Rock Of Ages flops at Box Office

[Don]

Somethings are just meant for the stage only.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/1 ... 03693.html

As it turns out, audiences didn't want to rock. Despite weeks of pre-release hype, Tom Cruise's "Rock of Ages" earned just $14.4 million over the weekend, putting the musical adaptation in third place behind "Madagascar 3" and "Prometheus." The holdovers from last week earned $34 million and $20.7 million, respectively.

For Cruise, who stars in the Adam Shankman film as flamboyant and shirtless singer Stacee Jaxx, "Rock of Ages" marks his worst wide release opening since "Lions for Lambs" in 2007. (Though, to be fair, that film opened on just 2,200 theaters while "Rock of Ages" screened in just under 3,500 venues.)

While things were bad for Cruise, they were worse for Adam Sandler. "That's My Boy," Sandler's first Happy Madison-produced R-rated comedy, finished in fifth place with just $13.4 million. That ranks as the worst live-action opening for Sandler from a Happy Madison film -- the production company behind all of his big hits -- since "Littly Nicky" in 2000.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Is it just me or do movies seem to really suck these days? My wife and I went to see maybe three or four movies at the theater over the past year and three out of four wern't any good. We enjoyed "Midnight in Paris" the most out of all of them. Over this past weekend we decided to try out some science fiction (my idea) and those two didn't do so well. Actually the Battle Los Angeles was a tad bit better than the District 9 one but the previews when they were being shown at the movie theaters a while back seemed like they were going to be shit hot. Now I feel cheated cause the previews seem to leave you feeling these are going to be badass.

So yeah, it's not a big surprise that the two films your mentioning, one with Tom Cruise and the other called "That's My Boy" didn't do so well. Movies may be like songs these days, good ones are few and far between.

[artist4perry]

It would have been better to do a documentary film of old rockers that are still in concert...Journey, Def Leopard, Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Heart.....etc. Showing different rigors of the road, and them having fun with 3 or 4 songs a group. Feature the songs and the staying power of the music itself.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

[Ehwmatt]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

Looks to me like they missed their window of opportunity that Glee opened. That show didn't seem to have much staying power. Seems everyone watched it for the first season or two, and no one watched it after that. They jumped the Gay Shark on that show according to my girlfriend.

[artist4perry]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

Here here! Preach on Brother Noble Cause!

Rock don't play that.

[xflajrnylvr]

Mad 3 is great though

[brywool]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

Did ANYONE really want to see Tom Cruise singing?? C'mon.
Rental.

[Yoda]

I haven't seen the last Mission Impossible yet, but it seems like for the better part of the last decade or so, Tom Cruise's movies have been real stinkers - other than MI!

[kgdjpubs]

I haven't seen the last Mission Impossible yet, but it seems like for the better part of the last decade or so, Tom Cruise's movies have been real stinkers - other than MI!

It's probably the best of the M:I movies. Lots of fun.

[Don]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

[portland]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Wonder why?

[Don]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Wonder why?

A CMT audience might be looking for something with a bit more twang to it.

[Rick]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Wonder why?

A CMT audience might be looking for something with a bit more twang to it.

I hate twangy music. Some of the Eagles stuff is too twangy for me.

[artist4perry]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Wonder why?

A CMT audience might be looking for something with a bit more twang to it.

I hate twangy music. Some of the Eagles stuff is too twangy for me.

That is so funny considering you and I live in twang central! LOL!

[Don]

This whole ‘Rock of Ages’ thing is not Tom Cruise’s fault
By Jen Chaney
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/cel ... _blog.html

As the weekend box office results have already revealed, “Rock of Ages” didn’t do so well in the movie-ticket-selling department. Specifically, it debuted in third place, behind “Madagascar 3” and “Prometheus,” earning a decidedly not-rockin’ $15.1 million.
There may be a temptation to blame this development on shirtless Tom Cruise (see above), the man who, as Stacee Jaxx, demands in “Rock of Ages” that we pour some sugar on him, in the name of love.
“That movie tanked because of Cruise,” you said to yourself as you scanned the box office results, a potent hit of Cruise schadenfreude already coursing through your veins. “This is proof that he is neither hot nor sticky-sweat, from his head to his feet.”
Well, as someone who once served as the defense attorney in Tom Cruise Court and therefore feels obliged to support his career choices for reasons that even she doesn’t always understand, let me just say that this is so not Tom Cruise’s fault.

