Showbiz411

The rule of thumb in Hollywood. If you have two movies with similar themes or the same concepts, the first one to get released wins. The second one will bore audiences, and die a swift death.

Apparently, not so anymore. Julia Roberts opened in “Mirror Mirror” back in March. She played the Evil Queen. The movie made $18 million on its first weekend. Now, out of theaters, its total US take was $62 million. Audiences didn’t embrace it. Foreign sales totaled $98 million, so “Mirror Mirror” will break even. But it wasn’t an event.

Compare it to “Snow White and the Huntsman.” With Charlize Theron now wrecking havoc, “Snow White” did $56.2 million in the US on its opening weekend. Foreign sales are already at almost $40 million.

The winner? Who’s the fairest–or maybe the least fair — of all? Charlize Theron and company. And it disproves the theory of two movies with the same concept.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.