by Andy Gibbons

Given the way Toy Story 3 dominated the US box office chart over the weekend (I would describe an opening weekend of just over $110 million as pretty dominating), it’s perhaps understandable that the abject failure of another big budget summer hope has gone largely overlooked. Until now.

At the same time that people were flocking to catch up with Woody and the gang, very few could be bothered with the big screen debut of comic book outlaw Jonah Hex. The all-action western, which features a decent cast including Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender, bagged a paltry $5.4 million during its first three days in cinemas across the pond and only just managed to crack the Top 10, opening in seventh spot behind the likes of Get Him To The Greek, Prince Of Persia and Shrek Forever After (which has been out in the US for over a month!).

Before Jonah Hex was released, it had a bit of a buzz about it – the comic book on which its based is suitably cultish and the on-set pictures of Megan looking foxy as tart with a heart Lilah certainly got pulses racing. Even the trailer showed promise. So who’s to blame? Well there were rumours of a troubled production and a period of reshoots earlier this year seem to lend some weight to that. It’s also fair to say that the critics weren’t kind; the film currently has a 14% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with various reviews calling the movie inane, sloppily edited, painfully awkward and unintentionally funny, the most chopped up, stitched together Frankenstein job in recent memory and bracingly inept. As we all know though, critics only have limited influence so I can only guess that, when faced with the behemoth that is Toy Story 3, no one else can even come close (even though The Karate Kid added $30 million to it’s account over the same weekend).

At the moment Jonah Hex is due to open here on September 3rd with it’s only real competition that week coming from new Steve Carell / Paul Rudd comedy Dinner For Schmucks – whether or not Warner Bros. get behind it or let Jonah ride quietly off into the sunset though remains to be seen.