Though “Faster” did enough business Friday to move its five-day weekend forecast above the $10 million mark, it is still a massive disappointment considering its positioning as the only legitimately-male-skewing film made available over Thanksgiving.
Insiders are at least partially blaming the disappointing box office on star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s loss of credibility as an action superstar.
With $3.2 million in receipts Friday, “Faster” landed in seventh place. Its total is now around $6.5 million, and while estimates have the film adding another $5 million by the end of Sunday, it will easily fall short of estimates, the most conservative of which had the film looking at $14-16 million for its debut.
Speaking on the poor performance, an insider wrote to Deadline Hollywood, “The biggest problem, honestly, is that The Rock lost his credibility with action fans when he did those family films. It’s hard to be a badass when you’ve put on a tutu in the Tooth Fairy.”
After moving on from the “Mummy” series into action films, The Rock became a fairly-reliable action draw, with his first three starring projects (“The Rundown,” “Walking Tall” and “Doom”) all opening above $15 million in their first weekends. Following a sports turn in “Gridiron Gang” (just under $15 million), he then moved into family films (as far as starring vehicles were concerned), releasing “The Game Plan” ($23 million opening), “Race to Witch Mountain” ($24 million opening) and “Tooth Fairy” ($14 million opening).
“Faster” apparently will not represent a successful return to action, although the hope is that his upcoming role in “The Fast & The Furious” sequel “Fast Five” will restore some box office mojo.
— Also Friday: “Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” won again with just under $21 million…”Tangled” was just shy of $20 million…”Megamind” grossed $5.3 million, topping “Unstoppable” ($4.5 million) and new releases “Burlesque” ($4.5 million) and “Love and Other Drugs” (just under $4 million).
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