My opinions of Dredd 3D (no spoilers)

I've been hyping Dredd 3D for weeks now. If you still follow me on Twitter you're probably sick of seeing retweets from @2000AD and @lionsgatemovies promoting the film.  I've been reading 2000AD/Judge Dredd comics for about three years now and he has been my favorite comic book character for almost that long.  So a lot of my friends are wondering what I thought of the movie.

Not surprisingly, I loved it.  I saw it in 3D (RealD3D if it matters) and I do truly believe that it adds a lot to the film.  I'd like to see it in the theatre again if I have time, and I can't wait to own it on DVD and watch it after (and whilst having) a couple of beers.  It was a bit different than I'd expected, but that actually made the movie better.  I thought it would be non-stop high octane action.  It has loads of action, but its not over-the-top.  In fact, its grounded in the real in a very hard way.  Everything looks and feels real, which is key to making the Judges logical.  Mega-City One has to be a shit hole out of control and it feels like it is. Its a place you'd never want to live.  The film also brilliantly captured 2000AD's dark humor, which I wasn't expecting.

But I didn't write a whole blog post to give a review of the movie.  I'd like to talk about some math.

When Dredd 3D opened in the UK a few weeks ago it took #1 at the UK box office with $1.65 million  (apparently the UK box office is pretty small).  So basically the film has to make lots of money on the foreign market (USA being foreign) to recoup its $45M budget.  So what did it do this weekend in the USA?

$6.3 million, placing 6th this weekend.

Of course, there are lots of review sites reporting the numbers saying things like "Dredd is Dead" and "Dredd Bombs".  I'm not sure it has bombed.  Did I hope it would make shit tons of money opening weekend?  Of course.  But look at this shot from Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently, Dredd 3D is rated "Fresh" with a review aggregate score of 77%, so 3 of 4 people liked it.  Compare with the #5 spot for the weekend which is yet another Resident Evil movie that is generally agreed to be shitty but made just a bit more money.  What I find really interesting is that Dredd 3D, although having a low enough opening to be declared "Dead" made nearly half what the number one and two spots made individually.  I don't understand by what criteria Dredd "Bombed".  Lets say it took the #1 spot by making a little more than twice as much. Would it have still "Bombed"?  It wouldn't have made back its budget.  I suspect Dredd will pick up some momentum as word of mouth spreads.  Will it make $50M in the USA (the amount rumored to be need to prompt a sequel)?  I hope so, but I don't know.

Either way, its a badass movie that 2000AD fans can be proud of.