Green Lantern "Audiences weary of spandex, 3-D" -?
UPDATE APRIL 2012: Total earnings on this film at $219,851,172, i.e., $116,601,172 (Domestic) and $103,250,000 (Foreign.)
UPDATE: JULY 17, 2011: Domestic total earnings for the big green movie is $112,789,166 and worldwide total is: $146,089,166. People are asking if only Chris Nolan can make a DC Comics superhero movie that generates good profits?
JUNE 20, 2011: Not exactly a good sign for the line of superhero movies still to come out: The $300 million dollar Green Lantern movie fails to hit opening targets on weekend release New York Post.
"The less-than-dazzling $53.1 million opening of "Green Lantern'' (which cost at least $200 million, plus $100 million to market) has serious financial implications for Hollywood that go well beyond one more stillborn superhero franchise. For starters, the dim performance doesn't augur well for Warners' ambitious plans to build series around DC's other B-list supers like The Flash, not to mention the Justice League of America. (Poor Wonder Woman couldn't even sell a TV pilot).
Meanwhile at Deadline Hollywood:
Nikki Finke: "Warner Bros' 3D Green Lantern ($21.6M Friday, dropping -21% for $17.1M Saturday, and only a $52.6M weekend) underperforms, unable to meet even the studio's lowered expectation for North America despite the higher 3D ticket prices."
Back to the New York Post on the 3D future:
...If next week's "Transformers'' and next month's "Harry Potter'' fail to draw big 3-D crowds, expect the studios to seriously think about abandoning, or seriously cutting back on, the format that's been run into the ground with too many cheesy-looking movies like "Green Lantern.' "
More black tidings from Brandon Gray at Box Office Mojo:
"This weekend, Green Lantern's light was more red than green, but the comic book adaptation still drew $53.2 million on approximately 7,200 screens at 3,816 locations.
Green Lantern's start landed behind X-Men: First Class's $55.1 million and Thor's $65.7 million, and its Friday-to-Saturday drop of 22 percent was steeper than those movies' eight percent. The gross was also less than The Incredible Hulk and the two Fantastic Four movies, and the attendance disparity was only greater. Green Lantern's estimated attendance was even lower than Daredevil and Ghost Rider.
Green Lantern continued the tradition of B-list superheroes failing to soar to blockbuster heights (with the exception of Iron Man), despite an enormous marketing push that tried to pound people into submission."
Describing the way the movie was made at Time-Warner with the director Martin Campbell apparently trumped in decisions by a variety of other executives (including DC's Geoff Johns), Nikki FInke commented "moviemaking by committee."
For a defense of the film, the blog Movie Mash has:
"Green Lantern was a movie I expected to disappoint. It surrounds a hero I know very little about. Ryan Reynolds is not my favorite actor — I don’t love Blake Lively either. The film was also converted to 3D in post production, which usually yields poor results. The initial previews left me skeptical as I could not embrace the campy full CGI suit Reynolds adorns after using his power ring. On top of my own suspicions, the film currently has a 23% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. However, don’t be swayed by the harsh critics, because I am here to say most comic fans and any Sci-Fi nerd should feel right at home watching Green Lantern."
Original page July 19, 2011 | Updated May 2012