A few alert people called this in the mid/high 20's, but not many suspected it would go this low, especially in a wide open market. There were several good reasons given why this would/did not do well. This is the order of reasons I think it underwhelmed.

1. Sandler/R. Like with Ferrell in Semi Pro, it seems Sandler's audience is largely under 17, as it always has been, and thus most couldn't get in or their parents wouldn't take them.
2. Sandler/Drama. The movie had an inescapably somber element, despite all efforts to make it appear as comedic as possible. And Sandler/drama is box office poison of a potent variety.
3. Rogen/Hill/Apatow Burnout. Rogen and Hill are just everywhere, and audiences may really be getting tired of it even though they do like these guys. And Apatow is fairly prolific too, though the Apatow-esque movies not directly attached to him add to the burnout effect. This could have helped Hangover - something different and refreshing.
4. Run time. Too long. This could have helped add to the impression that it wasn't really a comedy. What is a genre geared toward the short attention span doing running over 2 hours?
5. The Potter Joke. Yeah, every single trailer I saw ended in this joke, and I don't think it ever went beyond "heh". Audiences were probably annoyed by it trying desperately to capitalize off something popular and relevant, probably seeing it as a bad sign.

What do you think? Any other reasons?

1. Potter Joke
2. Drama
3. R Rating
4. Apatow Burnout
5. Run Time

hmm, well 24 million isn't awful for it, Pineapple Express had a similiar opening and was able to hit over 80 million (And that had Tropic Thunder in its 2nd weekend). I think expectations were just high for it considering the past of Apatow and Sandler, combined equal instant success. And the darker tone made it harder to market it as a straight up comedy. That's about it right now. If it fails to hit a 3 multiplier though, 70 million, I'd say the runtime had a factor in that.

I wouldn't call it an out and out bust yet though, This summer has been good to good comedy.

As long as this doesn't drop more than 45% next weekend, it has a good shot at 90 million.

Also, audiences are generally not into entertainment about entertainers, especially fictional ones.

The film had longer trailers than any other movie in recent memory. Like really looooooooooong trailers, over 3 minutes. That's just too much for a comedy-dramedy. And it felt as if they revealed the entire story of the movie. Why go see a movie, when it has already been shown to you almost in its entirety several times?

IMHO it was a mistake to show how Sandler gets ok in the story. That was the only "I need to know what happens next" hook they had.

Wow.

That's a good point - and drama involving fictional entertainers is especially bad.

simple, the trailers and tv ads didnt m look funny in the slightest.

Seriously. There did not seem to be much of a plot in the trailers, much less a hook.

Enh, I guess I'm in the miniature minority that liked the marketing. But there are plenty of reasons why this "could" go bad, but it just didn't look like it would go bad.
BOM polls were indicative of a 35m+ OW, with polls very similar to Zohan and Hangover. The screen allocations were very solid, with more than the ugly truth was getting last weekend, especially in the bigger cities. Tracking from both sources agreed upon something in the high 30s area.
It seems like a lot of sources led us to the exact wrong area. To me even with what I thought was great star power, and opening the 20 range is not that shocking for a film faced with all the diversity pointed out here, what's more shocking is that nothing was indicating it ahead of time.

To be blunt, what a lot of people did this weekend was ignore common sense and just rely on tracking, pre-release buzz, polls, etc. It shows just how so far those types of indicators can go.

It was a textbook case setting up to be a box office disappointment. This includes: making a 2.5 hr movie with a star who's fanbase doesn't have that type of attention span; having an R rating, not a good idea for a star who's tried and true success as been from PG-13 films; Sandler making a drama when his fanbase wants to only see him do comedy; giving away far too much in the trailer; misleading title (many moviegoers' pet peeves). It also almost had the stamp of approval in the end that it would go on to be a disappointment, considering it was coming from Universal.

Bedtime Stories was one of the best indicators for this film in a strange way, despite one being a family film, the other being an R-rated film. It showed just how far Sandler's audiences would go with his films. Even with a Christmas release and the Disney brand, it disappointed at the box office despite being the big family film in release. But Sandler wasn't built into a box office star from Disney, or family audiences, and some parents likely didn't see Bedtime Stories for Sandler films' past crudeness. At the same time, Sandler's core demos weren't about to see his film appealing to families from Disney. Bedtime Stories was saved by the holiday season, but probably at any other time would probably have made much less.

So overall, let's just look at this trend:

1: Sandler's successes for R-rated comedies: None

2: Sandler successes for dramas: None

1 + 2 = Disappointment!

So combine these two together, if they just happen to make an R-rated drama, that's marketed as a comedy, for Adam Sandler's audiences, how would you have expected it to do?

The funniest joke in the film was in regards to Daisy's skinny vagina needing to eat more carbs. But you can't exactly use that in ads, can you?

I don't think the Potter joke from the trailer was even in the film. The film had a different version.

The best joke in the film was Norm Macdonald, at the party, congratulating Simmons on overcoming AIDS then asking if he wanted another cocktail.

Good ole AIDS jokes. You can never go wrong.

Funny People was the anti-Hangover. Shit ads. Stars everyone has been overloaded with and are sick of. Plus the Hangover was very short (100 minutes).

Made more than 50 % of what opened last year, The Dark Knight.

Seems OK! Especially for a movie that was called Funny People that didn't seem to have an Funny People.

8/1-3/2008

1 1 The Dark Knight $42,664,219 (in its 3rd weekend)
2 N The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Uni. $40,457,770
3 2 Step Brothers Sony $16,506,526
4 3 Mamma Mia! Uni. $12,615,515
5 5 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB (NL) $6,662,406

grill, why do all of your posts lack coherence? I might assume you were being sarcastic, but I do not think you have that capability.

Seems like I was right.

The Dark Knight was in its 3rd weekend, as I noted, so you were incorrect.

OK.

Norm Macdonald is in this?!?!

FUCK YEAH! I'm seeing it!

What is this 'Potter-Joke' you're all talking about?

Yeah, I don't think even the world's biggest frat boys want three Sandler films in thirteen months. Spread it out!

Ditto on this question... Haven't really watched any of the trailers/TV spots... So have no clue what ya'll are going on about.

Joy