XENOPHONZ opened this issue on Dec 11, 2007 · 68 posts
XENOPHONZ posted Tue, 11 December 2007 at 4:48 PM
When it comes to Beowulf, I can counter positive articles with doubtful articles:
http://www.bizofshowbiz.com/2007/11/beowulf_leads_another_slow_box.html
That entire opening weekend was slow at the box office in overall performance. So being #1 under such circumstances doesn't constitute hitting the Sweet Spot for a film.
I had already mentioned the fact that Beowulf received better reviews than the others in my opening post. So that's not a point of contention. Still, "better reviews overall" isn't the same thing as "glowing reviews across the board". I'd say that "mixed reviews" is a more appropriate label.
Also: the jury's still out on whether or not Beowulf will ultimately turn a profit. It likely will -- from DVD sales -- and I'd say that it has a better chance of doing so than The Golden Compass does. The point here concerning Beowulf being that scratching the bottom of the barrel to return a profit by the skin of your teeth qualifieth not for the title of a blockbuster movie. It might be argued in the post mortem that at least it's made a profit -- which is good. But it doesn't rise above the level of mediocre box office performance, at best
So yeah: Beowulf did not perform like the movie's producer's had hoped that it would. I'd call that a disappointment. With the caveat that it probably won't actually lose money for them when all is said and done. But I wouldn't call that a roaring success.