Crowd Report: MI3

Though attendance at the Century 15 multiplex in Century City (LA) was looking really promising at noon (with 90% capacity in a 300 seater), Westwood was unusually quiet at night. MI3 was booked in the biggest venue with 1300 seats, across from the UCLA campus, and the line to get in by 9:20 wasn't any longer than Daredevil (I had expected a line of about 650 - 750 people and it ended up being more like 350). In fact, the theater didn't fill up to 85% capacity until the last second (like Anger Management, which was around 65% filled).

The crowd status seemed tame for a big action flick in Westwood (where these kinds of movies can have a line around the block), but I had to keep in mind that Spider-Man 2 had about the same attendance on its opening night.

Keep in mind that for big movies in Westwood, audiences can be quite enthusiastic and abnormally vocal compared to the usually-passive responses at multiplexes. Trailers included Poseidon (some cheers at the end followed by disapproving booing from others), Over the Hedge (scattered laughs), DaVinci Code (wave of applause at the very beginning as well as at the end), Superman (a few cheers at first and some at the end, but nothing strong), and Nacho Libre (reaction was similar to Dukes of Hazzard at Batman: cheering at the beginning, followed by a solid amount of laughter throughout the ad and a very enthusiastic finish. This was easily the crowd favorite).

Let alone not even being sold out, MI3 didn't exactly get a rambunctious response from the audience either. There were moments of scattered claps and laughter at the one-liners, but the audience didn't seem blown away by this entry. There was a short round of applause at the end, but the reception afterwards was nothing like Batman Begins, which had the entire audience applauding and cheering (which started at the Joker teaser).

Mission: Impossible 3 was probably my most anticipated movie of the summer (neither X3 nor Superman look that great to me, honestly...but here's hoping for Pirates), and I found it to be pretty disappointing. I had anticipated non-stop action as the buzz was indicating this week, and while there was a decent share, what seemed to be missing was a sense of suspense amidst the action. I felt like I was watching a James Bond movie as Tom Cruise would pull unrealistic moves and come out of any situation swinging. At one point it had hit me that I didn't even know what was going on; what exactly was the "impossible" mission? Nonetheless, it was a decent movie, but if I came out kind of mixed on this, I can only imagine my reaction to X and Superman.

On a side note, Poseidon is getting booked a theater in Westwood that blockbusters don't play at. This is the same theater that booked Kingdom of Heaven, which I've been comparing Poseidon to all along (no A-list actors, a recognizable director, but a ripoff of obvious genre movies). Based on this, the chance of a Friday per-screen average over $2,500 is not looking great.