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Monday Mixer: All of the Super Bowl movie ads here

Posted Monday, February 6, 2017 at 11:07 AM Central

by John Couture

*Yawn*

Fills up coffee mug for the second, no third time.

I'm going on the record now. My vote can be bought for 2020. I will literally vote for any candidate that supports making the Monday following the Super Bowl a national holiday.

I jest, I think, but it is hard to get up this morning and focus on things of consequence, so please apologize all of the typos and split infinitives. I'm a suffering Lions fan, so I had no dog in the fight, but I do like the underdogs and as such I joined the plurality of people in this country by throwing my casual support behind the Falcons.

I don't have anything against the Patriots per se and Tom Brady is a good Michigan man, but there's just something inherently enjoyable about a team winning that hasn't ever won before, or at least in a long time.

Take this Summer's Chicago Cubs, for example. Again, my beloved Tigers weren't in it this year, so I could get behind the Cubs winning the World Series (of course, the Indians also had their own drought, so it was win-win in my book). Here comes the segue: much like the dynasty known as the Patriots, Disney is enjoying its own run at the top of the box office game.

Disney finished second in box office market share for three years before finally winning the title last year. This feat is even more impressive when you consider that Disney has a very limited slate each year, usually half or less films than the other major studios. With a new Star Wars film each year, it's a good bet that Disney will be on top or near it for the foreseeable future.

Box Office 411

If, like me, you're the type of fan that was celebrating before the chickens hatched last night, then you'll want to keep your eye on Universal. They usually compete for the market share lead each year through a bevy of big box office hits and sheer numbers. Universal is known to release upwards of 20 films each year.

With Split's success giving M. Night Shyamalan a modicum of his respect back, the studio is making an interesting case to be perennial contenders. Split topped the box office for the third consecutive week with $14.6 million. The film has now risen to the cusp of $100 million and looks to finish up in the neighborhood of $150 million.

I watched Split this week and it's a film that deserves the praise and box office business that it is enjoying. It truly is a film that works on its own merits and in whatever realm that M. Night Shyamalan is creating. Universal already has successful franchises with the Fast and the Furious and Jurassic Park movies, but is hoping to launch their own expanded universe with the return of the classic monster movies later this year with The Mummy.

But if they can continue to cultivate these secondary series of films, such as Split, then I think they can truly reach new echelons. And it would appear that Night is well on his way to doing so.

If you've seen Split, then you can certainly speculate as to what Night has up his sleeve, or rather in his bag. I won't say anything else, for fear of spoiling a wonderful film.

Many thought that Rings would eclipse Split given the former's pedigree and the target audience of both films being very similar, but its $13 million opening was only good enough for second place. The third film in The Ring franchise had the worst opening of the bunch and looks to finish with $40 million, which would be a massive letdown.

Of course when it comes to letdown, the real box office flop this week goes to The Space Between Us. The interstellar love story made only $3.8 million against expectations closer to twice that amount. Its performance is a bit unfortunate because I really enjoyed the first trailer, but with each successive look at the film, my optimism continued to wane. At this rate, it will struggle to earn $15 million and will take some wind out of STX's sails after the success of Bad Moms.

Quick Hitters

  • With yesterday's Super Bowl came the annual extravaganza known as Super Bowl commercials. As a whole, I was rather unimpressed with this year's offerings. If you missed them, you can see them all here.

    From a film perspective, Super Bowl commercials have traditionally signalled the start of the summer film advertising season. Before the onset of online trailers, it was usually the first time that most people would see (or even hear about) the biggest films coming out in theaters in a few months.

    So, imagine my disappointment at this year's crop of Super Bowl movie ads. By my unofficial count, there were a total of six movie commercials during the game itself. Those films advertised were Logan, A Cure for Wellness, Transformers: The Last Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, The Fate of the Furious and Baywatch.

    That's two commercials each from Paramount and Fox and one from Disney and Universal. I'm honestly a bit surprised that Warner Bros. skipped this year's festivities as I think some footage from CHiPs, Wonder Woman or Justice League would have certainly created a bit of buzz for these films.

    According to the official tally, there was one commercial that I either missed or played during the the pregame for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. So, I decided to include it here. Without further ado, here are the Super Bowl ads for films from yesterday's game.