews haven’t been kind to the film; the consensus so far has been that the film is an obvious and uninspired cash-grab by the studio, with action sequences even more frantic and over edited than in other Bourne films. But audiences love their Jason Bourne, no matter what. As director Alfred Hitchcock once said, audiences love to see a character in a film who is really, really good at what he does, which sums up the basic appeal of Bourne.
So how did this new Bourne film perform in its opening weekend? The answer is, pretty well. It opened with $60 million, which is the second highest opening ever for a Bourne film after “Ultimatum,” which opened with $69 million back in 2007. But even better news is that the film also had the highest overseas opening ever for any Bourne film, with $50 million. This all looks like another Bourne winner for Universal; although Warner’s “Suicide Squad”, which comes out this Friday, could give it a run for its money, despite the troubling rumors that “Squad” isn’t exactly great.
In the meantime, things are not looking good for “Star Trek: Beyond” which though came in second, with $24 million, dropping a whopping 59% from last week. This is actually surprising, considering that the film is getting some pretty solid word-of-mouth, which one can attribute to the real hardcore “Star Trek” fanboys/girls who rushed out to see the film its opening week, leaving regular filmgoers (non-fanboys/girls) to carry the film though the rest of its run.
The third place finish for “Bad Moms” with $23 million had to be good news for the fledgling film company SFX Entertainment, which, to date, has not had much success at the box office, except for last fall’s sleeper hit “The Gift,” and just a few weeks ago suffered a major box office bust with “The Free State of Jones”.
And though someaudiences love it, the “Ghostbusters” reboot is struggling at the box office. With a production budget of reportedly $158 million, it needs to do a lot better, not just domestically, but internationally as well, where the film is also struggling.
Warner’s horror film “Lights Out” continues to be one of the most profitable movies of the year, with $42 million at the box office so far, against a very small $5 million production budget. But the studio’s “The Legend of Tarzan,” despite it’s current numbers, is a domestic box office flop for Warner, given its $180 million reported budget (not including its massive advertising campaign). Although adding what it’s made overseas could make up for its performance in the USA; but likely still shy of what other $180+ million movies have earned globally over the course of their theatrical runs.
1) Jason Bourne Uni. $60,000,000
2) Star Trek Beyond Par. $24,000,000 Total: $105,720,378
3) Bad Moms STX $23,400,000
4) The Secret Life of Pets Uni. $18,210,000 Total: $296,177,745
5) Lights Out WB (NL) $10,810,000 Total: $42,877,032
6) Ice Age: Collision Course Fox $10,500,000 Total: $42,109,623
7 5 Ghostbusters Sony $9,800,000 Total: $106,171,471
8) Nerve LGF $9,000,000 Total: $15,051,287
9) Finding Dory BV $4,220,000 -Total: $469,012,930
10) The Legend of Tarzan WB $2,405,000 Total: $121,856,210
11) Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party QF $2,382,000 Total: $8,672,384
12) Cafe Society LGF $2,250,000 Total: $3,906,960
