Steve’s Box Office Report: August 2012
Top 10 Films for the Month of August:
1. The Bourne Legacy – $113,203,870
2. The Campaign – $86,907,746
3. The Expendables 2 – $85,028,192
4. Hope Springs – $63,536,011
5. Total Recall – $58,877,969
6. ParaNorman – $56,003,051
7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green – $51,854,875
8. The Possession – $49,130,154
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days – $49,008,662
10. Lawless – $37,400,127
Honorable Mentions:
1. 2016: Obama’s America – $33,449,086
2. Sparkle – $24,397,469
3. Premium Rush – $20,275,446
4. Hit and Run – $13,749,300
5. The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure – $1,065,907
August Winners: Hope Springs, the Odd Life of Timothy Green, the Possession, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, and 2016: Obama’s America
We now come to the end of the summer of 2012 and after what has been a pretty strong summer, August is typical a dumping ground for films as while a few may do fairly well, the majority of the films do fairly average for the most part. But for this August, we do get a bit of a surprise as there are quite a number of films that ended up doing well even with the month usually being the worst month of each summer. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the romantic comedy Hope Springs, a film about a married couple who go to therapy to reignite the spark in their marriage. Carried by the star power of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, the film would receive positive reviews from critics and finished with over $63 million which was good counterprogramming for an older crowd. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the family film the Odd Life of Timothy Green, a film about a magical boy who appears after a couple bury all their wishes for a child. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt it was too sentimental and it would finish with over $51 million which was still a good haul for this film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the horror film the Possession, a film about a girl who becomes possessed after obtaining a mysterious and haunted box. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics though being the only horror film released at this time, it did pretty well by finishing with just over $49 million which was good for a late-summer horror film. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the third in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series with Dog Days, which sees Greg and his family go through the summer and suffer numerous misfortunes. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics who felt the franchise may have reached the end of the line, and it would finish with over $49 million which barely got it into the top 10 and you have to wonder if they plan to continue the franchise after this. The fifth and final film that makes it into this category is the documentary 2016: Obama’s America, a film where Dinesh D’Souza looks at the life of Barack Obama and the potential risks should he be re-elected. The film would receive scathing reviews from critics who felt he was attacking Obama’s character, but the film would end up finishing with over $33 million which was really good for a documentary. Even though none of these films were really groundbreaking in terms of the money they made, the fact that they did as well as they did was a good showing for a month that is typically weak as I have mentioned.
August Losers: Total Recall
Not only did we have a surprisingly number of films that made it into the last category, we don’t get much in this category though we did end up getting one so we didn’t get out of the month with having no losers of the months. Having said that, the fact that we only have one film that makes it into this category is really good especially for August which as I’ve mentioned before is usually a weak month. The sole film that makes it into this category is the sci-fi action film Total Recall, a remake of the 1990 film where a man discovers that he is a spy and tries to keep himself alive. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics who felt it was an inferior remake of the original and it would finish with over $58 million which was enough to make it into the top 5, but it was still crushed under the weight of the other big action film this month in the Bourne Legacy. While it would’ve been good to have the month go without any losers of the month, the fact that we only had one was good enough as it wasn’t bad enough to drag the month down.
The Surprise/Story of August 2012: The Bourne series barely stays afloat as “Legacy” carries weak August 2012
So as I have said a couple of times here, August is typically the downer month of the summer in that there aren’t many blockbusters that come out during the month, but occasionally there could be a big film that is looked at to carry the month and end the summer on a strong note. In this case, the fourth film in the Bourne franchise in the Bourne Legacy was seen as that film and while that film did do pretty well, it wasn’t nearly as strong as I think many expected and I will delve more into that later in the recap. However, it did have a solid performance and coupled with good outings by the Campaign and the Expendables 2, and the month ended up being fairly good and the summer of 2012 was able to end on a positive note.
