Box Office: Silent House Doesn’t Make Much Noise, John Carter Doesn’t Make Much Money

Steve Barton   |  

Mar 11, 2012

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Talk about a contrast. This weekend’s new genre offerings consist of an under $1 million chiller that was shot in (almost) one take and a $250+ million sci-fi blockbuster that’s become more newsworthy for how much money it’s expected to lose rather than if it’s even worth watching.

So how did they do at the box office and which one received an F rating from audience polling?

Deadline reports that Open Road’s Silent House did an okay $6.5 million for the weekend, taking 4th place. That’s not a very big opening, but when you consider how low the budget was and that Elizabeth Olsen is still a fairly unknown commodity to the movie-going public, $7 million isn’t terrible.

Unfortunately, what is terrible is that audiences appear ready to have this Silent House condemned. While there have been no stories of theater patrons throwing crap at the screen or spitting on the floor in a fit of rage as was the case with The Devil Inside, audiences polled for Cinemascore gave Silent House the dreaded and very rare “F” rating. All signs once again point to the ending being the culprit that will most likely lead to the film getting bad word of mouth and dropping like a stone come next weekend’s box office.

By comparison, Eddie Murphy’s A Thousand Words, a film that has been gathering dust on a shelf since 2008 and currently boasts a whopping 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, scored a B- Cinemascore. To be fair, if you’re willing to run out opening weekend to see a new Eddie Murphy movie that reteams him with the same filmmaker with whom he made the execrable Norbit, chances are you’re not the most discerning filmgoer to begin with.

Meanwhile, whether or not Disney’s John Carter is even any good has for weeks been completely secondary to how much money the House of Mouse may potentially lose on this $250+ million boondoggle. Pre-release polling data showing a tremendous amount of audience apathy, spelling financial doom for the mega budget Edgar Rich Burroughs adaptation that has whipped entertainment journalist into a feeding frenzy the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the third act of Piranha 3D.

John Carter AKA John Carter of Mars AKA John Carter Episode One: The Phantom Avatar finally opened to a gimpy $30.6 million weekend; good enough only for a second place finish to The Lorax, the critically panned Dr. Seuss adaptation that hung on to to the top spot with another $40 million in its second week. Disney was quick to make public that the movie has already grossed a little over a hundred million internationally. They’re still a looooong way off from the dollar amount the movie will have to reach just to break even. That both critical reviews and audience reaction have been mixed probably doesn’t bode well for how it will hang on in the weeks to come.

Oh, well, it’s not like Disney is hurting for cash. All this really means is that a potential John Carter franchise won’t come to fruition and, depending how audiences react to Battleship later this summer, Taylor Kitsch may end the year with the distinction of starring in two of the year’s most expensive blockbuster busts.

Until The Cabin in the Woods opens April 13th, the film offerings that may appeal to horror fans are going to be slim pickings: The Hunger Games opens in two weeks and Wrath of the Titans the week after that. Can’t say I’m all that excited for either.

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