I would disagree with the Web sites who are of the opinion that DS has flopped because so many of them are only too eager to proclaim something a flop or a bomb and to hold onto that belief whether it's actually true or not - and more significantly, even if the story hasn't even completely played out yet. And I hate to keep harping on
The Tourist as an example of how wrong they can be, but not only does it remain a perfect example of a film that was extremely prematurely declared a flop, but it's also a film featuring Depp. And when the film in question stars someone like Depp and is made by someone like Burton, well, they're all the more eager to scream flop.
Has DS done as well as it might have? Well, no - there's certainly no arguing with that. But as I've been saying and as I've demonstrated with the 18th day head-to-head comparison chart, relative to the other films released this year, DS IS performing well. Not as well as some pundits may have predicted. But keep in mind that those were merely predictions of how they thought DS might do. Apparently none of them took into complete consideration what a huge juggernaut
The Avengers would become and/or the effect it would have on so many other films during May. I mean, with the economy being the way it is, and because of that, with the way so many people are being quite discretionary about going to theaters,
The Avengers sucked up a massive amount of discretionary spending that might have otherwise been spread around to other films. And if DS is a flop or a bomb, then those sites are going to have to come up with much worse terms for, say, a film like
Battleship because, unless its fortunes somehow change drastically, that film isn't likely to bring in anywhere near as much at the domestic box office as DS will. And as far as
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel goes, that film is only in its first week of wide release (after having been in very limited release), so it's not a fair comparison, regardless of the amount of theaters, to weigh its current numbers against the current numbers for DS, which is in its third week of wide release.
Now, with all that being said, I actually thought it was great that by bringing in $662,216 on Thursday, DS had one of the highest percentages of increase of any of the films making less than $1 million but more than $500,000.
Thursday's Box OfficeAnd I also thought it was great that not only did DS pass
Contraband, but it realistically has its sights set not only on passing both
Act of Valor and
John Carter, but passing them by what could quite possibly be a significant amount of money.