This isn’t one of those “Superman versus Flash” posts, but rather, “Oh for the love of all that is holy, wake up you morons!” posts. With the weekend drawing to a close, the box office estimates are beginning to come in, and it looks as if for the second week running Iron Man is going to take the top place.
However I was a little annoyed at Latino Review’s heading for this information; “Iron Man Still #1 While Speed Racer Crashed and Burned at the Box Office.” THR managed a more succinct title, announcing that “ ” “‘Iron Man’ beats all comers” and that “‘Speed Racer’ settles for second at the box-office.”
This, in response to the fact that in its second week at the box office, it is estimated that Iron Man will rake in another $50 million, compared to Speed Racer’s opening of only $20 million.
Let us not confuse ourselves, Speed Racer is not and was never going to be a massive box office hit. Iron Man is one of the stars of one of the two biggest comic book publishers on the planet, whereas Speed Racer is an English adaptation of a Japanese anime TV show called Mach GoGoGo.
Furthermore, Iron Man starred recovering substance abuser Robert Downey Jr., everyone’s favorite Gwyneth Paltrow, an awesomely balded Jeff Bridges, and a freaking flying tin can! Speed Racer features no one’s favorite Emile Hirsch. Granted, Matthew Fox from Lost and Christina Ricci would have been enough to drag me to the theatres, but I live in Australia and it isn’t here yet so apparently I don’t matter.
If you want to take the analysis another step further, look at who is behind the making of this film; the brothers Wachowski, Larry and Andy. Need I remind you of just how horrible the Matrix sequels were? Believe it or not, they essentially destroyed half of the market for Speed Racer by screwing over those two films so royally, because fans of the Matrix would have been big fans of Speed Racer.
However, and this I want to stress, Speed Racer is going to be an awesome movie (or apparently already is… damn Australia!). The graphics look sensational and are of such a quality and degree that we simply haven’t seen before, that for that alone I will go and enjoy the film. No one watched the original Speed Racer cartoons for its scintillating storyline. It was fun and campy, just like the old Batman series.
And coming in second place with a U.S. domestic gross of around $20 million is not horrible, especially when you’re coming in to a box office still reeling from the massiveness that was Iron Man.
Either way, to anyone who attempts to judge Speed Racer on the merits of how much money it has earned, let me just remind you of a little show we like to call Firefly!
