Only 4? Ouch.

PMMJ | April 02, 01:00 CET

At least it did better than Basic Instinct 2.

UtterlyJP | April 02, 01:43 CET

Why does this feel like deja vu? lol.

kurya | April 02, 01:47 CET

I think #4 for opening movies is pretty good myself. I'll admit I went to see Ice Age 2 last night. As much as I love Nathan, I hate horror films, so I don't think I'll be seeing Slither.

fortunateizzi | April 02, 01:47 CET

It's a genre film. It'll get legs, do well next weekend and then recoup all its costs on DVD thus guaranteeing a sequel.

Simon | April 02, 01:52 CET

Are you kidding? It's a horror film targeted at teens. "Legs" are not something associated with the genre. It'll drop out of theaters with less than $10 million.

The Dark Shape | April 02, 02:41 CET

Further, its gross was actually closer to $1.4 million. That may not seem like much, but it's the difference between a $3.5 million weekend and a $4 million weekend.

The Dark Shape | April 02, 02:42 CET

Box Office Mojo had it earning $1.3 million Friday. They predicted it would be in third place over the weekend with a $7.3 million gross, so its way, way off.

bigsofty | April 02, 03:10 CET

Yes actually. That was the standard Serenity spiel we got during its first box office weekend.

Simon | April 02, 03:26 CET

Do we know what the budget was for the film?

heb | April 02, 04:01 CET

Alan is so thrashing Nathan >
(new) Ice Age: The Meltdown - 20th Century Fox - Comedy - $22,500,000 - 3,963 - 1
(new) Slither - Universal Horror - $1,500,000 - 1,943 - $772 - 1

Maybe they shouldn't have digitally remove the hair from Nathan's leg in the poster.

RavenU | April 02, 04:01 CET

imdb reports a budget of $15 million.

I heartily recommend the movie, by the way. Kudos to everybody involved.

MattM | April 02, 04:06 CET

In other news, "She's the Man" will end up earning more than Serenity (and that's no April Fools).

jam2 | April 02, 04:27 CET

I was kinda expecting it to do better after the relative buzz. It's was amazingly well reviewed under the 'it is what it is, but it knows it and it's fun' consensus. Only 4? Sheesh. That ain't gonna turn Nathan into the next Harrison Ford...

EdDantes | April 02, 04:42 CET

imdb reports a budget of $15 million.

If it earns back half its budget on the opening weekend, that's got to impress the money people, I'm sure!

billz | April 02, 04:46 CET

Slither will definitely make it's money back if the budget is $15m, but it's no big horror film or anything. Tis a big shame - it got surprisingly good reviews.

gossi | April 02, 04:59 CET

I loved the movie, but I'm not worried about it earning back it's money. Horror is huge on DVD, and this looks destined to become a cult classic.

MindPieces | April 02, 05:01 CET

So what did, say, a movie like Tremors do opening weekend? It bagged three sequels, I believe. . .

GrrrAargh | April 02, 05:36 CET

I'm not big on horror movies (I watched Scream 2 for SMG, but the opening theatre scene gave me a fear of public restrooms for the next few years) but this movie really did kick booty fifty different ways.

Emma Frost | April 02, 05:42 CET

Well, I guess this isn't the movie that will make Nathan a big star, thus ensuring a Serenity sequel.

vampire dan | April 02, 05:55 CET

Tremors did about $3.7 million opening weekend. Finished at $16.6.

Calledon | April 02, 06:01 CET

I'm not surprised, this kind of slock horror film would normally be a direct to DVD release, the kind of film I might check out on DVD. It's not the kind of film I would normally see at the cinema.

Now, White Noise 2, staring Nathan and Katee (Starbuck) Sackhoff, I’m there, even though I still haven’t seen White Noise 1 yet.

Zoic_Fan | April 02, 06:23 CET

White Noise is terrible. Though the director of WN2 is responsible for one of my favorite direct-to-video horror sequels, Prophecy III: The Ascent.

In terms of current events, Slither is incredibly entertaining. A bit slow to start, but fun and intense before the credits roll.

The Dark Shape | April 02, 06:28 CET

There were only 2 places where I had to close my eyes and not watch. The rest of Slither was very watchable from this non-horror-viewer's perspective. Very funny and with some unexpected twists. It should do well.

