Marcus Nispel’s remake of Conan the Barbarian is a high-profile project for former Stargate Atlantis co-star Jason Momoa, putting the “Ronon Dex” actor front-and-center in a significant fantasy action film. But it’s off to a weak start at the box office.
Conan debuted in the U.S. on Friday, and early estimates project an opening weekend tally of just $10.5 million on approximately 4,500 screens. That will be good for a fourth place opening. Approximately 61 percent of earnings were from 3D showings (2,100 screens), according to Box Office Mojo.
The movie reportedly had a production budget of around $90 million (plus marketing and distribution costs), putting this weekend’s debut securely in “flop” territory. Distributor Lionsgate was already low-balling its opening weekend expectations at around $15 million.
On the box office chart Conan trailed behind The Help ($20.5 million in its second week), Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($16.3 million for its third week), and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (new release, $12 million). (See the rest and read industry analysis at Deadline.com.)
Reviews for the film slanted toward the negative, with a meager 27 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviewers generally praised the action and visual spectacle but panned the thin storyline and mindless, video game-style gore. The Chicago Sun-Times‘ Roger Ebert gave Conan one and a half stars out of four, calling it “a brutal, crude, witless high-tech CGI contrivance, in which no artificial technique has been overlooked, including 3D.” Leonard Maltin, by contrast, said: “You don’t go to a movie like this expecting to hear Shakespearean dialogue, but the action, under Marcus Nispel’s direction, is consistently vigorous and exciting.”
Momoa’s feature film debut may have a stronger showing in international markets, however. It opens in the U.K. this Friday, August 26.
Have you seen Conan? What did you think of the movie?
I enjoyed the movie and the audience seemed to enjoy it as well. The story was cohesive and Jason Momoa was the perfect Conan…a huge improvement over Arnold.
Conan the Barbarian is going to appeal to a select audience: mostly young men as this is a gory flick. It’s not a date flick, nor a movie that will attract older viewers (they all went to Cowboys and Aliens – woot! – fun flick and Daniel Craig can rustle my cows anytime). *cough* Anyway, the big push is also for 3D, although Conan is out in 2D. I dislike 3D, but would watch it in 2D if it were avaialble in that in my area, but it’s not, so I’ll catch it on DVD/cable.
It’s not a remake.
I liked the movie it was done very well, however it isnt a remake of the original. i am in my 50s and a woman and i really loved it. I really love jason momoa i think he is a wonderful actor did great on stargate atlantis
I saw the trailer last week and thought it looked OK, but then, trailers show all the good bits. I’ve seen a few duff films in the last few weeks, so I don’t expect too much of this.
I really wanted to enjoy this film. I really did. I’m a Conan fan and a Momoa fan. However… I honestly thought it was terrible. He was well-cast, and wasn’t the problem with it–the problems were the weak writing and, moreso, the inept directing. And that’s such a shame, as I truly wanted to like this film.
To me it was like someone took a script for a T.V. movie and gave it 5 times the normal special effects budget. I “might” buy the Blu-ray. I would like there to be a sequel.
The film sucked. Im not a fan of Jason at all, i thought Ronan was the weakest character on Atlantis and Jason seemed to give no effort whatsoever. He just has zero star power, almost no screen presence, despite his size, and no one is interested in Conan.
The real problem was the $90M budget, what were they thinking? It never had much chance to make that back. If lucky it will make $25M total in the US and not much more internationally.
@rovex I think Jason Mamoa did a great job as Ronan Dex considering the strait jacket the writers put his character in. I noticed that no one mentioned Stargate Atlantis with him during his various Talk (Chat) Show appearances. It seems that he is trying to put some distance between himself and Atlantis. If the new “Conan” is a turkey, I will blame the writers and director. I just hope this doesn’t hurt his career.
I think the main reason why people don`t like Jason as Conan is that the press always refer to him like that prettyboy from Baywatch. Ronon Dex is a bit more Conan if you ask me.
Even though the conan franchise has just come to an abrupt end, I think people will be more interested in Mamoa for other projects. Critics liked him as conan, and if anything he added to the role and improved on the crappy script. It was really a marketing problem and yes Mamoa should distance himself from atlantis as much as possible, his role was kinda silly except for a few episodes. I also hope this setback doesnt hurt his career but from my knowledge he gave a good impression and at least people know who he is now. So him… Read more »
This movie primarily suffered from not needing to be remade, there was really no point to remaking it. That, and there was an overabundance of typecast actors. Thankfully, Jason’s career isn’t finished as he got cast in an upcoming Stallone movie.
I did want to go to support Jason but I can not as I have been boycotting the RIAA/MPAA and have to forego a bunch of films.I will wait till there is a bluray and then I will buy it used.
I do not like the millions of dollars MAFIAA is thorwing at Washington to pass stuff like ACTA,PROTECT-IP,etc.