Overachiever of August 2012: None
Since I started doing these recaps over 6 years ago, it has been very rare that a month doesn’t have an overachiever of the month because typically there is always one film that either does extremely well that it belongs here or a film that exceeds far beyond its expectations and makes it into this category. But looking back at this slate of films and nothing really stood out enough to merit being included in this category, and the only film from this month that actually made a lot of money wasn’t enough to get here as it will actually be featured in the next category which I will talk about in a minute. It is never a good sign when the films released in a month are not good enough to be considered for the overachiever of the month, and while it’s not bad enough that it completely tanks the month, it’s never a good thing because it could’ve been a solid boost for the month. It will be interesting to see going forward if there are any instances of a month not having an overachiever, but for now the month of August 2012 doesn’t have an overachiever of the month.
Underachiever of August 2012: The Bourne Legacy
So while there was no overachiever of the month, we do end up having an underachiever of the month and it’s always never a good thing where your underachiever is the one that is expected to carry the month. We get that here as the underachiever ends up being the fourth film in the Bourne franchise with the Bourne Legacy, a film that sees the actions of Jason Bourne affect another agent of Operation Treadstone and he must fight for his life. Following the success of the previous three films, anticipation was high for a fourth film though questions were quickly raised after Matt Damon stepped away from the series and Jeremy Renner took his place as a new character. Even though Renner was riding high after his performance in the Avengers, the Bourne series was defined by Damon and while he did do a fine job, the film itself received mixed reviews from critics who felt it was a significant step backwards for the franchise. It would finish with over $113 million and easily took the top spot of the month, it would finish last amongst the Bourne series as it didn’t even pass the first film and it was also the worst-reviewed film in the franchise. It will be interesting to see if the series continues and if they try to entice Damon to come back and reprise the character, but for now this film ends up being the clear underachiever of the month.
August 2012 Awards Watch: Hope Springs, Total Recall, ParaNorman, and the Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure
As we finish up the summer of 2012, we haven’t had a ton of award contenders come out and that trend actually changes here as we have quite a number of films from this month that makes it into this category. Obviously, as we get into the coming months, this category will fill up more with a bunch of contenders, but the fact that we got four from this month that made it into this category is pretty good. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is Hope Springs which was nominated for 1 Golden Globe Award (Best Actress – Musical or Comedy) though it wouldn’t win, but it was good to see if get a nomination. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is Total Recall as it would be nominated for one Golden Raspberry Award (Worst Actress) which it wouldn’t win as there were far worse films. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the stop-motion animated film ParaNorman, a film about a boy who can communicate with ghosts and is tasked to end a witch’s curse. The film would receive positive reviews from critics and finished with just over $56 million which was pretty good for this type of film, and it would be nominated for one Academy Award (Best Animated Film) which it wouldn’t win though it was a win enough to get the nomination. The fourth and last film from this month that makes it into this category is the comedy film the Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, based on the TV series “My Bedbugs” where the Oogieloves teach everyone about various things. The film would receive negative reviews from critics and finished with barely over $1 million as it made history by having the lowest grossing opening weekend for a film opening in over 2,000 theaters, and it would be nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards (Worst Picture and Worst Screen Ensemble) though it wouldn’t win either. Given some of the other films that had come out during this year, it’s no surprise that these films didn’t fare well against the other ones in terms of winning awards.
Overall Thoughts of August 2012:
Overall, the month of August for 2012 was a fairly tepid month though it wasn’t as bad as some Augusts have been that we have recapped though it is a pretty big step down from what we saw throughout the summer. This summer has been tremendous as the Avengers got things off to a hot start and then the months of June and July were fantastic, but this month feels like a major letdown though given the films coming out this month, it’s not the biggest surprise. We did get a film that finished with over $100 million but even that feels like a disappointment, and while there were a few films that ended up doing pretty well it wasn’t enough to lift the month up higher than it goes. 2012 has been an interesting year thus far as it started off a bit weak, really amped up through the early spring and especially into the summer, and as we head into the fall we will see how things pan out before we get to the holidays. As for this month, it is a fairly average month that brings a bit of a cold end to what was a red hot summer for 2012.
Final Grade: C-
