Apparently people wanted to see the last man on earth battle fast walking zombies this weekend! Even Alvin And The Chipmunks made scads of money. While I was snowed in (thanks to arctic wrath at my home in the gulag) – the rest of the you were in the theaters enjoying a picture show. We are made aware of the numbers thanks to our friends at comingsoon:
In one of the most astounding weekends since the summer, two movies opened and far exceeded all expectations, predictions and studio tracking as Will Smith opened his latest sci-fi action flick I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) in December with an estimated gross of $76.5 million in regular and IMAX theatres, an average of over $21,000 per theater, setting a new opening record for Smith as well as the new record for December. Even more surprising might be the success of Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox) in finding a huge family audience to the tune of $45 million, becoming one of the top 8 openers for the month of December as well.
I did not expect Legend to beat The Golden Compass – but It was not even a contest. I have yet to see this film, but plan to do so; I love post apocalyptic movies and try my best to watch as many as possible. This is a great news day for Will Smith, it has been a dry $pell for films as of late, and he helmed this ship to a land of bounty. One thing is now true, Will Smith is a more bankable star in the post apocalyptic genre than Kevin Costner. We must however, give props to Costner for loving the genre enough to make Waterworld and The Postman. What we need is a Kevin Costner post apocalyptic production, starring Will Smith – make it so!
The word on the street is that Alvin And The Chipmunks is a big bag of shit. I really liked the cartoon as a youngster and personally plan to avoid this film. I appreciate Jason Lee and the Chipmunks too much to watch them destroy their reputations in one fell swop. With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 25% I do not think I will give this one the benefit of the doubt. The commercials for this film were terrible to me, I am honestly surprised that this film made so much cash. Then again, I liked the Chipmunks as a kid, perhaps their appeal is just as strong with this generation. When the children want to see something, the parents have to go; the nag factor wins again.