“Rock of Ages” is the sort of movie that appeals to an extremely limited slice of the movie-going public. Who is that slice? People who actually remember the Pat Benatar, Poison and Foreigner songs covered in the film, as in were alive when they were initially released and actually thought they were legitimately awesome because it was the ’80s and sometimes our tastes back then were a tad questionable. (We did this to the bottoms of our jeans back then, okay? Clearly all of the blood did not make it from our ankles back up to our brains.)
Also part of the slice: people who like musicals (or at least “Glee”) and are totally cool with watching movies in which people spontaneously burst into song. Also necessary to fit into the “Rock of Ages” target demographic: an ability to spend a consistent amount of time looking at Alec Baldwin in this wig.

As you might imagine, that’s a pretty limited number of people. And many of those people —including myself, who was on vacation last week and missed the “Rock of Ages” press screening and will therefore have to spend her own money to see this movie at some point (oh, the sacrifice!) — probably didn’t rush to see it on opening weekend. Why? Because we’re old. (As Box Office Mojo points out, 74% of this movie’s audience was over the age of 25.) We spend our weekends running errands at Target and making sure our kids don’t ingest anything lethal while we’re making dinner. We are busy.
Tom Cruise understands this. The man turns 50 in two weeks. Do you hear me? Fif-ty. And look at him.

No, don’t look at him there. He looks ridiculous. This was the other problem with “Rock of Ages”: The whole thing looked ridiculous. And people don’t have money these days to take a chance on potential cinematic train wrecks set to the tune of REO Speedwagon.
Anyway, look at Tom Cruise here.

Fif-ty. I mean, what? He’s still wearing Maverick’s sunglasses from 1986 in that picture and it still works somehow.
Sorry, I got distracted. The point is this: “Rock of Ages” was a dicey proposition for most moviegoers. The ones who already bought into the idea of “Rock of Ages” because they saw the stage show may not have supported the notion of Cruise in the role Constantine Maroulis once played.(Correction: Maroulis didn’t play Jaxx in the original Broadway production, James Carpinello did. Apologies for the error.) That’s the one way in which Cruise may be responsible for the movie’s failure. But everyone else was either turned off by the premise, or knocked off the fence after reading the mixed reviews.
Will this box office slip affect Cruise’s career? Oh, heck no. Because Cruise is too smart for that. When he plays an above-the-marquee role — one that announces “This is a Tom Cruise Movie” — he usually does so in films that will likely be met with some degree of box office success. (See “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” or “War of the Worlds” for examples. Also, see “Knight & Day” for an exception to that rule.)
But when Cruise decides to do something off-type or semi-daring — see “Rock of Ages,” “Magnolia” or “Tropic Thunder” — he often does so as part of an ensemble. That way if the whole thing tanks, he doesn’t have to shoulder the blame by himself. This is what smart mega-movie stars do.
It’s actually what successful people do in general: take credit for the guaranteed successes and share the blame for the failures. It’s what your boss does, too, and it’s totally annoying, isn’t it?
Anyway, just to reiterate the bottom line: “Rock of Ages” is not Tom Cruise’s fault. I, Jen Chaney, swear that this is true, on a stack of Def Leppard albums, including “Pyromania,” which was totally their best one.

[Monker]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Or, maybe it's because DSB is in Madagascar 3.

[Monker]

hearing the gay version of AWYWI in this trailer killed any desire I Had of seeing this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxVQhgySG74

This whole ‘Rock of Ages’ thing is not Tom Cruise’s fault
By Jen Chaney
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/cel ... _blog.html

As the weekend box office results have already revealed, “Rock of Ages” didn’t do so well in the movie-ticket-selling department. Specifically, it debuted in third place, behind “Madagascar 3” and “Prometheus,” earning a decidedly not-rockin’ $15.1 million.
There may be a temptation to blame this development on shirtless Tom Cruise (see above), the man who, as Stacee Jaxx, demands in “Rock of Ages” that we pour some sugar on him, in the name of love.
“That movie tanked because of Cruise,” you said to yourself as you scanned the box office results, a potent hit of Cruise schadenfreude already coursing through your veins. “This is proof that he is neither hot nor sticky-sweat, from his head to his feet.”
Well, as someone who once served as the defense attorney in Tom Cruise Court and therefore feels obliged to support his career choices for reasons that even she doesn’t always understand, let me just say that this is so not Tom Cruise’s fault.

