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.

'Hunger Games' may have a bigger weekend than 'Twilight: Breaking Dawn'

It's hard to imagine a female-driven, book-based franchise bigger than Twilight. Yet The Hunger Games should open far above the first Twilight's opening. In fact, it's on track to beat The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, the fourth film in the vampire romance series. What accounts for The Hunger Games' astounding tracking numbers?

One, a wider variety of people are embracing the movie. Breaking Dawn had 36% interest among younger women, Hunger Games has 45%. Among women over 25, 29% expressed interested versus 27% for Twilight. The trend is even more pronounced among males. 28% of males under 25 are interested in Hunger Games, versus just 10% for Breaking Dawn. Only 8% of older males wanted to see Breaking Dawn, but 20% are interested in Hunger Games. The additional interest from males and younger women could push the movie to a $100 million opening. Within a week, Lionsgate could have its highest-grossing film ever.

There's also a more varied plotline. Unlike Twilight, The Hunger Games has action and romance. Its love triangle (a la Twilight) is sandwiched within between an original, futuristic action plotline. These aren't young kids having car chases. They're young kids who have been compelled to fight to the death. For people who are sensitive to realistic motivations, a demographic that may include more females and males, The Hunger Games delivers.

Finally, people are expecting to be wowed. Like the Harry Potter series, the Hunger Games series is filled with action sequences and fantasy elements that just beg to be created on-screen. A big reason fans wanted to see the Harry Potter series was in order to see how the movie interpreted and re-created its magical creatures and buildings. Hunger Games is inspiring the same anticipation.

The Hunger Games comes out on Friday, March 23. American viewers can relish the fact that the PG-13 film didn't require any digital removal of blood, like the U.K. rating board demanded for it to receive a "12A."

 

Two,

'Bad Teacher' vs. 'Bridesmaids'

By Sarah Sluis

Bridesmaids and Bad Teacher have a few things in common. They both star females, and their main focus is comedy, not romance. But while Bridesmaids was a runaway success, I have more modest expectations for Bad Teacher. I think the movie has more obvious appeal for men, but Cameron Diaz's comically unlikeable character could alienate some viewers, depending on their sense of humor. What follows is a rundown of the two movies' takes on the genre.

Precursor of
Bridesmaids: The Hangover
Bad Teacher: Bad Santa

Leading Lady
Bridesmaids: Relatable loser.
Bad Teacher: That girl you hate.

Is the overweight sidekick one of the best characters?
Bridesmaids: Yes. Melissa McCarthy owns as a fierce tomboy.
Bad Teacher: Yes. Phyllis Smith plays an endearing teacher who wants to be friends with Diaz, but not if she has to break--oh no--rules.

Most awkward coupling
Bridesmaids: Unclothed.
Bad Teacher: Clothed.

Does the woman ditch the loser and end up with Mr. Right (now)?
Bridesmaids: Yes, a too-nice police officer who puts up with her bad behavior and initial lack of interest.
Bad Teacher: Yes, a too-nice gym teacher who puts up with her bad behavior and initial lack of interest.

Police are called when�
Bridesmaids: You do drugs on a plane
Bad Teacher: You hide drugs in a false bottom of your desk

Most "guy" movie moment
Bridesmaids: Food poisoning at a bridal shop.
Bad Teacher: Daisy Duke outfit at the car wash.

Most "girl" movie moment
Bridesmaids: Pretty much all the one-on-one dialogue between Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph.
Bad Teacher: Seeing Diaz's red-soled Christian Louboutins scoured off due to wear. A fashion tragedy for the "Sex and the City" set.

Bridesmaids opened to $26 million and currently has over $140 million in the bank. Bad Teacher, which opens tomorrow, is aiming for a similar debut, though I doubt it will have the legs of Bridesmaids. At least from where I was sitting, both movies provided plenty of laughs for their running time, one of the most important tests for a comedy.

