DreamWorks' "Home"

[Ben]

It seems so. And no.

[Dacey]

Not only is Home big, it's actually huge, beating BOTH How to Train Your Dragon openings with a $54 million debut.

[ShyViolet]

Wow! That's wonderful.

Finally, some good news for DWA.

[Vernadyn]

It's doing better than the one DWA film (and its sequel) that everyone seems to like? Time to trot out that old William Goldman chestnut. (Nobody knows anything.)

Great for DWA's coffers, but I really hope this doesn't encourage them to shy away from HTTYD-esque movies in favor of Home-esque movies….

[EricJ]

Think the myth of March Geek-Week is starting to fade--
Insurgent thought they'd still have the Teen YA weekend, Disney thought they'd have the Alice II (or III, or IV) weekend with Cinderella--and did--and DWA will always release something in March.
(What, no CGI FX period blockbuster this year, trying to make 300/Clash of the Titans happen again?)

This month, for a change, that was....all we had. The families couldn't be that desperate to see whatever new CGI comedy was fresh on the menu. If Spongebob had just held off a month, the figures would be very different.
And yes, as long as DWA insists on telling us who's IN their movies rather than why we should care, they will always make Home-esque movies. And import freshly-fired Disney rejects to make their Dragon movies.

[Dacey]

Dean DeBlois wasn't fired by Disney.

And I can't remember seeing one trailer for Home that marketed its cast (actually, not sure when was the last time I've seen any DreamWorks trailer do that. Think it must've been Kung Fu Panda 2 if my math is correct?).

[ShyViolet]

I think you're right. In my opinion we're way past the "Will Smith as Oscar!" and "Brad Pitt as Sinbad!" SharkTale/Shrek days. It's not about marketing the film's stars anymore, that's for sure. It's about the stories.

Though I do wish they had put more emphasis on them when DWA was marketing itself to investors and stockholders as a high-tech company but unfortunately not a terribly creative one anymore. I really think this is going to change.

[Randall]

48% on Rotten Tomatoes, yet is opens huge.

I'm astounded.

But good for DWA, except I also hope they can do better films than this in the future.

[Dacey]

As others have noted, though, the reviews for the film aren't claiming it's "bad." They're just saying it isn't "anything special." RT scores are sort of deceitful that way.

[LotsoA113]

Having seen it, I can attest to the idea that "nothing special" sums up Home nicely. There's some nice animation, a couple of clever gags and the pacing is decent, but Oh, the main character, is a pretty poorly written creation and a major reason why the movie doesn't work. He's too over-the-top in his desire for social acceptance at the start of the film that it's hard to endear to him like the movie hopes we do. The script is generic as all-out, you can guess what's coming for each plot turn and character the moment they appear on-screen, and the presence of bathroom humor was eye-rolling.

It's a mixed bag, but at least it's not abysmal like Mr. Peabody & Sherman. At it's worst, Home is just undemanding, average and insanely generic.

[Randall]

Well, "nothing special" is bad in my book. I'd rather see an interesting disaster of a movie rather than a mediocre film that aspires to nothing.

[Ben]

It'll be interesting to see how/if word of mouth provokes a serious drop-off in week two. Something like this should dip 30-40% if it's actually loved by audiences; otherwise it just benefitted from being the only thing out there this week. People will either think it's cute or find out its "nothing special", but it does continue to astound me what mediocrity can become a big hit while some fantastic broad-pleasing films languish in the bargain bins...

[EricJ]

Again, you make money off the first weekend if you can cut a TV ad, but it's the second weekend where you find out whether they actually LIKED you:
Or as the saying goes, "You make first weekend's money from the people going in, you make your second weekend's money from the people going out..."

Home just took cheap advantage of some empty theaters, but any parent who goes to see a movie just to get out of the house isn't going to be so enamored they drag friends to see it the second week.
(As I expect most surprised people are right now with Cinderella.)

[James]

Review is up:
http://animatedviews.com/2015/home-film/

The downside to this opening well is since DreamWorks is in such dire straits right now and they don't have another film on the slate for a long time, this is going to be what they think people want more of and now they've got plenty of time to make their upcoming films more Home-like.

I agree with the others here: no thanks to "nothing special". Going to the movies costs a lot of money. If I want "nothing special" I'll find something on Netflix and save my cash!

[ShyViolet]

As much as I hope DWA will recover, I have to come clean and say that I don't particularly want to see this either. From the first trailers I was pretty disappointed. Hope that this film marks "the end" of DWA mediocrity and blandness.

I really, really hope so.