Even if the figures are not that great, this is still good news, I think. I'm still hopeful of a sequel. If the woeful Underworld can merit a sequel then surely our BDHs can too. (Can anyone enlighten me as to how much Underworld took at the BO? It can't have been that much bearing in mind the critical drubbing that it got.)

prospero | October 11, 20:57 CET

Underworld took $21,753,759 opening weekend in the US, and $93,708,457 in total. $51,970,690 is domestic US.

Basically, it took about twice as much as Serenity will get domestically.

Appauling reviews does not mean people won't see a film, unfortunately. In fact, I was in the film queue last night at our cinema, and somebody was stood in front of me telling his girlfriend he wanted to see Deux Bigalo because "I've read it's the worst film ever made!".

gossi | October 11, 21:01 CET

According to IMDb, Underworld cost $23 million and made $50 million in the US (with a $21 million opening weekend!). Not much overall, but it doubled its budget. Still, I’m also hopeful for a sequel. We just need to keep watching and spreading the word.

Ah, gossi was quicker on the draw, I see.

[ edited by StakeTheLurk on 2005-10-11 19:03 ]

StakeTheLurk | October 11, 21:03 CET

Interesting factoid: UK people may have seen "Revolver" all over bus stations, cinemas, the front page of Odeon.co.uk for ages, in an email from Odeon to all users, all over the press...

Serenity opened to more money than Revolver did, despite Revolver having a huge marketing campaign in the UK.

gossi | October 11, 21:08 CET

...not to be confused with "Go ssi!".

Or with "gos se." Which would have been fightin' words!

;)

IMForeman | October 11, 21:09 CET

I really should have picked a better nickname.

gossi | October 11, 21:09 CET

Revolver also got the worst word of mouth I have ever seen. Plus Guy Ritchie went off the boil years ago.

Simon | October 11, 21:10 CET

Simon - I'm talking compared to Revolvers opening weekend (before word of mouth had chance to kill it).

gossi | October 11, 21:19 CET

Yeah but people who saw Swept Away never forgave him. Or themselves for watching it. I, rather tongue in check, put that down to its relatively poor number one opening.

Simon | October 11, 21:23 CET

You mean that there were people who actually watched Swept Away? Will wonders ever cease?

The original was terrific, but the thought of Madonna in that role was enough to send me running the other way.

rkayn | October 11, 21:38 CET

And I love the hideously ugly spaceship. What a flying deathtrap. I love it.

This was one of the comments on the Digital Spy site, bloody cheek! You don't diss the Serenity like that without being invited to step outside and settling the matter with a fair fight. Or in the way Jayne talks about settling a fair fight...

zz9 | October 11, 21:46 CET

Just don't tell Kaylee or she'll get really angry... "Serenity ain't a piece of gossa!"

Razor | October 11, 21:51 CET

Interesting factoid: UK people may have seen "Revolver" all over bus stations, cinemas, the front page of Odeon.co.uk for ages, in an email from Odeon to all users, all over the press...
Serenity opened to more money than Revolver did, despite Revolver having a huge marketing campaign in the UK.

Gossi, with Revolver you kind of clutching at straws. Maybe it didn’t have the word of mouth in the first weekend yet to kill it off completely, but it had the worst reviews I have ever seen in my entire life. Think Gigli and times it by 10.

After the first weekend word of mouth finished it off. (I have a fried who saw it and thought it was rubbish.)

I have been suppressing a wry smile when people are moaning about the Serenity box office and been thinking about Revolver. Bad stuff can and does happen. Spare a thought for Guy Ritchie fans. This guy has just killed his entire career.

Which I am not particularly sad about as Madge has enough money to finance another movie for him, plus I watched Swept Away (yes I was curious how bad it could be. Stupid me. HORRENDOUS is the operative word. 10% of the movie are quite good, 90% of the movie are like root canal surgery.)

Point is, Joss & co have done themselves proud. Reviews have been good. Word of mouth is good. Firefly fans like it. Box office is ok to rather good. Fan base is growing. DVD sales are going to be tremendous. Lets just be really happy with what we have for a moment here.

miranda | October 11, 22:22 CET

Yes, let's all bask a moment and enjoy the fact that the movie was made and it was great!!

[ edited by Firefly Flanatic on 2005-10-11 20:26 ]

Firefly Flanatic | October 11, 22:26 CET

Oh, I am basking.

Regarding Revolver, all I'm saying is it had a huge marketing budget. They knew word of mouth would kill it. So they plowed shit loads into opening week, and Serenity still beat it. I'm happy about that.

Revolver, believe it or not, got some good reviews. Of course, 95% of them were awful, but never the less the posters had 'BEST FILM EVAH' plastered all over them.

My mission for this week is to come up with suggestions to help make Serenity #2 this weekend in the UK. Any suggestions, anybody?

gossi | October 11, 22:40 CET

What if we got some rich bloke to buy 320 tickets and then stand outside a cinema giving them away?

Jon | October 11, 22:50 CET

I'll phone Joss up right away, Jon.

gossi | October 11, 22:56 CET

Best plan EVER! ;-)

Seriously, these UK results still give me a happy. Also, nice to see that Serenity picture on the BBC's newssite. It's one of the sites I hit daily for science news (I'm doing an internship at a dutch popular science magazine), so somehow this is very cool to me. Not exactly sure why, but it is :-)

GVH | October 11, 23:36 CET

If anybody is interested (I don't know if it's been posted here), the BBC have a new Joss Whedon video interview on their website, under film. It's the most watched feature on their website.

gossi | October 11, 23:45 CET

Ah, if it was posted here, I missed it. Thanks gossi.

