Surf's Up Wipes Out
Sony Pictures Animation Movie Debuts in Fourth Spot
In what proved to be a brutal weekend for new movies, Sony's Surf's Up debuts in 4th place with a disappointing $17.6 million.
(Source: www.boxofficemojo.com)
Moviegoers just weren't interested in the penguins.
Sony's big summer CGI flick Surf's Up entered the charts with mostly positive reviews (a surprising 76% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) but failed to top live-action films like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End or Knocked Up from their places in the Top Five. It came in at a measly 4th position.
More embarrassingly, the flick only scooped $17.6 million in its crucial debut weekend in theatres. That's slightly less than half the take of the front-runner, the live-action Ocean's Thirteen which earned $36.1 million. From those numbers, you can see that last weekend was a relative dud as moviegoers preferred to do other things than sit in a darkened theatre all weekend.
It's not too surprising that Surf's Up didn't do well: it was the fourth movie featuring penguins in as many years, coming in behind Madagascar, the documentary March of the Penguins and the Oscar-winning Happy Feet. Surfing flicks have also been a tough sell at the box office ever since Annette Funicello hit the big 30.
Sony hasn't released how much it cost them to make Surf's Up, so I'm presuming that it was in the $70 - 90 million mark. If that's the case, then my guess is that Sony will be struggling to make back its costs with this flick, even with the fact that animated family movies have longer "legs" than other genres, and tend to do better on DVD.
The only consolation Sony can take is that Surf's Up made more money than Shrek the Third this weekend. DreamWorks Animation's ogre dropped to 5th position, making $15.3 million. However, Shrek the Third has already tucked away a tidy $281 million in its 4 weeks in theatres, making it the summer animated movie to beat this year.
This is not completely good news for the franchise, since Shrek the Third is already in a lower position than its predecessor. However, Shrek 2 ended up becoming the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time so it's probably a bit much to expect this installment to match those numbers. Count on a Shrek 4 and Shrek 5 to be greenlit.
Looking farther down the list, Disney's Meet the Robinsons is sitting at #32 (down from #26). It made $76,000 in its 11th week, for a total of $96.1 million. At this point, it's pretty safe to say that this movie is headed for the DVD bins, since it's not going to make much more in theatres.
Two positions below, Paprika is doing what it can in only 22 theatres. It made $73,000 this past weekend, for a not-so-grand total of $215,000 in its 3 weeks on the chart. Given the notices this flick has been getting, it's obvious that those who complain about lousy Hollywood movies aren't putting their money where their mouths are.
TMNT continues its slide, landing at #47 on the chart. It's managed to scrape together $54 million in its 12 weeks in theatres.
Things are going to be quiet on the animation front until June 29th, when Disney/Pixar's big contestant Ratatouille makes its theatrical debut. Who will win at the box office: the ogre or the rodent? Stay tuned.
