Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

Like last week, the number is slightly up on Tuesday

It's interesting that DS went up a bit, but the Top 3 all went down despite it being Tuesday (though The Dictator made virtually the same on Tuesday as Monday).

Tuesday's Box Office

a domestic total of $53,280,153

And that sent DS up to #24 on the 2012 Domestic Grosses Chart. It now has its sights set on leaping past The Woman in Black (currently #23 with $54,333,290), This Means War (currently #22 with $54,675,934), Project X (currently #21 with $54,731,865), and American Reunion (currently #20 with $56,525,405) to get into the Top 20 for the year. And that's something it should probably do at some point this upcoming weekend, possibly even on Friday...

DS has now officially overtaken Depp's films Finding Neverland, Sweeney Todd and Blow, and has only ~$70,000 more to go to overtake Corpse Bride.

Very interesting. Thanks for the info, madscntst. 

12 days 15 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

I haven't watched much television lately but I get the feeling WB is no longer promoting the movie. I wonder if it has abandoned the movie or will blitz more ads for the crucial holiday weekend. I think it is make or break for the movie at least in the U.S. unless it develops good legs.

They've already been replacing (with other movies) the billboards, and ads on buses and bus stops, in Chicago over the last several days. 

There have been a few random reviews TV spots here and there - and Eva Green was featured on this past weekend's edition of Entertainers. But it's very, Very, VERY rare when any film is still being promoted beyond 2 weeks after opening. So if the billboards are being replaced, I'd say that's pretty normal - especially with films like The Amazing Spider-Man, Ice Age:Continental Drift, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Bourne Legacy coming up in July and August.

12 days 17 hours 29 minutes 53 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

My goodness, did that lady video reviewer ever miss the boat.  It's obvious she's a big DS fan, but like several, she's living in the past when it comes to comparing the original to other manifestations, including this wonderful film.

She makes the point that Barnabas changed the perception of the vampire, making it a forlorn, angst-ridden creature.  DS's Barnabas was the turning point.  It's now been manifested in many ways, from Interview With the Vampire to True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.  Oh, and don't forget Twilight (yuck).  The problem is, it's been 45 years.  It's a dead horse now.  That's why I can't get into TB, TVD and especially - yuck again - "T."  Something new, fresh and different needs to be brought onboard.  To me, this film is it.  It retains some of the "sympathetic, reluctant" stuff, but brings in other stuff, such as having to adapt to different times (and even a reluctant vampire will make serious mistakes in trying to hide his past and needs someone, like Elizabeth in the movie, to cover for him - the film version of Barnabas shows a different sort of weakness, that of being not always thinking, and that makes him more sympathetic).

As for HoDS, I loved it when it came out and still do.  Back when I was 13 and saw it, I thought it was a masterpiece of cinema, one of the best movies ever made.  Well, what does anyone expect?  I was obsessed with DS and I was only 13.  Now, of course, I see all the warts.  The storyline was butchered by editing, and filming still couldn't escape all the Dan Curtis bloopers - even with the ability to say "cut" and try again - from microphone booms waving around in scenes and studio lights blatantly obvious in illuminating the empty swimming pool.  I like that HoDS attempted to show more of what the original storyline was suppose to be, with Barnabas being completely evil from beginning to end.  The original story, before it began to veer off from that because of astronomical ratings, did have a bit of trying to show a tad of sympathy for the vampire Barnabas character who had lost his girlfriend and was trying to get her back, but his ways of doing it would've hardly garnered support from anyone.  The original Barnabas was a murderous stalker.  Stalkers do what they do because of psychologically bent obsessions.  One can spend maybe a moment "understanding," but when they abduct and murder, they lose any sympathy.  That was, apparently, suppose to be the original storyline of the series, but those ratings began to push things in a different direction.  Dr. "Julian" Hoffman wasn't - most likely - going to try and cure Barnabas.  Dr. Hoffman was suppose to be Van Helsing, a nemisis of the vampire and both were to be destroyed while destroying each other at the end of 13 weeks.  Then Jonathan Frid would have enough extra income to find a better place to reside in Los Angeles while teaching college drama classes, his "bit" role as a vampire on a now successful daily soap forgotten by his students who weren't middle-aged housewives watching "daytime dramas" when they took a break from waxing the kitchen floor.