GVH | October 11, 23:45 CET

A couple of things the #1 spot is hiding. The overall box office is not good (£958,815 - I certainly would have hoped for > £1m and preferably around £1.5m), and in reality Serenity came a distant 2nd to the previews of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, as you can see in this Reuters article - which at least shows that Anya was right to be worried about bunnies...

For myself, I am assuming that dreams of sequels are pretty much over. But none of that takes away from the fact that Serenity is an excellent film, and most people (and most critics) who have seen it agree - it's just there have not been enough of them. There has been enough critical acclaim - and the interesting comment I read somewhere on here about how well Joss handled the budget and ran the film - to mean that this shouldn't affect Joss's chances of helming more movies, and I want to look forward to see what he does with Wonder Woman and I'm really looking forward to Goners . The one negative is that he may not have as much control, and in particular may have to cast more established movie stars.

[ edited by Kiddo on 2005-10-11 21:48 ]

Kiddo | October 11, 23:46 CET

Kiddo, I agree, the actual gross is not great. This has been a topic of conversation about my spinning this.

These are four things which played against the movie in the UK:

- The 15 rating. Nobody under 15. That's a big number of people.
- It's Sci-Fi.
- It's from a TV show ('cult') which has only aired on a premicable/sat network.
- It had a lowish screen count.

Therefore, I'm happy with this number. If it had opened against a big new movie, it would have been 2nd.

There's three things which look very good in the UK:

- The per screen gross was well above anything else. It was double Nightwatch.

- There are no other major openings in October which threaten Serenity greatly.

- It increased Friday to Saturday by 39%. This is completely opposite to the US, and suggests a cross over from cult to main stream extremely well. This is the problem which has killed the movie in the US.

[ edited by gossi on 2005-10-11 21:59 ]

gossi | October 11, 23:58 CET

Point is, Joss & co have done themselves proud. Reviews have been good. Word of mouth is good. Firefly fans like it. Box office is ok to rather good. Fan base is growing. DVD sales are going to be tremendous. Lets just be really happy with what we have for a moment here.
Agreed. People may shake their heads and wonder why it didn't do more, though it's still far from over, but Joss did his part. First time directing a movie, on time, on budget, widespread critical acclaim and people who did see it loved it. No one, absolutly no one, can predict if a movie is going to be a hit. The studios roll the dice and take a chance. Joss didn't let them down. We, and millions of people round the world, will still be watching Serenity in twenty years time, and some of them will be asking themselves why they didn't go see it in the theatre when it came out.

St Joss's Day:
O that we now had here
But one ten million of those men in the US
That do no work to-day!

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to get no sequel, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for Oscars,
Nor care I who doth go see Into The Blue just to see Jessica Alba in a bikini;
It yearns me not if stupid Flightplan stays at number one;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet the best BDM ever,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach for a movie with an actual message,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for the Alba chick-flic put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Joss.
He that outlives this day, and then buys the DVD,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Joss.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is the day Serenity kicked ass.'
Then will he get his ticket stubs and show his autographs,
And say 'These momentoes I had on Joss's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What BDM he saw that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
zz9, Gossi and EdDantes,
Firefly Fanatic and Zeitgiest, Simon and Caroline-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Joss Whedon shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that shares his popcorn with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
Make him a member of the gentry, even if he is a commoner.
And gentlemen in America now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That watched with us upon opening day.

zz9 | October 12, 00:46 CET

Serenity hit 700k for Monday in the US - That's only a 4% drop from last Monday.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=serenity.htm

SpookyRiverFan | October 12, 00:51 CET

SRF, 4% drop is average it seems from last week. However, average is actually good for this type of film.

gossi | October 12, 02:11 CET

Nicely done, zz9.

k8cre8 | October 12, 02:13 CET

4% week-to-week Monday drop? Sure, it's only a one-day figure, but that's really good! Hopefully this trend stays through the week!

Ronald_SF | October 12, 02:23 CET

zz9, I love it! I can just hear Laurence Olivier (my favourite Henry V) reciting this!

Lioness | October 12, 02:35 CET

Chewitel Ejiofor must be grinning - he's in 3 of the top ten films! Wow!

purplehazel | October 12, 03:31 CET

zz9 - thanks for cheering me up. Just seen Serenity with 6 people, one of whom said it was silly. Now I'm grumpy! But she paid, so what the hell.

lone fashionable wolf | October 12, 03:56 CET

zz9, that was a thing of beauty. Nicely done.

XanFan32 | October 12, 04:59 CET

I think there's something to that, and if Wonderwoman is a hit, and Goners does well, there may be a lot of people wanting to see Joss's debut movie and realising what they've missed. Hell, it could even end up back in cinemas!

Gossi - I know the 15 certificate certainly depressed box office, but I have to say when I saw it in the West End at the weekend, it was a delight not to have loads of noisy and poorly behaved kids in there. And my theory about why it was given a 15 is that there is a head-butt in it, and the BBFC are very strict about head-butts in movies kids can go into.

Kiddo | October 12, 10:55 CET