"Needs more Reepicheep". That's the phrase that might have helped The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian when it came to the marketing for the film. Underperforming by most estimates and coming in with an opening weekend of nearly $10 million lower than its predecessor The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the movie's marketing played too much to the visual effects (which every fantasy movie has plenty of) and not enough to what made it really fun: the great sword fights and the witty characters. Reepicheep the mouse and his Narnian allies pretty much stole the show out from under their human counterparts, but instead dashing princelings and giant water gods got all the good scenes in the trailer.
Of course, Prince Caspian has nothing to fear financially. Even if the domestic American market barely carries the movie past the $120 million mark, international sales are sure to cover the rest of the film's hefty $200 million budget and then some. However, this probably isn't the level of success Disney and Walden were hoping for. On the other hand things could be worse: their summer big blockbuster could have been Speed Racer.
Speaking of the Wachowski's race car based financial disaster, the foreign box office totals have been rolling in and the picture isn't pretty. With a $120 million budget the 70's-children's-animated-TV-show-turned-film-adapation only has $40 million in the bank worldwide. After dropping a painful near-60% from last weekend here in the states and with very few remaining major foreign markets, the film is doomed to the red.
Iron Man, however, continues his massive march through the box office. At $222 million domestic and nearly $400 million worldwide the movie has set the bar pretty high. There are still plenty of major players yet to some this summer, but it's doubtful how many of them will be able to compete. Even Indiana Jones and the Unforgiveably Bizarre Subtitle which rolls into theaters next week may have a tough time catching up.
