According to our own Jonathan Holmes, Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World film may be the first “true videogame movie.” While based on the Bryan Lee O’Malley graphic novel series and not a game, the film (much like the comic) makes enough geek culture and game reference that it makes it easy to see where Holmes is coming from. And he loved the film.
He’s not alone — critics and gaming culture aficionados alike have hailed Wright’s film, starring Michael Cera as the titular Pilgrim, as one of the best films of the year. But how did it do at the box office during its opening weekend? Not so great, pulling in a meager (by Hollywood standards) $10,609,795. By comparison, Sylvester Stallone’s testosterone-a-thon The Expendables topped the box office with $34,825,135 during its opening weekend (via The Numbers).
Despite receiving high praise and vuvuzela-like buzz from gamers, how did Pilgrim do compared to other videogame-related films? I hope you’re sitting down — during their respective opening weekends, films like Doom, Mortal Kombat, and Max Payne beat out Pilgrim’s box office draw. In fact, Pilgrim comes in ranked 12 on a list (generated by EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich) topped by 2001’s Tomb Raider: Lara Croft ($64,049,321), starring Angelina Jolie. Pilgrim did, however, manage to top game films The Wizard, Alone in the Dark, and Double Dragon; it should be noted that all three films had limited theatrical releases.
The full harrowing chart can be found after the jump, for those interested train wrecks. Hey, there’s always DVD/Blu-ray sales. Did you go out and see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World last weekend? Why or why not?
