UH OH! Sony is not having a particularly good summer this
year.
First there was the disappointment in After Earth, and now White House
Down, which cost nearly three times as much as Olympus Has Fallen, but grossed less than Olympus in its opening
weekend, coming in fourth place with just under $26 million, compared to Olympus’
opening weekend of $30 million.
The rule of thumb is usually that when there are two
films with the exact same high concept premise, the one that comes out first
usually makes the most money, while the one that comes out later, even if it’s
the better film, suffers.
Audiences tend to think “What, again? I just saw this
already didn’t I? And that other film sucked.”
And it didn’t help WHD at all, to come out so soon after Olympus.
Even though of the two films WHD is clearly superior to
Olympus, just for the fact that it’s really more of a satire that never takes
itself seriously at any point. And if you have any doubt about that, the hysterical car
chase sequence around the White House front lawn proves it. Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx and James Woods
certainly play it that way. They were fully aware that it was all a big goof (However, whether director Roland Emmerich was
in on the joke as well is a matter of debate).
The
Heat
came in at No. 2 with $40 million, which
was expected, with Monsters University
holding on to the No.1 slot.
The question this week is how will The Lone Ranger, which is opening this Wednesday, do against the competition.
The word is that anything less than $80
million by next Sunday is going to be considered a major disappointment.
We shall see…
