Bad reviews, great cash haul
Critics say "New Moon" is built on Taylor Lautner's sex appeal, and apparently that foundation is enough to earn big box office bucks. Image from Wikimedia.
On Rotten Tomatoes, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” reviews were 70 percent “rotten.” As of now 10 a.m. Friday morning, it has gotten 86 bad reviews. At Metacritic, only 46 percent of the reviews were good. However, I’d bet my emergency money that this film will be among the top box office sellers of all time.
I have discovered time and again that a film’s reviews and its box office sales often do not reflect each other. This may be one of the best examples of this phenomenon to date. “New Moon” box office sales, after last night’s showing at midnight releases, are expected to hit between $85 million and $100 million this weekend.
Breaking hearts and records
Even more amazing, “New Moon” broke the all-time record for most advance tickets sold. On Fandango, while “New Moon” has the record for most advance tickets sold, No. 2 is last night’s re-release of the first “Twilight” movie, which played before “New Moon” in many theaters last night.
It appears Stephanie Zacharek really wanted this film to be good, but it wasn’t up to par for the Salon.com critic. She wrote: “New Moon offers few of the juicy, go-for-broke romantic pleasures of its predecessor, and the movie is so badly shaped that it’s hard not to blame Weitz as a director.”
Word from the fans
Of course, though good “New Moon” reviews were the minority, they are out there. “New Moon” got 37 good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. “New Moon is little more than a skillful soap opera, but it’s still enjoyable escapism – even if you’re old and wise enough to see through it,” wrote Anna Smith from Time Out.
“If you’re a romantic at heart who doesn’t mind shelling out $12 to watch a couple of adolescent boy hotties strut their stuff, you might as well just go and enjoy the eye candy. ‘Cause it’s kind of worth it,” wrote David Foucher from EDGE Boston.
Not buying it
Most critics agree with Sonny Bunch from the Washington Times, who wrote “There’s little in the way of forward momentum until the final 30 minutes; stretching out this picture to longer than two hours was indefensible.” Daily Mail, in the UK, says “New Moon” is “Tedious, long-winded and not so much undead as almost entirely devoid of life.”
For those of you who want to hear from an actual “Twihard” who gave it a bad review, Kevin McCarthy from BDK Reviews wrote: “New Moon lacks the chemistry and passion that made Twilight so special. The sequel focuses more on the gratuitous sex appeal of the two lead male stars.”
A solid sales strategy
If McCarthy is right, and the film focuses on sex appeal, “New Moon” box office sales are all set to meet expectations and go through the roof. For decades films have made millions off the sex appeal of the lead characters. The only difference in this decade is that the sexiness keeps getting sexier.
Indeed, Willie Waffle echoes McCarthy’s sentiment, but he gave the film an overall good review. “Gives fans what they want (hot young dudes who don’t wear shirts), and might surprise a few people who didn’t expect much.”
