Usually, the dumping grounds are January and August. By the time you get to March, the competition for theater space isn't as bad (the Oscar bait films have moved on), so better films have a chance to get noticed.
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Cereal to add this sad obit--Pixar Animation's Joe Ranft, 45, dies in car accident. R.I.P., Wheezy!
Oh that just sucks.
March is the month for disastrous star vehicles (Be Cool, The Jacket, Miss Congeniality 2, Taking Lives, Jersey Girl, Bringing Down the House, Boat Trip, The Core) and smaller flicks that would get drowned out by summer release (Spartan, Eternal Sunshine, Bend it Like Beckham, Willard, Melinda & Melinda, The Ring 2).
Hey -- Bringing Down The House opened to 2 mil less than its budget, and went on to do $132M domestically. That's not bad for either Queen Latifah or Steve Martin (his biggest opening, second highest grosser).
I kinda liked Bringing Down the House.
All of those movies could be profitable, but that doesn't mean the studio didn't tentpole it for a reason.
It was fun enough...I chuckled a few times.
All of those movies could be profitable
But as a star vehicle, I don't know if you can consider it failed if it's the second highest grossing vehicle ever for either of the leads (and it's not like you can chalk Chicago up to QL). The other movies you listed did markedly less well.
Also, it's being made with the same kind of motion-capture animation that was used in Polar Express. I think I may be staying away from this one.
To be fair, a story about fear-haunted Germanic villagers watching their population get picked off nightly one-by-one at the hands of a freakish monstrosity might be a bit more forgiving of the Uncanny Valley phenomenon than one about kids travelling with Tom Hanks to Santa's Workshop.
Your childhood experience with department store Santas may vary.