Prince Caspian Fails to Meet Box Office Expectations... Why?
05/19/08
While Prince Caspian unseated Iron Man for this weekend's box office throne (in the U.S. and Canada), it fell short of it's predecessor's first weekend (of $65 million) by pulling in about $55 million.
The drop off is a bit surprising considering almost all sequels of successful films have better opening weekends (think of Pirates of the Carribean or X-Men). Most industry analysts were expecting an opening around $80 million--so there is a slight bit of alarm surrounding the financial results.
The big question, of course, is why?
To answer that, here's what I discerned when I saw the film on Friday with a number of my friends, most of whom are not fans of C.S. Lewis or Narnia. After seeing the trailers, these friends expected another Lord of the Rings: the scope, the grandeur, the intensity. But Prince Caspian--by the sheer nature of the story--didn't live up to that notion. What they got, as one said, was "Lord of the Rings light, with kids".
Clearly, kids love it. But it's also pretty clear, that adults simply aren't taking to this as they did LOTR--and I really don't think that's going to change. Any time children are the heroes and central focus of a film, it's hard for adults to find a sympathetic character to identify with.
... but I certainly still enjoyed it!
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