Disney claims #1 at the box-office the rocky way
Walt Disney Pictures can rejoice – past weekend they finally made it to the number one spot of the US movie charts again! The hit vehicle this time: Race to Witch Mountain – staring none other than … former pro-westler The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson! As “Beyond The Trailer” from IndyMogul points out Walt Disney Pictures finally managed to transform a “tough guy actor” into a family movie star with Dwayne Johnson after failing earlier with Vin Diesel (long since forgotten even by fans of action movies). Dwayne Johnson made its movie debut with the action movie “The Scorpion King” and only in 2007 transferred into the world of family friendly Disney fair after numerous not so successful movies.
Anyway … the second Disney remake of the 1975 classic “Escape to Witch Mountain” (the first remake was a two hour tv movie that aired on ABC on April 29, 1995) starring Dwayne Johnson had a strong pay-day at the movies the past weekend garnering Disney the number one spot above “The Watchmen” which dropped to number two on its second weekend. “Race to Witch Mountain” managed the rare feat of increasing its cum from Friday to Saturday by 73% – one can assume because of matinées that attract children on their day off school. But the movie did play well not only with kids but across all age groups. As Nikki Finke posts on here Deadline Hollywod blog 51%/49% of the audience were female/male, families were the majority in the audience with 68% but unaccompanied couples still represented 18% of the audience.
This reflects also the positive reactions that IndyMogul’s Beyond The Trailer was able to get from audience members at an AMC theater – check out the videocast for some interesting audience quotes and entertaining information about the movie:
After this success one needs to wonder: will Disney decide to continue the franchise and also remake the remaining Witch Mountain movies? It sounds like a save option – and the way to establish a new franchise … which in turn would bring up the question of ways to integrate it into the theme parks…
Anyway – did you see the movie? What did you think? Tells in the comments …
