Audiences rejected “Speed Racer” over the weekend; the AP reports the Wachowski Brothers’ seizure-tastic epic opened in second place with a gross of $20.2 million — just $200,000 ahead of third-place “What Happens in Vegas”, but a full $30 million behind “Iron Man“, which enjoyed its second week at the top of the charts.
Someone’s bound to argue that kids’ tickets are a fraction of adult admissions, thus accounting for the discrepancy — after all, this is a movie for eight-year-olds, just like George Lucas said the “Star Wars” prequels were.
Yeah, whatever. (You’ll notice Disney never has to make that argument with those wretched Tim Allen comedies.) Sometimes, audiences surprise us. And this week, they knew better than to go see “Speed Racer”.
Which is a triumph for all of us, really.
The Wachowski bros certainly put a lot of effort into making Speed Racer… the movie overall looked and felt like a cross between anime, a kaleidoscope, that Flintstones movie, a video game and the Dukes of Hazard