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Going to the 7:10 pm show of Mexico at the
Westwood Village in LA (1300 seats), I
arrived at about 7:05 and the middle
section of the main floor was pretty well
packed (350 - 400 seats), with some people
on the aisle end of the side seats. On the
balcony (300 seats), though, there were a
good amount of seats left despite that the
lower region was almost taken as well.
At first sight, the crowd situation looked
pretty dead on with my expectation of
close to $8 million for a first day intake
($2300 - 2400/screen). But then as time
progressed, the possibilities seemed to
expand. I haven't been to an evening show
here in a while (as I usually hit the
10:00 movies), but the size of the crowd
appeared similar to the amount of people
that came out of the evening show of Anger
Management (on opening night) when I was
in line for its later show.
Getting out of Mexico at about 8:55,
there was a line of maybe 5 or 6 people
waiting for the 10:00, with the ticket
booth line gradually strengthening. As I
bought tickets for the 9:45 of Matchstick
Men across the street, the line to get
into Mexico grew down the street,
eventually getting to the length that was
about what Daredevil and Anger Management
had accomplished on their first nights
there. UCLA does happen to be down the
block, which could place the perspective
as biased (with eager college kids
flocking over), but the theaters there are
usually pretty reliable.
In terms of crowd reactions, the
reception to Mexico even started off like
the situation at Daredevil, with some
enthusiasm at the main leads but after a
while it seemed like people stopped
responding. At one point nearing the end
of Mexico, I think someone on the balcony
yelled in laughter, "This movie sucks!"
with a few people laughing in result.
However, there was a very light and
short ovation once the end credits loaded,
but the excitement as people walked out
was very tame. As a result, it was pretty
tough to figure out the precise verdict in
terms of word of mouth. Coming out of
Daredevil, it didn't take a genius to know
that most of the audience hated the flick.
As the lights dimmed, there was some
light cheering and some claps, but very
toned down (I'd imagine the response was
stronger at the 10 show). There were only
two previews shown (because of digital
projection? I do not know), with the first
being Beyond Borders, which retrieved a
bored response from the audience with some
people attacking it with sarcasm
afterwards.
The second and final trailer was
Something's Gotta Give, which did, may I
add, look all the better with the
theater's powerhouse sound system handling
the preview's music. The preview got a
very strong reception from the crowd, with
a lot of laughs pouring out.
With the first shot of Once Upon a
Time... focusing on Johnny Depp, there was
indeed a light round of cheers and claps,
but nothing like what happened when his
Jack Sparrow appearance nearly got the
roof to collapse at Pirates of the
Caribbean. But in terms of obvious
enthusiasm, that was about it in terms of
the leads (though it felt like Cheech
Marin got a very positive reaction at
first sight). There were some laughs from
the crowd in the beginning stretch, but
the room turned pretty silent for most of
the way through.
It's a wildcard scenario, as I could
see a first day tally of $7.5 - 14.0
million or so happening for Once Upon a
Time in Mexico. I
don't even know where to begin, so I'll
leave it at that.
The 7:00 show of Matchstick Men at the
Westwood Bruin (680 seats) did not look
bustling when I headed into Mexico, but
then again its show had already started.
At 9:15 when that show let out, it looked
like pretty crowded attendance but was
hard to tell for sure. A small line did
form for the 9:45, but most of the
audience showed up after the line went in.
When all was said and done, the venue was
around (if not slightly over) three
quarters filled.
This was not like the eager bunch that
flocked to Once Upon a Time in Mexico, but
for what it was, it was a solid crowd. The
7:00 seemed made up of older
moviegoers with exceptions in between,
with the 9:45 being younger with
exceptions in between as well.
First preview up was The Alamo, which
got a silent reception, with a few giggles
at Billy Bob Thornton's first appearance.
Next was Duplex, which got a few light
giggles, but it was a mostly quiet
response.
School of Rock followed, which seemed
to liven the mood up substantially. People
were already amused by Jack Black from the
get-go, with good laughs coming out
throughout the preview.
Mystic River was next, but I couldn't
pick up any vibes with that one.
The Last Samurai played to silence for
most of its preview, but a young woman let
out a cheer at the finale that didn't
persuade anyone else did join in.
The audience seemed to enjoy Matchstick
Men and got a kick out of Sam Rockwell,
which is intriguing given that many people
probably aren't up to speed with who he
is. The crowd was reacting (with laughs,
etc.) pretty consistently throughout the
show, which is a good thing, and a light
ovation did sound off when the movie
concluded.
As for an estimate for Matchstick Men
based on the crowd report, I'd say a $5.0
- 6.5 million Friday gross sounds
reasonable.
As for a personal opinion on both
films, Once Upon a Time in Mexico was
rather disappointing. It started off on a
good note, but over time I found myself
not caring about much. Johnny Depp
saves the flick (from being very mediocre), which is not a great
aspect given that this is (in fact)
Desperado 2 - theoretically, this should
be Antonio Banderas' movie... I liked Desperado, but this
version merely felt like a rehash without
the goods. It's also fascinating to ponder that Salma Hayek got top billing over Johnny
Depp, and has about two or three minutes
of screen time.
Matchstick Men was very entertaining,
but the ending deprived itself of the
rating I was almost going to give it. |
