Image Credit: Phil BrayAslan’s not going to like this. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader led the box office on Friday but got off to a rocky start with $8.2 million, according to early estimates. That puts Fox’s $140 million fantasy epic, the third film adapted from C.S. Lewis’ series of novels, on track for a $24 million opening weekend. By comparison, 2005′s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe collected $65.6 million its first weekend, and 2008′s Prince Caspian debuted to $55 million. Dawn Treader was expected to continue the Narnia series’ box-office decline, but no one thought it’d tumble this much. It’s too early to declare what this soft debut means for the franchise’s future and its supposed next film, The Silver Chair. Also, considering its “A-” grade from CinemaScore audiences, Dawn Treader may hold up well during the rest of December. But this is clearly not the result Fox was hoping for when it secured distribution rights after Disney abandoned the series.
The Tourist, starring two attractive individuals named Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, also performed below expectations, albeit to a lesser degree than Dawn Treader. The PG-13 romantic thriller snatched $6.1 million on Friday and is on pace for an $18 million weekend. The rest of the top five featured holdovers. Disney’s animated musical Tangled fell 34 percent for $3.4 million, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 descended 50 percent for $2.4 million. In fifth place, the Denzel Washington action thriller Unstoppable showed off its box-office stamina yet again, skidding only 37 percent for $1.2 million and bringing its cumulative tally to $71.7 million.
In limited release, a pair of athletes dominated. The boxing drama The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, KO’d $100,000 from four theaters. And, in the other corner, the ballet thriller Black Swan expanded to 90 theaters and fluttered away with $1 million on Friday — enough for eighth place. Julie Taymor’s The Tempest, on the other hand, drew only $14,000 from five theaters. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — $8.2 mil
2. The Tourist — $6.1 mil
3. Tangled — $3.4 mil
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 — $2.4 mil
5. Unstoppable — $1.2 mil
Box office preview: Chronicles of Narnia takes on Depp and Jolie in The Tourist
What a colossal, huge failure Narnia is. This should be a sign for the studios to drop it because it is pure crap.
Also, Johnny Depp should take this as a sign that NO ONE cares about him anymore. Just go away because you are getting annoying and a hack for an actor. You even brought Angelina down with you. Your film failed. And to anyone who disagree with that notion, well then look at how it made. Johnny, your time is UP!
I should also add that Harry Potter 7 is dropping harder than the Soviet Union in the 80′s. Each week it is falling by 50 percent. At this rate, it won’t even hit $300 million for North America.
I guess thats what you get when you make a boring 2 hour film where you spent the whole movie in a forest. SNOOZE FEST!
All these films are crap and I’m starting to like the American public just a LITTLE for not paying to see this crap. But I won’t hold my breath for too long ’cause the American public is bound to do something stupid very soon.
Go get a life, Larry!
Mine is the only opinion that matters. Everyone else is an idiot.
Wow you’re obnoxious.
Larry, you’re obviously an idiot, so its barely worth replying to, but all you need to do is look at the $715 million dollar worldwide gross thus far for HP 7 to see that your opinion of the film is a minority opinion at best.
Narnia and Harry Potter 7 are not crap. Also Cheryl Hines called. She wants her co-star back.
Larry must be a twilight fan.
He just gets a kick out of trolling. Probably because he realizes he has nothing better to do than look around a website all day. Just be careful though Larry: you can go blind looking at that.
@wes
Yeah, you are right, I did say something pretty stupid. I guess Harry Potter is a big hit, I should think before I post sometimes. And of course, considering that Johnny Depp has been in many hits, and is acclaimed by many well respected critics…well, my comment about him wasn’t very well thought out either, to put it mildly. Given that, anything I said about Narnia is pretty much suspect as well. I wish this site had a delete button so I could erase those childish and embarrasing comments, but I suppose I will have to make do with an apology for my stupidity.
Larry has a valid point, haters. It was a boring movie, and it isn’t doing as well as the movies from when the kids were younger. Sure, it’s Harry Potter, and the second-to-last in the series. No one would call it a flop. Maybe not even a disappointment per se. But it’s not exactly living up to the hype some had for it, is it? Compare LOTR 3.
Yeah, I was trying to say something like that, but it came out really stupid and naive. I just wish I hadn’t made myself look so foolish. Oh well, live and learn.
I don’t know why but I was very amused to see a spammer comment on the crazy Larry David blogger. Lame Jew–LOL
Please do not feed the troll.