Won’t see it in theaters b/c it is only showing in 3D here…not sure about elsewhere…guess I’m gonna wait for redbox
Conan is a sign of what is wrong with Hollywood today. Remaking for the sake of remaking and make a quick buck and I’m glad it failed not for Momoa’s sake, but to hopefully teach these producers a lesson that some films are better left untouched! I mean, Spiderman remake? Really? Why not just recast the actors and continue off of 3?
I don’t know a whole lot about Conan, but this isn’t based on the Arnold movies, is it? So how is it a “remake”?
It will do better overseas its the end of the summer to. They had this movie was ready run a year ago at the end of last summer they should of ran it the begining of the summer before all of the other box office hits if they were lowballing it at $15 mil. It would of had a better weakend but its early but who really cares at this point whats done is done its there lose i’ll still watch it.
Not really interested in seeing it, the Arnie ones were awful enough – I don’t want to suffer that again. Wake me up when someone makes a faithful film based on one of Robert E Howard’s original stories. Preferably one of the more Lovecraftian ones. Yeah. It won’t happen, I know.
@Ugly Pig,
You are correct. Conan originates from the 1920’s and 1930’s Writer Robert E Howard who wrote violent fantasy stories – which were often influended by his collegue and friend HP Lovecraft.
The Arnie films had about as much connection with REH’s writing than the Starship Troopers movie and book – which is to say, not much :)
I saw the movie and I didn’t think it was that bad. I’m not exactly sure why some people are hating it.
Kull the Conqueror wasn’t that bad. The Scorpion King wasn’t that bad. The Italian Job wasn’t that bad. This was bad. This was O MY GOD MAKE IT STOP, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, KILL IT WITH FIRE! Admittedly, it wasn’t as bad as Highlander The Source, or, In The Name of The King, but it was pretty bad. Momoa wasn’t bad in this, he simply had nothing to do. Everything else, was admittedly bad; the editing, the writing, the pacing, the directing, the sound, the musical score, the cinematography, the extras, the logic, the range, the… Read more »
Despite a slew of negative reviews for “Conan”, I went to see it for two reasons: 1- To see if Jason’s acting chops translated well enough to the big screen, and 2- To judge the movie for myself, as I feel that most movie critics tend to have a group-think, piling-on mentality for certain films and genre flicks. I also took my niece– a huge fan of Jason, and the same one who I’ve often talked about turning her onto both Stargate and sci-fi in general. Well, “Conan” was… uhm… It was… loud. Loud for the ears; for the eyes;… Read more »
@1teresar
Better then arnold?……………… people like you must live in a dream world where new is always better. No one could replace a language barrier young arnold.
Fact it has been rated 2-3 star says it all.
@lonix
The only thing hard to beat about a young Arnold was his muscles. His acting wasn’t hard to top at all. Jason’s action scenes were much better, as was his arrogance.
The rating really says nothing. Many Arnold fans rated it as low as they could, without seeing it.
Maybe it’s because I never saw the original “Conan” and I have nothing to compare this new one to, but I certainly didn’t find this movie as bad as certain people are making it out to be.
In fact, I liked it more than a few movies I already saw this year, like “The Green Hornet” and the new “Pirates” movie.
I really wouldn’t even mind seeing a sequel, but considering that it’s not making any money, I guess that’ll never happen.
@kyle Nin
No one I know liked “The Green Hornet”, so you’re in good company there.
The original “Conan” was over-the-top at its heart… but it did at least have *heart*. This one didn’t; it seemed to me that Jason tried his best to give it one, but the material and the direction simply did not give him the chance to do so.
@medegno51
I wasn’t under the impression that “Conan” was supposed to be an emotional film. I thought it was just supposed to be an “action flick”, which it was, as it turned out. I wasn’t expecting anything more than that, so I wasn’t disappointed.
@kyle Nin
“I wasn’t under the impression that ‘Conan’ was supposed to be an emotional film.”
Don’t think anyone even said that. “Heart” means internal spirit, and succeeding in its attempt to be more than its maker’s vision. Not “emotional”.
Even a “action flick”, as you say, is still supposed to be entertaining. To that end, my expectations *were* more…
Well, to be perfectly honest, there are only two categories of people who will find the “Conan” movie appealing: (1)young, overexcited boys who looove manly straight-cut action flicks with no complicated plot and deep character development and (2) female/homosexual male fans of Jason who very much enjoy seeing Jason half-naked and physically active throughout the entire movie. Me, I belong to the latter (aka girly-fannish) category which means that I found myself entirely captivated by the way Jason’s muscles danced when he fought whatever enemy they came up with. And the skin, so much of it… Was there a plot?… Read more »
Box office looks like it will be pretty solid in foreign markets. Russia in particular doing well. Almost 40 million foreign and domestic after two weeks. I think the US box office could still make about $30 million (depending upon the contracts for when the theatres will be able to drop out). But full coverage of foreign markets could get to $100+ million. So along with any after theatre revenue, should allow the movie to make back costs and give Jason more chances. We will see how Bullet to the head does in 2012 where he costars with Stallone. Jason… Read more »