Wherein unreasonably free time is dedicated to proving Jonah Hill is funnier than you.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Where Was Kang? OR Token July Post!

I slapped together Box Office Mojo's separate lists of TV-to-film adaptations -- Cartoon-to-Cartoon, Cartoon-to-Live Action, and Live Action-to-Live Action[1] -- to see how The Simpsons Movie stacks up. At current estimates, it has the highest opening-weekend gross[2]:
The Simpsons Movie $71,850,000 7/27/07
Mission: Impossible II $70,616,300 5/24/00
Mission: Impossible $67,641,300 5/22/96
Scooby-Doo $61,332,500 6/14/02
Charlie's Angels $48,988,100 11/3/00


Even more surprising, of the 56 cartoon-to-film transitions BoxOfficeMojo's tracked since 1980, The Simpsons Movie already has the 14th-highest total gross[adj]:
The Flintstones $205,477,300 5/27/94
Scooby-Doo $173,610,300 6/14/02
Casper $151,760,800 5/26/95
George of the Jungle $150,900,300 7/18/97
The Rugrats Movie $139,477,700 11/20/98
Inspector Gadget $126,163,900 7/23/99
Popeye $121,872,000 12/12/80
Pokemon: The 1st Movie $110,927,500 11/10/99
Rugrats in Paris $92,925,900 11/17/00
Beavis and Butt-Head $92,1877,00 12/20/96
SpongeBob SquarePants $90,357,400 11/19/04
Scooby-Doo 2 $89,234,600 3/26/04
Garfield: The Movie $79,860,200 6/11/04
The Simpsons Movie $71,8500,00 7/27/07
South Park $67,403,000 6/30/99


A few things about that list (and f00 things about the data set):
1) The Simpsons Movie made more in its first weekend than Bigger, Longer, Uncut made in its whole run.
2) Popeye, Beavis & Butt-Head Do America, and George of the Jungle made a lot more than I remember.
3) Box Office Mojo doesn't think Transformers ($287M) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($210M[adj]) count as TV-to-film adaptations.
π) MST3K ($1.5M), Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy ($3.95M), and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm ($8.9M), made less combined than the opening weekend of the 1994's Little Rascals ($15.8M).[3] In fact, MST3K has the fourth lowest overall gross of the 117 movies in the set.
[4]

Given how much of its gross was due to upfront demand, The Simpsons Movie is a longshot to surpass The Flinstones, so there's no way it's getting to the dataset's overall leader: The Fugitive ($292M[adj]). I'd go into where its chances stand in terms of animation-in-general, but then I'd have to contemplate the possibility of Shrek the Third grossing 150% of Ratatouille,[5] and that's just not right.


[1] Why aren't there Live Action-to-Cartoon adaptation? I would argue that 'Clone Wars' was better than AotC, Fox Kids' 'Godzilla' was better than Tristar's G.I.N.O., and I have fuzzily fond memories of 'Teen Wolf.'
[2] Inflation-adjusted, 'natch.
[3] All Ibid.
[4] カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉
, 劇場版ポケットモンスター 水の都の護神 ラティアスとラティオス, and Gumby bring up the rear.
[5] Not counting foreign box-office, which is going down in my list of future-entry-ideas, along with comparing the Marx Bros & Cary Grant Monkey Business-es and concocting an "Everybody Votes" Omnibus.