That was all a part of the original reality, and this video vampire/DS-fan reviewer either forgot that, or didn't totally know it. 

And HoDS, apparently from MGM's demands, turned what could've been a much better movie into a typical, blood-and-gore, rather than character-driven, Hammeresque film, focusing more on the Christopher Lee movies (and quite a few Roger Corman ones) popular at that time.  The movie didn't have to do with great cinematic art - it had to do with getting gabillions of kids (like me) who fervently watched the show to pack theaters to keep the studio from going under.  It worked.  MGM is still around.  It even managed to gobble up UA a few decades later. 

When I saw HoDS, kids started lining up (and virtually everyone in the theater were tweens) two hours before the doors opened.  There were so many, the theater allowed them to sit in crumbling balconies and box seats, highly unsafe, but back then things weren't as restrictive when it came to "public safety."  There wasn't a seat left.  When I saw the latest film version, I and my 30+ friends was the largest group.  Other than several scattered groups, the theater was empty.  This was on the second day.  Where was everybody?  And there were no kids, not a one.  That's because HoDS catered to a different demographic and with its blood-and-gore and minimized story and characterization, that's what we tweens wanted to see back then.  Our parents didn't allow us to see Taste the Blood of Dracula because it was too bloody-and-gory and it played only at night. 

The lady video reviewer is comparing apples to oranges.  I didn't want a rehash of HoDS (the '91 prime-time remake was a version of that, and it failed in celluloid expectations).  I didn't want a re-telling of even the original, with all its illogical faux-pas'.  And I certainly didn't want another version of TB, TVD and - one more time, yuck - "T."  I wanted my DS done with a different, bold and fresh take.  And that's what I got.  And I loved it.

Gerard

Maybe its better WB doesn't promote the film the way it has to date. Unless it has strong legs DS probably won't pass $80 million in the U.S. but one never knows. No new numbers here but a brief article from Japan about the DS box office there. http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/05/japan-box-office-report-%E2%80%93-may-19th20th/

I went back to see the film again this afternoon and decided to spring for the IMAX version. Maybe it was the time (4:45pm), maybe it was the ticket price but there only 4 other people in the theatre.

This time around I was even more impressed with Michele Pfeiffer. She does some very good work as Elizabeth. Her acceptance of Carolyn's curse was a nice touch. Gully McGrath does some nice work as David although he didn't seem as disturbed as early incarnations. More Laura next time, please.

Bella Heathcote carries the earlier part of the movie just as Alexandra carried the series. Unfortunately, like Alexandra, she kind of disappears and the movie suffers for it. The sequence at Widows' Hill seemed a little too rushed. But, for Tim Burton, that was probably a happy ending.

The IMAX didn't really add anything to the experience.

Uncle Roger, I also went to see the movie again, in IMAX, last night. This was the "real" IMAX (wide format film, not digital; I'm curious to see what the digital IMAX is like--I suppose one of these days I'll check that out).

The film played much better the second time through, and I'm sure that is due to being prepared for everything this time around. While I'm still not crazy about a few things, and still don't like the vomit scene and the werewolf scene, I try not to let them bother me, because so much of everything else is done so very well. The ruthless editing is a shame, because many things make much better sense when you're able to fill in the holes. The whole thing taken together most definitely does fit into the basic spirit of Dark Shadows. And there are so, so many details that were carried over from previous versions in one way or another. This project was created with deep knowledge of and affection for the original series, no doubt, even if there are things that don't work so well.

The characterizations, and the acting, are all wonderful. I think what they did with Julia Hoffmann is a riot, and I hope there are additional or extended scenes on the home video release. Having Elizabeth take Julia's place as Barnabas' confidante and ally helps to give her character more importance; in HODS and the 1991 series, Liz had hardly anything at all to do, and her removal from the story would not have affected anything. Here, she is undoubtedly the head of the family, and fully in charge of things.

