Stephanie Zacharek already kind of addressed this phenomenon in her review , but as John Carter postmortems go, yeesh : “[W]hat’s really sad is when you look at the Rotten Tomatoes pages for The Lorax and John Carter . Among ‘top critics,’ The Lorax has a 48 percent fresh rating, and most of the reviews I’ve seen have been pretty respectful. (Except for the New Yorker , which says ‘The badness of the picture is a shock,’ and the New York Times , which called it ‘a noisy, useless piece of junk.’) And critics pretty much piled onto John Carter — among ‘top critics,’ it’s at 35 percent fresh, with people outright gloating about how expensive it was and how much it falls short. It’s like there’s a collective agreement that The Lorax is too big and too much of a mainstream juggernaut to call out — but the herd decided it was okay to feed on John Carter .” [ io9 ]
Despite the stiff competition of the NCAA tournament and the local bar, the multiplex fared all right over St. Patrick’s Day weekend: The single new wide release 21 Jump Street was a hit, and The Lorax retained its blockbuster status in its third week of release. Not bad! Your Weekend Receipts are here. 1. 21 Jump Street Gross: $35,000,000 (new) Screens: 3,121 (PSA $11,214) Weeks: 1 Despite (or because of?) its R-rating, the TV reboot/adaptation scored in a terrific per-screen average and stands to come in a sturdy (if distant) second next weekend to The Hunger Games . Great job, Sony! Next up: T.J. Hooker , starring Danny McBride. OK, never mind. 2. Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax Gross: $22,800,000 ($158,400,000) Screens: 3,769 (PSA: $6,049) Weeks: 3 (Change: -41.3%) The domestic total is extraordinary, but factor in the 30 or so foreign markets where The Lorax has yet to open (or at least be reported), and we might be on the cusp of a half-billion dollar phenomenon. In which case, how do we sequelize Seuss? Do we sequelize Seuss? 3. John Carter Gross: $13,515,000 ($53,172,000) Screens: 3,749 (PSA $3,605) Weeks: 2 (Change: -55.2%) Decent overseas numbers notwithstanding, you can cry for John Carter now. 4. Project X Gross: $4,005,000 ($48,131,000) Screens: 2,922 (PSA $1,371) Weeks: 3 (Change: -64.1%) It’s not too often that you see a film averaging less than $1,400 per screen coming in fourth overall, especially after a 64 percent drop. It’s even rarer to… 5. A Thousand Words Gross: $3,750,000 ($12,103,000) Screens: 2,952 (PSA $1,979) Weeks: 2 (Change: -39.3%) …surpass a fifth-place finisher with a higher average on virtually the same number of screens. And a mere 39 percent drop. Fluke of the Irish, etc. etc. [Figures via Box Office Mojo ] Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Dr. Seuss film is highest-grossing movie of the year so far. By Ryan J. Downey A scene from Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax” Photo: Universal Studios “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” was the #1 movie at the box office for a second consecutive weekend, but the bigger story was the film that came in at #2. “John Carter,” which Disney hoped would kick off a franchise based on the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs stories that inspired generations of sci-fi, opened with $30.6 million. In an article bearing the headline ” ‘Ishtar’ on Mars,” the New York Times reported that “John Carter” cost about $350 million to market and produce. Even with its $71 million overseas total, “Carter” is a long way from an estimated break-even point of $600 million. “Ishtar” is a 1987 film famous for how hard it flopped despite the presence of two A-list stars (Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman) and huge marketing. The tale of a Civil War veteran who finds himself in the middle of a local conflict on Mars, “Carter” is the first live-action film directed by Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo,” “WALL-E”) and stars “Friday Night Lights” alum Taylor Kitsch in the title role. Reviews were decidedly mixed ; Rotten Tomatoes had assigned it a “Tomatometer” rating of 49 percent at press time. “Lifeless on Mars,” proclaimed TheWrap.com’s Alonso Duralde. “For all its efforts and intentions, and despite the occasional minor thrill, ‘John Carter’ winds up being as generic and forgettable as its title.” The folks behind “The Lorax,” meanwhile, had plenty to celebrate. The animated Dr. Seuss adaptation made $39.1 million in its second weekend in theaters, putting it past “The Vow” to become 2012’s highest-grossing film thus far with its estimated total of nearly $122 million. The second-week 44 percent decline of “The Lorax” was about on par with “Horton Hears a Who!,” which made $154 million during its domestic theatrical run in 2008. Found-footage party film “Project X” was #3 at the box office with $11.5 million for a $40.1 million total. Horror flick “Silent House” was a dud, opening at #4 with $7 million. The top five was rounded out by another box-office disappointment, “A Thousand Words,” which debuted with $6.3 million, barely more than the opening-weekend numbers for fairly recent Eddie Murphy flops “Meet Dave” ($5.25 million) and “Imagine That” ($5.5 million). Neither “A Thousand Words” nor “John Carter” suffered as badly as Eddie Murhpy’s sci-fi comedy “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” which made $4.4 million during its entire theatrical run in 2002 against a production budget estimated to be more than $100 million. The comedy “Friends With Kids” opened at #13 with $2.1 million but played at only 374 theaters. By comparison, “John Carter” was at 3,749. This weekend’s new releases include the comedic big-screen version of “21 Jump Street,” the ’90s cop show that launched Johnny Depp. The reboot co-stars and was produced by Jonah Hill. Also coming up: Will Ferrell’s Spanish-language comedy “Casa de mi Padre,” the Jason Segel/ Ed Helms comedy “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” the Adrien Brody drama “Detachment” and the latest in a string of poorly reviewed Nicolas Cage films, “Seeking Justice.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” and “John Carter.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV First: John Carter Related Photos Taylor Kitsch As ‘John Carter’
With Universal’s colorful animated tale The Lorax , “the President’s liberal friends in Hollywood [are] targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children,” claimed an outraged Lou Dobbs this week on Fox Business Network. Animated movies ! A liberal agenda! HOW DARE THEY. What’s to blame for allowing this “insidious nonsense” into the vulnerable minds of our nation’s youth? Bad parenting, of course. As conservative radio host Matt Patrick bellowed from the commentator pit, “We are creating Occu-toddlers !” In the classic Seuss story — adapted into a 3-D animated adventure that hits screens next week — a magical creature called The Lorax attempts to intervene as an industrialist, driven by greed, ravages an entire ecosystem. This would seem to make The Lorax even more “dangerous” than previous Fox News target The Muppets , which took as its villain a much broader and clearly unlikeable capitalist; The Lorax is designed to show viewers how much they potentially have in common with the unwitting forest-killer The Once-ler, which is why it’s so powerful to begin with. My favorite part of this insanity is when Patrick advocates intentional littering in movie theaters as a means of protest against the Obama-led agenda espoused by The Lorax (and the Studio Ghibli animated pic The Secret World of Arriety , which could lead youngsters down the slippery slope of sharing things ). Throwing popcorn buckets on the ground would fly in the face of everything Dr. Seuss’s anti-deforestation, pro-environment tale stands for, but it would also make you look ridiculous in front of your own children. I think the Lorax’s face above says it all. Bring on the Occu-toddlers! The Lorax hits theaters on March 2. [ Media Matters via The Film Stage ]
