Production budget (planned, not sure what came to pass) for Expendables was $82 million.

I've been thinking long and hard about this Scott Pilgrim thing... which I did see and ADORED, as was to be expected.

But really, who truly thought this would be a "through the roof" bona fide smash??? This film resides in the realm of the underground comic, the graphic novel, and plays mostly to that crowd (a crowd I happily call "my kind of people.") When someone gets brave and on that rare occasion distributes an overseas anime import (a "Ghost in the Shell" or a "Paprika" or "Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis" for example), they traditionally open it on a handful of screens, usually at the art houses, and the films make respectable profits that way.

This, I'm sorry to say, was destined to fail from the get-go. I'm sure it will gain the appropriate audience in its home video run and will live on for many years as a fan favorite but, again, anybody who thought this would do blockbuster business is seriously deluded about who actually goes to the multiplexes and why.

Do I wish it were different? Of course I do. But what we WANT the filmgoing public to digest and what they will actually accept are two very different things.

"* $69M budget for Dinner for Schmucks? Much of that has to be for talent, right?"

100M budget for The Other Guys, a parody, is what raised my eyebrows. I doubt any of the movies TOG is taking off cost that much, except for maybe the last Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop sequels.

I've heard of many people being dragged to Scott Pilgrim against their will and pleasantly surprised. It was a difficult film to market, because short commercials can only show that the film is LOUD and FAST. For a lot of people, that translated to an assumption that it was just annoying. It's hard to sell how SAVVY a movie is.

This is also why when I mentioned how excited I was to see the movie, a lot of people said, "Really?" Something just didn't translate in the marketing. You kind of had to be a geek to know that the movie was going to be something special.

Side note: I saw this at a midnight screening in Austin, TX, and before the movie, in walked a surprise guest--none other than Edgar Wright (who co-wrote and directed the film), who ran through the rows and gave each member of the audience a high five! Truly one of the most amazing movie-going moments ever.

@Matt Latham: Very cool re Wright. Too bad he couldn't have cloned himself and done that at every theater in the States. Might have given the B.O. a nice bump.

I saw Expendables. I think it will drop off rapidly- it was not a good movie. Scott Pilgrim should pick up and attain cult classic status.

I saw both Scott Pilgrim and The Expendables. I actually liked The Expendables better. I felt it was what it was, to paraphrase a saying we used back in news and advertising. It didn't bite off more than it could chew, it knew its audience, and the characters were interesting enough to keep me engaged. The story was forgettable, but I think people will see that one just to watch their old action heroes back on the screen again and there was character work in the movie in spades - which parallels my big problem with Pilgrim. HATED the characters. Thought, with the exception of the Ramona Flowers character and possibly Knives, they were the most lackluster, forgettable, low-energy characters put on the screen in a while. The video game callbacks and comic book styling was great, but after about three or four of the big fights, I didn't care if Scott got Ramona or not. I didn't care if he got clobbered or not. I'm done with Michael Cera in these kind whiny/drifty/postmodern/post-90s slacker of roles for a while.

( I should clarify what I mean by The Expendables having character work in spades. It's not like the characters will rival the characters in The Godfather or anything. I had action genre expectations in mind and was pleasantly surprised. With Scott Pilgrim billed as a quirky comedy, I had genre expectations for it, too, in mind and ended up disappointed.)

I wanted to see both Scott Pilgrim and Expendables, but only had time for one, and I've been waiting too long to see that monstrosity of an action film. I'm actually planning to see Scott Pilgrim next weekend.

I'm not the only one. I think the biggest mistake was sending it out the same weekend as Expendables.

I agree with @Emily Blake. Scott Pilgrim would have played better without another action/etc film opening against it.

SP was great fun, certainly worth the watch, and I'm sure it will live on in home video. I definitely appreciated some of the Street Fighter motifs and such. It is by far the better story than Expendables, which we know from experience is likely to make it age much better.

The Expendables, meanwhile, was an absolute blast... but that's it. Of course, that's all it promised, so we're square. As I posted to another blog, it was 1980s action movie spectacle in a 2010 theatrical experience. I did not go in expecting Shawshank or Pixar or Fight Club. I went in expecting UFC-Rambo-Snatch-69,000 and the movie delivered exactly that.