Movie Trivia Game

These are the 50 worst opening weekends for a Super-saturated movie that was released on over 3000 movie theaters at once. While not necessarily all huge budget films, they were expected to appeal to a sizeable audience and were heavily promoted. The list includes a number of superstar vanity projects. It also includes a lot of sequels which clearly did much worse than the original film. Very often it includes major stars who are expected to appeal to a big audience. Only 3 out of 50 films is more than 10 years old, and over half were released in the last 4.5 years.

The five worst opening weekends of a film with a super-saturated release are:

Hoot (2006) Family Comedy about an Owl starring Luke Wilson
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007) Another attempt to create a Harry Potter type series
Meet Dave (2008) An Eddie Murphy comedy
What's Your Number? (2011) An R-rated Romantic Comedy that is aimed at women and guys dragged to the movies
Imagine That (2009) An Eddie Murphy comedy

While I didn't see any of these five in a theater, I have been sucked into some of the other 45 films.

Try and guess some of these films, and say if you went to see one of them.


Stars include (partial list)
Aaron Eckhart
Alan Cumming
Alexa Vega
Alfre Woodard
Antonio Banderas
Cam Gigandet
Cher
Christina Aguilera
Christopher Mintz-Plasse 
Danny DeVito
Danny Trejo
Daryl Sabara
Dianna Agron
Elisha Cuthbert
Emma Thompson
Eric Dane
George Lopez 
Haley Joel Osment
Hilary Swank
Jenna Dewan
Jeremy Piven
Jessica Alba
Joel McHale
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Josh Gad 
Josh Lucas
Judy Greer
Julianne Hough
Kristen Bell
Lee Pace
Matthew Broderick
Michael Caine
Paris Hilton
Peter Gallagher
Queen Latifah
Ricky Gervais 
Robert Duvall
Ron Perlman 
Sam Elliott 
Stacy Ferguson
Stanley Tucci
Steve Coogan 
William H. Macy

Quote: pacomartin

Try and guess some of these films, and say if you went to see one of them.

Apparently, I don't get out much.

Stars include (partial list)
Aaron Eckhart - No Reservations? Saw it on DVD
Alan Cumming - Don't recognize the name (DRTN)
Alexa Vega - DRTN
Alfre Woodard
Antonio Banderas Puss N Boots from Shrek?
Cam Gigandet - DRTN
Cher Burlesque? Didn't see it
Christina Aguilera Burlesque? Didn't see it.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse - DRTN 
Danny DeVito - Jingle All The Way?
Danny Trejo Machete? Saw it on DVD
Daryl Sabara - DRTN
Dianna Agron - DRTN
Elisha CuthbertGirl Next Door? Didn't see it.
Emma Thompson - Nanny McPhee Returns? Didn't see it.
Eric Dane
George Lopez Balls of Fury? Saw it on DVD. Pretty funny.
Haley Joel Osment Pay It Forward. Didn't see it.
Hilary Swank Million Dollar Baby? Saw it on DVD. Won an Oscar, so not sure it had a bad opening.
Jenna Dewan - DRTN
Jeremy Piven - Smokin' Aces? Saw it on DVD.
Jessica Alba - Machete? She was also in a movie with Adam Sandler with penguins?
Joel McHale
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Josh Gad - DRTN
Josh Lucas - DRTN
Judy Greer - DRTN
Julianne Hough
Kristen Bell
Lee Pace - DRTN
Matthew Broderick Inspector Gadget 2?
Michael Caine
Paris Hilton - Whatever it was, I didn't see it.
Peter Gallagher - DRTN
Queen Latifah - Taxi? or Last Holiday? - Didn't see either.
Ricky Gervais 
Robert Duvall
Ron Perlman Hellboy 2: The Golden Army I have the DVD.
Sam Elliott 
Stacy Ferguson - DRTN
Stanley Tucci
Steve Coogan - DRTN
William H. Macy

It is hard to make that little money, especially with the mega-marketing budgets that studios throw at their films. Even the lamest piece-of-crap movie can be expected to make $10-$20m on a release of 2,500+ screens, which makes the flop of "What's Your Number" all the more surprising. Anna Faris is a lightweight, but rather appealing, actress and the story, while an uninspired retread, hits all the right notes for the target demographic. A puzzler, to be sure.

Quote: pacomartin

Try and guess some of these films, and say if you went to see one of them.

The last movie I saw in a theater was "The Dark Knight."

I think it may have been the last release I saw, too. I keep meaning to rent Tron ][ (whatever it's called) and the Trek re-boot, but I keep forgetting to do so.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Apparently, I don't get out much.

These movies are "high concept" movies. They are released in a small number of theaters and gradually open in more if they do well. They are not "super-saturation" movies.
Aaron Eckhart - No Reservations? Saw it on DVD
Hilary Swank Million Dollar Baby? Saw it on DVD. Won an Oscar, so not sure it had a bad opening.
Haley Joel Osment Pay It Forward. Didn't see it.

You got two movies off the list
Christina Aguilera Burlesque?
Queen Latifah - Taxi?

Paris Hilton was in the remake of the 1950's horror film "House of Wax" which was released in over 3000 theaters. Clearly people like to read about her in tabloids, but are not going to plunk down a couple of dollars to watch her film.
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To give you an idea of the other end of the scale, the biggest openings make over $30K per theater, despite being released in over 4000 theaters, and being shown in multiple screens per theater.

Art movies, like Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris open in 6 theaters which are completely packed and make $100K per theater. But that is just to build up excitement by film critics.

But you would think marketing departments would have some reasonable idea of how popular a movie is going to be from test screenings. If people are booing and falling asleep, that's a sure sign. Logically instead of opening in 3000 theaters where only a handful of people are going to each screening, they would limit the number of theaters somehow.

Here are the worst ones in the group for 2011

Per Theater, Title , Rank
$1.8 , What's Your Number? , 4
$3.5 , Abduction , 33
$2.6 , Apollo 18 , 19
$2.5 , Fright Night (2011) , 14
$3.3 , Conan the Barbarian (2011) , 26
$3.5 , Spy Kids: All the Time in the World , 42
$2.2 , Mars Needs Moms , 13
$3.9 , Burlesque , 43

I mean look at "What's Your Number?" if you figure one screen, three days for the weekend, 4 show/day, $8 tickets is about 22 people per screening. I think most movie theaters have 300 seats. And this is opening weekend, which means it will only get much worse.

It's funny to some of us who remember when we were young, going to movies that were so packed with people that you couldn't find a seat. Sometimes you couldn't sit with your friends. It's still like that in most of Latin America.