Jim Carrey scores a hit right before the holidays -- but how strong was it?

Posted Dec 22nd 2008 10:44AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), News Corp'B' (NWS), Film

So the market said yes to Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) new movie starring Jim Carrey, Yes Man. I know, that's an awful pun, and I'd be willing to bet that other articles about this past weekend's box office results said something similar. Sometimes you just can't resist. But, yes, Yes Man ruled at domestic multiplexes and grossed about $18 million according to early estimates from Boxofficemojo.

Here's the thing, though -- is an $18 million opening that great for Jim Carrey? Furthermore, as of the early estimates, Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Seven Pounds, the number-two film, actually grossed only $2 million less than Yes Man, and to add further insult, its per-theater average was higher. Shouldn't Carrey's star power have guaranteed a wider margin of victory? For that matter, what's Will Smith, the star of Pounds, doing in second place?

It just goes to show institutional shareholders of media companies that big star salaries simply do not guarantee runaway hits on the silver screen (I keep hoping that they'll complain about celebrity compensation, but so far, there have been no takers whatsoever).

The Tale of Despereaux, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal, grossed $10.5 million and came in third, while last week's number-one picture, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) The Day the Earth Stood Still, came in fourth with approximately $10 million. News Corp. must be really disappointed. Last week, Earth was number one. Talk about a fall from the heavens. And the holiday hit of the season, Time Warner's Four Christmases, passed the $100 million mark this weekend. Did it deserve to? I'm not sure, but I guess you've got to give the film kudos for its performance.

There wasn't much action at the box office this weekend. Can we blame it all on the weather? I'm not so sure, although this Hollywood Reporter article does indicate that the weather did indeed have a bad influence. On second thought, I suppose the storms were pretty awful. Nevertheless, the cited article also states that, year to date, overall grosses are flat compared to year-ago levels. So things have been kind of weak anyhow. Hollywood needs to bring the patrons back to the multiplexes with some great product. Perhaps people will be in a movie-going mood this Christmas week...

Disclosure: I own GE; positions can change without notice.

Tags: box office, BoxOffice, four christmases, FourChristmases, GE, General Electric, GeneralElectric, inthenews, jim carrey, JimCarrey, News Corp., NewsCorp., NWS, seven pounds, SevenPounds, SNE, Sony, the day the earth stood still, the tale of despereaux, TheDayTheEarthStoodStill, TheTaleOfDespereaux, Time Warner, TimeWarner, TWX, Universal, Will Smith, WillSmith, yes man, YesMan

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-22-2008 @ 2:43PM

Dan Barnett said...

I think it was mostly the weather.

There are stories about how movie attendance went up during the Depression. Seems people didn't want to think about the outside world for a while, what with the cartoons, newsreels & such. Today it'd only be an hour & a half or so.

12-22-2008 @ 4:18PM

BELLCORD said...

SEEMS TO BE A LONG TRADITION OF FAMOUS COMICS GOING FROM RED HOT TO INSUFFRABLE IN 18 MONTHS OR SO...JERRY LEWIS HASN'T DONE ANYTHING REMOTELY FUNNY SINCE THE EISENHOWER ADMINISTRATION....ROBIN WILLIAMS HAS GONE FROM BRILLIANT TO REALLY,REALLY ANNOYING AND LETTERMAN AND LENO HAVE BEEN PHONING IT IN FOR YEARS NOW...