"Halo 3" Blamed For Stiller Film's Poor Box Office Receipts

Advertising Age:

The joystick has brought Ben Stiller nothing but sorrow.

Industry expectations for "The Heartbreak Kid," the date movie that re-teamed him with the Farrelly brothers (the duo who made him a megastar in "There's Something About Mary"), called for a $20 million to $25 million opening for the film. Instead, "Kid," which cost north of $60 million to make, managed only $14 million in the U.S. and Canada -- heartbreaking, indeed.

But there's more. Total industry ticket sales were only $80 million for the Oct. 5 weekend the film opened, a whopping 27% below the same weekend the year before, according to research firm Media by Numbers. That's the industry's worst performance for an October weekend since 1999. Overall, domestic receipts are down 6% from last fall.

Blame the Master Chief.

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Comments

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Bullshit. Why blame Halo 3 for the failure of a movie? Most of the people who saw this movie say that the movie wasn't funny. It just had a lot of over the top shit that is meant to shock people. Halo 3 is not to blame form the Farelly Brothers making a bad movie.

[JonStewart]

Yeah, I'm gonna guess that since Jimmy Kimmel and his no-talent wife have been humping Ben's leg to keep their careers going that old Ben thought anything he did would turn too gold...I guess now he knows his limits, and good for him for that...blah

[Cookie]

This is the lamest excuse for a film's failure to net expectations. What a strategy for getting people not to pay attention to the bad reviews. Any movie "worth its salt" would not have kept THAT many gamers home. I am sure there are plenty of gamers who put down their joysticks to see Lord of the Rings and all its sequels.

Bottom line: The Hearbreak Kid suffers from a poor script supported by a lot of hype. It doesn't take long for the public to see the emperor has no clothes worth $9-$12 per viewing. Puh-lease.

[johnnyjust]

I have an alternate theory.

[LastDaysCafe]

It couldn't possibly have flopped because Mr.Stiller has little talent and no charisma?

[Jimmyboyo]

LOL The movie sucks is more like it. You can tell from the previews that it is a stinker and not worth going to go see. heck, nothing in the box office this weekend is worth seeing.

[Budnacho]

Couldn't be that the film sucked now could it?

Remember, he said Zoolander tanked because of 9/11...

Ben, maybe when you quit playing the same character again and again and again and again and again you'll do good at the box office. Used to like you buddy, but its obvious you're just phoning in the roles these days.

Hey, how about another "original" buddy pic with Owen Wilson? Maybe Lenny and Squiggy?

Stiller makes Jimmy Smits look like Lawrence Olivier...

And oh yeah...adding Carlos mencia to the mix probably didn't help either, hes about as funny as a rectal check-up.

[MissingAmerica]

I find it curious that a video game is blamed for a male stars box office flop, while WB decides to have no more female stars because two of their films flopped. Do we sense a bit of testosterone here?