Let me say I love almost all Brad Pitt’s movies. He chooses great and varying subjects. I did not care for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, though he and Jolie essentially saved this stinker. At the same time, I don’t expect others to not like movies I didn’t like. Personal taste is inherently personal. People can spend their hard earned money the way they seem fit.

Everybody has been talking about Batman Begins WOM. Here is M&MS with a lot less critical backing is performing just as well if not better. It dropped 48% in its first weekend compared to 45% for BB. But the Smiths 48% drop was in the face of direct competition from BB and seems more impressive.

The third weekend drop is amazing at 35%.

How come not enough attention is being paid to Smiths? This is just for domestic performance only. Smiths are beating Batman overseas in a very big way.

The fact that after Begins opened there was barely any drops that would even indicate Begins hurting Smith's much. A comic flick dropping 45% on its 2nd weekend is much more impressive then an adult action flick dropping 48%.

The fact is, both films should have dropped 50%, but WOM is fantastic for both, and rightfully so.

Batman Begins is a movie with natural frontloading, a movie with a certain fanbase waiting for it to see it. It still dropped only 45%. That is beyond amazing for such a movie. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a fun summer flick that has no reason to be really frontloaded at all. So all that considered, Batman Begins definitely has better WoM than Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but the WoM of the latter is great as well, no denying the fact here.

But the crtical backing for Batman Begins is huge compared to Smiths. BB is infinitely superior to Smiths. That should count for something.

Dont forget the type of audience that Mr and Mrs Smith draws in arent the type of frontloaded crowd that most action/sci fi/fx movies cater to. Movies like Bourne Supremency and Colleteral are the best comparison multipliers for Mr and Mrs Smith while Sin City and X-2 were the best comparison for the type of legs that Batman Begins was supposed to get. Seems like BB drops far exceeded most expectations

Critical backing? Last time I checked at RT, cream of the crop had it aroudn 60%.

83% vs 60%

Do you mean 60% cream of the crop for BB?

Yes it is at 83%, but the smug cream of the crop critics has Begins at 64%

Look at the The Matrix. It is at 69% COC.

Agree.

My question still stands. Do Smiths have very good WOM?

Yes, they do, indeed.

Thanks, Dr. L.

@Jeff42: Smiths are below The Longest Yard on Yahoo ratings.

Well, I'd say The Longest Yard has decent WoM as well.

Yes. It has the right type of WOM for a successful BO run. Pirates of the Carribean style. WOM that translates into long legs has little to do with critical acclaim (look at Pirates RT scores). It has to do with people coming home and telling their frineds Mr. and Mrs. Smith was "good fun." I've always thought that gets more butts into the theatre than someone coming back from BB and gushing about fidelity to the comic, the psychological build of the protagonist, and the general dramatic heavy aspects of the films first half. Doesn't make it bad, just doesn't do anything for its mass-appeal in the way an action comedy can flourish from one's lips, to the next man's ear, to the following weekend theatre turnout.

Me not liking Smiths makes perfect sense. I didn't like POTC either. :razz:

No IMO Batman Begins has the better wom, but The Smiths have better holds because the movie appeals to much more demographics than BB, so the wom, even if it's not as good as BB, will be more effective. Smiths is appealing to everybody while BB is appealing mainly to males.

Anyhow the second weekend drops this summer have been kind of strange. I would never have guessed that The Longest yard will fall 45% after a huge opening, while Cindrella Man will fall 47.5% after a disappointing debut.

You don't like leggy films

TPM, Shrek, Shrek 2 and The Sixth Sense are all leggy summer movies in recent years and I love them all. Just not Smiths and POTC. :razz:

The answer should be a simple one jb007. Its not only an adult action thriller that tends to have good multipliers but its also a rom-com too. In other words its a hybrid movie that combines two movie genres that have great multiplier. Its WOM is probably good but probably not out of this world like The Fugitive or Forest Gump were in their days

you are right. I think that is the key point.

It is just that some of Pitt's awesome movies didn't succeed much and this could be his biggest hit and I would not put this among his best movies.

How do you come up with this? I wasn't going to comment about this even after the numerous posts touching basically on this subject. However, once you make a thread on this, I have to comment.

BB-1st Wkend $48.75m/Gross to that date-$72.9m +$22.7m (+$24.15m due just by opening on Wed)
MSM-1st Wkend-$50.35m/Gross to that date$ 50.35m


BB-2nd Wkend $26.77m/Gross to that date-$121.7m +$25m (gained $2.3m even w/smaller opening)
MSM-2nd Wkend-$26.04m/Gross to that date$96.7m

BB-3nd Wkend $0.00m/Gross to that date-$121.7m -$3.7m (within $4m w/ 7 days to go!!)
MSM-3nd Wkend-$16.75m/Gross to that date-$125.4m


These are two different types of movies that appeal to two different demos. BB has just bucked every comic book/action blockbuster rule (must drop over 55% 2nd weekend). It is dark and serious not the typical WOM hit, which tends to be light and not serious. MSM is a well liked movie its IMDB score is 6.8 which is very good for this type of movie, so it is doing extremely well, but what it is doing is not as exceptional for its type of movie. I think the opening surprised many on here and they have been so shocked into accepting its great legs that they haven't commented.

The other more amazing thing is BB appeals to a core demo that tends to abandon these movies the second week. It is mostly males under 25 that is its largest audience. MSM appeals to a much higher potential audience from the start. BB has to overcome B&R, and people who tend not see movies based on comics. Basically, for BB it is getting about the 90% of what it can do, MSM is hitting about 75%. Both are impressive but if you look at it from a different perspective BB is much more impressive.

Also, there are more BB fans at this site and on the web. :wink:

Oh, I forgot to mention MSM has been able to overcome the backlash from the fans of the infinitely superior Senor and Senorita Sanchez (1982) the Spanish art-house smash, so it has had its own obstacles to overcome.

@ mdana:

Everybody has been touting the exceptional WOM for Batman Begins. But the vastly inferior Smiths (IMHO) have played just as well if not better. How do I come up with it is simple,

Second Weekend drop:

48% for Smiths
45% for BB

Smiths had direct competition for 40 and younger demo from BB in the second weekend as compared to BB's second weekend. Smiths' second weekend drop is more impressive.

Third Weekend Drop:

Smiths are amazing with 35% drop, which BB probably can match with 4th of July weekend assist.

To this point, Smiths run looks more impressive to me than BB, even more so considering the quality of Smiths. The second issue is Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a generic action comedy with no fanbase which makes its run even more impressive. People have compared it to The Bourne Supremacy, a fine sequel based on a popular book.