What is the deal with Hop?

It is no surprise that on any given consumer holiday, American’s are bound to be bombarded with cheap holiday movies. Often, these cinematic gems are used as an escape tactic from unbearable extended family, or as a way to just shut the kids up for 90 minutes. Hardly ever are these holiday family adventures profitable, or “good” works of film in the slightest.

These simple rules of holiday movie production, are exactly why I am left wondering, what is the deal with Hop?

On April 3rd, getting a head start on the Easter Season, the movie Hop was released to 3,579 screens across the country. As of April 17th, the movie has grossed a total of $82,157,605. Considering the movie had a budget of $63,000,000, the fact that they even skimmed the surface of having a profitable run in theatres. I mean, this movie screams “straight to dvd!” If you are fortunate to have not seen this trailer, I will dash your dreams right now.



A short synopsis of this movie, as described by IMDB.com, goes as follows: “E.B., the Easter Bunny's teenage son, heads to Hollywood, determined to become a drummer in a rock 'n' roll band. In LA, he's taken in by Fred after the out-of-work slacker hits E.B. with his car.”

Now, even after the trailer, which alludes to the fact that this small computer animated bunny has romantic and blatently sexual feelings for a human woman, I’m even more curious about their gross and profit.

But really, the most shocking part of all of this is the opening weekend stats. On just the opening weekend the movie grossed $37,543,710. And that was on April 3rd - are people even ready for Easter by then? Not to mention, these stats for an opening weekend completely blew all the other opening films out of the water. Hop made nearly triple of all the movies that came out that weekend, including Limitless, Insidious, Lincoln Lawyer, and Sucker Punch.

As a rule, I don’t usually go to see commercial holiday factory made movies, and with only a 26% on rotten tomatoes (equipped with some nasty reviews) those box office numbers do have me a little curious. So this week I’ll be stock piling up on half priced peeps, and will have a review up for you on next weeks video.