There are some things that just won’t die—things that seem finished time and time again, only to dig themselves from their graves and grotesquely shamble around, masquerading as something full of life while not being very “lively” at all.
I am speaking not of zombies, but of sequels.
Take, for instance, Resident Evil: Retribution, a new sequel featuring Milla Jovovich and some zombie-like entities that managed to stagger to the top of the box office once again.
Retribution is the fifth Resident Evil movie to be released in the last 10 years and, despite its win, may be the least lively of the lot. Its $21.1 million take was less than any but the original earned its first weekend, and even the first Resident Evil ($17.7 million) sold far more tickets than this follow-up. Box Office Mojo says that American moviegoers have come down with a collective case of sequel-itis: Of the 10 or so sequels released since Men in Black 3, only three have earned more than their predecessors—and often only marginally so.
Does that mean that fans of new fare at the movies can dance a little gig? Probably not. Sure, Americans may be getting sick of sequels, but folks overseas can’t get enough of ’em. Retribution earned $50 million outside North America—which may be just enough to get Ms. Jovovich suited up for Resident Evil: Repetition.
It’s not a sequel, but Pixar’s 3-D re-release of Finding Nemo swam into second place this week, adding another $17.5 million to its lifetime bank (now about $357.2 million). Why, with that kind of cash, papa fish Marlin could probably buy an entire reef and hire muscular security guards to keep away any nefarious barracudas.
Perhaps they’d be (ahem) Finnish.
After two weeks at the top, The Possession tumbled to third with $5.8 million. Lawless was fourth with $4.2 million, and ParaNorman clung to the No. 5 spot with a $3 million weekend.
‘Course, the bigger news was found deeper down the list. Way deeper. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest and much-hyped flick The Master finished 18th this week with $730,000. Now that may not sound like much, but consider: It was released on just five screens. That’s a per-screen average of $146,000.
Let’s put it another way: The Master earned more in five locations its opening weekend than Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure earned in more than 2,100.
Oh, and for those checking to see how the Christian film Last Ounce of Courage performed, it’d be fair to say pretty courageously. The melodramatic fable pinned to the Christmas culture wars snagged $1.7 million, within shouting distance of Hope Springs ($1.8 million), 2016 Obama’s America ($2 million) and another highly acclaimed newcomer, Arbitrage ($2.1 million).
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