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?
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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.