'Super 8' exceeds modest expectations with $37 million

By Sarah Sluis

Super 8, with its throwback, Spielberg-influenced sci-fi, kept audiences in the dark about the premise. That's a good thing for preserving the surprise in the viewing experience but a bad thing for opening weekend. Despite a $37 million weekend, which exceeded expectations, Super 8's mission is not over. The real gauge of the J.J. Abrams film's success will be in coming weeks. Will the movie fade quietly or become this summer's popcorn movie of choice? Having seen the film, I feel firmly that it's destined to be the latter. Unlike last week's X-Men: First Class and other tentpoles, Super 8 performed better on Saturday than Friday. The audience members, largely over 25 and slightly skewing male, weren't driven to the theatre by a barrage of television ads giving away the plot, but mysterious ones. The hope is that they'll share their positive experience with friends and family, especially on social networking websites.

Bridesmaids had its lowest drop yet, 15%, keeping it in the eight digits with $10.1 million. Male buddy comedy The Hangover Part II tapered its fall with a 40% dip to $18.5 million. X-Men: First Class halved its gross, but the 53% drop is actually the best experienced by an X-Men film. Following the standard for animated movies, Kung Fu Panda 2 lost just 30% of its audience, finishing the weekend with $16.6 million.

The other new release of the week, Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, contributed a quiet $6.2 million. That's slightly less than last year's Ramona and Beezus, which also targeted tween girls. With a reported budget of $20 million, this movie will have to hope for a long life on DVD to make up its high cost.

Directly below Judy Moody, Woody Allen had his highest-grossing single weekend ever with Midnight in Paris. The light, comic film tallied up $6.1 million on less than a thousand screens. I've heard nothing but positive word-of-mouth for this film, which seems poised to surpass Allen's last big hit, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The Tree of Life also improved from its previous weekend, adding $875,000 to its coffers while playing on 47 screens.

No more specialty darlings will join Allen and Malick, at least this weekend. British comedy The Trip averaged a mediocre $14,100 per screen playing in six locations. Congo production Viva Riva! earned a low $3,400 per-screen. Dutch romance Bride Flight, casting a wide net with 18 locations, had a light catch of just $3,000 per screen.

This Friday, another comic book hero gets a movie in Green Lantern. Jim Carrey plays opposite Arctic birds in Mr. Popper's Penguins, and emo teens can get release in The Art of Getting By.

Will audiences discover 'Super 8'?

By Sarah Sluis

Paramount has been secretive about its new film Super 8 (3,379 theatres). The question this weekend will answer is: Have they been too secretive? According to Alterian's social media monitoring software, both last week's release X-Men: First Class and next week's Green Lantern are grabbing a larger portion of the online chatter. Super 8 was barely even on the radar until Memorial Day weekend. Both Super 8 and last week's well-reviewed X-Men: First Class have 64% positive sentiment ratings, which bodes well for Super 8. Industry insiders are predicting the film will debut to around $25-$30 million, not that bad considering the movie was made for just $50 million.

Critics have called out J.J. Abrams' style for what it is: an imitation of a master. A. O. Scott of The New York Times put it this way: "The visual and emotional poetry of those films, however, never quite blossoms, despite having been copied out carefully, line by line." That doesn't mean the movie still isn't enjoyable in its own right. The story centers on a group of kids making a Super 8 movie. They witness a train crash that unleashes something that wreaks havoc (but often sentimental havoc, like lost dogs) on their town. I think the fact that the trailer didn't give away the movie will provide audiences a better experience and in turn drive positive word-of-mouth. Paramount held sneak peeks last night that they hope will give them a head start on building positive buzz.

Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer (2,524 theatres) will do lesser business, primarily attracting pre-teen girls and a parent guardian. The PG-rated film did not find a fan with David Noh, who called the movie "shrilly bright, noisome" and filled with "charmless rambunctiousness." However, the bright production design and silly humor seem guaranteed to hit the sweet spot of its target audience, who probably won't have qualms about its "loud special effects" and "animated sequences...which contribute...chaos."

The British comedy duo of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon team up for The Trip (6 theatres). Critic Rex Roberts praised this "exercise in comic improvisation," which really only has a plot as an excuse to pack comedy into it. His warning? "You should have a high tolerance for drollery and affectionate raillery."

A rare gem in the comedy-horror mockumentary niche, Troll Hunter pairs up beautiful views of Norwegian fjords with man-eating trolls who must be dispensed with by government-hired troll hunters.

On Monday, we'll see if audiences were curious enough to catch Super 8 and if enough pre-teen girls were able to convince their parents to take them to Judy Moody.