Reject Update: Few Are “Brave” Enough To Go To The Movies

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 16, 2007

Another week of crummy box office numbers to report to you for The Reject Report once again. When are we going to be back to reporting Number One hits with $30 mil or $40 mil performances? Not this week, that’s for sure. The good news for Jodie Foster is that the fans still love her and her movie The Brave One finished Number One. The bad news is it only made $14 million dollars!

3:10 to Yuma continues to underwhelm with $9.1 million. Mr. Woodcock and Dragon Wars were third and fourth respectively.

I get a laugh reading these industry web sites that try and over-analyze the box office results and try to glean what it means for one studio or another. Fact is, folks, it’s SEPTEMBER. That’s the reason the box office is so crummy right now. You have a huge segment of the movie-going audience that is now back in school and spending their Friday and Saturday nights getting plastered in bars that cater to the college crowd! Let’s face facts, people!

And do not underestimate the impact of football! I say this over and over again, football games are big competition for the movies these days, especially on Friday and Saturdays when you have a lot of night games going in places like Texas and the deep south. Don’t underestomate the impact of Friday high school football in Texas, folks. Texas happens to be a very big movie-going state. And lots of football fans like movies. So those are my theories. Plus, some of these flicks are getting some really bad reviews.

On a personal note, I went to see 3:10 to Yuma this weekend, and it was pretty funny because the theater was pretty empty. I overheard a couple who entered the theater shortly after the movie started, and they looked at each other and asked “is there anyone in here?!” In fact, there were: eighteen people!!! And this was at a theater that usually did excellent business, located in an area where a lot of the people would be fans of Westerns.

I don’t know why 3:10 to Yuma isn’t doing better business. It was a good movie with some good actors (Russell Crowe and Christian Bale), and lots of gun action! But the box office is not so hot. The only really good news for that movie is that it isn’t dropping like a rock from week to week. It seems to be holding its own.

Anyway, I am not going to overanalyze the September numbers any more than I have to. The numbers are crummy because it’s September, no other reason, and I am sure the studios realized that when they scheduled a lot of their movies around now. I think they were just crossing their fingers hoping for these movies to buck the usual trends, and they didn’t.

The final numbers from Box Office Mojo.

Back this Friday for what should be a better box office week at The Reject Report, what with Good Luck Chuck coming out.

Read more articles by John Cairns