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Monday Morning Mixer: 'Neighbor'-ly love

Posted Monday, May 12, 2014 at 11:59 AM Central

by John Couture

Have I ever told you that I want to die and come back as Seth Rogen?

Well, I do.

Now, of course, I don't really want to die. I love my life and my family is amazing, but Seth Rogen made a deal with the devil and he's living la vida loca as the kids say.

What? The kids don't say that anymore? Huh. Well, either way, he is living a charmed life and if I were a money man in Hollywood, I would be investing in whatever he touches. And yes, that includes the animated Sausage Party that he and usual cohorts James Franco, Jonah Hill and Evan Goldberg will be bringing to the big screen sometime in 2015, yes that massively stocked 2015.

It seems that I need to revisit that list at some point. But first, let's get through today's MMM, shall we?

Box Office 411

What can we say about Neighbors? Apparently, Seth Rogen is such a strong draw that he is able to overcome being saddled with Zac Efron as a co-star. Or maybe it's the other way around. Whatever the case, with Efron being rumored as being in the new Star Wars film, there's a good chance that he's not going away anytime soon.

Great, he's the new Channing Tatum.

Anyhow, back on track. Neighbors opened to an amazing $51.1 million which is third highest R-rated original comedy opening ever. We're also pretty sure that it's the highest opening ever for a movie in which a baby gnaws on a condom, but our research team is still working to confirm that record.

I could sit here and list all of the high-profile films that it beat or I could simply mention that this is now the highest live-action opening weekend ever for Seth Rogen. Going into the weekend, studio estimates said that it would be neck-and-neck with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for the top spot with about $35 million. It seems that we all underestimated the drawing power of Robert De Niro character-themed frat party.

Genius, by the way.

While Universal tries to get Seth and the gang back together for the inevitable sequel, it's worth noting that this is the fourth original film from Universal to open up in the top spot at the box office. That, in and of itself, is a tremendous feat and hopefully a sign that Hollywood will heed in this sequel/comic book reality we currently find ourselves in.

Speaking of sequels and comic books, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 held on to second place with $37.2 million. Hovering around $150 million with such a steep drop and major competition coming in the next two weeks, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to struggle to make it $225 million, let alone the $262 million that the first film took in.

Does this mean that comic movies are waning? Perhaps, but I wouldn't jump too quickly to that conclusion. I think people are just really tired of Spider-Man as this was his fifth film in a dozen years. With two more and a Sinister Six film planned in the next four years, Sony might be dealing with a real backlash soon.

That is one of the smart things that Marvel has done with their characters (and yes, I know that Spider-Man is a Marvel character, but they don't currently have the film rights to him). They have mixed and matched their character and team movies up so that audiences aren't getting overly fatigued with one character over another.

What does the future hold? That's a good question and one that I hope to tackle some day soon.

Quick Hitters

I know that it's short this week, but the wife is here and there's a Target run in my immediate future. Next week, I'll be on the beach enjoying some sun and surf, so unless Tim takes up the reins, this will most likely be the last MMM until after Memorial Day. Until next we meet, Mix Well.