Moviegoers shell out for Max Payne

By Polybren, GameSpotPosted Oct 20, 2008 10:55 am PT

Max Payne is bigger than George W. Bush. That's one way to take this weekend's US box-office numbers, which show the big-screen adaptation of Take-Two Interactive's noir-ish shooter topping Oliver Stone's presidential biopic W. On the other hand, director Oliver Stone's W. garnered higher approval...

Max Payne is bigger than George W. Bush.

That's one way to take this weekend's US box-office numbers, which show the big-screen adaptation of Take-Two Interactive's noir-ish shooter topping Oliver Stone's presidential biopic W. On the other hand, director Oliver Stone's W. garnered higher approval ratings than the critically lambasted game adaptation featuring Mark Wahlberg in the starring role.

The $18 million take from 20th Century Fox's Max Payne (as reported by Variety) put the film atop the weekend box-office heap, dethroning Beverly Hills Chihuahua after two weeks. Chihuahua landed in second place with $11.2 million, followed by new releases The Secret Life of Bees and W., which earned $11.1 million and $10.6 million, respectively.

Although respectable, the $18 million opening of Max Payne is not unprecedented for an adaptation from the world of games. Last November, 20th Century Fox scored another hit with the $20 million box-office debut of Hitman, whereas Sony Pictures racked up a $24 million opening weekend two months prior with Resident Evil: Extinction.

111 Comments

  • Mr__Peanut

    Posted Mar 31, 2009 11:14 pm PT

    worst movie ever

  • GrimBee

    Posted Nov 12, 2008 11:37 am PT

    And another thing.. Comic book movie directors only really stay barely in-line with the source material. With games, for some reason directors are trying to re-create the game in a movie. If you take a look at Tim Burton's Batman. It does take the darker mood of the comic, but with the nature of comic's you have different artists, different storylines and this can create totally different interpretations of a character.
    So thats why there are several kinds of Batman movies, and alot of them work rather well. Put Tim Burtons Batman (with awesome theme music!) on, then put on the new batman dark knight - Same character, two different styles. But both don't really try to recreate the comic-book style of the story.

    For example, Sin City is staying rather close to the source material, Spiderman is only loosely using it. Like how spiderman organically creates the web stuff in the movie but not in the comics.

    On to my point - Alot of movies that are based on games follow the source material too closely..
    Except a few awful exceptions just looking for a cash-in. (ahem.. resident evil... which is nothing like the game at all..).

    One thing I like about comic book movies is that they capture the nature and essence of a character.
    With videogames, they seem to concentrate more on everything else.

    Videogames are pretty much exactly like comic books, imo, because you control a character (or group of characters) and in a comic you read about the tales of a character, or group of characters.
    Fans of comics want the movie counterpart to represent the characters they read about. So as a gamer, I would like the movie to be a great re-creation of a character in the game.
    It's just a shame that alot of game movies seem to just cash-in on a licence rather than actually make a killing.

    If you see a comic book movie - you see a whole load of merchandise following, loads of toys and stuff like that.
    If you see a videogame movie -- nothing... absolutely nothing. And this is because a movie has not actually made a GOOD example of a game.

    Pretty much the only one which has, imo, is Silent Hill. The movie really isn't that great, but, they are using the character designs from the movie into the game. Which is something that very rarely happens.

    So, the question is really - do you want videogame movies to represent videogames? or do you want the games to show it off by themselves?

    I mean, how many of you watched ironman, but never read the comic? I think with videogames the majority of the audience would of already of played the game before seeing the movie. But with comic book movies its the other way around.. hmm..

  • GrimBee

    Posted Nov 12, 2008 11:20 am PT

    Silent Hill movie had an opening weekend of $20,152,598 yay, go pyramid head! I saw the movie only because I like the game, and even though I think Max Payne is a top game series - I loved the noir style story-telling of the game, but for me the story just is so depressing and throat-cuttingly gritty that without being able to play, the thrill of the story just seems to fade into tedium in a sort of "seen it all before" type of thing.
    As a movie, its alright, but as a game it is much better.
    I think pretty much every gamer expects this though, but, on the other hand its freakin' awesome to have another games character on the big-screen.

    Its unfortunate though that the movies aren't as well-done as comic-book movies

  • EverteMax

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 3:35 am PT

    max payne movie...another reason why the gaming industry should not let hollywood touch them...

    it was beyond crap...