Additional scenes with both Roger and David are sorely lacking. We need more, in order to see more deeply into Roger's loathesome character and to feel more deeply David's anguish. We need to see more of David's interactions with Laura, so she becomes less of a deux ex machina at the end.

Willie is supposed to be Barnabas' servant, but all he seems to end up doing is being a driver. But in the scenes we do have, Jackie Earle Haley is fantastic. Although he isn't the devious kind of character the original was, he's also not the goofy doofus from the 1991 series (although I like that one a lot, at times it went well over the top). And I absolutely loved it when Barnabas bid him to reveal his innermost thoughts, and Willie starts snoring! Perfect!

Bella Heathcoate was fabulous as Vicky/Maggie/Josette. But the Maggie background story was a bit of a puzzle--did she apply for the governess position immediately after escaping Windliff? And if so, what in the world were her credentials, and how would she have explained her change of name when appearing at Collinwood? But having seen the movie before, watching it again knowing what's to come makes the title sequence much more powerful. And I understand now why she didn't seem totally surprised the first time we see her confronted by the image of Josette.

I have mixed opinions of the way Angelique was written and acted. Eva Green's accent/vocal inflections seemed to fluctuate.  I'm still not totally clear on the nature of Angelique's being. Are witches immortal? She was shown as a small child, so did she become immortal and ageless at some point? Or was the Angelique we see some kind of golem-like thing, thus the cracking at the end? And how much power does she have? Does she become so powerful near the end because it's born of her intense love/hate for the Collins family, and does the expenditure of all that energy cause her cracking up? Okay, the vomit scene: that was totally unnecessary, and took me out of the movie for a moment. It had no dramatic purpose and was played entirely for laughs, out of step with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Barnabas: Mostly, Johnny Depp was magnificent. I do have quibbles with the makeup, which almost always looks to me like an vast amount of greasepaint, not pallid skin. But I find myself able to look beyond that, letting Johnny's performance carry me through the story. He is excellent at expressing the bewilderment at being suddenly thrown into a world that is at once familiar and alien. And throughout the movie--and especially at the end--he is having to deal with the nature of his existence and what is to to do with it.

Carolyn:  My biggest problem with the movie may be the way Carolyn was treated. I thought Chloe Moretz did an excellent job of portraying teen angst. But the reveal at the end, of her being a werewolf, was way too much and totally unnecessary. Seeing the movie again, I could spot the "foreshadowing", but those things were so very subtle that they were totally ineffectual for someone watching the movie for the first time. And the way she "came out" to her mother was done in such a jokey fashion that it bordered on breaking the fourth wall. (And did we really need that "Woof!" Why not just have a big "Laugh" sign flashing, as if she's delivering a joke to a sitcom audience?)

The fight and destruction of Collinwood was a bit overwrought, but the second time through I was able to put everything in perspective, and it didn't feel like it did the first time, where it seemed like it went on for a third of the movie.

In conclusion, I feel much more positive about the movie than I had previously. The "IMAX Experience" was interesting. I was quite surprised at the amount of dirt showing up on screen, that appeared and disappeared and moved around a bit. I'd never seen that before in an IMAX movie, but I've only been to a few. I wonder if they're having maintenance problems at the Navy Pier theater in Chicago? But the picture was very steady, sharp, bright, and free of scratches. I'm curious about the aspect ratio, which looked like it was the standard 1.44:1 IMAX format, since it filled the entire screen and looked close to the old 1.33:1 standard. My first viewing appeared to be a 1.85:1 digital projection. I'm hoping to remember some of the image compositions (like placement of text in the main title sequence) to compare when it comes out on Blu-ray later this year. Curious to see how much was taken off or added to the top, bottom, and sides to create the IMAX version.

On Wednesday DS took in $1,051,401, bringing its current domestic gross to $54,331,554.

Wednesday's Box Office

13 days 16 hours 15 minutes 29 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

Interesting, KMR. This was my first IMAX movie as well. I may see it again over the holiday weekend but I'll stick to the regular version.

I think we can agree that we're lucky that the vomiting sequence was NOT in 3D!

I think we can agree that we're lucky that the vomiting sequence was NOT in 3D!

Don't even go there! 