@chris
I could say the same too you buddy. I may be chronic single and live at home with my parents but I do have an active life outside my parents’ home.
@chris
I’m sorry, I keep putting my foot in my mouth. My parents died many years ago, and I live with a nice couple, real salt of the earth types. Anyway, you’re right, I am pretty much of a shut in, and socially retarded. That’s why I say such naive and stupid things, and then when I think about it a little bit, apologize later. I am, in many ways, a very sad situation. But I am a work in progress, yeah, I’ll probably say some more stupid stuff, but just know, it’s just a defense mechanism for my sad life. Don’t be too hard on me, this is my only social outlet, I can’t talk to people in the real world without vomiting. Again, apologies.
I don’t think any of the Narnia movies have performed in the US as well as the studio would like, but they aren’t US produced movies anyway, are they?…and they do very well over seas. I loved the Narnia books when I was a kid. I bought them for my daughter, but she never took to them like my friends and I had. She started reading the Harry Potter books when she was about 6. I’m thankful to the Harry Potter series because they gave my daughter a love of reading. At 18 she still prefers most books(not just HP) over the movie versions.
it isn’t filmed here, but VOTD was made by Fox, which makes it US produced, just like disney. they do better overseas because they have better taste than americans!
Hollywood is in a rut. NO new ideas. Just the same old crap. Johnny Depp is finished. Batman is a junkie. Marky Mark is a boxer…where is Paris Hilton when we need her…ha..ha.
i care about johnny depp and i’m seeing the tourist tomorrow
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″ has a very solid total of $250 million here in America. “Prisoner of Azkaban” made a total of $249 million and “Chamber of Secrets” made $261.9 million here in America and both of those grosses are terrific.
What are you sitting here doing? Go see Narnia!
Hey, Larry David wannabe, go back to being a lame Jew and leave Narnia alone.
Narnia, certainly much enjoyable then that lame book, the new testament
Narnia movie its great obiously i have read the books and i likes them very much, so maybe that why i love the movies, and i imagine that for someone who havent read the books the movies could seem SILLY but they are very cute and if you are cristian you will see that they are acttually pretty RELATED to what you belive
You realize that’s not actually Larry David, right? And that calling him a “lame Jew” is actually pretty douchey? Go away.
I’m not dissing jews and I obviously said wannabe. Read it correctly!
Everyone loves an anti-Semitic comment! No, wait…the one that’s the opposite of love. That one.
Please your delusional if you think Johnny Depp’s time is up.I hear the film wasn’t well made nd the stars had no chemistry which you can see from the trailer..they will both go on to make huge hits Pirate 4 anyone
Actually, given the way the Pirates ship sank like the Titanic in the third movie, I’m not so sure holding out hope for the next one.
Oh, and for everyone saying Hollywood has no new ideas anymore, I have two comments for that. First, 2010 has (largely) been the year when we really started to see the effects of the WGA strike in the movie realm. Second, for anyone that says Hollywood has no new ideas, you might want to look in the mirror. You’re the ones buying the tickets to the hackneyed sequels and tripe. You’re contributing to this malaise just as much as the studio execs who think this stuff will work. It looks like you’re proving them absolutely right.
Actually, if we go by Angelina versus Johnny’s box office, we could extrapolate that it;s Angie that the public is tired of. Angie’s last film (SALT) grossed 118 million. Johnny’s last film (ALICE IN WONDERLAND) grossed over a BILLION. You do the math.
You can’t use one domestic number and one worldwide number as a comparison. And sooo many things with your statement do not even slightly prove your point (which is wrong btw) Salt made more then 290 million worldwide, and performed well for an adult action movie, and performed solidly along the expectations it had, despite massive competition from Inception. Alice benifited from higher priced 3d charges, Tim Burtons name, good timing, and the fact that it appealed to everyone…It was a huge blockbuster, and perfromed better then what people expected it to, but it doesn’t necessarilly reflect Johnny’s box office stability. Both stars are very successful when it comes to blockbusters.
Given that Angelina was the only draw in Salt and Alice in Wonderland was…well Alice in Wonderland, I’d say you can’t really extrapolate anything about who’s the public is tired of. Johnny’s never been able to sell a movie where he’s not playing essentially a cartoon character. BTW, you’re comparing Salt’s domestic to AIW worldwide gross. In reality, AIW made three times as much as Salt both in domestic and worldwide, not ten times as much.
“Johnny’s never been able to sell a movie where he’s not playing essentially a cartoon character.”