Lioness | April 02, 06:40 CET

Also contributing for slow start is the fact it opened only in 1,900 theaters. Ice Age 2 is just under 4,000 theaters.

delirium_haze | April 02, 06:58 CET

There was no way "Slither" was going to do anywhere as well as "Ice Age 2". However, it's worth noting that other films opening in a similar number of theatres for example "ATL" pulled in 4.5 million while being in 300 less theatres. You also have "Slither" just beating "Basic Instinct 2" by around $200,000 which is showing in 500 less theatres than "Slither". As a result "Basic Instinct 2" is beating "Slither" when you look at per screen average. I really don't see a positive spin here. We'll just have to hope "Slither" really picks up on Saturday.

helcat | April 02, 07:38 CET

I saw Slither Friday night and had a blast. This kind of horror film I can handle. It's more along the lines of Shaun of the Dead than it is something like Saw or The Grudge. Thankfully, Slither is also unlike the Scary Movie films in that there is an actual story with actual tension in many scenes.

Nathan is fantastic and it's great to see him in scenes with Gregg Henry (Sheriff Bourne from "The Train Job") again. This time Nathan is the sheriff and Gregg gets to be the Mayor. Both of them deliver many profound and hilarious quotable lines.

Think of Slither as a story from an old 1950s horror comic book like Twisted Tales... you know one of those comics that brought a fundamentalist inquisition upon comic books ("Senator, they are destroying our youth!") and eventually the ultra lame Comics Code.

Only.. without the Code.

Bring on the inquisition!!

Hjermsted | April 02, 10:48 CET

Good thing I sold my stock in SLiTHER at $28 earlier this week in the Hollywood Stock Exchange game because I was worried about something like this happening.

SLiTHER was a wonderful film with a wonderful cash, wonderful director and got wonderful reviews. Sometimes that's the biggest curse on a movie.

It's truly a sad day when you can say that Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector made more bank opening weekend then your movie.

bstrassburg | April 02, 11:24 CET

Slither will definitely make it's money back if the budget is $15m, but it's no big horror film or anything. Tis a big shame - it got surprisingly good reviews.

It seems that, nowadays, good reviews translate in bad omens: "if good reviews you get, then little money you'll make" (and vice-versa, see Star Wars 3). It's like a universal balance: you can't have everything, to be fair to others.

:P

Le Comité | April 02, 12:24 CET

About 20 members of our local Browncoat group went to see Slither Friday night. I'm not much for gore, but it was very funny and Nathan was great, as always. There were a couple of times when our group laughed especially hard at scenes which we connected to Firefly/Serenity scenes (think 'grenades').

It turns out Nathan was sitting in the row behind us. I didn't get to see him then, although he spoke to some of the members of our group - but some of us did get to watch him do three takes of a scene from White Noise II last weekend :-)

samatwitch | April 02, 12:25 CET

Le Comite: Actually, Revenge of the Sith overall got good reviews. I've resigned myself to seeing it brought up and bashed on here a lot, in what I think is a needless Serenity vs Star Wars internet battle (both ruled in my opionion)

Sith on Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_3/

Sith has an 82% fresh rating vs an 80% rating for Serenity... Though Slither has a higher score then either right now!

Eric G | April 02, 12:47 CET

Indeed, Ep 3 did slightly better than Serenity across the board withf reviews. That said, a lot of them started with 'It's much better than eps 1 and 2... But the writing and direction sucks blah blah'. Which made me giggle.

Regarding Basic Instinct 2 - that will have had a much bigger budget (most of it going to Miss Stone I'm sure). So it might have done better per screen, but that doesn't mean it did better overall.

gossi | April 02, 15:49 CET

I thought the film would do much better than this (Browncoats + horror genre fans).

ncr | April 02, 17:26 CET

Thanks for the numbers Calledon. Some perspective, I think. Or at least interesting trivia.

Hopefully Slither will have legs. We're going to see it this afternoon -- the first time we've been able to get out for it. I'll keep the faith.

GrrrAargh | April 02, 18:12 CET

Chud.com is really behind the movie.

Simon | April 02, 18:19 CET

Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness (aka Evil Dead 3) was complete failure at the box office, but it became a cult classic selling really well on VHS and DVD. Slither has a similar feel to is as the Evil Dead movies, in that it does a great job with both the horror and humor elements. I think this movie will end up with a similar cult audience as Evil Dead as the people who like the movie seem to really, really love it.

This movie didn't turn Nathan Fillion into the next Harrison Ford, but it's on it's way to turning him into the next Bruce Campbell.

Matt_Fabb | April 02, 20:08 CET

Boxofficemojo has the weekened take for "Slither" estimated as `$3,670,000'.

helcat | April 02, 20:48 CET

I love Bruce Campbell.

exoticmushroom | April 02, 21:40 CET

Well I contributed my $7 to Slither. It was good! Very fun and gross!

MandyMouse | April 02, 22:25 CET

I saw and enjoyed "Slither." And I encourage all but the most sensitive Whedonheads to do likewise.

As mentioned previously, I like horror when it's well done but have a real "thing" about gore -- or at least certain types of it (i.e., the more realistic type). So, I went to see it last night, but with the aid of three airplane style bottles of vodka which I consumed illegally on the premises. Seeing as most of the worst gore was pretty unrealistic -- or of animals (which for some reason bothers me a lot less than when it's people gore), I could have been fine with one bottle. But the other two bottles allowed me to be less annoyed with the talkative Orange County audience.

I should add that the smallish theater was fairly packed and the audience was pretty loudly (too loudly) appreciative.

However, I have to say that I'm sure the movie will, at the very least, be very successful on DVD -- it's a perfect kind of kick-back-with-a-several-beers type movie and, considering the smaller number of theaters, may not drop off too hugely. I'd even say, given the very strong reaction from the audience, that it could pick up significantly via word of mouth and break out of the usual horror ghetto because of the very strong comedy elements -- however, modern Hollywood seems to have constructed a system where word of mouth doesn't work anymore. Don't know how those marketing geniuses worked that one out. Soon, they won't even need an audience to show up at all.

I truly think Nathan might be able to break out into Ford territory -- or at least Bruce Campbell with a bullet -- given just a few of the right kind of movie. "White Noise II" clearly won't do it, but there'll be others.

Which reminds me, has anyone heard anything about that romantic comedy he was supposed to be in?

Considering his costar was Kerrie Russell (soon to star opposite Tom "I'm not insane" Cruise in Mission Imposible III), and the back-up was Cheryl Hines (from "Curb Your Enthiasm") and Jeremy Sisto (from "Six Feet Under"), that one seemed to have some real possibilities.

[ edited by bobster on 2006-04-02 22:04 ]

bobster | April 03, 00:01 CET

I believe both the romantic comedy thing and White Noise 2 are marked as Direct to DVD (although they're waiting to see how they turn out).

gossi | April 03, 01:34 CET

I wasn't comparing SWIII to Serenity...



Really? Well, then, that confirms that people reviewing movies rarely go and see them... cos', you know, to give a good review to SWIII, you either have to be blind and deaf or Lucas (which I suspect has himself become blind and deaf, to be able to write and shoot such a thing after having made SWIV).

I have a friend which is was a complete SW fan (up to and included SWII); if there exist, he was a Browncoat of SW. But more than that, he is a person with a brain and, above all, cinematographic taste and knowledge (more than average, because of his background). When he saw SWIII, he told me he had no other honest choice but find it really crappy. He enjoyed it for the "eye candy" as he said, but that means nothing more than pretty images on the screen. Everything that was the spirit of the series had vanished, and even once-great actors were a pity (can anyone say "McGregor"?). And I don't even talk about the writing and the direction, indeed, Gossi.

That's strange because here (=in france) I saw mixed criticisms about Serenity (some were good, some were bad), but I could only hear bad criticisms about SWIII (now I am comparing, Eric G ;) ). To be honest, I precise that I am only refering to criticisms which have a little "depth" in them (and, yes, some bad criticisms about Serenity were indeed constructed).

Le Comité | April 03, 01:48 CET

Gossi --

"White Noise II" is one thing, but it seems to me that the usual pattern with a romantic comedy with an interesting cast -- and one potential budding superstar (I mean Keri Russell) to at least throw it at the festival circuit, and see if it sticks to the walls there. If the movie gets a decent audience/critical response, I think the very least it would get is a Showtime or other cable channel premiere.

Quick Postscript -- I thought it was interesting that B.O. Mojo mentioned that horror comedy is a tough sell and described "Tremors" as a box office dissapointment, even though it's now quite the beloved cult classic.

It just irks that a lot of this may be self-fulfilling prophesy in terms of promotion, theater size, etc.

And the movie sure didn't look like a flop in the theater I sat in. Weird. Very weird.

[ edited by bobster on 2006-04-03 04:07 ]

bobster | April 03, 03:51 CET

The theater I saw it in (small, in an urban-ish college town) wasn't particularly packed, but the people around me were having a rather good time. I myself enjoyed it thoroughly, and I usually avoid horror movies like the plague.

Unfortunately, I think it's difficult to convey to a lot of people just exactly what kind of movie Slither is, unless they know of something like Tremors or Evil Dead to compare it to. I was talking to my friend about it today, and she just kept insisting that it looked stupid until I eventually came up with the word 'campy' to describe it, which she kind of got. I doubt she'll be running out to the theater though.

