What to do with “The Emoji Movie’s” box office debut? Should it get a thumbs up? A thumbs down? Should we simply throw up our hands and leave it alone?
Here are the facts: Sony Animation’s latest opened this weekend in second place at the domestic box office behind “Dunkirk,” and as recently as Saturday was projected to be in the running for first. By the weekend’s end, the animated adventure based on Unicode characters should make $25.
7 million, about in line with expectations earlier in the week.But this is not just any release. This is “The Emoji Movie.” This is the movie that (pardon the crassness) was Sir Patrick Stewart-ed on by critics, eliciting vitriol that sparked a second wave of headlines after the initial reviews that included “The Meanest Lines From ‘The Emoji Movie’ Reviews,” the more promising (?) spin “‘The Emoji Movie’ Lost Its 0% Rotten Tomatoes Rating Thanks to This Positive Review,” and put simply, “Nobody Likes ‘The Emoji Movie.’” Yes, it was a blood bath.
So how can “The Emoji Movie” weather the critical storm,and not flop? How does this fit into the narrative pushed by some studio execs in recent months that review aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes are increasingly important in helping audiences make decisions, especially as ticket prices increase, and the market is crowded and alternative platforms are diversifying? One possible explanation is that “The Emoji Movie’s” performance doubles down on the theory that films targeting children are the most critic-proof. That is, considering kids are more likely to act on instinct, and not based on what someone says on Twitter.
But despite its solid initial showing, there are signs that…
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