14 DAY TRIAL // “Rock of Ages” opened this weekend and, despite a stellar cast and lots of publicity on all fronts, it hardly managed to make an impression at the box office. The musical dramedy opened third at the US box office, with various voices already opening it a dud.
The film stars Alec Baldwin, Julianne Hough, Catherine Zeta Jones, Tom Cruise and Russell Brand, among others, and it is inspired by the popular musical play of the same name.
It uses the music (and the fashion) of the '80s, which is one of the main reasons people didn't really rush to see it, Deadline believes.
However, with an opening weekend of just $15 million (€11.8 million), “Rock of Ages” fared well under all expectation, which means there must have been something else wrong with it than just the '80s setting.
Tom Cruise and Russell Brand might have been partly responsible for the flop, the aforementioned movie-oriented media outlet writes.
“This weekend’s newcomers which each should have earned over $20M [€15.8M] because of their star power. But New Line/Warner Bros’ Rock Of Ages (3,470 theaters) fell to earth with a thud,” Deadline writes.
The other newcomer is “That's My Boy” with Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg, which also underperformed, opening at number 4 over the weekend.
“Madagascar 3” and “Prometheus” hold on tight to their number 1 and 2 positions, respectively, in their second week of release.
“The studio felt the 1980s period piece ['Rock of Ages'] was a hard sell to younger moviegoers. I suspect the problem was casting. Russell Brand has been repelant to moviegoers, while Tom Cruise as iconic rocker proved just too incredulous for audiences,” Deadline further says.
“Warner Bros was holding out hope for this $75M [€59.4M]-budget pic, thinking that a good CinemaScore could generate great word of mouth and therefore great legs for the film. It didn’t materialize: audiences only gave Rock Of Ages a mediocre 'B',” the same media outlet also notes.
There is “no saving this s(t)inker,” Deadline concludes.
Tom Cruise's interpretation of aging rocker Stacee Jaxx was the one that got the most media during the “Rock of Ages” promo; consequently, voices online (celebrity bloggers in particular) are already saying he should take the fall for the film flopping.