'Salt' vs. 'Wanted': Angelina's action heat cools off the second time around

I don't know about you, but like so many other moviegoers, when I was trying to figure out if I really needed to rush out and see "Salt" right away, I checked out the trailers for the Angelina Jolie action thriller and basically said -- does this really look better than "Wanted?" And like millions of other moviegoers, I suspect I reached the same conclusion, "Ah, no." As you may remember, "Wanted," which came out in the summer of 2008, was another special-effects and over-the-top stunts-studded thriller that not only gave Jolie lots of action heroics but surrounded her with classy (but non-threatening) male actors (in "Salt," it's Liev Schreiber and Ejiofor Chiwetel, in "Wanted," it's James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman).  

Sony has been trying to put as positive as possible a spin on the opening weekend box-office equation, but if you compared the two movies -- since they are so eminently comparable -- you'd have to say that this is yet another example in which trying to recapture the same excitement and revitalize the same action beats doesn't inspire an overwhelmingly positive audience response. You just can't go back to the well that many times. According to CinemaScore, fans gave the film a B-plus, which is a solid grade, but not one that guarantees great second or third weekend legs at the box office.

"Wanted," which cost roughly $75 million, had a $50.9-million opening weekend. It ended up making $134 million in the U.S. and another $206 million overseas. Pretty impressive stuff. But "Salt" cost considerably more to make -- roughly $130 million, according to my colleague Ben Fritz, roughly $100 million according to Variety -- and opened to only $36.5 million. That gives it a long, uphill climb to get into "Wanted" territory, especially with "Inception" siphoning off huge chunks of younger, thriller-oriented moviegoers.

The lesson? If you're going the genre route, and you're spending more dough to bring the movie to market, you're trapped in an arms race where you have to deliver more thrills and more spectacular stunts each time out -- or you're looking at a diminishing series of returns. This will be especially true if Universal ends up making "Wanted 2," which will really have to deliver some serious goods to triumph over what is beginning to look a little like Jolie action fatigue.

Photo: Angelina Jolie in Moscow at the Russian premiere of "Salt."

Credit: Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters

 

Comments

[liz]

She's a bad actress. No one empathizes with her when she cries, everyone knows that her stunts are fake.
She's overrated. All her movies are about posing. Bottom Line, she's a poseur.

[rjjrdq]

She looks like octo-mom...maybe she is octo-mom.

[Anony]

What a stupid comparison. Wanted was base on a comic book and featured sci-fi elements and bending bullets. Other than action, the two movies have NOTHING alike. And Wanted did not have Inception to compete with.

Salt is led by a lone female - name me an average moviegoer who knows who Chiwetwl is - in an original piece and a non-franchise. The difference in both at the boxoffice is only 10 mill. The fact that it's opening weekend bested so many other failed actioners this summer is commendable.

The last Angelina movie was almost two years ago and it was a drama. Angelina already said she wasn't going to do Wanted 2. How about you complain about moviegoing fatigue when Tom Cruise or Will Smith continues to do action after after, or when Nolan directs another action. It's sad how when a Jet Li or Bruce Willis does another action movie, it's coveted, but when a female does it it's suddenly tiring.

[Michele]

Didn't Salt make the numbers it was PROJECTED to make based upon box office predictions? As much as I enjoy Angelina, there was no way she alone was going to top Inception. NOTHING would have topped Inception. She did solid numbers without an already interested audience which is what Wanted had...and an original idea. So what exactly was the point of the article? To bash Jolie?

[Aspains92]

I know how media likes to go after Jolie , but this is a bit to much.

Wanted budget was lot more than $ 75 million. It was around 100 millions.

The only thing, besides the similar budget and Jolie, that Salt and Wanted have in common it's that they are action movies. Other than that they are completely different movies.

As for Jolie action movie fatigue? Please. Jolie has done 4 action movies, the last one was more than 2 years ago.

Why aren't you questioning if there's a Matt Damon action movie fatigue? Have you seen the numbers of his last one? Domestic Total Gross: $35,053,660, Foreign: $59,341,661 and Production Budget: $100 million

[david]

It has nothing to do with bigger, more.

