|
BoxOfficeMojo.com
May 15, 2005
'Monster-in-Law' Claws to the Top
By Brandon Gray
SPOILERS!
On the weekend before the fiery duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, moviegoers' top choice was a mano a mano between Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez.
Monster-in-Law, a female version of Meet the Parents with Fonda as the matriarch and Lopez as her soon-to-be daughter-in-law, rang up an estimated $24.0 million at 3,424 venues. New Line's $43 million comedy directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) delivered the biggest opening of Lopez and Fonda's careers, and marks Lopez' second hit in a row after Shall We Dance in her road to recovery from 2003 flop Gigli.
"Jennifer Lopez has had some lumps and bumps along the way, but this is her highest opening," New Line's president of domestic distribution David Tuckerman told Box Office Mojo. "And Jane Fonda… after 15 years, people wanted to see her again. Sometimes, despite bad reviews, people still want to have a good time."
Fonda's co-star in her last movie appearance, Stanley and Iris in 1990, was Robert DeNiro, who became the adversarial patriarch in the Meet the Parents movies. Monster-in-Law tapped into a similarly relatable anxiety—the fear of not getting along with a fiance's family. These big screen situation comedies are often big business (even as ratings for small screen sitcoms decline) with recent hits including Guess Who and Meet the Fockers, which resurrected Fonda contemporary Barbra Streisand. Lopez has found most of her success in female appeal comedy, including her highest grosser Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner.
To build word-of-mouth for Monster-in-Law, New Line ran 849 sneaks last Sunday, Mother's Day, and had 90 percent attendance. "I thought that was more a marketing deal," said Tuckerman. "Four p.m. on Sunday on Mother's Day? If I was betting, I'd have bet it wouldn't have done that well. I would have sneaked it on Saturday. And I said so publicly. But the marketing department hit a home run."
The marketing successfully set up the Fonda-Lopez face-off in part by playing off the Hanoi Jane and J. Lo personality controversies. In the trailers, the way Fonda reacts to Lopez is understandable to the audience, because of Lopez' off-screen persona of jumping from marriage to marriage, and both stars get fun comeuppances. The ads, though, still played the universal card, and even mimicked the tagline from Meet the Parents. Parents' read "He finally met the girl of his dreams. Too bad her dad's a nightmare," while Monster's was "She met the perfect man. Then she met his mother."
...
With $95 million for the top 12 pictures, business was down from 2005 for the 11th straight weekend. Year-to-date, overall box office climbed to $2.82 billion, down nine percent from $3.10 billion at the same point last year. The key difference has been The Passion of the Christ—subtract its $368 million made by this time last year and 2004's total would be less than 2005. The Passion was a rare phenomenon appealing to irregular moviegoers, and its earnings were not at the expense of other movies. The market is product driven and, recently, there hasn't been much product to excite potential moviegoers—Hollywood didn't bother to release any traditional tent pole pictures in the early weeks of summer, deferring to the new Star Wars on May 19. George Lucas' digital epic could be the first step in getting people in the moviegoing habit again.
© BOX OFFICE MOJO, LLC. 2005
 Back To Monster-in-Law Expositions
|
|
