[Kimmie1913]

Can't say I am surprised.

From USAToday.

Star-couple comedies die laughing By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
Romantic comedies and adventures are Hollywood's closest thing to a sure bet. Unless they star actual couples.

Though Gigli starred the hottest Hollywood pair around, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, it flopped at the box office.


The latest flop came during the weekend from the hottest pair on the planet. Horrific reviews and bad buzz had dimmed prospects for Gigli, the comedy starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, but the film could not reach even lowered expectations.

Gigli took in $3.8 million, according to box office firm Nielsen EDI. That's about one-third of analysts' expectations and easily makes the $54 million film the disappointment of the year. It replaces last month's Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, which opened at $6.9 million and took in $25.3 million.

After that film flopped, distributor DreamWorks said it was through making hand-drawn animated films. No such ban on romantic comedies or movies starring Affleck and Lopez is expected from distributor Sony, but studios might want to think twice before casting real-life couples in romances.

Although Hollywood couples are a staple of TV news and celebrity magazines, they usually do not sell movie tickets. The biggest stars, including Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe-Meg Ryan, find the going rough when they hit the big screen with their squeezes.

"In today's media machine, you can see Hollywood couples wherever you look," says Brandon Gray of BoxOfficeMojo.com. "If you can see them on TV or on every magazine cover, why would you want to spend money to see it in a theater?"

Gigli's advertising campaign didn't help matters, featuring Ben and J. Lo cooing and ogling each other — just as they do daily in the tabloids. The romantic couples from Hollywood's past, such as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, were typically seen embracing only in theaters. That sold tickets.

"Obviously we're disappointed," Sony's Steve Elzer says. "The filmmakers, stars and studios did everything possible to support the film. We did everything we could do."

Raunch, on the other hand, remains a solid performer. American Wedding, the third installment of the American Pie franchise, met most analysts' expectations with $34.3 million, topping the chart. Wedding bumped off Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, which fell 39% for $20.1 million and a total of $69.1 million. Spy Kids was No. 2. Final numbers are due today.