Box Office Look, 3-23-14 (DIVERGENT wins, Veronica Mars Bombs)

It would seem that there were enough fans of the book series, as well as enough curious movie-goers to put Divergent at the top of the list for the weekend box office. Not to be a doom-sayer, but we'll see just how strong of a movie it is and how it does next weekend. But aside from the worries...

Per estimates,

Divergent will pull in around $56M for it's opening weekend.

Muppets Most Wanted opened second with an estimated $16.5M haul. (Are folks tired of The Muppets?)

These top two weekend movies were followed by

3 Mr. Peabody & Sherman     $11.8M
4 300: Rise of An Empire    $8.7M
5 God's Not Dead            $8.6M
6 Need for Speed            $7.8M
7 The Grand Budapest Hotel $6.8M
8 Non-Stop                  $6.3M
9 The LEGO Movie            $4.1M
10 Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club     $3.1M

This weekend finally pushed Frozen out of the top-10 movies club after a solid 16 weeks living there. Plus this is the first weekend it fell below $1M weekend take. Frozen sat 13th on the charts, with $.7M.

And though it came in fifth, the extremely non-marketed movie, God's Not Dead, seemed to hold its own, while Son of God landed in just outside the top-10, in 11th, pulling in $2.7M.
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Why Fan Favorites Are Huge Gambles for Studios

So all the fans of the Veronica Mars franchise got their wish and were vindicated with a movie. Thus, this cult classic appeased the rabid fan base. Following all the news updates and fan websites, the verbiage seemed to make you think it would do well.

And depending what circles you "fly in," it was either all the rage or a non-contender. Fans and marketing made it sound like the next best thing to sliced bread.

With an estimated filming budget of ~$6M, the Veronica Mars movie pulled in $1.99M on it's opening weekend last weekend. Then those numbers dropped like a huge digital rock, a 75% drop in income with estimates shy of $500k for this weekend.

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And so it looks as though there weren't enough fans that hit up the movie theater, period, to have supported the film. Or too many fans thought they'll wait for Veronica Mars to come to DVD or even worse, finally land on TV.

And this is why some fervently favored franchises are cancelled on TV and never thought of again.

The only other aspect of this franchise I think a studio might consider is the long-term haul of DVD sales. Much like Joss Whedon's Firefly, this franchise might have a similar kind of comparative staying power on DVD "shelves." Which is why Fox will never relinquish Firefly's rights... they're loving the money the DVD/BD sales are bringing in.

So when your favorite show bites the bullet, and you think it's the best there ever was, you have to ponder if it was that good, why no one else liked it. Or to be exact, why enough people didn't like it?

I am in no way knocking your taste in entertainment. I have the same problem where things I love over all else on TV, flounders in ratings and dies by the hand of the Nielsen Ratings Reaper.

And they do that because it doesn't appeal to the TV watching masses. Plain and simple. We're left on the out and our fave shows fade.

Sometimes, being in the minority sucks.

[.boxofficemojo.: weekend numbers]

[.boxofficemojo.: Veronica Mars box office numbers]

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