‘Pan’: The Great PG Revolution is not off to a great start

This summer, with the success of movies like “Cinderella� in the bag, we wondered if the PG rating had been unfairly maligned and asked if perhaps studios would be wise to take another look at the live-action all-ages adventure. Said studios were already on their way to testing the hypothesis, with a trio of such movies set for release within a few early fall weeks.

Two of those experiments are now underway, and the results aren’t exactly encouraging. This weekend saw the big-budget spectacle of “Pan� open--and promptly draw dismal numbers. The Peter Pan origin story took in just $15.5 million, arriving in third place behind a pair of holdovers.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Box office results: In the Oct. 12 Calendar section, an article about the box office leaders for movies said that “The Martian� had already made back its production budget. It has not. —
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Meanwhile, “The Walk,� Robert Zemeckis’ visually ambitious look at wire-walker Philippe Petit, widened to more than 2,500 theaters after a limited release two weeks ago. Its numbers were also pretty wan--just $3.65 million, a lowly seventh on the weekend box office list.

Sony, which released “The Walk,� can ride good word-of-mouth in the weeks ahead, but it will have to overcome some daunting precedents to have a hit. The movie’s numbers this weekend have another No. 7 ranking associated with them--the seventh-worst total in the modern era for any film opening in 2,500-3,000 theaters. (None of the six ahead of it or the 43 below it, incidentally, got close to a $50 million total when all was said and done.)

Helping Sony’s bottom line is that “The Walk� cost only $35 million, barely a fifth of “Pan.� Still, neither result bodes well for a renaissance of the all-ages PG adventure.

The reason studios had stopped making these movies in recent years, turning instead to the more violent PG-13 precincts of a “Hunger Games� or “Avengers,� is that the all-important older teenage demographic turned out in droves to see those movies while turning away from PG.

The thinking with movies like “Walk� and “Pan� has been that kids are a pretty important box-office constituency too, especially for a movie their parents are happy to come along for (see under: all the Pixar successes over the years). The Steven Spielberg/Amblin movies of decades ago became not just aesthetic influence but economic rationale for bringing these movies back. This weekend, though, shows that the rationale wasn’t so sound. (Tellingly, “Pan� was bested by an animated movie and a PG-13 release.)

Two underperformers does not a trend make, and observers would be wise to note that the quality of the film has as much to do with a film’s performance as its rating does.

Yet PG is undoubtedly a tougher target to hit, in turn requiring the movie to be that much better than a PG-13 film if it’s to succeed financially. Having a road clear of kid-friendly PG-13 movies doesn’t hurt either‎, and “The Martian� -- a PG-13 movie that fits just that description -- is sitting right on that road for both “Pan� and “Walk.� Meanwhile, Spielberg himself has lately moved on to upscale films for adults (he’ll have another when “Bridge of Spies� opens in a few days).

The PG will get another shot this weekend when “Goosebumps,� based on R.L. Stine’s ‘90s phenomenon, hits theaters. It’s the latest attempt to breathe life into the PG adventure. Given studios’ past skittishness, its condition is critical.

@ZeitchikLAT