Which is it, wire services? Does the weakish performance of “Limitless” — which opened at #1 with a $19 million gross — indicate a slow week for movies in general, as the AP would have it, or a validation of the theory that the movie industry is slowly dying in its bed, as Reuters suggests?
It’s probably the first thing. Given that second and third place went to “Rango” and “Battle Los Angeles”, which earned $15.3 million and $14.6 million, respectively, it looks to me like audiences just weren’t that excited about any of the week’s new releases. “Battle Los Angeles” galvanized the action crowd last week, and “Rango” made serious animation money the week before that; “Limitless” couldn’t quite get its high-concept across, and “The Lincoln Lawyer” and “Paul” were both kinda niche-y. (They placed fourth and fifth, respectively.)
The trick is selling a simple idea to as many people as possible. Everything will be back to normal next week, when “Sucker Punch” makes $30 million from the monsters-and-hot-chicks crowd.
One good thing did come from Limitless. Alliance issued promo packs to retail outlets – free tins of delicious nuclear mints. The general public usually doesn’t get swag, and quality mints are so much better than over-/under-sized T-shirts bearing the title logos of movies no one wanted to see.
Mmmm… Free minty goodness.