It has more to do with the fact that it didn't look as good as Wanted. Wanted had Jolie is a slinky white dress stretched across a red ferrari on her back shooting guns. With Wanted, she's wearing bad wigs and on the run trying to save her husband. It doesn't seem to have the sexiness or sense of humor of Wanted, and Salt looks like any other B-list action film which is only capturing A-list attention because of the star.

Personally, I'll waiting for Jolie's next movie, The Tourist, where she plays a femme fatale.

[david]

But Patrick. you have to ask yourself this. Had a man like Tom Cruise, Will Smith or Matt Damon been cast as the lead in Salt, would it have been more interesting to see? Or have gotten the box office that it did? I don't think so. It would have been another standard action film without originality.

The only saving grace for Salt was Angelina Jolie. Bottom line, the acting talent and draw were there. The material wasn't. Like all A-list stars, it has to be the right combination of material before the actor will make the box office difference. People want to see Jolie in the action genre, but she needs to choose her projects more wisely.

[Reality Check]

Jolie's the only actor that can pull these kinds of numbers in, on a completely NEW action drama title that had no PREVIOUS title or subject recognition (ask Julia 'Duplicity' Roberts).
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In other words, it wasn't a comic book or a franchise already, it's not a video game w/ a built in fanbase, or a best-selling book, it also didn't have humongous CGI/Special FX apocalyptic tidal waves destroying civilization that lure mesmerized fx freaks in that way.
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What that means Patrick, is that people came out to see ANGELINA JOLIE in an action film. Something they didn't do for Tom Cruise, Clive Owen, Jake Gyllenhal, Daniel Craig, Nic Cage, George Clooney or Russell Crowe when they starred in NEW action pics. These MEN, didn't do near HER opening numbers. Why don't you write THAT story?
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You yourself are admitting that SALT's 2nd and 3rd weekend business has to come into play, to compare it to Wanted numbers -- but why are you comparing apples and oranges, and doing it JUST for Jolie??
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(Did you write an article comparing 'Knight & Day,' to 'Mission Impossible?' or comparing 'State of Play,' to 'Gladiator?' or comparing Ocean's 11 to 'Michael Clayton?') -- uh NO. I didn't read those articles from you.
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SALT had a MORE than solid opening weekend up against Nolan/Batman SPECIAL FX Xtravaganza (Inception), so give us a BREAK w/ this article - don't you think you're trying to BIZARRELY put a slightly negative spin on something positive - and something that normally you'd never do, or suggest for a male counterpart?
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This is obviously a vague little slam against a just released opener that STILL has a good run ahead of it -- so why burst it's bubble with nonsense?? Did someone want you to slam Jolie. I heard that she's the scariest kind of actor in Hollywood - one that isn't paying 15% to big PR behemoths. That said -- you're onemajor gaffe with this piece, is that the two movies (Wanted VS SALT) aren't even the same. 'Wanted,' was/is a graphic comic book come to life, the comic not only has a fanboy following, but it has the benefit of said who turned out to see Jolie bring the comic to life.
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The only thing people knew about 'SALT,' was 'Angelina Jolie.' Opening with those kinds of numbers based only on her name, is HUGE.
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SALT is a completely new film, and new original script based more in action/drama/intrigue than an action comic book w/ a built-in fanbase (ala Batman or Wanted) -- considering the numbers it did, this actually proves the OPPOSITE of what YOU say...
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....she pulled those numbers BY HERSELF...something that it would appear no other MALE actor in Hollywood can do with a NEW action drama.

You know this.

So why don't you stop beating up women Patrick.

[Aspains92]

They are 2 different movies. I enjoyed Wanted, but found Salt a better movie. I understood why Jolie would rather do Salt than Wanted2.

Both movies did very well at the BO because of Jolie.

[Liz]

The comparison between "Salt" and "Wanted" is asinine.Salt is considered a SERIOUS spy thriller,Wanted was based on a comic book.Wanted was supposed to open bigger due to the fact it had a "teenage" fan base built in.Name ANY other actress who could have opened Salt to a $36 million dollar opening against Inception?Salt will gross $100 million in the US...but will do more than twice that overseas.Jolie has quite the fan base in Europe.This article was just an lame excuse to "diss" Ms Jolie.A blind man can see that!