UPDATE: Weekend box office is worse than thought– only $27.2 million, not even $28 mil.
Earlier: Jack may have slain the Giant, but he also took down Warner Bros. over the weekend. “Jack the Giant Slayer,” directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie, cost $300 million all-in. But its first weekend was a bust: $28 million. Even if people who don’t understand English in remote corners of the world rally to this starless adventure, Jack is deader than the Giant.
That’s not great news for Warner Bros. But they do have three big movies coming this year: “The Hangover III,” “Man of Steel,” and “The Hobbit” Part 2. I’m not sure about “The Great Gatsby,” which was delayed. It could go either way (and everyone’s hoping it will be a hit.) But “Jack” is Warner’s “John Carter,” an enormous project with no stars, low awareness, and terrible reviews.
I don’t get the whole cult of Bryan Singer. “Valkyrie” was a miserable joke that failed at the box office. “Superman Returns” was considered the worst of all super hero movies and more or less ended the career of its star, soap opera actor Brandon Routh. Singer is now known for making “X Men” movies, although his last one was 10 years ago. (He’s got the next one.) The last two “X Men” were better than the first two, and he didn’t make them.
