Weekend Box Office (06/24/12): Brave hits the Pixar bulls-eye while Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is (somewhat) staked.

Another year, another $60-$70 million Pixar opening weekend.  Brave (review) is their thirteenth release, as well as their thirteenth number-one debut and their eighth film to open between $60 and $70 million since 2001.  Brave, which attracted headlines due to the fact that it was Pixar's first film with a female lead (and a female director until Brenda Chapman was replaced by Mark Andrews), opened with an estimated $66.7 million this weekend, putting it (for now) just above Cars 2's $66.1 million debut and a bit below Up's $68.1 million opening as the fifth-best debut in Pixar history.  Brave pulled in $24.5 million on Friday, which gives the film a 2.71x weekend multiplier, which is actually pretty low by Pixar standards.  Still, it's close enough to the 2.73x multiplier for Wall-E ($23m/$63m), the 2.68x weekend multiplier for Toy Story 3 ($41m/$110m), and the 2.64x weekend multiplier for Cars 2 ($25m/$66m) to avoid any alarm.  Movies, even most animated ones, are just a bit more front-loaded these days and Pixar films tend to play like sequels in a popular franchise than stand-alone entries. In terms of total box office, there is always the chance that Brave could play like Cars 2, which (comparatively) flamed out with just 2.8x weekend-to-total multiplier ($191 million domestic) and end up below $200 million.

Good movie news in 2012: the return of R-rated movies.

Normally, I wouldn't be one to consider Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (which to be fair I have not yet seen) as a shining example of a positive trend in movie-going.  But the historical fiction action-thriller may be many things, but one thing it is not is PG-13.  Oh no, it is a mid-summer major studio spectacle that is going out into 3,000+ theaters with an honest-to-goodness R.  Said rating is officially for "violence throughout and brief sexuality".  Whether or not the film could have been edited down to a PG-13 is arguably a moot point.  20th Century Fox spent $70 million (a refreshingly reasonable sum) on a major summer production that was conceived and produced with the intent that it would indeed be R-rated.  And most shockingly, it was not even the only R-rated wide release last weekend, as Focus Features unspooled Seeking Friends at the End of the World in 1,400 theaters.  I've written/ranted for years about how the R-rating became an endangered species for major-studio releases due to the 2001 FEC regulations regarding the marketing of R-rated films, but the tide does seem to be changing over the last couple years.  And it's reached a glorious peak at this very moment, with an avalanche of R-rated wide releases filling up the multiplexes.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter gets a second silly trailer.

I never got around to posting the first teaser because I couldn't bring myself to care, so I'm posting both here.  Yes, I've heard that the novel is somewhat clever and that it's somewhat political (vampires are basically Confederates who were draining the life from the nation by continuing slavery) as well as a genre mash-up.  But in film form, especially by the brain-dead razzle-dazzle idiot who gave us Night Watch and Wanted (not a Timur Bekmambetov fan, folks), I can't imagine this actually being a 'real movie' as opposed to some wanky absurdity.  Am I being unfair?  Perhaps. But there is something disheartening about a concept that basically amounts to three seven year old boys exclaiming 'gee, wouldn't it be cool if...' not only becoming a bestselling novel but a big budget would-be franchise film.  On the plus side, the film allegedly cost just $69 million so it doesn't have to break box office records to make a profit (which in turn leaves more room for eccentricity).  Anyway, star Benjamin Walker allegedly kicked ass on Broadway in Bloody Andrew Jackson, so this isn't too much of a stretch for him, and the rest of the cast (Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jimmi Simpson, Robin McLeavy, Alan Tudyk, and Rufus Sewell),  is solid.  20th Century Fox debuts Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on June 22nd.  As always, we'll see, and I'll be the first to gladly eat crow if this turns out to be a thing of substance.

Scott Mendelson