I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t see Super Troopers 2 breaking out as it did. Sure, there are plenty of examples of past-their-prime comedy sequels limping into theaters under the presumption that the vocal minority fanbase represents a majority, but even Dumber and Dumber To opened with $35 million 3.5-years ago. No, I didn’t see Super Troopers 2 and I barely remember the first one. I saw it opening weekend in February of 2002, chuckled a few times, enjoyed seeing Brian Cox in a comedy, and never gave it another thought. But Super Troopers 2 is a solid example of a breakout sequel and a mini-event movie.
The movie itself was a combination of Indiegogo funding ($4.7m), $8m in conventional private funds and $2.8m in Massachusetts tax breaks. While $13.5m is a lot for a movie like this, the original cost $3m, this is a decent opening weekend for a sequel that could have played to relatively empty theaters 16 years after the first film. Fandango offered tickets as a reward to would-be backers, and while I can’t say how that factored into the opening weekend, it clearly was a factor in the opening as well as the frontloaded nature of the debut. It pulled a Harry Potter 7.2-ish 1.87x weekend multiplier, but it only needed one weekend.
Yes, the film was frontloaded as all heck (opening on 4/20 was a smart play), with a $7.9 million Friday leading to a $14.8m debut weekend. But Fox Searchlight is only on the hook for distribution and marketing, so they’ll do fine. I get emails all the time about how this crowdfunded or fan-driven film is going to change the industry. You’ve never heard of most of these pictures. But a near-$15 million debut weekend for Super Troopers 2 feels like something worth noticing. Or maybe this is just about having a major studio in your corner versus self-distribution or a smaller distributor, something (for example) Steven Soderbergh lacked for Logan Lucky and UnSane.
Super Troopers opened in February of 2002 and made $18.4 million domestic and $23.182m worldwide. Director Jay Chandrasekhar went on to make a slightly-better-than-it-should’ve been Dukes of Hazzard movie ($80m domestic and $111m worldwide on a $50m budget). Club Dread ($7.5m worldwide), Beerfest ($19.1m) and The Babymakers ($7.9k on 11 screens) didn’t really make an impact. But like George Lucas going back to Star Wars after Radioland Murders and Willow disappointed, well, you get the idea. Even the much-more publicized Veronica Mars movie earned $3.3m on as many as 347 screens four years ago, but that WB release went day-and-date on VOD as well.
With a cast that brings back Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Kevin Heffernan and film comedy legend Brian Cox while adding Emmanuelle Chriqui, Tyler Labine, Lynda Carter, Rob Lowe, Will Sasso, and Hayes MacArthur, Super Troopers 2 is arguably a stealth breakout sequel. It was a sequel to a small-scale hit that had a passionate fan base and found new fans in its post-theatrical lifespan. Okay, so it didn’t get strong reviews in the day, but 2/3 ain’t bad. And it’s also a movie that, as small scale as it was, qualified as an event movie for Broken Lizard fans.
Okay, so it may take a near-record second-weekend plunge next weekend, and if it gets to $30 million domestic I’ll be very impressed. But this qualifies as a relative win in that the fans showed up for the fan-demanded sequel (uh oh… now we’re going to get folks swearing that Dredd 2 will score this time), as well as a case of releasing a demographically-specific event movie. Heck, depending on how much Fox is on the hook for this one, they may as well consider the whole thing a glorified Deadpool 2 marketing expense. I can’t imagine a more sympathetic audience for this week’s new trailer.
“>
I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t see Super Troopers 2 breaking out as it did. Sure, there are plenty of examples of past-their-prime comedy sequels limping into theaters under the presumption that the vocal minority fanbase represents a majority, but even Dumber and Dumber To opened with $35 million 3.5-years ago. No, I didn’t see Super Troopers 2 and I barely remember the first one. I saw it opening weekend in February of 2002, chuckled a few times, enjoyed seeing Brian Cox in a comedy, and never gave it another thought. But Super Troopers 2 is a solid example of a breakout sequel and a mini-event movie.
The movie itself was a combination of Indiegogo funding ($4.7m), $8m in conventional private funds and $2.8m in Massachusetts tax breaks. While $13.5m is a lot for a movie like this, the original cost $3m, this is a decent opening weekend for a sequel that could have played to relatively empty theaters 16 years after the first film. Fandango offered tickets as a reward to would-be backers, and while I can’t say how that factored into the opening weekend, it clearly was a factor in the opening as well as the frontloaded nature of the debut. It pulled a Harry Potter 7.2-ish 1.87x weekend multiplier, but it only needed one weekend.
Yes, the film was frontloaded as all heck (opening on 4/20 was a smart play), with a $7.9 million Friday leading to a $14.8m debut weekend. But Fox Searchlight is only on the hook for distribution and marketing, so they’ll do fine. I get emails all the time about how this crowdfunded or fan-driven film is going to change the industry. You’ve never heard of most of these pictures. But a near-$15 million debut weekend for Super Troopers 2 feels like something worth noticing. Or maybe this is just about having a major studio in your corner versus self-distribution or a smaller distributor, something (for example) Steven Soderbergh lacked for Logan Lucky and UnSane.
Super Troopers opened in February of 2002 and made $18.4 million domestic and $23.182m worldwide. Director Jay Chandrasekhar went on to make a slightly-better-than-it-should’ve been Dukes of Hazzard movie ($80m domestic and $111m worldwide on a $50m budget). Club Dread ($7.5m worldwide), Beerfest ($19.1m) and The Babymakers ($7.9k on 11 screens) didn’t really make an impact. But like George Lucas going back to Star Wars after Radioland Murders and Willow disappointed, well, you get the idea. Even the much-more publicized Veronica Mars movie earned $3.3m on as many as 347 screens four years ago, but that WB release went day-and-date on VOD as well.
With a cast that brings back Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Kevin Heffernan and film comedy legend Brian Cox while adding Emmanuelle Chriqui, Tyler Labine, Lynda Carter, Rob Lowe, Will Sasso, and Hayes MacArthur, Super Troopers 2 is arguably a stealth breakout sequel. It was a sequel to a small-scale hit that had a passionate fan base and found new fans in its post-theatrical lifespan. Okay, so it didn’t get strong reviews in the day, but 2/3 ain’t bad. And it’s also a movie that, as small scale as it was, qualified as an event movie for Broken Lizard fans.
Okay, so it may take a near-record second-weekend plunge next weekend, and if it gets to $30 million domestic I’ll be very impressed. But this qualifies as a relative win in that the fans showed up for the fan-demanded sequel (uh oh… now we’re going to get folks swearing that Dredd 2 will score this time), as well as a case of releasing a demographically-specific event movie. Heck, depending on how much Fox is on the hook for this one, they may as well consider the whole thing a glorified Deadpool 2 marketing expense. I can’t imagine a more sympathetic audience for this week’s new trailer.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)