2012 Destroys The Box Office

If there’s one thing director Roland Emmerich does well it’s destroy things.  You’ve probably seen his work in films such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.  Those films seem to have been little more then a warm up for Emmerich as he prepared to destroy everything on Earth in his new film 2012.

That seems to have been fine with film goers.  As perverse as the notion is people eagerly showed up to multiplexes this weekend to see the latest disaster flick about the end of our world.  Maybe people are simply researching what they can do to survive upon that dreadful date.  Either way, it was a win for Emmerich as 2012 amassed an impressive $225 million worldwide.

Adding to this huge box office take is the fact that 2012 is not a franchise nor does it seem to have the potential for sequels.  It was a no-holds-barred one shot where a whole lot of things got blown up, buried or drowned in tidal waves rivaling the Empire State Building.  I wonder what it says about our culture that we love to see this level of destruction so much.

Sony stated the, “…global total was the best ever for an original movie not based on an established franchise, brand or best-selling novel.” I would argue that point a little bit.  The “franchise” and “brand” in this case was Emmerich himself.  Anybody going into this movie who was familiar with his work knew what was coming and clearly he succeeded in meeting expectations.

As great as the opening weekend was, however, the next couple weeks will be critical.  The budget for 2012 has been said to be well over $200 million dollars.  So while it appears that cost was covered over the last three days, it will need a strong second week at least to maintain some level of profitability.  That aside, Emmerich appears to have brought his A-game and may as well retire from “destroy the world” genre films.

What could he possibly do to top this?