Prince of Persia Opening Weekend Stumbles

[John Funk]

Prince of Persia Opening Weekend Stumbles

Despite the marketing budget of Disney and the well-oiled pecs of Jake "Manlychest" Gyllenhaal, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time wasn't as much of a success on its opening weekend as some might have hoped.

$38 million is a lot of money. It's more money than most of us will see in our entire lives combined. If you asked anybody here whether they wanted a cool $38 million, they'd probably agree in a heartbeat and live comfortably for quite a while. And yet, to some, $38 million is a disappointment - especially when you've spent hundreds of millions of dollars making and promoting a summer blockbuster film.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time may well have fallen into that "disappointment" category, raking in $37.8 million dollars in the US domestic box office over its opening weekend. This isn't a bad take, mind you, but it was far below the $55.7 million grossed by Shrek Forever After over the same weekend - and it's way beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean [http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Caribbean-Trilogy-Blu-ray-Johnny/dp/B001BKZD7S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1276202978&sr=8-2]-level numbers that Disney had likely been crossing its fingers for, given that the firm reportedly spent $200 million producing the flick.

Given that the film was supposed to be one of the early "big hits" of the year, this lukewarm performance has to come as an unpleasant surprise to Jerry Bruckheimer and his backers at Disney. It also probably throws a big uncertain wrench into any plans for potential sequels [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100554-Jake-Gyllenhaal-Doesnt-Mind-Being-the-Prince-of-Persia].

This is a shame, really - I caught it with a friend on Sunday, and while not the best movie ever made, it was thoroughly entertaining. It was a great popcorn blockbuster flick that was much better than others I could name (that start with "T" and end with "ransformers").

That said, the news isn't all bad for Persia, which managed a much-more-respectable $61 million at the international box office over the same period of time.

Have you seen it yet? What did you guys think?

(Via G4TV [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28775/Shrek_Beats_Prince_Of_Persia_At_The_Box_Office.php])

Permalink

 

[Elec0]

I saw it and liked it. It was a lot of fun, and it's the first good video game movie.

 

[LockeDown]

Good movie overall, not great, but certainly better than Shrek. My only issues lie with the way the movie ended.

Very disappointed with the ending.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Pity. It wasn't great, but it was pretty good. It was far more suited to grossing tremendous wads of cash than a certain saga featuring shirtless werewolves tickling each other.

When I say I'm on Team Jake, I mean "Manlychest" Gyllenhaal, bitches.

 

[The Lawn]

I absolutely hated this movie, and to be honest, I'm glad it didn't do well.

A lot of the actors delivered their lines on the same level as high school plays, to the point it was cringeworthy.
I really wanted this movie to be good, I really did, but it was a huge letdown.

 

[soapyshooter]

Saw it...run of the mill summer movie. Moviebob pretty much nailed it, its not bad for a video game movie but...idk something was just missing.

Edit: And Gemma Arterton was lookin' HAWWWTTTT

 

[FinalHeart95]

It was pretty good. I went in not expecting much, and came out somewhat happy. My only beef was the lack of time travel during actual fight sequences. They could've been really creative there.

Oh, and some of the acting was so bad it was scary *looks at Princess*.

 

[Matt_LRR]

It was ok. I hate (HATE) shakey-cam fight cinematograaphy, and while it wasn't pervasive in the film, it was obnoxious. The romance plot was awkward and made some unbelievable leaps. But overall the film was fun and worth seeing. I would have liked more parkour.

Probably the best video game movie to date, but about on par with the summer blockbusters that usually hit in the last week of August or September. The weak ones they try to slide through after the big guns have come out. This was not a blockbester-season-opening calibre movie by a long stretch.

-m

 

[The Lizard of Odd]

I haven't seen it yet, as I have no one to go with. My boyfriend has no interest, as he didn't like the games much (crazy, but true). Sadly, I don't really have any other friends in the area either. OH WELLS.

 

[Always_Remain]

It was decent, nothing great but not bad either. The pacing was really good and the acting, for the most part, was acceptable.

My main complaint is the editing during a lot of the fight scenes. It was WAY too fast.

Also I didn't understand the romance between Jake and Gemma. It was a little too forced.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

They could have prevented something like this by making a better movie. It was loud, boring, obviously didn't care about the plot, and completely missed the point of the games.

 

[Visuality]

Very enjoyable film, too much slow motion.

 

[Jared]

Is a shame after all the adverts I have seen...but, I supposr to be expected. I hope it will pik up later down the line

 

[Seatownstriker]

Yeah not surprised it didn't do that well.

 

[unacomn]

I think they should have focused more on the plots, and less on the ostrich racing.
The "assassins were once guardians plot" went nowhere, the sands of time themselves were mentioned by name only twice, and I reaaaaaaaaaly wanted to see Monica Belluci dressed in the Empress of Time outfit as a teaser for the sequel.

But it wasn't all that bad. I liked it more than Tomb Raider. Not as good as Mortal Kombat 1, but an infinite times better than The Legend of Chun-Li. I really hope the movie will do well, because The Last Express may also get turned into a movie.

 

[Captain Pancake]

Doesn't help that it was released right in the middle of my exams. That might account for a small fraction of the missing viewers.

 

[Enigma6667]

I'd really rather have an entertaining game-based blockbuster than another shitty Shrek sequel (The only good sequel to Shrek is the second one). I actually saw the fourth Shrek with my sisters after Prince of Persia and it was pretty bad. I honestly don't get people's tastes anymore.

 

[mountainfire]

The movie definitely doesn't deserve this. Far worse movies have come out and made a whole lot more. My guess is "Prince of Persia" doesn't have enough of a mainstream name to attract attention, unlike Pirates of the Carribean, which was at least a Disneyland ride. But who knows? There could be an uptick next weekend as everybody gives up on Shrek and people say good things about PoP.

The acting was NOT bad. Megan Fox is the definition of bad. This was nowhere near that. It was more the story that was bland, not the acting. Very fun tho.

 

[fozzy360]

Seems like Prince of Persia might go the same route as The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, both of which made much more money overseas than they did domestically. Granted, the aforementioned films did pretty well domestically (probably because of Tom Hanks), but PoP seems to be doing the same thing. According to Box Office Mojo, the film has made around $95 million in the foreign markets with a combined gross of over $133 million. Not too bad.