NEW YORK (AP) " "The Great Wall" was a hit in China. In North America, it was a dud. The most expensive film ever made in China and with a budget of $150 million, "The Great Wall" was intended to prove that the world's no. 2 movie marketplace could produce Hollywood-sized blockbusters of its own. Though it ran up $171 million in ticket sales in China, "The Great Wall" pulled in $18.1 million in its North American debut over Presidents Day weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. That was good enough for third place, falling behind last weekend's top two films, "The Lego Batman" and "Fifty Shades Darker." The Warner Bros. animated release easily led the box office again with $34.2 million in its second week, sliding only 35 percent. Universal's "Fifty Shades Darker" sold $21 million in tickets in its second week. The erotic sequel continues to play well overseas, where it led international business with $43.7 million over the weekend. Slammed by critics, "The Great Wall" didn't measure up to its initial ambitions.
It was produced by Legendary Entertainment, which has since been acquired by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group. The film, directed by Zhang Yimou, originated with an idea by Legendary chief executive Thomas Tull, who exited the company last month. But "The Great Wall" isn't a bomb. It has made $244.6 million overseas and performed over the weekend in North America slightly better than some pundits expected. "This is absolutely a strategy that's worldwide," said Nick Carpou, distribution chief for Universal. "Worldwide, we are one of many markets." Universal could still claim four of the top 10 films, the other two being "A Dog's Purpose" ($5.6 million in its fourth week) and "Split" ($7 million in its fifth week), so far the top film of 2017. More East-West productions like "The Great Wall" are sure to follow. Studios already regularly partner with Chinese film companies on everything from "Transformers: Age of Extinction" to "Warcraft," a flop in the U.S. and Canada with $47.4 million, but a $220.8 million hit in China.
Films like "The Great Wall" and "Warcraft," however, prove that finding the right balance between American and Chinese tastes remains a difficult balancing act. For Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, the more significant factor for "The Great Wall" wasn't its multi-national origins but its Rotten Tomatoes rating: a dismal 36 percent "fresh." "Just like every movie irrespective of country of origin, reviews matter," said Dergarabedian. "Audiences only care about the movie. They don't necessary care where it came from." Two other new releases, both from 20th Century Fox, also failed to catch on. The comedy "Fist Fight," starring Ice Cube and Charlie Day as feuding high-school teachers, opened with $12 million. And Gore Verbinski's gothic horror "A Cure for Wellness" " his follow-up to the box-office bomb "The Lone Ranger" " made just $4.2 million, a result that won't help the director's standing in the industry. On Friday, Fox apologized for using fake news stories to promote the film.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers also are included. Final four-day domestic figures will be released Tuesday. 1. "The Batman Lego Movie," $34.2 million ($21.5 million international). 2. "Fifty Shades Darker," $21 million ($43.7 million international). 3. "The Great Wall," $18.1 million ($19 million international). 4. "John Wick: Chapter 2," $16.5 million ($15.6 million international). 5. "Fist Fight," $12 million. 6. "Hidden Figures," $7.1 million ($7.3 million international). 7. "Split," $7 million ($8.9 million international). 8. "A Dog's Purpose," $5.6 million. 9. "La La Land," $4.5 million ($31.7 million international). 10. "A Cure for Wellness," $4.2 million ($4.5 million international). Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore: 1. "Fifty Shades Darker," $43.7 million. 2. "La La Land," $31.7 million.
3. "xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage," $27.6 million 4. "Kung Fu Yoga," $23.3 million. 5. "The Lego Batman Movie," $21.5 million. 6. "The Great Wall," $19 million. 8. "John Wick: Chapter 2," $15.6 million. 10. "Hidden Figures," $7.3 million. /jakecoyleAP This story has been automatically published from the Associated Press wire which uses US spellingsA visual sugar rush, The Lego Batman is Bayhem for 5-year olds. A skittle-colored collision of kid-friendly set pieces and jokes that never manage to be as clever or irreverent as its predecessor, even when peppered with good-natured and adult-oriented laughs throughout, this overactive spinoff hosts a collection of pop culture friendly winks and nods with references spanning the last 60 years of cinema but the overabundance of side characters and endless maze of action sequences leaves the animated film feeling dizzying, muddled, overwrought and headache-inducing. What follows is a blitz of bustling action spectacle that loads every inch and corner of the screen with as much frantic eye candy eruptions as digitally possible.