Wrong. Last year’s Public Enemies grossed $219 million. Sweeney Todd grossed $152 million. Secret Window grossed $92 million. Finding Neverland grossed $118 million. There are other examples, I’m not going to list them all.
Depp was never a draw for Alice in Wonderland, so that “math” is not accurate by any stretch of the imagination. Not to mention you are comparing a domestic total to a worldwide one. Salt was actually a good movie partly due to Jolie, unlike Alice in Wonderland which Johnny Depp overacted in. But don’t get me wrong; I love both.
Uh-oh. Sounds like an irrational Angie hater. Anything to make her look as bad as possible even though it’s not true. Angelina carried the movie Salt all by herself to $293.5 million as the LEAD actress. Depp stared as a character–NOT the lead–in an animated/fantasy movie based on one of the most popular books ever written. Sorry, Angie is doing quite well when she’s in action films.
Go Black Swan!
As for the rest of the films, (mainly the new releases) geesh talk about underwhelming. Although Tangled did pretty well but should Deathly Hallows be declining that fast?
It dropped 50%, which I think is normal, especially for a film like Harry Potter where a lot of people rush out to see it right away. Considering that, a 50% drop isn’t so bad. It has already made about $250 million domestically (and about $719 million worldwide). And there is still some more money to be made over the next couple weeks.
Johnny Depp needs to changeup his look. He no longer can carry off the whole bohemian hipster dude vibe and looks kind of creepy now.
Where’s ” Love and Other Drugs”. Hello? Anne Hathaway naked? The chance to see her perfect body should guarantee at least $300 million domestic. Wake up people, and bow down to Queen Anne.
Ew. Can you tone down the gross please?
wow, no one is going to the movies!
Well, if you create a movie “franchise” based only to capitalized on the success of LOTR and Harry Potter, and not put any effort to, you know, actually make something entertaining, then expect bad results.. NARNIA is no different then Percy Jackson, The Golden Compass and all those lame movies based on fantasy books.. years from now, Harry Potter and LOTR will still be remember with fondness, while a whole bunch of narnia dvds will still be available in the 5 dollar bin at your nearest drug store…
This. I’ve seen the other two Narnias – I couldn’t even tell you what happened in them or who the characters are.
Co-signed. The first movie was entertaining but I really don’t remember the characters’ names or the plot. The sequel was extremely forgettable. And the title of this movie is so lame–The Voyage of the Dawn Treader??? I can’t put my finger on why that title just doesn’t cut it, but it doesn’t.
D: You can’t really blame the studio for not liking the title of the film, as it was made up by CS Lewis 60 some years ago. Also in terms of the novels the sequel you can’t remember, Prince Caspian was one of the weakest of the series. Dawn Treader and Silver Chair (the next one the studio is producing) should be more interesting as they begin to move away from the original 4 Pevensie Children.
Apparently you’ve missed the sales where the various LOTR and Harry Potter DVDs were also $5.
I don’t think that’s the point….
That’s because the HP and LOTR DVDs have sold huge, and once everyone has them the prices drop over time. The demand isn’t as high once all the fans have them, so you drop the price to interest more casual buyers. Not a tough concept. You can also get both of Nolan’s Batman movies pretty cheap now… Are you going to try to argue that those movies, not to mention the HP and LOTR films, aren’t popular?
“Narnia” was EMPTY when I went last night. It will take a miracle for “The Silver Chair” to happen.
What a lousy year.
1. No one is going to the movies.
2. the people that are are vastly overrating what they see. A- for Narnia. Are you %$#@*%^$ kidding me?
Blame it on the economy, people don’t have the money to throw away anymore.
Yeah, I saw Narnia last night and I am shocked that it’s Cinemascore is that high. It was an enjoyable film, but it was also insanely corny and totally forgettable. I’m a Narnia fan and I wouldn’t give it above a C+. It just goes to show how flawed Cinemascore is, I suppose, considering Harry Potter also got an A- and the critical reception of those two films are way different.
Black Swan is superb! Saw it last night it Portland, it was a completely packed and sold out theater (for all showtimes) and it did not disappoint. I will definitely go see in again and will be bringing more people with me. Truly the best film I’ve seen all year.
I completely agree with this. Natalie Portman is astonishing in Black Swan. I loved every moment of watching it and will also be going to see it again while it’s in theaters.
The latest Narnia movie is the best one yet and the first two movies were superior to the first two Harry Potter movies. I guess the books are not fresh enough to rate a franchise nor are they violent enough like LotR to appeal to most Americans.
wh