Die Chicken Little, Die!
During this weekend, the returns for Chicken Little did not even break the top ten. The overall earnings for this movie are now at 128.9 million dollars (Source: box office guru).While I am still disappointed that the overall earnings are so hgh, I am happy to say that the amount of money generated for this movie could not, as of yet, exceed the amount spent on its production, or it's ridiculous advertising. I am hoping they're sweating a bit over there, despite their happy "I'm pleased as punch with how things are going!" public face.
I've also noticed a half-a-dozen more computer animated movies are starting to crawl out of the woodwork for 2006. None of them look even a little bit interesting. These are movies without story, characters, or even a sappy, redeeming message. They rely on stupid pop culture references, extended 90s music montages, guest voices, and low-brow humor to try to gain an opening weekend audience (only because word of mouth will turn people away).
All of this malaise stands in sharp contrast to my feelings for Pixar. Teh company, which has never had a single misstep in ten years, relies on pure movie magic. . . great phrenetic characters, imagined worlds, good stories, great messages, and manages to literally capture the viewer for the length of 2 solid hours. These movies are reedinging in their own right, animated or not. Unfortuately, no one tries to emluate movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, or the kick-ass Incredibles, except for Pixar itself. Instead, they try to cash in on the witless, box-office gold of Shrek and it's bastard child, Shrek 2, both specatacular box-office sucesses, but without a kernel of Pixar's genius.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention something?
Shrek sucks.
Still, I can understand why eveybody wants to have the sucess of Shrek, instead of the sucess of Pixar's films. Instead of going through all of the excruciating hard work to attract creative minds like Brian Byrd (The Incredibles) and tell cutting edge stories, which are not only risky, but compelling and heartfelt. . . they rely on a room full of suited zombies looking to play every safe, pathetic angle of the marketing game.
In either case, I've been wishing for a Chicken Little bomb since October, and while these numbers aren't exactly my wish, I certainly hope it's a step in the right direction. Hopefully, with the this movie, as well as the lukewarm reception of Robots, the moviegoing public might be able to express their feelings about movie studios that have too many advertising dollars, and too little heart.
I hope video sales flop. Hard.
posted by Chris W. @ 3:11 PM
