‘Eclipse’, ‘Toy Story’ Income Gone With The Wind

This was not a great week for big box office blockbusters. Let’s look at this week’s quarter-billion dollar money machine.

Twilight: Eclipse took a dive!

Okay, let’s define “dive.” Eclipse made $161 million in its first five days, and that’s good by anybody’s standards. But… It brought in 43% of those bucks in its first day. After that, it was just another big movie. Even the opening day revenue was down 6% from New Moon. So where did this drop-off come from?

Women.

No kidding. They accounted for 80% of the New Moon audience, but only
65% of the Eclipse audience thus far.
But $161 million, plus another $100 million overseas (that’s more than a quarter-billion bucks, or $36,000 a minute!), seems like a lot of money, doesn’t it?

In Hollywood, perception rules the day and reality doesn’t save your job. Eclipse was expected to exceed the $200 million brought in by Transformers Two during its had a five-day start. If you don’t make your projections, you’re a failure – at least temporarily.

So is Eclipse a bomb? Certainly not. Is it a disappointment? Yes it is… thus far. The missing repeat business enjoyed by the previous two Twilight movies might come in eventually, but one thing is sadly clear: the Twilight saga has lost some if its bite.

Now you’d have to be some sort of Russian commie to hate Toy Story 3,
wouldn’t you? Well, the Rooskies certainly did not love Toy Story 3. It bombed. It took in less than $5 million in its first ten days. Shrek Forever After
did almost eight times that business.

According to the Los Angeles Times, adults found Toy Story 3 to be too much of a kids flick. Okay, fine. But does Russia have a shortage of children? As it turns out, yes it does. Russia has endured terrible heat waves in its metropolitan areas, and kids have been hustled out to cooler climates. Still, $5 million sucks. Toy Story 3 was the first of
the series to be released in Russia, so perhaps the adults felt lost in the backstory. I saw Home Alone 2 without
seeing the first one, so maybe I can understand that.

Well, maybe not.

It’s always fun to watch Disney take one in the neck, but I can’t help but believe that bombing in Russia would have made Walt Disney a happy man.