Craig's MovieBlog

Giant Nerd Orgasms

As you may have heard, there's lots of fear excitement in various entertainment industries about the fact that the film Iron Man is opening the same weekend that the video game Grand Theft Auto IV is released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Nikki Finke says that the video game will hurt Iron Man's ticket sales, and Variety is reporting that GTA IV may pull in as much as $400 million in its opening week.  Nikki also brings in a 3rd party to discuss whether video games are bigger than movies.  He basically says that the numbers are bigger in video games, but that's because the games are almost 10 times more expensive.  I say, "money is money."  If studios could sell movie tickets for $60 a pop, they would.  But yes, there are fewer people buying video games than movie tickets - tell it to the shareholders.

There were similar rumblings a few months ago, when Halo 3 supposedly hurt the box office take of Ben Stiller's The Heartbreak Kid, but I still believe that (oh, I don't know) the movie wasn't really interesting to anyone and was destined to fail anyway.  Besides, is the core Halo 3 audience really the same people going to a Ben Stiller romantic comedy?  I'm just sayin'.

You know what I predict for that weekend?  With a huge comic book movie and a giant video game being released?  Well, just look at the title...

Yes, That's Right... Halo 3 is the Reason Your Movie Stunk

Ad Age and Portfolio.com are reporting that the success of Halo 3 is being blamed for The Heartbreak Kid flopping at the box office, among other things:

"Word is that Universal Studios Home entertainment topper Craig Kornblau sent out an internal memo citing the video game as the reason sales figures for the Knocked Up DVD were less than hoped, and even the TV ratings took a few unexplained hits that were ascribed to the addictive sweep of Halo 3."

Nice.  It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that no one really wanted to see The Heartbreak Kid, could it?  I love how people are comparing it to the weekend box office total from the previous year, where a little film called The Departed came out.  It had some box office stars that you might have heard of, and I think it might have won some awards, like the Oscar for Best Picture... can't be sure... don't quote me on that.

Anyway, I'm sure that there are some people who didn't watch TV or go to a movie that weekend because of Halo 3, but there's no way it had as much of an impact as crappy marketing and (less so) terrible reviews.  I love how studio execs love to find excuses and blame everything else other than their own organization's work.

Not Being Creative Enough To Come Up With Your Own Joke "Blows"

Here is the latest poster for Good Luck Chuck.  Note the tag line:

Here is the latest poster for The Heartbreak Kid.  Note the tag line:

The Heartbreak Kid Trailer

I think if I had to sit in Hollywood pitch meetings, I'd keep a lot of cyanide tablets around for me to bite into.

"See... it's like There's Something About Mary, but a sequel, AND... wait for it: it's a remake of a 1970's classic!  Has anyone ever done a sequel and a remake at the same time?!?  It's groundbreaking!"

At least the gorgeous blonde from Entourage, The Comeback, and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is in it.  Really strong decision to make her a complete psycho monster though.

But hey, enjoy the trailer for The Heartbreak Kid.