Joshua Rich is a staff editor for EW.com Steve Carell's Evan Baxter may have God on his side in the movies, but at the multiplex he was anything but almighty over the weekend. widely considered to be the most expensive comedy ever made, with a budget in excess of $175 million finished at No.
1, as expected, but its $32.1 mil gross was about $10 mil below expectations and a whopping $35.8 mil less than what debuted with in 2003.
(I'm not even going to speculate how this movie can become profitable or even earn much more than $100 mil, since both prospects seem so out of the question at the moment.) Blame poor reviews (the film scored a terrible 37 out of 100 on Metacritic.com), bad buzz, and, perhaps, finally, a strong dose of audience fatigue.
Call it ''sequelitis,'' if you will: So far this summer movie season, seven out of eight weeks have featured a new franchise film. Viewers were bound to reject the constant stream of recycled studio product at some point. In fact, the surprise success of the fresh psychological thriller speaks directly to that point.
More than just earning $20.2 mil to come in at No. 2, the John Cusack movie broke a long dead spell for fright flicks at the box office.
The last horror movie to open as well was ($33.6 mil) way back in October. And, as it happens, 's debut gross is also the best ever for a movie based on a story by EW columnist Stephen King (previous champ: , which bowed with $18.
2 mil in 2004). But is the genre's losing streak really over for good? Maybe it's too soon to tell.
Let's see how performs when it comes out in a few weeks before we start with the high fives. Speaking of celebrations put on hold, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 3) followed its impressive debut last week by earning $20.2 mil this time around a huge 65 percent decline.
The superhero flick has earned $97.6 mil in less than two weeks, but its pace appears to be slowing quicker than its early returns indicated. Joshua Rich is a staff editor for EW.
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