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What’s Short and Blue and Destroys My Faith in Movies?

Monday, August 1st, 2011 at 10:36 am by Jamie

According to Box Office Mojo, The Smurfs tied with Cowboys & Aliens this past weekend for the number one slot. Both movies raked in $36.2 million. On the one hand, it’s pretty awesome that a movie with such a silly title as Cowboys & Aliens can kick out Harry Potter and Captain America for a top slot. It’s a new franchise without a lot of name recognition and although it has some pretty big star power, it’s something new that Hollywood took a chance on. Yeah, I know it’s a comic, but I never heard of it until the movie. So I consider it something new and awesome. More new things need to be made.

On the other hand, the fact that The Smurfs also kicked out Harry Potter and Captain American from the top slots is a clear indication that Hollywood’s recycling program brings home the bacon. Both of this weekend’s number one films probably had significant effect budgets. But I suspect that Cowboys & Aliens was more expensive to make. This means that for less money, Hollywood succeeded with a recycled property that only people in their thirties and above remember watching as kids. Which, to a big Hollywood exec who only gives a shit about the bottom line, may signal that they are heading in the right direction with these remakes, rebirths, remixes, redo, re everything.

For the rest of us means that the summers are going to be full of stuff we’ve seen before for longer than I’d expected. I mean, I was kinda hoping that the remix thing would die down after a few years but it seems to be going stronger than ever.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 1st, 2011 at 10:36 am and is filed under Fantasy, Movies, Remix, Sci Fi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • http://www.sparebrainsgames.com Wayne Zombie

    We saw Cowboys & Aliens last night, excellent movie! One of the best stories that I’ve seen in a long time. The sad thing was that we were there to see Cap’n America and the 2-D showing was sold out, AGAIN. We tried to see it last Sunday and it was sold out. They only have two 2-D showings a day, and I’m sick and tired of 3-D movies and am doing my best not to patronize them.

    The only way that we got in to see C&A was that the previous showing was only half an hour earlier, and it had sold out. I have found this to be a pretty effective tactic to see flics.

    Oh, they showed the trailer for the new Spiderman reboot. My wife’s first words: “Why are they rebooting a movie that’s 10 years old?”

    No, we won’t see the Smurfs movie (I thought they were idiotic 30 years ago), and we won’t see the Spiderman relaunch. I hope.

  • http://duagcore.wordpress.com Cortharis

    I got the impression that the Smurfs was there to appeal to the younger kids who didn’t get all tied up into Harry Potter. That and I think there’s been a bit of a drought in young kids movies, and they really advertised the hell out of the Smurfs.

    I aim to check out Cowboys and Aliens, sounds like something that was good, although I didn’t like the latter trailers, seemed to kill a bit of the mystery and things were looking a bit cliche. Otherwise I gladly look forward to Ninjas vs Robots in 2014.

  • Taellosse

    I was never even that into the Smurfs when I was a kid, and yet, still, that picture has raped my childhood. So thanks for that. *shudder*

  • http://togroklife.com greg

    I was actually collecting some stats on this on Friday, but lost my sheet of notes. A quick recap of 2010 shows that of the top 10 films, only 2 were original works (Inception and Despicable Me), of the other 8, 5 were parts of continuing movie franchises (Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, Harry Potter 7a, Shrek Forever After, Twilight: Eclipse), and the last 3 were based on stories/books but not part of movie franchises (yet) (Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon, Alice in Wonderland), and 2 of those could arguably be called remakes, though the originals were animated cartoons.

    2009 = 4 original (Avatar, Up, 2012, Hangover), 6 series/reboots (Harry Potter 6, Ice Age 3, Transformers 2, Twilight: New Moon, Sherlock Holmes, Angels & Demons)

    2008 = 3 original, 5 series/reboots, 2 based on other media (Mamma Mia! and Iron Man)

    2007 = 1 original, 5 series/reboots, 4 based on other media

    2006 = 3,6,1

    2005 = 3,7,0

    2004 = 4,5,1

    2003 = 2,7,1

    2002 = 3,5,2

    2001 = 3,5,7

    So, for the last 10 years, 28 of the 100 highest grossing films were original screenplays. Of the other 72, all but 16 were reboots or sequels or later in film franchise.

  • http://togroklife.com greg

    For clarity, the first movies in new franchises based on books/comics I counted in the ‘based on other media’ category, not the series/reboots category (though I think I miscounted the first twilight novel).

  • http://www.aberrospecus.com ravnos

    Just to clarify, everyone I know over 22 remembers smurfs. Your age grouping just seems little off to me.

  • Xsjado

    I’m 21 and I remember the Smurfs. They rerun all the childrens shows so really the only group you can reasonably exclude from have a childhood experience of a show are those ~10 years older than the show

  • http://www.sparebrainsgames.com Wayne Zombie

    @Greg: fascinating, and tragically sad, numbers there. The tragically sad part because it proves that remakes/reboots make money, so they’re going to continue to churn them out.

    This sounds ripe for a parody

  • http://angryzenmaster.com Jamie

    Wow! I had no idea so many remakes were out there even back in 2001! This makes me pretty little sad.

  • John

    Not sure why. It’s not like there aren’t dozens of adaptions/remakes in high ranking (Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, Jaws). Adaptions are just cheaper to make. Hell, half of some of the best movies around started off as adaption work (Star Wars).

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