“Rock of Ages” is the sort of movie that appeals to an extremely limited slice of the movie-going public. Who is that slice? People who actually remember the Pat Benatar, Poison and Foreigner songs covered in the film, as in were alive when they were initially released and actually thought they were legitimately awesome because it was the ’80s and sometimes our tastes back then were a tad questionable. (We did this to the bottoms of our jeans back then, okay? Clearly all of the blood did not make it from our ankles back up to our brains.)
Also part of the slice: people who like musicals (or at least “Glee”) and are totally cool with watching movies in which people spontaneously burst into song. Also necessary to fit into the “Rock of Ages” target demographic: an ability to spend a consistent amount of time looking at Alec Baldwin in this wig.

As you might imagine, that’s a pretty limited number of people. And many of those people —including myself, who was on vacation last week and missed the “Rock of Ages” press screening and will therefore have to spend her own money to see this movie at some point (oh, the sacrifice!) — probably didn’t rush to see it on opening weekend. Why? Because we’re old. (As Box Office Mojo points out, 74% of this movie’s audience was over the age of 25.) We spend our weekends running errands at Target and making sure our kids don’t ingest anything lethal while we’re making dinner. We are busy.
Tom Cruise understands this. The man turns 50 in two weeks. Do you hear me? Fif-ty. And look at him.

No, don’t look at him there. He looks ridiculous. This was the other problem with “Rock of Ages”: The whole thing looked ridiculous. And people don’t have money these days to take a chance on potential cinematic train wrecks set to the tune of REO Speedwagon.
Anyway, look at Tom Cruise here.

Fif-ty. I mean, what? He’s still wearing Maverick’s sunglasses from 1986 in that picture and it still works somehow.
Sorry, I got distracted. The point is this: “Rock of Ages” was a dicey proposition for most moviegoers. The ones who already bought into the idea of “Rock of Ages” because they saw the stage show may not have supported the notion of Cruise in the role Constantine Maroulis once played.(Correction: Maroulis didn’t play Jaxx in the original Broadway production, James Carpinello did. Apologies for the error.) That’s the one way in which Cruise may be responsible for the movie’s failure. But everyone else was either turned off by the premise, or knocked off the fence after reading the mixed reviews.
Will this box office slip affect Cruise’s career? Oh, heck no. Because Cruise is too smart for that. When he plays an above-the-marquee role — one that announces “This is a Tom Cruise Movie” — he usually does so in films that will likely be met with some degree of box office success. (See “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” or “War of the Worlds” for examples. Also, see “Knight & Day” for an exception to that rule.)
But when Cruise decides to do something off-type or semi-daring — see “Rock of Ages,” “Magnolia” or “Tropic Thunder” — he often does so as part of an ensemble. That way if the whole thing tanks, he doesn’t have to shoulder the blame by himself. This is what smart mega-movie stars do.
It’s actually what successful people do in general: take credit for the guaranteed successes and share the blame for the failures. It’s what your boss does, too, and it’s totally annoying, isn’t it?
Anyway, just to reiterate the bottom line: “Rock of Ages” is not Tom Cruise’s fault. I, Jen Chaney, swear that this is true, on a stack of Def Leppard albums, including “Pyromania,” which was totally their best one.

[Rick]

hearing the gay version of AWYWI in this trailer killed any desire I Had of seeing this movie:

Thank, B. I was really looking forward to this one.

[Don]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Or, maybe it's because DSB is in Madagascar 3.

The Rock Of Ages soundtrack is #2 on iTunes, right in front of Journey's Greatest Hits so I'm thinking that is the main reason but Madagascar 3 could be helping also, yes.

