'Heat' scorches 'White House Down'

Both The Heat and White House Down earned "A-" Cinemascores from their audiences, but one movie overperformed while the other fell short of expectations. This is summer movie season, and Monday morning results aren't always fair.

The Heat soared with $40 million. That's much better than openings for either Melissa McCarthy movies (Bridesmaids opened to $26 million, Identity Thief to $34 million) or Sandra Bullock's latest (The Blind Side and The Proposal both opened around $34 million). While Bridesmaids and The Blind Side were both word-of-mouth hits, earning six to seven times their opening weekends, audiences here already knew they were dealing with a great product featuring known stars and a specific style of comedy. Since initial awareness was so high, The Heat's subsequent weeks won't be quite as hot as Bridesmaids, but its strong rating in exit polls should stoke this comedy right up to $150 million.

White House Down should have opened north of $30 million, but instead the action movie, the second to focus on an attack on the White House in a year, disappointed with $25.7 million. Historically, similar movies don't always lose by coming out second--meteor disaster movie Armageddon did much better than Deep Impact. But in this case, Olympus Has Fallen opened $5 million higher in March, despite a cheaper budget, a lesser-known star, and weaker reviews. White House Down should level out in coming weeks, but one of its biggest problems is the amount of competition out there. World War Z's second week earned $29.8 million, while Man of Steel, brought in $20.8 million and upcoming pictures including Lone Ranger and Pacific Rim. For star Channing Tatum, who has appeared in four $100+ million movies in the past eighteen months, this underperformance will be a slight knock to his reputation as a skyrocketing box-office star.

I'm So Excited had a strong debut, averaging $20,000 per screen in five locations. I suspect Sony Pictures Classics may have timed the release to Pride festivities this weekend. After all, Slate's Dana Stevens quipped that the Pedro Almodóvar work is "a sassy disaster-movie spoof that might as well be titled Gays on a Plane."

On Wednesday, Despicable Me 2 and The Lone Ranger will kick off the long Fourth of July weekend.

 

'White House Down' and 'The Heat' fire up the box office

The summer box office is in full swing, and this weekend two more strong offerings add to the season's offerings. Although The Heat is the most likely pick for female audiences who see Melissa McCarthy's casting as an extension of Bridesmaids, White House Down has the benefit of Channing Tatum in the leading role. The star appears to do particularly well in red states, and deserves credit for the $100+ million performances of Magic Mike, The Vow, 21 Jump Street and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, where they specifically rewrote part of the sequel to include more of Tatum. Both features earn my "popcorn movie" stamp of approval, although critics have been more discerning, giving White House Down just a 49% positive rating and The Heat a 64% positive rating.

One way to tell a movie is a "silly but satisfying adventure," as encapsulated by FJI's Daniel Eagan? During the climactic moment, you burst out laughing at the ridiculousness, but that doesn't dampen your enjoyment. Jamie Foxx plays a President in peril, and Tatum the hero there to save both the leader and his daughter in White House Down (3,222 theatres). Independence Day director Roland Emmerich includes a good amount of explosions, but there's also a lot of Die Hard-style comedy that keeps the movie in popcorn territory. The action feature may open second to The Heat, but both should clear the $30 million mark. Although a similar movie, Olympus Has Fallen, opened in March, it's unlikely that White House Down's box office will be impacted.

Sandra Bullock is an uptight, socially awkward FBI agent who lightens up when she encounters a rough-and-tumble Boston cop (McCarthy) in The Heat (3,181 theatres). Bridesmaids' Paul Feig directs the buddy -op comedy, which begs the question--has there ever been a female buddy-cop comedy before? Our critic Marsha McCreadie couldn't come up with any examples, noting instead the amateur detective buddy comedy Outrageous Fortune from 1987. There is the 1988 release Feds, which paired together two women in FBI training school, but that's the exception that proves that females in this genre are a a rarity. McCreadie goes on to praise Bullock and McCarthy's excellent timing, and its message about female friendship.

