As was expected, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver SUrfer was the number one movie in America over the past weekend. What wasn't expected however, was that it would open with even bigger numbers than the first Fantastic Four movie. And even though the increase wasn't that huge, $ 57.4 million to $ 56 million, it's still a sign that 20th Century Fox has done a good job promoting their new superhero movie. In a summer where people seemed to quickly grow bored with sequels, after several sequels disappointed, the fact that here is a sequel that improves on the original, wasn't lost on moviegoers. Now we will have to wait and see whether or not good word of mouth can give this movie a bit longer legs than all the other summer blockbusters. In second place, we find Ocean's 13. It dropped 47 percent, which is actually a pretty decent drop for a summer threequel. Most of the times, threequels lose about 55 percent or more, so Warner Bros can be pleased with the result. Knocked Up took third place this weekend, with a gross of $ 14.5 million, while Pirates fell to fourth place with $ 12 million. The Pirates total is now $ 273.8 million, which is up from the first movie, which had grossed 31 percent loss at this point in it's run, but 24 percent down from the second Pirates movie. Animated movie Surf's Up fell to fifth with $ 9.3 million. According to analysts, Surf' Up can consider itself lucky if it makes way with a final gross of about $ 60 million, which nowadays is not what you wish your animated blockbuster makes.
Read more: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
And so, after seven weeks of threequels on top of the American box office, this weekend they will be replaced by a sequel. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is ready to take on the previous weeks' box office champions, and it looks like it will be an easy victory. Box office analysts are predicting a high gross for the second Fantastic Four movie, though it probably won't break the amount of money the original movie made. Whilst that movie opened in 2005 with $ 56.1 million, analysts think the new movie will probably have it's peek at about $ 53 million. This is due to several factors, one being the fact that movie goers are a bit tired of follow up movies, and the other factor is the bad critical reception the first movie got. On the upside, Fantastic Four 2 is being regarded as being a better movie, and one critic complimented it on being a big, dumb and fun blockbuster, instead of the dark superhero movies we have seen in recent times, like Spider-Man 3 and Batman Begins. It's a good choice for people looking for some summer fun then.
If you would like the Silver Surfer to get his own movie, then you better take out your wallet, head over to the cinema and watch the new Fantastic Four movie when it comes out this weekend. Because if it's a big enough hit, Fox will follow it up with a movie based on the new main character from the movie, the Silver Surfer. J. Michael Straczynski has been hired to write the script, which is a good decision since the Babylon 5 creator has made a name for himself as a great writer of comic books, including a recent Silver Surfer series. Fox is planning for the movie to be darker than the Fantastic Four pics, which wouldn't be too hard to do as the second FF movie was rated PG, meaning the heroes and villains will just arm wrestle each other, with the winner getting world domination.
With the premiere of the movie only hours away, the first reviews for the new Fantastic Four movie have been appearing online. And they are pretty mixed. While most critics agree that it is a lot better than the first one, they still don't think that it's up there with the very best superhero movies ever made. Early reviews have the score over at Rotten Tomatoes standing at only 44 percent, which must be pretty disappointing for fans expecting more out of this sequel. But British movie magazine Empire gives the fans a bit more hope, claiming the movie is "bigger, better and more polished than the first, with a quite satisfactory ratio of action set-pieces and a lot of juvenile japery squarely aimed at its PG and fanboy audience." I actually quite enjoyed the first Fantastic Four, so I look forward to seeing the sequel as well.
An American projectionist who was able to see the new Fantastic Four movie early, and who then posted a review of it over at Aint It Cool News, has now lost his job. According to the projectionist, Jesse Morrison, he was fired because filmstudio 20th Century Fox threatened the theater chain where Morrison worked, that they would take away the press and trade screenings from the chain unless Morrison was fired. A spokesperson for the theater chain denied these rumors, and told Hollywood Reporter that he did receive a call from Fox, but only to tell him that one of his employees was posting the early reviews. Jimmy Tashie, senior VP for Malco Cinemas, denied that Fox made any threats. "No one asked us to do anything. We have been in business 95 years, and this is the first time anything like this happened. And this boy knew what he was doing was the wrong thing. . . . He was in a position of trust and he violated that trust." Aint It Cool News is supporting Morrison in this case, so it will be interesting to see what will happen.
In what is a first, 20th Century Fox was allowed to promote their movie on the famous London Eye, the huge ferris wheel overlooking the Thames. Fox took the opportunity to put a huge image of the Silver Surfer on the wheel, and it looks pretty impressive. I'm guessing a pretty large chunk of the UK promotional budget for this movie was spent on just this publicity stunt alone...
Here are two brand new clips for the upcoming Fantastic Four sequel. They each show a little bit more that we haven't yet seen in the trailers, one of them featuring on The Human Torch and The Thing finding out their powers have been switched, the other one with Reed Richards and The Invisible Woman in a romantic way. Yeah, a bit light on the action, but we've already seen more than enough of that in the trailers anyway.
