Holiday Surprise
As has been clear for a while, I Am Legend and National Treasure are the two big hits of December. But even if they exceeded expectations, everyone knew they'd do okay.
The real story is the massive success of Alvin And The Chipmunks. Poorly reviewed, no big names, a questionable title (for kids today), the film is at $140 million domestic and isn't close to being played out. This is the family money Golden Compass was aiming at. I guess when that flopped, with so many R-rated films around, the family market was wide open. And with endless sequel possibilities, Fox must be high-fiving--they've got a new franchise.
(I remember having a Chipmunks record when I was a kid, and playing it at a slow speed to hear the normal voices. Someone else thought of it.)
At a lower level (and a level of films I recommend), Juno is clearly this season's breakout indie hit.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:02 AM
2 Comments:
I have now seen "Alvin and the Chipmunks" twice with my kids. Maybe it was due to my extremely low expectations based on the poor reviews, but I enjoyed it tremendously the first time. I laughed out loud about 10 times. It's definitely a kids' movie, but it was fun, and I thought the bad reviews unwarranted.
The second time, my kids had a sleepover buddy who hadn't seen it yet -- they decided they'd rather see it a second time so he could see it rather than see something new for all of them. The kids laughed uproariously all the way through again, and came out quoting numerous scenes and jokes. I have to admit that, knowing all the jokes the second time through, I didn't find it to have a lot of depth or anything. But it is a fun movie. My kids are learning to hate reviewers.
Questioning reviewers is the beginning of wisdom.
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