13 days 16 hours 52 minutes 37 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

Thanks MB for the Wed. numbers- I saw the amount for DS on boxoffice.com a little earlier, before numbers were available for most of the films, and I thought, ugh, that looks like a big drop.  But on your link, compared with most films, the drop (-19.3%) is the same as for The Avengers and much better than the drops for Battleship, The Dictator or What To Expect When You're Expecting (all -24% or more)!  I wonder why yesterday was such a bad day for the movies??  Maybe everyone is just waiting until the long weekend to relax    At any rate, DS has now surpassed Corpse Bride's box office domestically   

Thanks KMR for your thoughtful remarks regarding your second viewing!  I still need to go for my 2nd time (I hope to get at least 3 viewings in while it's still in theaters) but when I think about the movie, the Carolyn reveal seems like the most unnecessary and incongruous part of the film to me.  Not that I mind her being a werewolf, really, but as KMR (and others) have said, if they were going to bother going that route, they should've brought it out more during the film and not just had a couple of hints that we might only notice later ("Oh, there was a full moon, so she must be a werewolf!")  Plus, her identity as a werewolf isn't important to the story other than to add to the list of family secrets- she is still ineffective against Angelique, and she doesn't really DO anything except transform, and it seems like just an excuse to show some cool effects.  Even as a werewolf, she's pretty much still a victim, so why transform her at all?  I'm still not minding the other plot points that I recollect, so it'll be interesting to see how I feel when I see it again.

Thanks MB for the Wed. numbers- I saw the amount for DS on boxoffice.com a little earlier, before numbers were available for most of the films, and I thought, ugh, that looks like a big drop.  But on your link, compared with most films, the drop (-19.3%) is the same as for The Avengers and much better than the drops for Battleship, The Dictator or What To Expect When You're Expecting (all -24% or more)!

It was definitely nice to see that DS held on better than others. 

I wonder why yesterday was such a bad day for the movies??

Like I sad last week, Wednesday seems to be the worst day of the week for overall attendance. I don't honestly know why -

Maybe everyone is just waiting until the long weekend to relax 

- though waiting not just for this upcoming long holiday weekend but every weekend could certainly be as good a theory as any.

The funny thing is that, before it was switched to Friday, for decades Wednesday was the day of the week that all the new films opened. So, it most certainly wasn't always the worst day. It must be something that developed after the change to Friday openings was made...

At any rate, DS has now surpassed Corpse Bride's box office domestically   

Good to know. 

13 days 17 hours 24 minutes 0 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

studio lights blatantly obvious in illuminating the empty swimming pool. 

Gerard,

I loved reading your evocative memories of seeing HODS as a kid.  You'll like this-- referring to your quote above; they weren't studio lights, they were sunbeams appearing through gaps in the pieces of black draping used to cover the glass roof of the poolhouse.  :-)

Oh, the tale of HODS saving MGM is a myth that always pops up, but it's not true.  The studio was being sold off in huge pieces, both the land, and it's vast immensely valuable holdings.  HODS was a decent moneymaker, and what the people running MGM liked was that it was cheap yet made money.  They didn't have to spend vast Ryan's Daughter type dollars with the high risk.  It became the studio's business model for the next few years while Aubrey was running the show.  Lower budgets, and a consistent release calendar.  Comparatively, TICK...TICK...TICK... made 5 times more than HODS did, and it's relatively unknown.

Wow - ...tick... tick... tick... - talk about a blast from the past. Not that I saw it (the subject matter wasn't exactly something that appealed to the 13-year-old me), but I remember the trailer and posters for it. And even then it seemed like George Kennedy was in every other movie.    But who knew that it made 5 times what hoDS did? Though somehow that shouldn't really surprise me and I suspect that today I might enjoy it 5 times more than I do hoDS - particularly because, even as a 14-year-old (and no offense meant, Gerard) I didn't think hoDS was anything approaching a masterpiece, and my opinion of it has only grown worse over time. (If only it could have an entirely new cut, with so much of what was never even included put in - but alas...)

One thing's for sure, though - I definitely enjoy the Depp/DS film more than 5 times more than I do hoDS...

13 days 18 hours 39 minutes 15 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!