ST Episode VII Box Office Discussion

Right now I'm thinking Battlefront and PewDiePie.

PewDiePie mentioning TFA will reach out to almost 40 million subscribers, most of them will be people between 13-24 years old.

Free marketing!!!!

 

Pan wasn't exactly a bad idea, the look seemed interesting and it had the right ingredients to be successful (the same ingredients that made Alice and Maleficent successes). The Director also had a consistent filmography and from what i see, his films usualy looked great. I'm surprised Goosebumps is getting more positive reception, it didn't look very good.

The answer is simple: It had a bit of everything.

From spectacle, to romance, to action, to spectacle. I myself wouldn't put it in my favorite films list but i understand the appeal,

Superhero fans also seem to fall in the same place.

 

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The answer is simple: It had a bit of everything.

From spectacle, to romance, to action, to spectacle. I myself wouldn't put it in my favorite films list but i understand the appeal,

But it wasn't "very good" at any of that. And I actually enjoy Titanic. But to sit there and as a guy go "oh yeah Titanic that is one of my favorite movies ever!" is honestly pretty silly IMO. The movie wasn't just "great" at anything and had too many silly moments (and some incredibly bad dialogue) for it to be an all-time favorite movie unless the cheesy dialogue is apart of the appeal?

Getting back on topic, I am curious to see what The Walk does when it opens. It's getting very good reviews (despite people throwing up at the premiere) but it's not tracking the best. I think The Martian might swallow it whole this weekend. ​

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anyone interested in this story has already seen Man On Wire, and no Zemeckis movie is going to tell the story better than that.

 

You know apart from your take on Star Wars appeal, I find myself agreeing with you on a lot of things.

And I don't even completely disagree on Star Wars. It definitely does skew towards older generation, just I think you underestimate the appeal amongst the youth.


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I'm a very agreeable person, it's true.

 

The answer is simple: It had a bit of everything.

From spectacle, to romance, to action, to spectacle. I myself wouldn't put it in my favorite films list but i understand the appeal,

But it wasn't "very good" at any of that. And I actually enjoy Titanic. But to sit there and as a guy go "oh yeah Titanic that is one of my favorite movies ever!" is honestly pretty silly IMO. The movie wasn't just "great" at anything and had too many silly moments (and some incredibly bad dialogue) for it to be an all-time favorite movie unless the cheesy dialogue is apart of the appeal?

Getting back on topic, I am curious to see what The Walk does when it opens. It's getting very good reviews (despite people throwing up at the premiere) but it's not tracking the best. I think The Martian might swallow it whole this weekend.



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I disagree, it was good at most of what it tried to do, the spectacle was very well handled, while the romance was simplistic and worked well imo, the characters grew to like each other and both got some good development. It has some sillier moments sure, but almost every "highest grossing films" has some weirder moments, i mean, Sound of Music is also very well liked, yet it treats cutting curtains with the same kind of urgency as the nazis. To me it depends on how much silliness you will accept before it becomes too much, i think Avatar stretched itself on my patience with stuff like "Unobtanium" or the Na'vi being exactly like native Americans, with Titanic i honestly didn't have much of a problem, the villain was kinda moustache twirling, that's true, but it's not as if the film was treating him like a complex character. In the end, Titanic was like an old Golden Age Hollywood film, but done with modern technology, and on a scale that was unprecedented.

Also, don't forget that "favorite list" is different from saying what the best films are, there are plenty of films i enjoy a lot that i wouldn't consider among the best. For A Few Dollars More for example is among my favorite films, but i would give it an 8/10, i would actualy rate Titanic higher than that film, even though i enjoyed Dollars more. Every film is somebody's favorite, i've already met people whose favorite films were the likes of Jumper or Hitman (yeah...i know...), so why not Titanic? Sounds like a obvious films for favorite lists, it was an interesting experience to get into and made a lot of people fall in love with it. It's easy to nit pick over things in teh script, but if a film can have an emotional core and something to pull the viewer in, cheesier moments don't realy matter. Titanic's not perfect, but i never found it to have enough negatives to make it less than great, at it's core, it's a romantic tragedy, the romance is strong and the spectacle is amazing, so i still wonder why some don't understand it's longevity.

