Each year, a lot of movies get that holiday movie hype. This year is no exception; expectations are high for movies like Proof of Life (with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan) and Cast Away (with Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt). Of course, The Grinch and Unbreakable are already raking in the dough.
However, Lycos searches suggest a movie that will unexpectedly be among the high-grossers in a couple of weeks: Dungeons and Dragons.
That's right: Dungeons and Dragons, as in the role-playing game that has been a hit among fantasy fans for thirty years. D&D is finally coming to the big screen on December 8 and searches show the movie has a bigger audience than people might think.
Of course, people are always searching for D&D, the game. But searches for Dungeons and Dragons have increased by about 150% over the last three weeks, and each week the increases have been steadily higher.
D&D searches look more impressive when compared to other movies. The number of searches that specified the Dungeons and Dragons movie were twice as high as searches for Unbreakable two weeks before that movie's release, and ten times as high as searches for Proof of Life, which also comes out on December 8.
The movie stars veteran English actor Jeremy Irons, as well as a cast of young mid-level stars including clubs from American Beauty, Marlon Wayans from Scary Movie, and Justin Whalin, who played Jimmy Olson on TV's Lois and Clark.
(Justin will be clubs Monday night at 9 PM, if you would like to ask him about the movie or just tell him that he looks dreamy).
Dungeons and Dragons is loaded with CGI special effects but had a budget of only $36 million. That means that if it performs as well as Unbreakable it will break even in just one week.
Some might argue that Dungeons and Dragons, as a special-effects-laden fantasy movie, appeals directly to the kind of people who are more likely to be online. Then again, those are the kind of people who are also more likely to see movies multiple times, so D&D may make some serious money.
(Note: This report written with the help of +2 "Keyboard of Boundless Wit.")
