PHOEBE GALLAGHER
“Rock of Ages” and “That’s My Boy”, the new films starring Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler respectively, have flopped at the U.S Box Office.
Both were surprisingly ineffective in putting bums on seats, considering those involved in both movies – especially the aforesaid A-listers – they’d be a few confused looks and frowns around Hollywood today.
“Rock of Ages”, based on a much, much, much better play of the same name (starring nobodies who gave much better performances than the likes of Cruise, Russell Brand and Bryan Cranston, who all appear in the movie) was tracking poorly up until its release. Its 80’s setting was struggling to attract younger viewers, and nobody but Katie Holmes seemed to be looking forward to seeing Cruise playing a slimy old rocker. But still, with that amazing cast and director Adam Shankman’s (“Hairspray”, “Cheaper by the Dozen 2”) track record you’d think it would have done much better than the measly $15m it’s expected to have pocketed over the U.S weekend.
I think the main issue with “Rock of Ages” was that, even those that were looking forward to it and/or were fans of the original musical, were disappointed by what they saw. Word of mouth and critics ultimately probably helped in killing it. But maybe that’ll teach them to try harder next time.
“That’s My Boy”, which also received terrible reviews, was the latest Adam Sandler film, with Andy Samberg co-starring. It’s poorly $13m is a big black mark against Sandler, whose “Jack & Jill” also did terrible last year, but mainly, Andy Samberg, who recently left “Saturday Night Live” for a promising film career. So much for that big starring debut.
Faring much better at the Box Office this weekend were “Madagascar 3” and hold-over “Prometheus”.
Meanwhile down under, Roadshow’s potentially risky move to give “Cabin in the Woods” a brief theatrical bow has proven to be a good move. The Joss Whedon produced film, screening on over half the screens “That’s My Boy” is, made $85,152 (on just 7 screens) since its Thursday release.
