Posted on 12/13/2010 9:57:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" debuted at the top of the box office this weekend.
The third movie entry based on the beloved children novels by C.S. Lewis raked in $24.5 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters despite a weak start on Friday.
In the latest Narnia movie, the two youngest Pevensies, Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) journey back to the magical Kingdom along with their bratty cousin Eustace (Will Pouter). Led by King Caspian (Ben Barnes), the crew set out on a quest on the Dawn Treader to battle new threats to the Narnia while struggling over temptations like pride, greed, and envy.
Despite nabbing the number one box office rank, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" fared way below what its predecessors of the same series took in opening weekend.
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," the first movie installment of the Narnia series, made $65.5 million during its opening weekend in 2005.
Three years later, "Prince Caspian" took in about $55 million during its first week in theaters.
Both previous movie adaptations were produced by Disney, which abandoned plans to translate all seven books of the series into film following dismal results from Prince Caspian.
The second installment took in a total of $419 million worldwide but cost $200 million to produce. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" had a smaller budget of $180 million but pulled in $745 million in ticket sales worldwide.
This time around, 20th Century Fox partnered with Walden Media to set sail with "Voyage of the Dawn Treader." The producers made an effort to make the film more accessible to families by steering clear of the warlike tone of "Prince Caspian." The franchise also marketed to faith audiences by offering early screenings and preaching resources to pastors.
Despite a less than stellar opening weekend, Fox senior vice president Chris Aronson said, "On the domestic side, our best days are still ahead of us with the school holidays and Christmas yet to come," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The fantasy film has so far earned a worldwide total of $105.5 million.
Disney remains a box office contender, raking in $14.5 million with "Tangled," an animated feature based on the classical story of Rapunzel.
"The Tourist" also opened this weekend, coming in second with $17 million.
Meanwhile, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1" fell down to fourth place with $8.5 million.
Yeah... That’d be a bit much for most kids.
I could be wrong, but I suspect the Dawn Treader will get a little more wind in her sales as schools start letting out for Christmas vacation.
Idiots. The movie didn't suffer from its "warlike tone." It suffered because the root of the story is faith... and they gutted any semblance of faith from the movie.
The Narnia books are my favorite. I have read them all through at least 5 times in my life... getting different things each time. I can stomach the first movie, although there are obvious areas where they could have done better. I absolutely hate the second one. There was no life in it... no part of the book remained besides the names of the characters.
I'm looking forward to Dawn Treader and hoping to be positively surprised. If the franchise fails it will be entirely due to Hollywood's blatant attempts to capitalize on the names of the stories while systematically trying to undermine them.
I have not read the books (on my list of suggested presents this year).
Since, by your comments, you obviously have read them, may I ask if the absence of Peter and Susan (the older brother and sister) is part of the novels as well?
Thanks.
Nice pun Joe.
heard a similar ‘ news ‘ report with the reporter stating “ looks like the Narnia ship has sailed! “
My understanding is that family movies make TONS more money in sales, by comparison, after the white hot release period.
People are much more likely to gift Narnia related materials, than Brokeback Mountain.
Peter and Susan are rightly not in “Dawn Treader”.
Thanks ;-)
It's astonishing how small and confused their world is.
A book I intend to read ASAP is The Planets of Narnia, which discusses the roots of this series in medieval astronomy.
If you have kids, and read these books to them, you will create radiant shared memories.
I loved the sword fighting too. I thought it was VERY well done.
I agree. I’ll be taking three of my children, and I’m postponing it until next week.
You might want to, but it would be a dumb move. You want to be the only movie aimed at your demographic coming out that weekend. A lot of your audience will go see all three movies if they come out on different weekends, but a fair portion of them won't go see yours if they have to choose between yours and two other very popular franchises. By giving the audience a choice, you'd be letting your competitors take money that would have gone to you almost by default if you had the playing field to yourself.
Yes, Peter and Susan are told at the end of Prince Caspian that they cant come back anymore. The books are great; I would start with The Magician’s Nephew because it really is the first - all about the creation of Narnia.
The latter will be alleviated in a couple weeks. The former could be addressed through word of mouth. Granted, later movies of this kind are harder if only because the "awe" factor of the first movie is gone. You now expect more.
(Part of the reason why I liked Fellowship of the Ring more than Return of the King)
Interesting conversations here. I loved the first movie and really enjoyed the second one as well. I’m no film aficionado, but I’m not sure why so many people hated the second movie. Oh well. Dawn Treader is my favorite in the book series as well and I am looking forward to seeing it in the theater.
I wouldn't say I 'hated' Caspian. It's simply one of my least favorite of the books, and so I merely enjoyed the film less than I have the other two that have been made so far.
I'm really hoping that Magician's Nephew makes it to the big screen. I think it will translate wonderfully.
The order in which they are meant to be read is a hot topic amongst Narniaphiles, and Wikipedia actually has some good info on the topic...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia#Reading_order
At that entry you'll see Lewis's own thoughts on the matter as reflected in his reply to the inquiry of a fan...
"I think I agree with your [chronological] order for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last, but I found I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published.[12]
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