Green Lantern is a turd. Regardless if you loved the film (though statistically, you most likely did not), Green Lantern is shitting the bed pretty thoroughly — really soaking through that duvet. A 66% drop to pull in a scant $18.4 million this past weekend brings the film up to an $89.3 million total. That ain’t good. At an estimated $200 million budget, plus god knows how much more money for their mega media campaign, there is little chance that the film can become profitable unless it starts doing Pirates 4 numbers oversees. And with Transformers 3 exploding this week that seems almost impossible.
Bottom line, good or bad, people just don’t give a crap about this movie.
But according to The Hollywood Reporter, Warners Bros believes in the franchise (ie is desperate for more franchises now that Harry Potter is ending) and is already planning a sequel. Warner Bros president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman defended GL noting that comic book films generally have a big drop in the second weekend, which is true, but 66% is still pretty huge even by geek property standards. Comparatively, X-Men First Class dropped 56% in its second weeks, and Thor only dropped 47%.
It certainly isn’t unusual for films with unspectacular box office takes to generate sequels, but there is almost always a positive force behind the decision. The Fantastic Four didn’t do huge numbers but got a sequel because audiences genuinely liked the film; it showed that a similar number of people might show up a second time. Hellboy got a sequel because Guillermo Del Toro’s shit was white hot at the time and the film had a small by rabid following. It is too early to pass total judgement on Green Lantern, but I don’t see it falling into either of those slots — and financially speaking, both of those examples proved less than great ideas anyway.
This feels like denial to me. Soon will come anger. Then bargaining. Then depression. And finally, Warner Bros, acceptance. Let’s move on. Time to make The Flash.