How 2001 was a film game-changer II: When international box office exploded and America became just another territory.

This is one of a handful of essays that will be dealing with the various trends that were kicked off during the 2001 calendar year, and how they still resonate today.

Over the weekend, something curious happened.  The box office pundits were hand-wringing over the alleged box office failure of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  Its crime (aside from being terrible) was failing to open above $100 million over its three-day Fri-Sun opening.  As I discussed two weeks ago, the opening weekends of 'major' movies have skyrocketed over the last decade, in both quantity (how many movies opening $60 million or more) and quality (the sheer amount of those massive weekends).  So we have reached a point, just nine years since the first $100 million opening ever, where a $90 million haul is considering 'disappointing'.  But what most box office pundits weren't paying attention to was the international number.  In just five days, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides grossed $346 million worldwide, far surpassing its alleged $250 million budget and setting the film on the course for massive profitably.  It is just another example of how, when it comes to tent pole franchise pictures, the domestic market is merely that: just another market.  It was a slow crawl that started in 2001 that climaxed this year, a summer movie season where the domestic market is all-but irrelevant for the big summer blockbusters.      

Goodbye to You: Franchises That Left Us This Year.

While every year brings its share of would-be franchise starters, 2010 marked the would-be finale for a surprisingly large number of ongoing series. Here is a rundown, in alphabetical order, of the film franchises that were either officially cancelled, fittingly finished out their arc, or likely will not return based on lackluster box office numbers. I have no idea how to make music play when you click on a blog entry, but feel free to boot up your favorite farewell song. Me? I'm currently playing Elton John's Candle in the Wind (the original, not that wet-fart 1997 remake).

The Chronicles of Narnia (12/09/2005-12/12/2010)
In the aftermath of the one-two punch of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Fellowship of the Ring in late 2001, studios all went digging for various fantasy-lit series to turn into their own long-running franchises. Of the many would-be contenders, only two of them received a sequel. The Twilight Saga will be ending in 2012, but this year we likely said goodbye to the only other notable contender, The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe debuted in December 2005 to an earth-shattering $65 million, completely knocking the wind out of King Kong, which debuted a week later. Spurred by a major Disney ad blitz that highlighted major big-budget fantasy spectacle which was based on a book that pretty much everyone read in elementary school, plus an 'on the side' ad campaign based on the book's (and author C.S. Lewis's) well-known Christianity, the film was the first fantasy-lit film post-2001 to really hit it big. It ended its leggy run with $290 million domestic and $745 million worldwide. But the first book was really the only popular one in the series.

Weekend Box Office (12/18/10): Tron: Legacy opens just okay, Yogi Bear and How Do You Know underperform, Black Swan and The Fighter expand.

Opening following a flurry of advance press and geek-frenzy spanning back three years, Tron: Legacy scored an okay $43 million in its opening weekend. Regardless of my feelings on the film (REVIEW), this is a good but not great for a film that was a big question mark. Would the film play to general audiences, or would it become a super-budgeted version of Kick-Ass or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, playing only to the hardcore geek audience? Tracking had the film opening as low as $30 million, which for the allegedly $200 million+ production would have been a disaster. But at least approaching the $45 million mark allows Disney to save some face. Yes that includes the usual 3D/IMAX ticket-price bump, but it also has a disadvantage of being the kind of film that few would willingly see in a 2D theater (the film played 71% 3D and a whopping 24% IMAX). The film opened with $3.6 million in midnight screenings and a $18 million opening day, before dropping to $15 million on Saturday and $10 million on Sunday. That gives the film a mediocre 2.39x weekend multiplier, implying that it's playing just slightly more like a general audiences genre picture than a hardcore nerd niche-picture that many feared. On most normal weekends, this kind of opening would have been very bad news. But this is the weekend before Christmas...

Weekend Box Office (12/11/10): Voyage of the Dawn Treader crashes, Tourist underwhelms, The Fighter and Black Swan shine in limited release.

It was a gruesome weekend for wide releases, as two sure-fire openers underperformed, which frankly ought to make Disney very nervous for next weekend. Debuting at a somewhat soft number one was The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The picture is the third in the Chronicles of Narnia series, and likely the last. The first two films in the series were financed in a joint venture between Walden Entertainment and Walt Disney. But after the (comparatively) underwhelming domestic performance of the second film in the series, Prince Caspian, Disney cut its losses and 20th Century Fox picked up the popular fantasy franchise. With a $24.5 million opening weekend for a $140 million venture, Fox will likely do the same cutting and running unless overseas numbers astound. This opening weekend is nearly identical to The Golden Compass, which opened with $25 million on this weekend in December 2007. That infamous 'flop' cost $180 million and ended up with just $70 million in the US. Of course, the film grossed $302 million overseas, so Fox has to be praying for a similar result (the worldwide opening was a promising $81 million).

Thor gets a bland theatrical trailer, which is the Cliff Notes version of the bland Comic Con footage.

If you've seen the Comic Con footage, there is precious little new here. I can't say if this trailer will debut in theaters this weekend with The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader or next weekend with Tron: Legacy. The pace is still slower than dirt, the acting still is overly arch, and the film still looks like a $200 million redo of the Masters of the Universe movie. As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

Transformers: Dark of the Moon gets a teaser.

This is a pure tease, with only a token amount of Transformers footage at the very end. Ironically, as I've mentioned before, when I saw the first Transformers on opening night, I was sure that what turned out to be the Cloverfield teaser was in fact an early tease for Star Trek. This teaser uses a similar 'we're in the real world until we're not' ploy, and it's usually pretty effective. Up until the onscreen credits appear for Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg, the only hint is the low-key version of the franchise theme music (which I rarely like). Michael Bay swears that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a victim of the writer's strike and he arguably has something to prove for the first time in awhile. We can likely expect a teaser with actual giant robots to premiere with the Super Bowl like last time. For now, we can enjoy this little bit of tease, with only the oddly F. Murray Abraham-looking robot at the end offering any evidence that this is in fact a Transformers film. This will premiere in theaters this weekend with The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Scott Mendelson

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader gets one last trailer.

Considering this one comes out in just over a month, I'm kind of shocked at the lack of any real attention that this third Chronicles of Narnia film is getting. Yes, right now the heat is on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I, but I'd imagine that few but outside of the film world even know that this is coming out, let alone on December 10th. Alas, that gives the Fox production (Fox took over the series after the 'disappointing' Prince Caspian) just one week before Disney debuts the much-buzzed about Tron: Legacy. Ironically, this could give way to reverse déjà vu. If you recall, Fox debuted Avatar for the press on December 11th, completely stealing the media attention away from the wide-release opening weekend of Disney's The Princess and the Frog. If Tron: Legacy is anywhere near as good as the nerds want it to be, Disney could easily play the same trick on Fox. As for the trailer... well, it looks like a Narnia picture for better or worse. I kinda liked The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and felt that Prince Caspian was a notable improvement. But I can't help wondering if Fox should have waited a year, so they could position The Chronicles of Narnia in December 2011 as the only remaining general-audiences fantasy franchise left. As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson