14 DAY TRIAL // Any other movie making $17 million in its opening weekend would probably be considered a good opening. However, in the case of “The Tourist,” this is just Johnny Depp’s paycheck – and this is precisely what makes of it a flop.
After a whirlwind promo campaign based mostly on the fact that this was a film that starred two of the biggest and most successful stars of the moment, Depp and Angelina Jolie, “The Tourist” finally arrived in movie theaters in the US.
Despite the fact that pre-release reviews thrashed it completely (the film barely stands at 21 % on Rotten Tomatoes with top critics), hope was still high that it would make anywhere between $20 to $40 million in its first weekend.
With an estimated gross of $17 million, “The Tourist” is a flop, as E! Online and several other media outlets are already pointing out.
“What happened? Take your pick: lousy reviews; lousy weather (sunny Los Angeles, excluded); an overall blah weekend for Hollywood; etc,” E! says of the causes of the flop.
“The result was a steep comedown for Depp, whose last film was Alice in Wonderland. It was more in line with 2004’s Secret Window, which also happens to be the last time Depp played an ordinary man (by Depp standards),” the e-zine further notes.
If you also take into account that “Alice” made over $1 billion by the time its theatrical run ended and that Depp will be seen next in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” then surely this is a very steep fall.
“For Jolie, this is more the norm – she hasn't had a No. 1 opener since Mr. & Mrs. Smith. (At the same time, she’s had several money-makers since then, so there you go.),” E! writes.
“With a reputed price tag of $100 million, The Tourist has a lot on the line. If Jolie and Depp weren’t international draws, their film would be DOA, but they are, and The Tourist isn’t. So far, the movie has debuted in a few countries overseas; its worldwide total stands at $25 million,” the same report says.
The poor performance of the film over the weekend is, of course, coming to confirm what critics have been saying about it since before it came out: this is a movie that has a lot of talent both in front and behind the camera – and chooses to waste it on a silly action film that never takes off the ground.