The Numbers
Recently I noted that Trainwreck elevated LeBron James past Michael Jordan. Basketball aside, LeBron's acting performance took another key weapon out of the diehard fan's arsenal: MJ's performance in Space Jam. Longtime fan Andrew Sutton noted the following:
Space Jam v. Trainwreck is a good matchup even though the former is on PEDs. Wider audience. R-rated movies typically don't make as much as kid movies. MJ gets the help of famous cartoons(Bugs and the Martian has helped him sell shoes in the past before the movie was released so maybe it was a returned favor to WB) to sell a movie. On opening night, Space Jam averaged $10,388 while Trainwreck came in at $9,530 and this is before inflation adjustments. With all that being said, I would give the match to Lebron because Jordan is essentially playing with the difficulty down. GM-ing, acting, basketball, what's next, Lebron? Ownership?
I loved this point by Robbie and had to dig further. Let's examine the performance of both movies and see how they stack up. Unless noted all values are in 2015 dollars.
Budget
- Space Jam: $115 million. Spent on Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, Newman from Seinfeld, and the Looney Toons.
- Trainwreck: $35 million. Spent on Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Colin Quinn, Mike Birbiglia, LeBron James, John Cena, and Harry Potter (list significantly shortened to save space.)
Winner: Trainwreck
This is akin to the Spurs vs. the Knicks when it comes to spending money. Sure, Bill Murray is great, but he's essentially used off the bench. The Looney Toons, even in 1997, were a washed up star getting overpaid. Michael Jordan was a huge name, but after years being a top of the basketball world, he was playing baseball, which they even put in the movie!
Trainwreck took a much smaller budget and managed to get some of the funniest comedians ever. Even the role players, like Mike Birbiglia, would be "Points over Par Stars." Tack on the best basketball player in the game, and one of the biggest and most polarizing people in WWE, and this team is stacked. Being directed by Judd Apatow is just like Gregg Popovich. Space Jam, by contrast, was directed by Joe Pytka, which is like David Blatt, I guess?
Opening Weekend
- Space Jam: $41 million: $15,500 per theater.
- Trainwreck: $30 million: $9,500 per theater.
Winner: Space Jam
A slight set back in Trainwreck's rookie season. Even with more theaters, Trainwreck fell by over $10 million its opening weekend to Space Jam. I'm not exactly sure how to do a strength of schedule comparison, but it's worth noting a few things. Space Jam being rated PG vs. Trainwreck's R impacted the total available audience. Also, despite being in fewer theaters, Space Jam was arguably more accessible. Only three movies in 1996 were in over 2,000 theaters Space Jam's opening weekend. There were nine films in over 2,000 theaters for Trainwreck's debut, including Minions, which was in over four thousand! Finally, Trainwreck opened against Ant-Man, Minions, Inside Out, and Jurassic World. All of these movies will likely gross over $200 million domestically by the time they come to home video. All are still under two months in their respective runs as well. The only movie early in its run and the top five with the same distinction in 1996 was Ransom starring Mel Gibson! Trainwreck comes up short here, but I wouldn't quite call it a loss.
Legs
We can't exactly guarantee this one yet. After an opening weekend of $41 million, Space Jam ended up grossing $134 million domestically. It's opening weekend ended up accounting for about one-third of its total gross. With the exclusion of "Funny People", most of Judd Apatow's comedies end up around five to six times their opening weekends. Given the great reviews of Trainwreck -- 85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing -- we can probably expect something similar.
USA! USA!
Astute readers will notice how frequently I used the word "domestic" in the above sections. Even adjusted for inflation, I'd expect Trainwreck to take down Space Jam if we only looked at U.S. theaters. But that's where Michael Jordan can still win out. Space Jam grossed almost $160 million internationally, which is around $240 million in today's dollars. Factor in its domestic total and Space Jam grossed $372 million! That means, taking out its big budget, Space Jam "netted" around $257 million!
To match that Trainwreck would have to gross almost $300 million domestically and internationally. It's certainly possible, Bridesmaids did gross a littler over $300 million and was also produced by Judd Apatow. However, it earned a lion share of that domestically. It's safe to say that much of Trainwreck will be the same. In fact, as far as I can tell, it hasn't had a major international push. Michael Jordan is playing with the international three-point line while LeBron is playing with the standard one, which is nothing new.
The Final Verdict
Even without adjusting for rating and strength of schedule, it's possible Trainwreck pulls out the win here. Evaluating performance gets a bit different. LeBron James is a "role player" in Trainwreck and helps his stars shine. He is willing to sacrifice a lot and be on the receiving end of a lot of jokes to accomplish this. Michael Jordan is the "star" of Space Jam. That said, the story is one of the most Mary Sue pieces of fiction I've seen. And the result is a movie rated 35% rotten by Rotten Tomatoes. I view Trainwreck as the better team in a better league, and even factoring their roles, LeBron James contributes more to the win. Being close in overall gross is just icing on the cake. LeBron over Michael Jordan!