  • z_eratul

    Posted Oct 22, 2008 3:11 am PT

    i saw this movie on opening day and i was a little bit disappointed, maybe my expectations were too high. I went back and started playing max payne again, i'm much happier now

  • Thrallia

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 11:10 pm PT

    uh, I don't think $12 is the average movie ticket price, but even at what I'd consider the average price($9), that's still only 2 million people and still pathetic for #1 in the box office

  • BtmnHatesRbn

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 7:49 pm PT

    So out of nation of 300 million people, about only 1.5 million or less saw this movie thus far. Yeah, I divided the $18 million figure against the average movie ticket price of $12. That's a puny 1.5 million people. That's not even 1% of the nation. Pathetic.

  • WhiteSnake5000

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 4:22 pm PT

    I really don't understand the resentment towards the Max Payne movie. I thought it was an enjoyable movie, it wasn't like movie of the year or anything too spectacular, but I felt it was above average. Not close to the greatness of the games, but nonetheless an enjoyable film.

  • rodhrp

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 12:23 pm PT

    I thought that last few parts of the doom movie were great, I loved it when he saw his reflection and shot at it, come on...How many have done that in a scary fps. Games to movies, just take it easy. Its for entertainment and if you go to a action movie expecting a deep plot then you should not be going at all, stick to the operas and plays or read a tom clancy book

  • Lpedraja2002

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 9:05 am PT

    makchady, I agree with you, Max Payne was the worst movie I've seen in a theater since Elektra. The movie fails miserably in maintaining a constant storyline since it likes to jump from scene to scene in an awkward way making the movie even more boring and hard to follow. The bullet time sucked ass, the action was pathetic and there was only one Max Payne move in the movie which was done kind of cheesy. At least Mark Wahlberg was better in this movie than in The Happening so that actually relieved me a little. Hmm... What else? The plot was boring even though it took some things from the game it still failed to maintain interest in the theater I went too, since people started laughing at the movie after a while. If they would have gone with the whole Russian Mafia storyline like in the game and left the drug thing and those stupid overused hallucinations to a minority then this movie could have been better. I do not recommend this movie to be seen in a theater, just rent it when it's out if you feel like wasting money. I gave it 5/10on imdb, which is my second lowest rating below 6 I've ever given to a movie.

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 8:58 am PT

    This movie is a rental and not full price, and to most of you the word "rental" instantly means "download."

  • mp7blue

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 8:43 am PT

    hey makchady, which part or thing didnt u like in max payne?

  • makchady

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 7:19 am PT

    i cant even begin to explain how bad max payne the movie was...it really is embarrassing how these videogame movies keep being horribly made and thus making videogames look dumb. im a huge movie buff, i probably watch at least 3 to 4 a week at times, and max payne is just ridiculously bad.

  • Kristophski

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 6:34 am PT

    @tawagivercetti
    Think how long it takes to make a film. Chances are this film was started (at least in concept) as soon as they saw how well the sales of Max Payne were going, and that the story was one of the better aspects. It might seem old to you now, but if you wanted that done with a 'new' game, you'd have to predict that your game would be a hit in advance, and start making a film when its still in development.
    Besides, they fill games with cutscenes to advance the story. How's that different from a series of mini-films?

  • Bahaa3000

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 5:40 am PT

    IMO the Max Payne movie was the best video game movie to date , It was fun and with some amazing bullet time .
    I just can't understand why people hated it so much !

  • spartant15

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 4:16 am PT

    Why can't we get a GOOD videogame movie adaption?

  • Achimelech

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 3:27 am PT

    I have seen the trailer for the new Max Payne movie and played the games I don not ever recall seeing Demons or Angels of any type which did appear in the Max Payne movie trailer. So I do not know if I would like it on the account of it not being accurate to the game.

  • Irve

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 2:05 am PT

    Hmmm, the trailer for Max Payne looks weird and doesn't relate to the games at all ... but i will watcht eh film just to see even if people have been giving it 1 star reviews

  • CureForLiving

    Posted Oct 20, 2008 11:45 pm PT

    So its not the best game adaptation movie ever, not to unexpected. Although Max Payne beating a movie about talking dogs and about George W. Bush (no idea why anyone would want to see that) somehow isn't really all that impressive either.

  • gp3tron

    Posted Oct 20, 2008 10:54 pm PT

    To the guys that say that the Guitar Hero Movie is gonna rock....guys, please go to a madhouse, and don´t ever come out again.

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