Hello all,
My name is Steve Mason, and I’m the guy who wrote that $50M was slightly disappointing for Rush Hour 3 (Editors Note: The comment thread spun off into an editorial written by Peter Sciretta comparing the film’s box office to Mission: Impossible 3). I’ve got nothing against Brett Ratner or Chris Tucker or New Line. In fact, I opened RUSH HOUR 3 at my theatres across from USC in Los Angeles (where the film did very well).
The movie business is really just an expectations game. People expected a number in the $60M-$65M range. It didn’t get there.
Also, New Line is reportedly paying 40% of the domestic gross to Tucker, Chan and Ratner. Tucker was paid $25M (against 20% of the gross) and Chan was paid $15M (against 15% of the gross). That’s not all. Ratner gets $5M (against 5% of the gross) and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson was paid well over $1M.
If the picture grosses $150M domestic, which is very possible, Tucker gets $30M, Chan gets $22.5M and Ratner gets $7.5M. That’s $60M right off the top.
Now, here are 2 other amazing caveats. New Line does not have distribution rights in China and Hong Kong where Chan is huge. Jackie has the right to distribute RUSH HOUR 3 in those territories. (Good for Chan!)Â Â Also, New Line made a 2 picture deal with Chris Tucker. The 2nd film has yet to be determined, but he will be paid the same price of $25M vs. 20% of the gross.
All of this adds up to a “slightly disappointing” weekend. You decide how “slight” that disappointment is at New Line.
Steve Mason
August 14th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Rush Hour 3 is on its way to do 350 plus million worldwide and thats a disappointment. And that is not including what it’s gonna do in DVD sales. God your a dumbass. How in the HELL did you become a movie critic. How in the fuck does a movie make 50 million opening weekend and yet, that makes it a disappointment??? Will Smith’s movies does 50 million on its opening weekends all the time and nobody is calling any of his movies a disappointment. Its plain and simple, you didn’t like the fucken movie, and you were going to bash the movie anyway that you could. You were going to grab at any lil’ straw that you could pull on to so you could bash Rush Hour 3 opening weekend. You are no fucken better than Bill O’Reilly, the same person that this very site bashed for trashing Bourne Ultimatum. You fucken hypocrite. FILMWAD.COM trashed the movie but still acknowledge that Rush Hour 3 had a strong weekend, and they talk about Stardust, a 70 million dollar movie, doing only 9 million opening weekend and that was the REAL disappointment. Give it up, I FUCKEN WIN, YOU GUYS ARE WRONG FOR YOUR SLANDER GARBAGE, AND YOU GUYS NEED TO BE FIRED! GO TO FILMWAD.COM EVERYONE!!!
August 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Next time I see a Van Gogh painting, I’ll be sure to ask someone how many copies it sold and how well the painted did in the market before making my judgment on its artistic value.
Anyone who judges a film based off the money it makes is a fucking idiot to begin with.
The film is a disappointment in a film sense, regardless of how much ‘revenue’ it makes.
- This movie, is just that, a movie. It is not a film, and it is a disappointment.
Brett Ratner is just a sequel directing lackey that doesn’t belong in the film industry, along with all the other directing for money whores out there.
August 14th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
There are two different conversations: We are talking about financial profit. Considering a big company made this film and not a single person (aka artist) the main purpose is to turn a profit. So Steve analyzes the profit results of movies. Because guess what. If Rush Hour 3 doesn’t turn a profit, there won’t be a Rush Hour 4. There might not be another Brett Ratner or Jackie Chan big budget movie for a while. That’s why we analyze this stuff. And you can’t skew numbers. Numbers are numbers, facts are facts. Rush Hour 3 under performed (ie disappointed) on opening weekend.
In terms of quality, that is judged by moviegoers and critics. The critics on rotten tomatoes gave the film a 20%, which is extremely low. The user rating on the same site is 62%, which isn’t nearly as low, but falls into “may-be a rental category.” So in terms of quality, the film is also disappointing.
August 14th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I get the feeling someone from filmwad has been leaving comments on /film.
“Steve Mason is an dumbass”, you’re completely missing the point of anything this site has said about Rush Hour 3’s intake, and just making an asshole out of yourself.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Love the debate. For the record, I’m not a movie critic. I’m a box office analyst. I write about numbers.
FYI - Rush Hour 2 delivered $9.47M on its first Monday in release a 52% drop from Sunday. Rush Hour 3 did just $5.2M yesterday, down 60% from Sunday.