Normally we don’t cover box office numbers here at Arrow in the Head unless a new genre release pounds the box office and makes all other releases its bitch. This happens quite frequently in the ‘off season,’ but rarely does it happen in the Summer Movie Season. But not this week. Nope, this past weekend featured one of the biggest box office slaughters in recent memory, so much in fact that it’s important to take note.
JONAH HEX was released on more than 2,800 screens on Friday and barely managed to scrape by with an embarrassing $5.1M after 3 days of release. Let that sink in for a minute. $5.1M. Wow. Just… wow.
Not only is it one of the worse openings (in general) in recent memory, it’s one of the worse openings for a Western movie, and the worse opening for a DC movie since 1997’s STEEL. Not that anyone had delusions that HEX would beat the talking toy movie, but coming in at 8th place in it’s opening weekend, beating only IRON MAN 2 and MARMADUKE in the top 10 is just… ridiculous.
Hollywood, let’s use this as a learning experience: people can smell bullshit when sitting down to watch an R rated movie cut down to a PG-13 movie; no matter how much is spent into covering up a shitty production, word still gets out, and most importantly, that shittiness shows up screen; audiences feel cheated if their movie is a measly 80 minutes (for $12 a pop? Are you joking?); an awesome cast doesn’t equal an awesome movie; and finally, just because it’s based on a comic book doesn’t mean people are gonna wanna see it.
But most importantly, this is what happens when you cut down an R rated movie. For a gritty movie like this (should have been, at least), it’s quite the slap in the face.
To check out the rest of the box office numbers, click HERE, and if you were one of the few who saw JONAH HEX, be sure to voice your opinions about it RIGHT HERE.