Just did not see the comedy in Kick-Ass.
'Kick-Ass' Opens Up a Can of Weak Sauce
by Brandon Gray --- April 18, 2010
Kick-Ass didn't bust out of its unpopular superhero comedy confines nor did it match its hype, but it nonetheless delivered one of the highest-grossing starts ever for its sub-genre. Still, that wasn't enough to lead a weekend that saw How to Train Your Dragon spreading its wings further. With five pictures grossing $15-20 million, overall business was up around 12 percent from the same timeframe last year, when 17 Again ruled.
Maintaining its altitude better than any other nationwide release, How to Train Your Dragon eased 20 percent to an estimated $20 million. That lifted its total to $158.6 million in 24 days, or within shouting distance of Monsters Vs. Aliens and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa through their 24th days despite those pictures' much larger initial grosses. With a month and a half as the only family event in town, positive word-of-mouth for its story and its 3D ticket price premium, Dragon's trajectory points to a final gross north of $200 million, which would make it DreamWorks Animation's fourth or fifth highest-grossing movie. Not too shabby for a movie sporting the heretofore unappealing movie subjects of dragons, Vikings and animated action.
Shackled by its unappealing subject matter, Kick-Ass packed a not-so-walloping estimated $19.8 million on approximately 4,300 screens at 3,065 locations. The Incredibles holds the record for superhero comedies and is the only truly successful one, but, among live-action entries, Kick-Ass boasted the biggest debut. Mystery Men was the previous high with $10 million (or over $15 million adjusted for ticket price inflation), showing how little interest the sub-genre has stirred in the past. Distributor Lionsgate's exit polling indicated that 60 percent of Kick-Ass's audience was male and 50 percent was under 25 years old.
Prior to the weekend, there was hope that Kick-Ass would transcend its sub-genre like Zombieland did last year. Horror comedies were notorious for failing at the box office, yet Zombieland opened to $24.7 million on its way to a $75.6 million final tally. If the hype from Kick-Ass's aggressive advertising and media push were to be believed, fan boys were chomping at the bit to see it and that excitement had spilled over into the mainstream. What's more, Kill Bill Vol. 2, which Kick-Ass emulated stylistically, was unleashed on April 16 in 2004 and started with the equivalent over $31 million adjusted.
Zombieland was the exception, and Kick-Ass's turn-out was closer to the other violent action movie from April 16, 2004: The Punisher. That's because the Kick-Ass machine rammed outrageousness, colorfully vicious action and self-referential humor down people's throats but lacked purpose and story. It was true to its sensory-bound but nondescript title. Furthermore, while some spoofs work, people aren't as eager to see heroes torn down. Watchmen and television series Heroes alienated viewers with such themes, so a movie brazenly dissing heroes like Kick-Ass was only going to go so far.
On the surface, the weekend was another photo finish just like last weekend. Only $250,000 separated How to Train Your Dragon and Kick-Ass in the studio estimates. Even if it were to turn out to be overestimated, Dragon has the edge, because Lionsgate is still including Kick-Ass's Thursday 10 p.m. preview grosses in its weekend estimate. Any showings prior to 12 a.m. Friday are not part of the weekend, and any distributor that tells people otherwise is full of spin. Check back here on Monday afternoon when actual grosses are reported to see how this pans out.
Also opening nationwide, Death at a Funeral had a decent gathering of an estimated $17 million on around 3,000 screens at 2,459 venues. Among comparable comedies, that was in the same range as Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins and First Sunday but was less substantial than This Christmas, Guess Who and most Tyler Perry movies. Death, a remake of the 2007 movie of the same name that grossed $8.6 million in its limited run, was sold as a raucous ensemble comedy featuring familiar faces like Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan. Ads were punchy enough to somewhat overcome the movie's morbid theme, but, as is often the case with ensembles, the gross didn't seem to equal the sum of its parts. Distributor Sony Pictures reported that the audience breakdown was 56 percent female and 56 perced aged 25 years and older.
Among holdovers, Date Night attracted an estimated $17.3 million, bringing its tally to $49.2 million in ten days. Abating by 31 percent, the comedy held much better than The Bounty Hunter and about as well as What Happens in Vegas. Clash of the Titans rounded out the Top Five with an estimated $15.8 million. Leveling off somewhat, the action picture faded 41 percent, and its total reached $133 million in 17 days, which is a relatively far cry from 300's $161.7 million at the same point.
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