Monday Morning Mixer: Mixed bag for 'Elysium' and other newcomers

Posted Monday, August 12, 2013 at 3:20 PM Central
Last updated Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 8:37 AM Central

by John Couture

There are known quantities and there are unknown quantities.

Matt Damon is a known quantity. His 36 films have a lifetime gross of almost $2.6 billion, or about $78 million per film. He has been the male lead in many of those films.

Jason Sudeikis, on the other hand, is unknown quantity. His 11 films have only barely managed to bring $500 million and he has never been the single male lead responsible for carrying a film before.

Considering that Sudeikis recently confirmed that he will not return to SNL, you could say that he really has more on the line than Matt Damon with this weekend's results.

As the headline suggest, those results are mixed at best. Mixed, just the way we like them here at the MMM. Sit back and enjoy while we attempted to untangle the box office mess for you.

Box Office 411

This is usually the part where we applaud the top film at the box office this weekend, but even that is muddled at best. The film that grossed the most money from Friday to Sunday was Elysium with $30.4 million so, by default, it is the box office weekend champion.

However, the film that earned the most money during the entire opening weekend was We're the Millers with $38 million. So, what gives?

Well, what gives is that in a genius last minute maneuver, Warner Bros. moved up We're the Millers from the traditional Friday release to a special Wednesday release. That move netted an additional $11 million for We're the Millers and hence the discrepancy.

For all intents and purposes though, Elysium was technically the top film for the weekend and its $30.4 million is OK, especially considering the crowded marketplace. The opening was down from director Neill Blomkamp's debut District 9 which opened to the tune of $37 million in a mid-August opening in 2009.

The film performed slightly below expectations and projections that were as high as $40 million prior to release, but at least it wasn't After Earth bad. It seems that audiences fell out of love with Science-Fiction this Summer, which could set a dangerous precedent with so many Sci-Fi movies set for release in the coming years.

All of that said, Elysium will struggle to break $100 million and I see it falling just short at $90 million. If Sony had any plans of making it into a franchise, I think it's safe to say those plans have cooled significantly.

As mentioned above, the film that over-performed in its initial week of release was We're the Millers. The $38 million opening was far greater than expectations and the film will most likely limp its way to just north of $100 when it's all said and done.

I guess that Jason Sudeikis can relax now and enjoy his post-SNL life with the security of knowing that he can open a film. Of course, either way, I think he's just fine with the sudden surge of free time. If you're even a moderate fan of Olivia Wilde and you didn't click that link, you'll be hating yourself later, I promise.

In third place, it's another newcomer and another film that over-performed its expectations. The Disney - Not Pixar - sort of sequel to the Cars franchise Planes earned a very respectable $22.5 million. Sure, that's peanuts for a Pixar film opening, but it's a solid win for a DisneyToon release and a shot of adrenaline for Disney Animation as a whole.

Once slotted to be a direct-to-video premiere, Planes was riddled with setback and setback that made anything more than a middling release seem almost unlikely. Jon Cryer was set to voice the lead plane Dusty at one point, but he pulled out this year and Dane Cook stepped in to fill the void in late February.

For Dane, it's a move that is sure to pay off in spades. Known as a raunchy comedian with an adult following, this role instantly connects him to a much younger audience thus increasing his viability in family-friendly live-action films in the future. As for the animated variety, he'll be busy there too as Disney announced this weekend at their D23 convention that Planes: Fire and Rescue, with Dane back voicing Dusty, will hit theaters on July 8, 2014.

Planes should zoom past $50 million easily and make a nice profit for many years and sequels to come.

Finally, the last newcomer really didn't perform well this weekend. Opening in fourth place, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters only managed to bring in $14.6 million. Even when you add in the $8 million or so from the early release days earlier in the week, the opening weekend total is still about a fourth of its predecessor. I'm told there's three more books in this series, but I have a very hard time believing that they will complete the franchise at this rate.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters will need plenty of help to simply reach $60 million, which is still over $20 less than the first film opened with. Oops.

Quick Hitters

So, this weekend was the biannual D23 Conference in Anaheim, California. For the uninitiated, the D23 Conference is basically Disney's answer to the wildly popular Comic Con International held annually in San Diego. It's basically an excuse for Disney, ahem, fans to gather, dress up and discuss all things Disney.

Now that Disney basically owns Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, this year's event was quickly elevated to must-see status. And while the Mouse House didn't disappoint in terms of its reveals and star power, the force was noticeably missing this weekend.

First up, Pixar and Disney animation touched on a few of their upcoming offerings. In addition to the aforementioned Planes: Fire and Rescue, Pixar touched on their upcoming films for the next three years. Next year, The Good Dinosaur imagines a world in which the big asteroid missed Earth. In 2015, I'm excited to see Lewis Black play "Anger" in the film Inside Out which all takes place inside a little girl's head. Finally, we get the sequel Finding Dory at the end of 2015 where the gang gets back together a year after Finding Nemo to go on a journey to find Dory's parents.

There were plenty of other animation tid bits, but you can read all about them here.

On the live action front, Marvel took center stage with their 35 films coming out in the next three years. That might be an overstatement, but it sure feels like there's a new Marvel film every other month these days.

The next two films Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier took center stage, but they also left plenty of time for Guardians of the Galaxy. The real show-stealer though was the ever-charming Angelina Jolie who showed up to promote next year's Maleficent.

However, the loudest noise was made by the Star Wars: Episode VII news that flowed out of D23. Oh, I'm sorry, that's the lack of news that Disney released and the news was limited to all of the Star Wars fan boys whining that they didn't even release anything new about the film or any upcoming Star Wars lands at their theme parks. Personally, I agree with this Forbes article and I'm glad that they are keeping a rather tight lip in regards to these new films.

That's not to say that there wasn't any Star Wars presence whatsoever at D23. R2D2 made an appearance at a booth code named "Orange Harvest" that many speculate hint at upcoming plans for an attraction at their parks. I dig the shout out to "Blue Harvest" the code name of the original Star Wars film while it was shooting.

And then there was this.

A clever Twitter user created this very cool teaser poster for Star Wars: Episode VII and inserted it into the #D23Expo stream. I dug it enough to share with you today and we retweeted it on Friday because it's just too cool. As you'll most likely deduce from left to right it's Leia, Luke and Han's weapon of choice.

There was also plenty of news on other live-action films. You can click here to get all of the details.

Finally today, Warm Bodies star Teresa Palmer is going to be getting a significantly warmer body soon. The young Aussie actress announced this weekend that she's pregnant. Sorry, I couldn't pass up that pun.

For those curious, we're still on baby watch in my house as well. Two weeks from today (or sooner), we will be welcoming into the world our second bundle of joy. I will be off for a few weeks, but I'll check in periodically. Be kind to Tim while I'm out.

Until next week (barring a baby being born), mix well!

P.S. My partner in crime Tim found this cool recap video of D23 and we both thought it should nestle in nicely here at the end of this story. Enjoy!