Seeing as many people post box office updates, there's no reason for me to do them. However, I can talk business. Today's target is Universal Studios. Though the studio never really had much of a problem before, this year is a huge loss for them. Though Leap Year was a minor success, The Wolfman was a failure at the box office. The movie's promos showed weak production values and the commercials displayed the movie strangely in full screen. The reviews were also negative. I myself would give the movie a 4/10.
Their next movie was Green Zone. This movie had hope to it, as it was being directed by Paul Greengrass and starred Matt Damon. This movie had Bourne-like success written all over. Still, Universal didn't waste time promoting it well. The promos and commercials were shown primarily 2 weeks before release and there was only one poster. Many predicted failure as it was based on the Iraq war. The movie didn't recover its costs, and met with mixed acclaim. Some liked it and some hated it. I enjoyed it being a Damon-Greengrass fan. I would give it a 7.8/10.
Their next film was Repo Men. This movie at least had ads all over the internet a month before release. However, the commercials showed nothing but mind-numbing gore and not much of a story. The movie had a low budget and wasn't effects-laden, so not many were intrigued. The movie flopped at the box office and had negative acclaim.
Robin Hood(starring Russel Crowe, directed by Ridley Scott) was a bit of a turning point for Universal. The movie had heavy promotion and showed a lot of battle scenes and the fact that it was by the director of Gladiator gathered genuine interest. The reviews have been mixed and the movie had a lukewarm opening of $36,063,385, but the movie opened big at the foreign box office of approx. $75 mil. The movie turned out to be an average hit, but at least it didn't fail.
Universal's next had rather weak promotion. Macgruber was based off a SNL short, and people knew that SNL based movies aren't good nowadays. The trailers and ads showed loud humor and many people said it looked stupid. The movie had mixed acclaim and it is the second biggest flop of the year.
Get Him to the Greek had decent potential. It was a spin off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall-a comedy that has a decent box office and good critical acclaim. The ads showed a fun movie with raunchy comedy. The movie met with positive reviews and did a decent job at the box office-though to be a hit it needed to make more.
After a rather lukewarm year, Universal finally had a super hit in their hands. Despicable Me was promoted months before its release. The animation and the strange yellow minions attracted the little kids. The fact it was in 3D would also help the ticket sales. The movie had good critical acclaim and it had a great run at the BO.
Nicholas Sparks movies usually do fine at the box office, but other movies ruined the run of Charlie St. Cloud. The movie wasn't really promoted and was targeting young teenage girls. With movies like Inception and Salt out it wouldn't stand a chance.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is Universal's newest release, and this time it's one of the best movies of the year. However, they ruined the movie's BO potential with the marketing. The posters showed Micheal Cera with a guitar, and that made it look like it was for a niche audience. This movie is mainly a fanboy(or fangirl) affair, and the comic books were not very well known. Though the San Diego Comic Con showed the movie and many liked it, they were basically the main audience for it. This movie looked like it was made for rockers and nerds, but it's actually a variety of things. Too bad its future BO looks weak. It's a great movie with critical acclaim.
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