Specialty audiences can check Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's latest, I'm So Excited. The  "lively but somewhat rote camp cabaret comedy," according to FJI's Chris Barsanti, centers on flight attendants and passengers coping with a plane's imminent emergency landing. It's a bit of a mashup between Airplane! and Almodóvar's sensibility. Barsanti encapsulates the movie's feel as a "fashion-magazine potboiler, gossipy and brash, whose attention
keeps wandering south of the waistline." Fun and different, it's a nice summery pick for indie-seekers who want to lighten the mood.

On Monday, we'll see if audiences choose Tatum in White House Down or the funny duo of Bullock and McCarthy in The Heat.

Trailer for 'White House Down' drops in the wake of 'Olympus Has Fallen''s success

Everyone was surprised when Olympus Has Fallen debuted to over $30 million last weekend. It was considered the "lesser" Die Hard-in-the-White House movie. White House Down, which will release in three months, was supposed to be the one everyone would see of the two lookalike films. Now the trailer has dropped for White House Down, so I compared the two. At least when it comes to the trailer, White House Down has the upper hand.

 

Olympus Has Fallen is more about the man: the trailer lets us know that the First Lady died under leading man Gerard Butler's watch, because the Secret Service agent pulled the President out of a car wreck first. He's then trapped in the White House, John McClane-style, as North Koreans take over the Presidential residence.

White House Down expands the scope beyond the White House. We see crowds of people running around the lawns of various monuments, and the dome of the White House in flames. There are helicopters, planes, and missiles. Every effort is made to expand the scope outside the building, although the few scenes with star Channing Tatum give me a sneaking suspicion that more of the movie takes place inside the White House than the trailer lets on. It also heralds the credentials of the director, Roland Emmerich, who has destroyed the White House (and the rest of the world) multiple times, most memorably in Independence Day.

Moviegoers might even have a sneaking suspicion that if White House Down weren't good, there's no way the studio behind it would release it three months after a similar film. THR does a rundown of similar movies that released close together, and it appears that the second film often takes the cake. Meteor disaster pic Armageddon bested Deep Impact, despite releasing second, and Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached ended up in a draw back in 2011. Last year, Snow White-themed Mirror, Mirror floundered despite being first to the theatres, while Snow White and the Huntsman took the bulk of the box office. White House Down should be in good shape come June, and it wins the trailer contest by besting Olympus' explosions, having a broader scope, a more popular leading man and recognizable director.

Channing Tatum to star in 'White House Down'

I still remember the awe of seeing the aliens in Independence Day blow up the White House from their ship. That's the kind of iconic image that stays with viewers. Sony's betting big on its fast-track project White House Down, which promises more money shots of rarely seen sections of the President's residence. Channing Tatum is now attached to star in the project, playing a Secret Service agent and single dad who must save the President. Tatum has a surprisingly diverse portfolio for a rising star. He's alternated between playing the heartthrob (The Vow, Dear John), testosterone-fueled roles (G.I. Joe, The Eagle, Haywire) and now comedy (21 Jump Street). He's the kind of rising star that can bring in audiences from different demographics.

James Vanderbilt, who scripted Sony's summer tentpole The Amazing Spider-Man (coming out in July), has been pulled away from working on the sequel in order to move this project forward. The project is being described as "Die Hard in the White House," with a paramilitary group playing the part of the villain. Even the mud on the collar of the Secret Service, thanks to their evening activities in Colombia, haven't dampened Sony's enthusiasm for this project. The studio just dated it for a Nov 1, 2013, release, the beginning of the end-of-the-year movie season.

There's another twist to White House Down--it has a competing project, Olympus Has Fallen. When I last reported on the two dueling White House films, Olympus had the edge, with a reported start date in June. However, with a star lined up, a release date, and a summer production start date, it now seems like Sony's project has the edge. Forget the action between the Secret Service and a paramilitary group, it seems like in Hollywood getting there first is half the battle.