Amidst the exploding rainbow production design is the punctuation of a lone ranger, black in costume and in soul. Vaulting around the frame like a nimble Tasmanian Devil, the world’s greatest detective contents with an endless collection of Lego fiends, all as his world of solitude crashes down around him literally and figuratively. The effect is entertainment brain freeze; a eye-twitching atomic bomb of busy action punctuated by the occasional hearty chuckle. All proof that this Lego superhero is better in smaller, bite-sized doses. At the epicenter of the chaos is the legoized Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) we met in 2014’s The Lego Movie. Still a fan of black and self-aggrandizement, Batman gallivants around Gotham saving the day per his daily routine. We’re reacquainted with Bats in the midst of foiling the Joker’s (Zach Galifianakis) latest plot to blow up Gotham with a comically-sized explosive. He’s recruited what must be 25 other Batman villains (including top tier entries like Bane, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy all the way down to canon embarrassments the likes of Eraser and Condiment Man) to get the job done but even that isn’t enough to stop the bottomless pit of genius and athleticism that is the Dark Knight.
He foils the Joker but must allow the Clown Price to escape, beaten and broken. You see, it’s not the undoing of his terrorist plot that has the Joker down, it’s Batman’s refusal to acknowledge him as his worst enemy. After all they’ve been through, Batman won’t even tell him, “I hate you” at the end of the day. When the Bat Signal-fingering Commissioner Gordon steps down for his daughter Barbara (Rosario Dawson) to take his place, Barbara has a new take on the Caped Crusader. When you stop to think about it, she claims, Batman is pretty ineffective at capturing and retaining his sworn foes. They always seem to get away at the last second or break free from prison mere days later. Maybe what the crime-ridden city needs isn’t a solitary vigilante. It needs a village. Right on cue, the Joker – obviously up to something nefarious – surrenders to the new city leader, leaving Batman more alone than ever. This central conceit defines the emotional core of The Lego Batman.
For all his fame and media glorification, Batman returns home every night to eat his reheated Lobster Thermidor his butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) left, play with his cool gadgets and laugh at Jerry Maguire by himself. Living on an island both literally and metaphorically. He’s closed himself off emotionally from the world around him and even when he accidentally adopts the orphaned Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), he’s barely willing to engage beyond using the doe-eyed youngster as a pawn in his plots. A rather rote moral center develops championing the need for friends and family, while the emotionally-stunted Batman has shucked free any and all feeling following his parents murder. To defeat the forces of evil – including but not limited to Sauron, King Kong, The Wicked Witch of the West, Medusa, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Gremlins, Godzilla and He Who Must Not Be Named – Batman must learn to trust others for the first time in his life and give a little credit where its due.
Whereas Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Lego Movie was a self-aware meta-tangle fully loaded with double entendres that played to kids and adults equally, The Lego Batman Movie as directed by Chris McKay of Robot Chicken fame and written by a small army (there are five credited screenwriters) lacks the irreverent rebellion against the corporate overlords that helped define its predecessor. After all, this Lego Movie business is a symbiotic commercial enterprise – a hybrid circle jerk of a Lego Batman Movie designed to sell Batman Lego toys whereas the existing line of Batman Lego toys are in themselves designed to sell The Lego Batman Movie. Without the smart zest of socially conscious satire pushing away from the overtly commercial appeal, Lego Batman is just a Rainbow Brite, bug-eyed cog in the wheels of cross-over capitalism. As such, there isn’t much to distinguish it from a collection of above average cut scenes in one of the endless Lego-themed video games even if it does dish up a good chuckle ever now and then.