Just what makes for a good movie has been a head-scratcher in Hollywood since its earliest days, but in the case of “Serenity,” which opened this weekend, it would seem a definite no-go. The movie springs out of a TV series that bombed big-time, “Firefly,” which aired just 11 episodes in the 2002-'03 season before Fox put the knife to it.
And based on this weekend, the conventional Hollywood thinking, very much of the blockbuster mindset these days, would seem to have it right. “Serenity” was No. 2 at the box office, though with a very modest take, just over $10 million.
But producer Joss Whedon thinks he's on to something with “Serenity,” and he quite well may be. It's the idea that his movie will start slowly but will hang on the charts rather than do the quick fade of so many blockbusters. That's because it's targeted to an appreciative audience rather than at the general movie-going population, which has a habit of disappointing Hollywood more and more with each blockbuster flop.
That target audience of “Serenity,” which is about a group of galactic outcasts who travel through space in a ship of that name, are the former fans of “Firefly” who bought hundreds of thousands of DVDs of the show in late 2003, after it was canceled.
There's more evidence, in fact, that the blockbuster formula makes less and less sense with the shorter screening windows, ever-rising production and marketing costs, and the competition from at-home viewing options, most notably DVDs of relatively current movies and canceled TV shows like, say, “Firefly.”
By contrast, there seem to be more and more movies of the steady-pace-wins-the-race mindset, and they include “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “The Wedding Crashers” and “March of the Penguins,” all movies with comparatively modest premieres that seemed to hang on, each week holding a spot on the top-grossing movies over the prior weekend. These movies have several advantages, and not the least is their lower cost. So if they do tank, the pain is far less.
But more to the point, their backers have a more confident sense of who will come out to seem them, regardless of what reviewers say or don't say. They prosper on word of mouth among like-minded people.
Whedon, not expecting a smash opening but hoping to build such buzz, began previewing “Serenity” several months before its release. He tells the Dallas Morning News: “It’s not about a shock-and-awe first weekend; it’s about word of mouth. It’s about whether the film has legs.”
Meanwhile, the Jodie Foster airplane movie “Flightplan” took the No. 1 spot for the second week at the box office over the weekend, bringing in another $15.04 million, or about $5 million ahead of "Serenity."
“Crash” remained the No. 1 movie on Billboard’s video rental chart for the week ended Sept. 25, with the baseball romantic comedy “Fever Pitch” the top new release at No. 2.
Seven new releases scattered the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart during the week ended Sept. 25, led by Disturbed’s “Ten Thousand Fists,” which came in at No. 1. Kanye West’s “Late Registration” was the chart’s top returning album at No. 3.
In books, James Frey’s drug memoir “A Million Little Pieces” topped The New York Times’ nonfiction paperback bestseller list during the week ended Sept. 24, its first in release, and also topped USA Today’s book chart for the week ended Sept. 25.
