Unfortunately, despite great word of mouth, the second release week of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World saw a significant drop and the movie finished the weekend in 10th place in North America, 9th place in Canada. So far the movie has made back a small percentage of it’s cost to make, earning a total of less than $21 million.
I still think that, like other comic adaptations released this year that underperformed at the box office – namely Kick-Ass and The Losers, dvd and blu-ray sales will see SPvTW turn from a disappointment to a money-earner. A fast box-office slide will probably mean an even faster turnaround to the realm of home theatre. That’s really too bad as this movie plays very well on the big screen.
What does this mean and why even address it here?
In the grand scheme of things this doesn’t mean a whole lot to the medium of comics, but it’s impact on comics to screen adaptations of artistic comics material is probably negative in the long run as studios will hesitate to approve them, which closes a potential revenue stream for creators to sell their concepts to movie studios for adaptation. And hey, our focus is on Canadian creators, and last time I checked, Bryan Lee O’Malley was still a Canadian comic book creator.
Despite this movie disappointment, all six Scott Pilgrim graphic novels are selling briskly with many stores (direct market and bookstores) offering packages of six books to new readers.
Courtesy of Tribute.ca
Top 20 Movies in North America – Weekend of Aug 20, 2010
| this week |
last week |
Title | studio | weekend gross * |
total gross * |
total weeks |
| 1 | 1 | The Expendables | Lionsgate | $16.5M | $64.89M | 2 |
| 2 | – | Vampires Suck | 20th Century Fox | $12.2M | $18.56M | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | Eat Pray Love | Sony | $12M | $47.1M | 2 |
| 4 | – | Lottery Ticket | Warner Bros. | $11.13M | $11.13M | 1 |
| 5 | 4 | The Other Guys | Sony | $10.1M | $88.19M | 3 |
| 6 | – | Piranha 3D | The Weinstein Company | $10.04M | $10.04M | 1 |
| 7 | – | Nanny McPhee Returns | Universal | $8.31M | $8.31M | 1 |
| 8 | – | The Switch | Miramax | $8.1M | $8.1M | 1 |
| 9 | 4 | Inception | Warner Bros. | $7.66M | $261.85M | 6 |
| 10 | 5 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Universal | $5.03M | $20.73M | 2 |
| 11 | 6 | Despicable Me | Universal | $4.34M | $230.73M | 7 |
| 12 | 8 | Dinner for Schmucks | Paramount | $3.51M | $65.79M | 4 |
| 13 | 9 | Salt | Sony | $3.4M | $109.89M | 5 |
| 14 | 7 | Step Up 3D | Disney | $2.94M | $36.66M | 3 |
| 15 | 10 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | Warner Bros. | $1.55M | $39.5M | 4 |
| 16 | 11 | Toy Story 3 | Disney | $1.45M | $403.73M | 10 |
| 17 | 13 | The Kids Are All Right | Focus Features | $791,189 | $18.21M | 7 |
| 18 | 19 | Get Low | Sony Pictures Classics | $759,212 | $1.74M | 4 |
| 19 | 14 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | Summit Entertainment | $575,000 | $297.22M | 8 |
| 20 | 12 | Charlie St. Cloud | Universal | $485,250 | $30.36M | 4 |
| * USD | SOURCE: RENTRAK CORPORATION | |||||
Top 20 Movies in Canada – Weekend of Aug 20, 2010
| this week |
last week |
Title | studio | weekend gross * |
total gross * |
total weeks |
| 1 | 1 | The Expendables | Maple | $2.03M | $7.27M | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | Eat Pray Love | Columbia | $1.52M | $5.48M | 2 |
| 3 | – | Piranha 3D | Alliance | $1.23M | $1.23M | 1 |
| 4 | – | Vampires Suck | 20th Century Fox | $1.07M | $1.47M | 1 |
| 5 | 4 | Inception | Warner Bros. | $1.01M | $28.29M | 6 |
| 6 | 3 | The Other Guys | Columbia | $987,105 | $7.77M | 3 |
| 7 | – | The Switch | Maple | $910,475 | $910,475 | 1 |
| 8 | – | Nanny McPhee Returns | Universal | $794,544 | $794,544 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Universal | $658,541 | $2.55M | 2 |
| 10 | 6 | Step Up 3D | Walt Disney | $635,935 | $6.23M | 3 |
| 11 | 8 | Despicable Me | Universal | $561,736 | $19.24M | 7 |
| 12 | 7 | Salt | Columbia | $385,536 | $13.14M | 5 |
| 13 | 9 | Dinner for Schmucks | Paramount | $363,604 | $6.66M | 4 |
| 14 | 11 | Toy Story 3 | Walt Disney | $204,105 | $32.35M | 10 |
| 15 | 12 | Filière 13 | Alliance | $179,728 | $1.53M | 3 |
| 16 | 10 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | Warner Bros. | $163,625 | $4.27M | 4 |
| 17 | – | Lottery Ticket | Warner Bros. | $112,172 | $112,172 | 1 |
| 18 | 17 | Mesrine: Killer Instinct | Alliance | $106,570 | $269,060 | 2 |
| 19 | 15 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | Entertainment One | $67,305 | $26.73M | 8 |
| 20 | 19 | IMAX: Hubble 3D | Warner Bros. | $63,479 | $2.03M | 23 |
THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS 
[…] Item: It looks like the Scott Pilgrim movie is starting to peter out around the $21 million mark, in terms of worldwide box office sales to date. It came in at #10 over the weekend, pulling in another $5 million. In comics terms, that’s huge: the 500,000 more people who chose to buy a ticket this weekend is many times the number of people who bought the initial print run of the latest book. In movie terms, still not enough to outrank Nanny McPhee Returns. And still only part of the way to earning back its reported $60 million production cost. Kevin Boyd at the joeshusterawards.com has some analysis. […]