[Don]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

Speaking of Broadway, Jim Steinman was just inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this past week.

[artist4perry]

Rock of Ages has done one thing at least. It has helped propel Journey's Greatest Hits to #3 on the iTunes album chart (something that didn't happen with the CMT performance).

Or, maybe it's because DSB is in Madagascar 3.

The Rock Of Ages soundtrack is #2 on iTunes, right in front of Journey's Greatest Hits so I'm thinking that is the main reason but Madagascar 3 could be helping also, yes.

Madagascar III would be at least entertaining, without wrecking great rock. They use the actual Journey soundtrack after all.

I won't probably see either till they come out on DVD, or in Rock of Ages case, till it is free on TV.

I would rather see BRAVE. Scottish/ Irish roots and all.

[Jeremey]

Madagascar 3 was surprisingly entertaining. It was the second film we've taken our boys to (the first was Winnie The Pooh and I wasn't there). Theron will be 3 in a couple weeks and he was able to sit through the whole film (although he isn't heavy enough to keep the movie chair from closing up on him, so I had to keep my leg on his seat bottom the whole time LOL). The Journey song they use is "Any Way You Want It" BTW.

I am really looking forward to Brave, however...It looks absolutely stunning and I have read where Pixar did a software upgrade before making the film and it really shows. Also heard that the movie is NOT about what the trailers lead you to believe, yet another film with a surprise twist in the second act. I'm a little concerned about the proliferation of bears in the movie though RE my kids and their mortal fear of bears and all, LOL. We'll probably have to screen this one first.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

Speaking of Broadway, Jim Steinman was just inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this past week.

Cool. When is he doing Bat 4?

[Don]

Not surprised. Movie looked like shit. The whole hammy Broadway sing-a-long vibe is the precise of antithesis of rock and roll.

Speaking of Broadway, Jim Steinman was just inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this past week.

Cool. When is he doing Bat 4?

Probably when he can find a singer on youtube who sounds like a 30 year old Meat Loaf.

[artist4perry]

Madagascar 3 was surprisingly entertaining. It was the second film we've taken our boys to (the first was Winnie The Pooh and I wasn't there). Theron will be 3 in a couple weeks and he was able to sit through the whole film (although he isn't heavy enough to keep the movie chair from closing up on him, so I had to keep my leg on his seat bottom the whole time LOL). The Journey song they use is "Any Way You Want It" BTW.

I am really looking forward to Brave, however...It looks absolutely stunning and I have read where Pixar did a software upgrade before making the film and it really shows. Also heard that the movie is NOT about what the trailers lead you to believe, yet another film with a surprise twist in the second act. I'm a little concerned about the proliferation of bears in the movie though RE my kids and their mortal fear of bears and all, LOL. We'll probably have to screen this one first.

I am so looking forward to Brave. Not only for the leaps and bounds in the art industry for the CGI, but also because the lead character Merida is so much like my own red headed daughter it is unbelievable. I also have to say I see a bit of myself in her as well. Never was too fond of being overly girly.

[Yoda]

I haven't seen the last Mission Impossible yet, but it seems like for the better part of the last decade or so, Tom Cruise's movies have been real stinkers - other than MI!

It's probably the best of the M:I movies. Lots of fun.

Cool, I'll have to rent it and check it out. I'm thinking the next Tom Cruise movie I actually go and see will be Top Gun II.

[StevePerryHair]

I saw the movie but was SO disappointed in how unlike the musical it was. Too loosely based! I don't know why they changed so much and had to cut out so much of the humor that had me laughing the entire musical. All I can think is so it fit a more general audience? If anyone gets a chance to see the musical, do it!!

[StevePerryHair]

It would have been better to do a documentary film of old rockers that are still in concert...Journey, Def Leopard, Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Heart.....etc. Showing different rigors of the road, and them having fun with 3 or 4 songs a group. Feature the songs and the staying power of the music itself.

Its a movie based on a broadway play. Broadway musicals are for entertainment, not documentaries. I think maybe you're not understanding where the roots of this movie come from. It is a satire, and a musical made into a movie.

[Gideon]

Thought Cruise was great and Hough was hot.