Such was the case for Chris Evans as he sweated through the July 22 opening weekend of his action caper Captain America. Evans did his best not to focus on the rolling numbers, but fellow Marvel comic star Chris Hemsworth (or Thor to his friends) kept him in the loop on how his movie was faring against the formidable box office powers of Harry Potter.
"I shot him a few texts over (opening) weekend," Hemsworth says with a laugh. "It was like, 'You beat The Wizard! Down with Potter!'"
Captain America: The First Avenger won the race against Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 ($65 million vs. $48 million in Potter's second weekend of release), But Hemsworth's box-office interest wasn't purely concern for a friend.
Thor and Captain America are teaming up, along with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) for The Avengers. So CaptainAmerica's success is a solid sign that The Avengers franchise is continuing to build steam heading for its May 2012 release.
It also ensures that the closest Captain box-office watchers, and supporters, are the A-list stars on the set of the forthcoming action movie.
"With Captain America working it's like, 'OK good,''' says Hemsworth. "We're still on track with this ensemble. It gives each of us a bump."
Actually, it was Hemsworth's Thor, which opened in May, that signaled the first solid sign of good news for the burgeoning franchise, breaking out with $65 million in its opening weekend. Downey Jr. points out that a lot of his Avengers "anxiety" was put aside as he watched Hemsworth "hold his own with all of these summer releases."
Rooting for others' ticket takes is rare in competitive Hollywood.
"I'll just say it," says Downey Jr., who scored with 2008's Iron Man and 2010's Iron Man 2. "There's an aspect of my psyche that doesn't want anyone to do as well as me…it's part of human nature, survival of the fittest and all that.
"But it's so nice to root for each other in Hollywood," he adds. "Intentionally or not, Marvel has created an atmosphere of camaraderie. It's a team really."
For Evans, his movie's success was clearly a relief.
"Once it does well, you can just let it go," he says, adding that the only way he celebrated the robust numbers was "by not thinking about it."
Now he can focus on filming the group Avengers installment with his castmates of super-heroes. Marvel production president Kevin Feige points out that the box-office bonding is an important part of the team meshing as the group moves production from Albuquerque, N.M., to Cleveland.
"It's all very, very supportive," he says. "These guys are all in this together."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment