Hail, Caesar flops in the box office and loses to Kung Fu Panda 3.
Super Bowl weekend was a slow one at the box office. Not surprisingly, Kung Fu Panda 3 is the number one movie in America, topping a few weak debuts.
Meanwhile, Star Wars: The Force Awakens passed $900 million in the domestic box office. That’s $140 million more than the next-closest movie, Avatar, at $760.5 million.
The Force Awakens also became the third movie ever to reach $2 billion dollars worldwide and the first non-James Cameron movie to do so, the other two being Titanic and Avatar.
Of the three new movies in wide release this weekend were Hail, Caesar!, The Choice, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Hail, Caesar! did the best earning $11 million. That’s an opening that’s being called from “a bit low,” to a major “fumble”.
However, Box Office Mojo reports that this is the Coens’ lowest opening for a movie release in more than 1,500 theaters, which is a big deal. However, many argue that the Super Bowl is the reason why the movie flopped. Forbes points out that Coen brothers pictures tend to do about three times their wide opening debut, which would put the $22-million budgeted Hail, Caesar! at $33 million.
For example, Inside Llewyn Davis, had a limited release in December and eventually earned $32 million. However, unlike Inside Llewyn Davis, people hated the movie. In fact, the movie was rated a C- Cinemascore, which is pretty bad for a big budget movie.
Julie Roman from MovieWeb.com said this about the movie, “‘Hail, Caesar!’ has no lack of star power, but falls decidedly flat in insufferably dull stretches. The Coen Brothers have a rare miss with their Hollywood golden age satire.”
Outside of the Super Bowl and bad movie reviews, the movie’s performance in the box office may be due to the writer’s comments on diversity in Hollywood.
As Mic.com pointed out, the Joel and Ethan Coen movie did not include many non-white actors in their new movie. But, when asked why there weren’t any characters of color in the movie stirred a bit of controversy. In an interview with the Daily Beast, the directors said that not every story will involve a diverse cast.
“You don’t sit down and write a story and say, ‘I’m going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog’ — right? That’s not how stories get written. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand anything about how stories get written and you don’t realize that the question you’re asking is idiotic.”
Those comments didn’t settle well with movie fans.
From Mic:
On its face, the response seems jarringly tone deaf. Put aside for a moment that some filmmakers do write with inclusion in mind — although likely without comparing their minority characters to dogs, to borrow Joel’s clumsy phrasing. There is much middle ground between writing with representation ‘quotas’ and only making characters nonwhite if necessary. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, has spoken in the past of color-blind casting; as a result, her shows are filled with characters from different backgrounds.
To add insult to injury, Hail, Caesar’s is George Clooney’s worst opening in nearly 20 years.
Next week brings us Zoolander 2, Deadpool, and How to Be Single – opening on Valentine’s Day.
What do you think? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!
