There used to be a rule in feature animation. PIXAR was the king of quality and they had a perfect record, Dreamworks had Shrek and a whole train load of Disney and PIXAR knockoffs with star-studded casts. Most of the times those films were turds, and provided a sharp contrast that might have aided in PIXAR’s incredible win streak by providing such horrible comparison.
Well that was the past boys and girls, because the quality gap has been dwindling faster than The Croods just past 100 Million at the international box office. Dreamworks newest animated feature had a solid-to-great opening weekend bringing in over $44 Million. Which puts the film on par with other recent Dreamworks its How to Train Your Dragon and Megamind.
A big weekend was probably expected for The Croods, however, the weekend was not without its shocker. The action flick Olympus Has Fallen surpassed even the most generous of projections to bring in over $30 Million over the weekend. Which is a huge win for an action-centirc film in a year where so many have died horrible box office deaths.
The big weekend for Olympus might have had something to do with the recent marketing that has been bringing Morgan Freeman to the forefront, including the final one-sheet which features the actor front and center. Perhaps Oblivion should take note and cute a Freeman centric trailer in advance of that sci-fi opus opening in a few weeks.
Coming in third this weekend was the two-time reigning Box Office champ, Oz: The Great and Powerful. The Raimi film is starting to taper off, and should start falling hard with some big competition hitting cinemas in the coming weeks. Still the movie is almost a lock to break 200 Million and make back its budget domestically with ease. Consider this a solid win for Disney and Raimi, which at the end of the day is a win for us too.
Next week has a Wednesday release of GI:Joe and a Friday release of The Host which is the new film based on a Stephanie ‘Twilight’ Meyer “novel.” Expect GI: Joe to do big business and The Host to hit with a whimper.