'Avatar's' $73 million opening weekend puts pressure on week to come

By Sarah Sluis

Avatar faced snowstorms all along the East Coast its opening weekend, dampening its first returns. Still, the movie racked up $73 million, and should see high weekday returns for the next two weeks, which many people have off. It was bested by 2007's December release I Am Legend, which brought in $77 million, but the two films' per-screen averages were neck and neck. Both earned $21,000 per screen, since I Am Legend had 700 more screens in its release. Still, since viewers were paying more to see the movie in 3D, Avatar's theatres were probably less full.

Given the positive word-of-mouth on the 3D adventure, Avatar should continue do well as word catches on. 3D has mainly been the realm of family movies, so many viewers may need quality reassurance from their friends before they don the glasses themselves. Overseas, the movie earned $159 million worldwide, where director James Cameron's famous tin ear for dialogue is lost in translation. While most movies end up with half their gross from overseas, Avatar currently has 70% of its gross from outside North America, making hiccups like East Coast snowstorms less significant.

The other wide release of the week, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, underperformed slightly, earning $7 million. Some of those moviegoers undoubtedly chose The Blind Side instead, which finished a spot ahead with $10 million.

The biggest mover in the rest of the top ten was Up in the Air, which gained three spots when it more than doubled the theatres in its release. Playing in 175 theatres, it earned $3.1 million. Its per-screen average of $17,000 was the best of any returning film.

Golden Globe contenders Nine, Crazy Heart, and The Young Victoria debuted this week. Nine had the best per-screen average, $61,000, and a four-screen release. Crazy Heart came in second with a $21,000 per-screen average, also at four locations. The Young Victoria had a different strategy, releasing in twenty locations, which brought its per-screen average down to $7,000. It made more money than Crazy Heart, however, due to the size of its release.

In just two days, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel will open, followed by Sherlock Holmes and It's Complicated on Christmas Day. 'Tis the season.

'Watchmen' underwhelms fans, box office, with $55 million opening

By Sarah Sluis

Watchmen was no 300. Expectations were high that Zack Snyder's new film would meet or exceed his 300's $70.8 million opening, but the weekend brought in $55.6 million for the comic book adaptation,

which has suffered from a general consensus of mediocrity. An avid comic book fan who turned out to see the movie on Saturday told me, "Snyder tried to make Watchmen like 300. The thing about Watchmen that made it different was that it was all about characters, and he made it all about action." Pan.

From a box-office perspective, the worst thing about Watchmen was not its sub-300 performance, but its drop-off over the weekend, which can be a sign of the movie's performance in weeks to come. On Friday (which included Thursday midnight screenings) it pulled in $25.1 million, then on Saturday it dropped 25% to $19 million, and on Sunday it dropped an additional 40% to $11.5 million. Comic book fans saw the movie, but they didn't recommend it to their friends. People that might see a comic book film that's highly recommended, like The Dark Knight, opted out of this one. Compared to Watchmen, 300 dropped off 12% on Saturday and 26% on Sunday. 300 only made $3 million more on its Friday debut than Watchmen, but it was able to hold its performance through the weekend.

I would not be surprised it Watchmen dropped over 50% next week. The surprisingly robust recession box office has sustained many films week-over-week, but it's also been brutal to a select few. This weekend, the only film to drop more than 50% was the Jonas Brothers movie, which plummeted 77%, indicating that the Jonas Brothers are so over, or that the target audience just wasn't deep enough. The brothers are no Hannah Montana.

Below Watchmen, the bottom nine films all did light business, earning between $2-8 million each. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail came it at #2 with $8.8 million, followed by Taken at $7.4 million, which has benefited from word-of-mouth that the film is a solid ride. Slumdog Millionaire settled just below that at #4, doing $6.9 million in business. Besides kid pics Coraline and the Jonas Brothers, the rest of the top ten was filled with iterations of comedies. While Madea rode up top at #2, below that there were teen boy comedies Paul Blart: Mall Cop (#5) and Fired Up (#10), and female-skewing He's Just Not That Into You (#6) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (#8).

Next week another entry in the teen comedy genre, Miss March, opens in wide release, along with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's remake of Race to Witch Mountain (I'm still sentimental over my cable viewings of the 1975 version), and horror film The Last House on the Left.