According to the previously mentioned website, Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily, the Saturday box office numbers for G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA came in at $18 million. I’m not sure if a Friday-Saturday drop is normal, but that puts the two-day total at $40.5 million. It seems somewhat doubtful that a Sunday showing would earn another $20 million, so I’d say a $60 million opening weekend is pretty much impossible. Looks like we may be headed more in the $50 million dollar range, depending on how strong Sundays usually are. I suspect I might even be giving Sunday sales even too much credit.
There are still no numbers internationally, so we’ll see how things look going forward. In my mind, this is disappointing news, but we’ll see where it goes.
Ms. Finke does add a bit of disappointing insight, with this quote as well:
“But I don’t see how G.I. Joe can get to Paramount’s predicted $300M worldwide. Especially when, next weekend, G.I. Joe will get swamped by Peter Jackson’s highly praised sci-fi blockbuster District 9.”
Considering Di Bonaventura has been on record saying they need at least $350 million before considering a sequel, this could be a punch in the gut. Still plenty of time to go, though. Again, check out the entire article here.
No new footage, and most folks have seen the movie by now, but with a nice quote from Joe fan and Rise of Cobra Supporter El Mayimbe of Latino Review, I have to give this TV Spot some credit and some coverage, anyway. Pulled from YouTube here.
Credit also goes to the Terror Drome’s “Terror Transmissions” for the encode!
Over the past week or so, it seems every article I’ve read on the Los Angeles Times website has been roasting the film, harassing Paramount, or making other snide or scoffing comments about recent decisions and process regarding G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA. Today, the LA Times posted another online article, about the Box Office Returns, and actually gave Paramount and G.I. Joe some credit:
“Given the movie’s $175-million production budget, that would be a solid start and, assuming audience word-of-mouth is strong, put it on track for a healthy box office run. According to market research firm CinemaScore, opening day moviegoers gave “G.I. Joe” a grade of B+, once again contradicting the view of critics, as they did on Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” That would seem to validate the studio’s strategy to not screen the picture for print and broadcast critics before it opened and to focus much of the marketing at blue-collar audiences in smaller markets.”
Good to see at least a slight shift in perspective. Hopefully G.I. Joe’s final tallies are enough to make a lot of the pundits rethink their slamming of Paramount. But I doubt it.
Thanks to tkprime’s Twitter feed for letting us know that Electronic Arts has posted a cool little Flash game “Shuriken Shootout” on their website. Click here to check it out!
Just wanted to post a reminder to folks that Toys “R” Us is re-launching their 2 figures for $9.99 deal tomorrow! Here’s the original post.
Now, considering I have ZERO Toys “R” Us’ within 65 miles of me, if anyone wants to help out with a couple Pit Commandos, Eels, or anything of the sort, I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from tossing me a hook up… :shifty:
Thanks to Mysterious Stranger for pointing out Hollywood insider Nikki Finke, who has a VERY detailed report about G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA’s opening weekend on her website here.
She seems quite optimistic about the returns for the film financially (though she trends at about $55 million rather than the $60 million that Steve Mason reported on his blog just recently. I think Nikki’s got the inside track. Interesting quotes are as follows:
“Now, despite all the sniping and snarking, it looks to open for a $55M North American weekend after earning $22M today from a huge release into 4,007 theaters. The pic even made a ” B+” CinemaScore (“A-” for under 18).”
That sounds pretty good…she also talks about the international numbers.
“G.I. Joe also opened day and date in 75% of its foreign territories. Although I’ve heard reports from rival studios that ticket sales were “disappointing” in Australia (where the pic opened #2 to the Sony romantic comedy Ugly Truth), early numbers from Asia are said to be “huge”. One projection for overseas grosses this weekend is $35M…”
She also brings up some great points about royalties from toy sales and DVD sales. So far, things are sounding at least somewhat promising, but I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes on this throughout the weekend and going forward. Again, check out her entire article right here.
