Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've never seen a ''bomb'' hang around in theaters this long before! 

Well, actually John Carter lasted in theaters for 16 weeks. But in all that time it only brought in $73,078,100, which is $6,597,339 less than DS has so far in not quite 13 full weeks. Plus JC supposedly cost anywhere from $75-$200 million more (depending on whose estimates one wants to believe) than DS.

91 days 13 hours 38 minutes 5 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[David]

 
BREAKING NEWS:
Somebody in Omaha didn't like DS!!!!!!!!
That explains all the bad press!

[madscntst]

DS's box office take slipped a little more on Thursday, with $12,833 for a total now of $79,688,272. 

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2012-08-08&p=.htm

Thursday looked like a screwy day, where some films like DS went down by a few percent, and some went up (Ice Age, Brave, Magic Mike, and why did Rock of Ages go up so much all of a sudden?)

It'll be interesting to see if DS will make a comparable amount next week (having 3 more theaters) or if it will drop a bit (some of you said it'll be having a fewer number of showings per day in the theaters it is remaining in).  Either way, with MB's analysis I think that DS can stand pretty proud of its run, considering.  If it can hang around in theaters for another 2 or 3 weeks, it will have stuck around for the entire summer during the time when teens and college kids were home from school. 

I do wish that the darn foreign box office could've been updated at least once in the last month or more

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks for posting the numbers, madscntst. 

I decided to do another chart similar to what I'd done for last week's Monday-Thursday period, but considering that there are now less than two dozen wide released films in the mix, I've included them all as I did with the weekend chart rather than simply do a Top 10:

M-T	Film	Week's Gross	M-T Gross	Percent	Per Screen
===	=======================	===========	========	======	=========
1.)	The Hunger Games{1}	$1,426,102{1}	$573,270	40.2%	$967{1}
2.)	Marvel's The Avengers{2}	$867,571{2}	$354,613	40.9%	$951{2}
3.)	Dr. Seuss' The Lorax{3}	$781,890{3}	$306,105	39.1%	$785{5}
4.)	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel{4}1	$567,307{4}	$231,965	40.9%	$840{3}
5.)	21 Jump Street{6}	$408,051{5}	$155,921	38.2%	$604{6}
6.)	Mirror Mirror{7}2	$280,739{7}	$125,104	44.6%	$564{7}
7.)	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island{5}	$359,105{6}	$72,088	20.1%	$238{15}
8.)	John Carter{8}3	$206,714{8}	$69,880	33.8%	$457{8}
9.)	DARK SHADOWS{9}	$169,086{9}	$60,248	35.6%	$456{9}
10.)	Beauty and the Beast (3D){14}	$106,908{11}	$46,919	43.9%	$809{4}
11.)	Safe House{10}4	$150,490{10}	$43,740	29.1%	$250{14}
12.)	The Three Stooges{16}	$85,384{15}	$34,242	40.1%	$451{10}
13.)	Wrath of the Titans{17}5	$75,203{16}	$29,657	39.4%	$424{11}
14.)	The Cabin in the Woods{18}	$73,013{17}	$29,644	40.6%	$357{12}
15.)	The Vow{12}6	$102,041{12}	$28,195	27.6%	$180{20}
16.)	This Means War{13}	$92,793{14}	$25,358	27.3%	$192{18}
17.)	Chronicle (2012){11}	$100,063{13}	$24,348	24.3%	$201{16}
18.)	Act of Valor{15}	$68,792{18}	$15,837	23.0%	$165{22}
19.)	The Lucky One{21}	$34,754{20}	$13,901	40.0%	$339{13}
20.)	The Woman in Black{19}	$39,569{19}	$11,017	27.8%	$175{21}
21.)	Red Tails{20}	$34,390{21}	$8,440	24.5%	$196{17}
22.)	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (in 3D){22}	$10,083{22}	$3,105	30.8%	$183{19}

(The number in {} after a film's name indicates how it ranked during its 13th weekend, the number in {} after the week's gross indicates how a film ranked compared to the other films in their entire 13th week, and the number in {} after the per screen indicates how a film's per screen for its 13th week's Monday-Thursday period ranked vs. the other films for that period.
Films placing higher in the chart than DS but which have thus far grossed less than DS has so far: ¹ To date has grossed $45,207,295 - $34,480,977 less than DS has to date; ² To date has grossed $64,932,375 - $14,755,897 less than DS to date; ³ Grossed $73,078,100 - $6,610,172 less than DS to date.
Films placing lower in the chart than DS but which grossed more than DS has so far:  ⁴ Grossed $126,181,630 - $46,493,358 more than DS has to date; ⁵ Grossed $83,670,083 - $3,981,811 more than DS has to date; ⁶ Grossed $125,014,030 - $45,325,758 more than DS has to date.)

It's interesting that, like the weekend, DS remained 9th across the board. It's also interesting that there wasn't too much change of position in the Top 10 films - but just look at how much jostling for position there was when it came to the films below DS on the chart.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island's per screen continues to be very odd. Who knows where the audience for that film was during the week because for it to rank so high based on its Monday-Thursday gross (thanks simply to the fact that it was still playing in so many theaters (303)), but for it to have such a small per screen compared to the other films around it is just too bizarre.    And its situation is the opposite of fellow WB film The Lucky One given that its per screen was so much higher than the other films around it (thanks simply to the fact that it was playing in so few theaters (only 41) and people were apparently still interested in seeing it) during its Monday-Thursday period.

And speaking of per screen, the difference between John Carter and DS isn't actually $1 but far less. All the film Web sites and magazine reports always round off to the nearest dollar - but if they included cents, the difference between JC and DS would be $456.73 vs. $456.42 - all of 31 cents. 

