‘Green Lantern’ Lands at Number 1 in US Box Office Despite Terrible Reviews

One of the most hyped superhero flicks of the summer, “Green Lantern,” opened on Friday in US theaters. Despite incredibly negative reviews prior to release, the film managed to land at the top spot in the US box office.

As estimated had it late on Friday before the release, “Lantern” went on to cross the $50 million threshold domestically, but the numbers are believed to take a steep fall in the following days.

In fact, Deadline points out, numbers progressively fell right on the opening weekend, which can spell disaster for the big-budget production.

Moreover, $50 million in ticket sales was the lowest, most pessimistic estimation, especially given that the film was released in 3D, which means premium tickets, aka bigger sales.

“Warner Bros' 3D Green Lantern ($21.6M Friday, dropping -21% for $17.1M Saturday, and only a $52.6M weekend) underperforms, unable to meet even the studio’s lowered expectation for North America despite the higher 3D ticket prices,” Deadline reports.

Another underperformer of the weekend was “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” Jim Carrey’s latest comedy, which barely made it to number 3, despite being a new release.

On the second position, we find J.J. Abrams’ critically acclaimed and well received “Super 8,” which had another solid week and made over $20 million domestically.

Deadline argues that the poor performances of films with stars like Reynolds and Carrey is a clear indication of their fading star: audiences are simply no longer interested in them.

“Green Lantern had well-known actor Ryan Reynolds playing the superhero, yet won’t come near that other non-sequel Thor’s recent $65.7M opening weekend for Marvel yet starring a complete unknown,” the e-zine says.

“Even though for weeks now, Green Lantern had been tracking better than Thor, which also was tasked with introducing a superhero to moviegoers. Warner Bros and DC Entertainment began freaking out Friday about the continuing negative buzz around Green Lantern especially the bad reviews,” Deadline points out.

Indeed, reviews coming out before the release countered the positive hype of before, with most critics pointing out Blake Lively’s wooden acting, bad CGI and the lack of a compelling story as downsides.

“Blake Lively wins this year’s Kristin Stewart Award for Indistinct Diction,” the Wall Street Journal writes.