As expected, “Angels & Demons” claimed the top spot on the box-office chart over the weekend with a $48 million opening … but it was a much closer race than I would have figured, with “Star Trek” right on its heels with a second-weekend take of $43 million.
By way of comparison, “The DaVinci Code” enjoyed a $77.1 million opening weekend three years ago, and of course “Star Trek” pulled in nearly that much — $76.5 million — just last week. It looks like a couple million American moviegoers decided to hang back on this one and get a sense of the opening-weekend buzz, or they went to see “Star Trek” instead.
The AP’s regular box-office commentator/cheerleader, Paul Dergarabedian, spun it thusly:
“Sony positioned it well,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “They didn’t try to say, `This is going to be “The Da Vinci Code.”‘ It was actually quite the contrary. They tried to say this was not `Da Vinci Code,’ that it was a different kind of movie.”
Well, “different” in that it’s actually a considerable improvement on the previous film in virtually every way. Of course, if they’d been able to get that message across, you’d think the numbers would have been higher — maybe not “Wolverine” or “Star Trek” higher, since “Angels & Demons” runs two hours and twenty minutes and therefore can’t screen as often as either of those — but something in the neighborhood of $60 million, maybe?
Good for “Star Trek”, though. Can’t think of a more deserving movie. I mean, sure, “Hunger” or “Two Lovers” or even “Adventureland”, but that just wasn’t gonna happen.
even with the success of the A&D book, i guess everybody was similarly underwhelmed by the da vinci code movie. didn’t exactly cause a clambering for a sequel. especially 3 years later.
on a different note, do you think Next Day Air is going to play Toronto anytime soon?
It’s a Summit release, and there’s been no word of a Canadian theatrical bow … looks like E1 plans to send it straight to video. Mike Epps just can’t catch a break, can he?
As for “Angels & Demons”, I think you’re right … the Dan Brown faithful probably account for the numbers, but casual audiences just weren’t willing to risk another “DaVinci” experience.
Let’s see what next week’s numbers look like; the moderate word of mouth might attract the adults who aren’t interested in the “Terminator” or “Night at the Museum” sequels.