91 days 19 hours 4 minutes 4 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[David]

While the DS bashers like to point out the low rating the film got at Rotten Tomatoes, it also got a rather high rating at Fandango, which the haters ignore.
What is it with all this DS hate, that I recall from non-fans even in the 60s?
Is it just because the original was a daytime soap?

Now, for a late in the day thought on the notorious ''servicing'' of Barnabas by HB Carter's Julia:
While no one involved in the original series would have allowed even the slightest implication of such a thing on the air back in the day, doing that was probably something that Grayson's Julia thought about!
I mean, when you love someone the way she loved Barnabas, you don't have fantasies about drinking tea!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I just realized that no one has posted that DS came in 33rd for the week last week:

Weekly Box Office: August 3-9, 2012

Trying to figure out how DS ranked for each day of the week is a bit hard at this point because a lot of films are only being reported on weekends on Box Office Mojo. But when I get the chance I may try to see if I can track down some of the missing films on some other Web sites. But one thing that I do know is that as far as its per screen goes (which was $1,281 for the week), DS ranked 22nd overall among the current crop of wide released films - and that's quite good when it comes to a film in its 13th week of release. In fact, as the chart linked to above will show, there were only four other wide released films of an equal or longer duration in theaters that did better.

92 days 15 hours 38 minutes 10 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[michael c]

perhaps i'm focusing on the name-change snafu too much in terms of the vicki/maggie character...


so while i can see why maggie aficionados were pleased that she appeared in the film somewhat unexpectedly, for those who favor victoria, of course being among the most ardent, the character "merger" ended up being something of a negation.

in a sense she's not really "present" in the story. she's just an impostor. some girl using a pseudonym. i mean in terms of series' mythology it's victoria's storyline, she's the girl who comes to collinsport by train(elemental to the story)to serve as collinwood governess. she's the girl barnabas meets and is enchanted by. so in terms of plot and temperament she's victoria. and she calls herself victoria. and so does everyone else in the movie. but since it's not "really" her, but someone else, it's hard to identify with the character. at least for me it was. she was just some strange girl using that name. she sort of left me cold.

her real name was maggie evans. but since she in no way resembled the maggie character from OS mythology again it was just a name. it was impossible to relate to her as maggie either. instead of giving the character victoria's setup they should have given her a hint of maggie if they were determined to go that route. the general public has never heard of either girl so it doesn't really matter. but to me it didn't so much feel like a "merger" as much a negation of both characters. i'm not sure why they did it.


and yes, of course, i know we're taking about completely fictitious people. none of them are "real" anyways. but whether or not one likes victoria, or thinks she's "dumb", she is indisputably "collinwood heroine" for the series' first couple years and in a sense she's absent from this variation of the story. at least that's my take on it.

[michael c]

in terms of the carolyn werewolf "reveal" in the film's last five minutes, my other big beef with the film, i'm repeating myself but here it is...


perhaps in hindsight one can find "clues", and yes it certainly setup the possibility of a sequel revolving around a certain muttonchop wearing werewolf but in terms of the storyline of this film it was pointless and sloppy.

a competent filmmaker has an obligation to his audience to provide closure and resolve to the movie at hand. not just market a franchise or promote potential sequels. introducing major plot developments in the film's last five minutes is just plain bad storytelling. to the general viewer(as opposed to a "fan" who's going to see any and all variations on the story)who'd never heard of quentin collins and isn't seeing the film in terms of potential sequels three years out it made absolutely not sense. it meant nothing to the story they had just spent two hours watching. it was clumsy and incompetent.

and on a visual level it was unsightly and gross to have a pretty teenage girl morph into some sort of dog. i found it repugnant.

[michael c]

and i also think that julia and vicki rising as vampires at the movie's conclusion was more than enough to "hint" at future stories(and suggest possible sequels)without going completely outside the context of the film at hand.

[Gothick]

In the stills and clips I have seen, the 2012 Vicki's look seemed more like Maggie in her Collinwood governess phase.  Those awful little-girl outfits could have been a nod at the twilight world of "Junior Sophisticates."  (I always wonder... what kind of women wore those clothes?)  The hair again seemed more like Mags than Vick.

Just my two drachmae.

Carolyn as a werewolf seems tres Scooby-doo, particularly as played by Chloe.  Those drawings were unbelievable.  What were they thinking?

G.

[michael c]

since the character's dresses actually had sleeves it was certainly out of the norm for OS vicki.

[jimbo]

Did they change the name of the upcoming DS movie book being released on October 12th?  http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2012/08/12/dark-shadows-the-visual-companion-to-be-released-this-october

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The book has been called that since a few months back.    I believe Nicky was the first to tell us about the name change.

What I find interesting about that article is that it says the book's list price is $29.99 and it's coming out on October 26th, whereas Amazon still says it lists for $39.95 (though they're charging $33.76) and it's not coming out until November 27th. Who knows? But then Amazon often takes forever to update their listings when there have been changes made.

Thanks so much for the link, jimbo. 

93 days 23 hours 42 minutes 28 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Josette]

I just got around to checking the listings for the MaxiSaver for this week and it's still there for a 7th week!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

"Nights in White Satin" is playing on the radio.  Every time I hear it now, I think of the beautiful opening sequence, with Maggie arriving on the train.  As I was listening just now, I realized how poignant the song is (in relation to the movie) and how symbolic it is for the character of Maggie Evans.  It really suits her.  A number of the songs lyrics are applicable to her character, but these are probably the most powerful: "Just what you want to be, you'll be in the end."

I was sad that they didn't use the entire song, as that could have been even more powerful, especially the last part of the instrumental which bears a striking resemblance to the work of Bob Cobert.  The finale of HoDS anyone?