Jo Bros’ B.O. Not So Boffo

noah | March 2, 2009 9:45 am

The Jonas Brothers‘ concert movie opened on Friday, and after strong first-day grosses that had The New York Times penning trend stories about how everyone was going to the movies in this time of woe, the flick faltered, pulling in $12.7 million for the weekend and coming in second to the latest piece of Tyler Perry claptrap. So what happened? Hollywood observer Nikki Finke has a few ideas:

“Concert pics usually look better on paper than they actually are because the fans drive tracking but it doesn’t go beyond fans,” one marketing guru told me. Of course, you have to remember that it’s playing in just 1,271 3-D theaters, and even so it was the 2nd highest grossing concert pic of all time with a big per screen average of $9,992. “Many had unrealistic expectations for this pic. But they forget the coup that Disney pulled off on Hannah Montana 3-D,” a rival studio exec told me. That’s because the latter was a “one week lock” engagement. (They held it over, of course). But Disney really created a sense of urgency among moviegoers to see that 3-D event which shocked Hollywood with a $32.1M opening. This time around, Disney’s marketing gimmick was to send out the Jonas Brothers on surprise personal appearances.

And appear they did, traveling around to some eight theaters and inspiring many screams. But will the film hold up over the coming weeks, as the promise of being able to fling popcorn at Nick, Kevin, and Joe fades into the background? Should Disney have played the “one week only, see it now or forever hold your screams” card in the run-up to its opening? Or is it simply unrealistic to compare the Jonas’ potential to that of the Hannah movie, which at the very least had a non-faltering economy working in its favor?

‘Jonas Brothers 3-D’ Goes From Phenom To Just Concert Pic; ‘Madea’ #1 Again [Deadline Hollywood Daily] In Downturn, Americans Flock To The Movies [NYT]