The real
reason why Adam Sandler struck that big deal to makes a series of original comedy
films for Netflix is simply because he’s not Mr box office anymore. O.K. I admit
that was cold, but we have to be honest here.
For a decade – from 1998 to 2008 – according to box office analyst and film critic Erik
Childress, “Sandler opened nine movies to at least $34 million. Four of them
over $40 million and he had ten to reach the illustrious $100 million mark”.
However things haven’t been going so great since then. And we’re not talking
any masterpieces here. Safe to say that Sandler’s films were some of the worst
reviewed comedy films ever, but that didn’t stop people from going to see them
and laughing their heads off.
As his
film budgets have gotten lager, Sandler has gotten lazier and more careless in his choices, and the
films have, believe it or not, gotten worse. His more recent films have not
been doing well at all, or are just straight-out bombing, even when the overseas grosses are added in.
And if you noticed, Sandler’s name was barely mentioned at all in any of the
marketing for his latest film, "Pixels"; instead the studio emphasized the premise and the
special effects, treating Sandler as if he was box office poison (which
brings up the question: Why then did they cast him in the film in the first
place?).
Therefore the Netflix deal.
All
that said, how did "Pixels" do this weekend in comparison to Sandler’s earlier golden age
of box office hits? Not that well.
"Pixels" came
in second with $24 million, which doesn’t come close to the kind of opening
numbers his films used to do, and the future box office of the film is questionable, in terms of whether it will have any legs to avoid a major drop-off in the coming weeks. The good news
however is that the overseas numbers for the film are pretty strong, especially
in France and Argentina, where the film had the biggest opening for any Sandler
film.
But once
again Marvel’s "Ant Man" was No. 1 with $24.7 million, and a total to date of
over $106 million; add to that another $150 million overseas so far, which
pretty much is not great news for those who said that Marvel’s streak had
perhaps peaked with "Ant Man," and predicted that it would be the studios first
real bomb. Not hardly.
In the
meantime, the other two major releases this weekend did well, with
Antoine Fuqua’s boxing drama "Southpaw" pulling in some $16.5 million in fifth
place, which, all things considered, is pretty decent, considering the competition
it was up against, and that the film’s reported budget was just under $30 million.
With the very
positive word of mouth the film is sure to get (it plays like one of the best "feel-good underdog triumphs" movie in years), it should hold steady and become a late summer sleeper
hit for the Weinstein Co.
The teenage romantic
drama from Fox, "Paper Towns," came in 6th place with $12 million, but
considering that the budget for the film was also $12 million, it’s already made
back its production cost, and it should do well for the studio, as long as word
of mouth is good.
