barnesgonzo: The Butler clears up

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Butler clears up

Four things we learned about the US box office this weekend, including not all young adult book franchises should be films, and why careful planning means a warm US welcome for third Cornetto The World's End

• First look review: You're Next
• The Butler: all the president's men – in pictures
• Philip French: The World's End – review

1. The Butler's prestige is mounting

A No 1 hold has seen Lee Daniel's The Butler ease past the $50m (£32m) milestone and lest we forget, Hollywood feeds on the motivational power of numbers. Given the civil rights ensemble drama's reported budget of $30m (£19.2m), when all is said and done the maths in this case may well add up. The next politically savvy adult drama arrives on 4 October in the form of Parkland, so Harvey Weinstein and his cohorts have plenty of time to make hay while the sun shines. Lee Daniel's The Butler looks a cert to finish above $75m (£48m) and may well carry on into awards season, by which time many voters will have seen it, most will have heard of it and some will believe it could go all the way to Oscar.

2. YA book adaptations can be treacherous

Ever since Summit-Lionsgate took the plunge and turned The Hunger Games into a behemoth, other studios have indulged in follow-the-leader (Hollywood's beloved parlour game) in their misguided efforts to replicate that success. It isn't easy to turn a book franchise into a hit movie series. Note to studios: beware pitches that contain the following words or phrases: "Set in a dystopian future", "a young warrior", "must defy convention", "risk all" and "save humanity". If this sounds uncannily like the story of Hollywood, that's because it is. For every Hunger Games that clears the pit of molten lava, there are those who fall wailing to their doom. You know who you are: The Host, Beautiful Creatures and probably now also The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

3. Don't let the festival buzz die

You're Next was one of the hits of the Toronto film festival when it premiered in the Midnight Madness strand in September 2011. There was a sense that in Adam Wingard the horror genre had found a new hero (that may still be true: You're Next is a chilling home invasion movie and Wingard isn't short of work). Scheduling conflicts held this movie back and Lionsgate was unable to find an appropriate slot – but couldn't they have tried a bit harder? The time to capitalise on all that word of mouth, which is like marketing gold dust, would have been shortly after the world premiere in September 2011. The result: a lowly $7.1m (£4.5m) in seventh place.

4. US audiences love Wright, Pegg, Frost and co

The love affair between US audiences and Messrs Wright, Pegg and Frost has been building over the years. Comic-Con god status; chatshow cheekiness and now, box-office returns. Shaun of the Dead, the first in the so-called Cornetto trilogy, opened at No 7 on $3.3m (£2.1m) over the weekend of 24-26 September and went on to gross $13.5m (£8.6m) in North America and a further $16m (£10.2m) internationally. That was back in 2004. Hot Fuzz opened in April 2007 and took $23m (£14.7m) in North America and $80m (£51.3m) worldwide. Focus Features' policy of targeting die-hard fans and not fretting about anything else may have paid off for The World's End.