Ffiferoo | April 03, 07:13 CET

Le Comité: Hmm, thanks for calling me and everyone who liked Revenge of the Sith brainless, blind and deaf! I shouldn't even go there, but I'll just say this... I think MOST everyone, huge Star Wars fans (like me) included, will admit that The Phantom Menace has many many many big problems, and I completely understand people hating that movie. But based on what you said, I take it your friend liked Phantom Menace, but found Revenge of the Sith to be the sucky film that he couldn't defend? Okay then. Hopefully one day I will get that intelligence, sight and hearing I'm lacking so I can understand.

BTW, here's the funny thing: Nearly everyone I know loved Serenity AND Revenge of the Sith! I know. How could this be? Yet somehow, we've done the impossible. And that makes us Jedi.

Eric G | April 03, 07:45 CET

I think we (including me) have done the Serenity vs. Revenge of the Sith thing to death. Let's get the thread back on Slither. Thanks.

SoddingNancyTribe | April 03, 07:53 CET

I don't recall anything in Slither that cries out that it has to be seen on the big screen, so I'm with those who see the poor box office as a temporary setback. I really enjoyed seeing it on one of the best screens in L.A. (the Arclight), but it won't lose much in transfer to DVD. It's gonna be a cult favorite, and may well have sequels.

dreamlogic | April 03, 11:06 CET

Unfortunately, I think it's difficult to convey to a lot of people just exactly what kind of movie Slither is, unless they know of something like Tremors or Evil Dead to compare it to.

Yuhu - sound familiar, anybody? I was sure Slither would do well, because - you know - it's horror. That said, I also didn't see any of the adverts for it (UK based - we haven't had any yet). If it played as horror comedy, you might have had the "That'll be shit!" effect which Serenity had.

gossi | April 03, 12:14 CET

I'm going to skip the industry speculation and just say that I saw the movie this weekend and I thought it was mighty entertaining. I'll buy it on DVD for sure.

war_machine | April 03, 15:57 CET

Once again we see that good reviews doesn't always help people to go see genre films. My bf kept comparing the movie to "Night of the Creeps," but I found it pretty enjoyable. It's a good rental or matinee movie.

krebstar5 | April 03, 17:06 CET

Not everything Fillion touches is gonna turn to gold. It's good that he's getting work. It's not like he's hurting. He's got an impressive resume. This isn't a low blow. No worries. White Noise 2. Waitress. He'll land on his feet.

ZachsMind | April 03, 19:49 CET

...No I haven't gone to see it yet myself. I'll probably wait for DVD. Not that I don't want to support Fillion, but I rarely go to the theaters anymore. I don't enjoy the modern movie-going experience in a public place. I prefer the privacy of my own home, where I can yell at the screen to my heart's content, and I don't have to be annoyed when other people yell at the screen to their heart's content.

Here's my litmus test. To anyone who's actually seen SLITHER, can you honestly tell me whether or not it's better than WRONG TURN? If it's better, I may consider going to the theater. If it's the same or worse, I'll wait for the DVD.

Wrong Turn was... tolerably disappointing. It had its moments, but I like my horror either serious or campy. Wrong Turn wasn't serious enough to be escapist, and wasn't campy enough to be laughable. Imagine a remake of Evil Dead starring David Duchovny. You just wouldn't know where you stood with an Ashe that was portrayed by David Duchovny. Dushku's performance, and indeed that of the entire production, was too uncertain. It didn't know if it wanted to play it straight or ham it up, so it tried a little of both and this muddied the efforts.

ZachsMind | April 03, 20:19 CET

Here's my litmus test. To anyone who's actually seen SLITHER, can you honestly tell me whether or not it's better than WRONG TURN? If it's better, I may consider going to the theater. If it's the same or worse, I'll wait for the DVD.

I haven't seen Wrong Turn and I don't dare to, so I don't know how much weight my word holds. Slither is a horror comedy, it's more about comedy than horror and its not taking itself seriously. The audience at my theater really responded to it and laughed a lot. It has a lot of one-liners, they're funny but also raunchy.

delirium_haze | April 03, 20:30 CET

Okay. So "Slither" is closer to "Tremors" than it is "Night of the Living Dead." That's okay, but it means I'll still probably wait for DVD. Again, I prefer seeing that kinda stuff in the privacy of my home, so I don't have an audience around me operating as a laugh track. At films like that I often find myself laughing when the rest of the audience doesn't, and they laugh when I find it annoying, thus I miss stuff that's important to me and they miss stuff that's important to them.

ZachsMind | April 03, 21:38 CET