Speculation The Competition

Avengers 2 outgrosses Ep. 7. Avengers 2 makes 1.9 billion, Ep. 7 makes 1.2 billion. Obviously, Disney would be absolutely okay with that, it's all money going to them in the end. Do you think fans would cry fail?

 

while that recent JP IV rumor is pretty lame, it's nowhere near the incredible stupidity of this particular early 2006/2007 draft:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/18166

That's the infamous "dinos with guns" draft, which I hope is an idea that's been discarded.

 

Avengers 2 won't be an issue since Disney will not mess with itself. None of the other movies matter much.

 

Well of course you can't completely tame those things, where would all the fun be in that? What really has my interest is the whole idea of the actual real life Dino-theme park idea coming true.

 

Let's be honest, Star Wars will knock everything out of the way. Everyone IS going to see this movie. I think it could possibly knock Avatar off #1 spot of highest grossing movie of all time. No movie coming out around this movie will come close, outside of Avengers 2 ( a little)

 

"Yeah, but John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

 

When we saw JP 3D at the theater (which was actually my son's first time seeing JP), when the T-Rex was attacking the Ford Explorer with the kids in it, my son leaned over and said "they shouldn't have made a T-Rex!"

 

I think Avengers 2 could outgross Ep. 7, if only because Avengers 2 is a sequel to the freakin' The Avengers, which made a ton of cake, and sequels generally make more than the first one. Also I think it's possible the superhero genre has supplanted sci-fi fantasy if only because superhero and sci-fi fantasy are really really close, and the rose may be off the bloom a bit of the "cultural phenomena" aspect of Star Wars simply because we seem to be hit with a "cultural phenomena" at the movies every 3 weeks or so in summer blockbuster season.

 

Took the words out of my mouth. I agree Avengers 2 will be huge, but saying the reason is because it's the Avengers doesn't really mean much when it's up against Star Wars. It's only been a cultural phenomenon since 1977.

 

As a fan of Star Wars first and foremost, I semi-care about "who beats who" (but not really, both of these flicks will make tons of money Disney's head will explode) but it just depends on which cultural phenomenon is the current cultural phenomenon that is the most cultural phenonmenon-y at that particular moment in the culture when the movie comes out.

Also, lately, the First Weekend of May seems to be prime real-estate for whoever is gonna make the most cash that summer. I really can't see Avengers 2 being moved from that slot in the slightest. Might be as simple as first one out of the gate wins.

 

Well maybe science has found a way to make them more docile? It's also not unheard of that big predators who've been raised from birth by humans actually end up being friends with them. Maybe it's about they way they were raised like these lions?

 

Did someone say Plesiosaur?

 

Have you seen what the vocal fans say about the PT? Have you seen the boxoffice success numbers for the PT? Yes, fans are irrational and will cry fail even with the boxoffice success.

 

It depends on your definition of success. Adjusted for inflation (so in terms of actual bums on seats) none of the prequels were as successful as the OT movies. The Phantom Menace is close to Return of the Jedi, with ROTJ being at 15 and Phantom Menace being 17. But the next highest grossing prequel is Revenge of the Sith at number 60.

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

Given the franchise's pedigree and popularity in the past that's not particularly impressive. Also it should be noted that Avatar and Jurassic Park out grossed all the prequels and Independence Day, The Avengers, Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 out grossed the latter two PT movie in that list. So while Episode 7 is going to be a success evidence suggests that Star Wars has very strong competition in 2015 and may not end up the victor.

But at the end of the day does any of this matter? What does the financial situation driving the movies add to them exactly? If you like them fine, if you don't also fine. The spending habits of others shouldn't equate into that.

 

I think my point was, they were a financial success... unless you are saying any movie that is 60th all time is a financial failure... yet there is a large vocal contingent of fans that call them an epic failure.

They don't need to be the highest grossing movie of all time to be a success... the PT most certainly succeeded.

 

I don't think anyone has ever called the prequels financial failures though. Quite the opposite. If they were there would be no basis for accusations of making the movies for the sake of profit alone. What most people claim, at least as far as I'm aware, is that they never grossed as much as the original trilogy and thus weren't as popular. I can't speak for the veracity of the latter part but the evidence quite clearly shows that none of the prequels performed as well as the OT.

 

I never said they called them financial failures specifically. I just said they called the PT overall a failure. They are separate things.

I'm saying in response to BigAl6ft6's post... that YES Disney will be completely happy with the financial success of the films and YES fans will still find a way to call the ST a failure just as many have been doing with the PT since the day after TPM was released.

 

I'm not quite sure they are. Yes they're financially viable movies, we are agreed upon there. But they didn't capture the same success as the OT which I feel is what I think you'll find is what people refer to when they call the PT a failure.

Disney will be happy as long as it makes more than its production budget, which I'm sure it will. They've done their market research and know exactly what they're going to get from these new movies. As for the potential for fans calling the ST a failure, sure it's there. But it doesn't help any when it seems so many fans are building up their expectations for just how successful the new movies are going to be solely because "It's Star Wars".

But again, I find the whole discussion of a film's financial situation to be fruitless. A film should be judged on its merits not its profits.

 

No, you just don't understand. Haven't you ever watched the Flintstones?

The really hilarious thing is the fundamentalist Christians that believe the earth is only 6000 years old have a little problem- that would mean the dinosaurs had to exist at the same time as humans. There is actually a Christian organization that addresses this- and they have a statue of a person on top of a dinosaur out front of the building. I love it- not only did we exist at the same time as the dinosaurs, but we rode them.

Thank you.

I think it is irrational to compare anything else to it at this point; all things considered, this is just on another level from even the other very popular movies. Looking at all of the details of the next installment (starting with the big 3 returning and moving on from there), I don't think there has ever been a more colossal event in a movie release.

 

Star Wars will never be judged by the fans on it's merits though either. That's the bigger problem. The vocal fans judge them on pre-expectations set by a nostalgic love of the OT when they were kids. That feeling will NEVER be captured again, thus trying to judge anything based on that will always leave one disappointed.

I grew up with the OT, and even though many of my friends judged the PT completely unfairly as I mentioned many do, I somehow was able to avoid that and thus I have an appreciation for the PT for what the PT is without being jaded by not living up to some grand expectation.

My favorite Star Wars films are in this order...

Revenge of the Sith
The Empire Strikes Back
A New Hope
Return of the Jedi
Attack of the Clones
The Phantom Menace

I am told that it's sacrilege to have Revenge of the Sith above The Empire Strikes Back...