 

I think it is possible to make educated guesses of the breakdown between domestic and foreign grosses. The prequel's average ratio was 46%/54%. The Force Awakens would need to gross $690 million to hit $1.5 billion if that correlation holds up. I see no reason why the global popularity of Star Wars is any different in 2015/16. It's hard to make the case Star Wars is more popular overseas than it was 15 years ago. In fact, I could not make that argument with a straight face.

The Phantom Menace
Domestic: 46%
Foreign: 54%
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars.htm

Attack of the Clones
Domestic: 48%
Foreign: 52%
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars2.htm

Revenge of the Sith
Domestic: 45%
Foreign: 55%
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars3.htm

 

Agreed.

Plus, it had the "makes girls cry" appeal, which goes way beyond any kind of staunch critical analysis in terms of mass appeal and "favorite movie" stuff. How many women cried at Titanic? Millions I am sure. I am sure many of them thought it was great; they were very moved by it. Some of the best/most popular romance in movies had a cheesy element to them (I'm the king of the world!!!" )

There were a lot of bits that were of great interest to many also in terms of the Titanic, and the mythical sort of fascination with what happened to it; kind of like Atlantis or the Bermuda Triangle only real. They obviously did a great job with the actual sinking in terms of the technology, not to mention the drama/action unfolding around it.

 

I've been arguing this case for more than a year, but it gets a lot of pushback. Usually it goes like this: foreign markets have grown radically since the prequels, particularly China. It's much more common now for major Hollywood releases to earn 70% of their box office revenue abroad, to which I sez"Star Wars is an almost completely unknown brand, particularly in China," to which others reply, "Guardians of the Galaxy," to which I sez "$441 million abroad of which $96 million was in China" to which they reply "Jurassic World! - $228 million in China," to which I reply "dinosaurs chasing people in a theme park is a universal theme, not so standard issue space opera."

Etc.

 

You do realize that the actual sinking of the Titanic was much different then the movie right?

And IMO, I am fine with that just like I was fine with Argo being more a piece of fiction then fact, Remember the Titans did not end with them winning on a double reverse with the QB throwing 4 pancake blocks, the Hoosiers real coach was very young and the actual miracle team was the prior season before they won the title (Milan the team it is based off was one of the big favorites to win the title in 54' along with Muncie Central) while The Untouchables again was more fiction then fact. Movies are not supposed to be documentaries. They can be inspired by real events but they should not be totally objective. Quite frankly that would be boring.

 

But the fact still remains. The foreign boxoffice has grown considerably since 2005. That is the reason many of these films are being made at all. The budget of producing and marketing blockbusters now are so high that most movies would not break even if it was not for the income overseas. And we could pretend that dinosaurs would be the hot **** again, but fact remains nobody in this thread had it as an option for this years biggest hit. Easy to be clever in the wake of its success...

Saw people discussing "The Walk" earlier here, and i would strongly recomend that you guys see the documentary "Man on Wire" first, or in combo with Zemeckis film. Its a great doc which almost left me in tears, sort of a real celebration of life, and our obstacles with living our lives to the full. Believe in youself, and the impossible. Might be willing to give Zemeckis version a go though. The Pan film, no plans to see it, and it feels weird for Warner Bros to release it now, although i know it was delayed already. Feels like a christmas film right? Still, the version from 2013 premiered at christmas and flopped. No love for the Spielberg version, Hook? Its a messy film, sure, but i still like it, probably mostly for nostalgic reasons, the John Williams soundtrack, and fondly remembering Robin Williams....

No TFA news? Oh well.

 

I would add that Russia as a market has declined due to the fall of the ruble. As has Japan.

You brought up GOTG. A counterpoint to my argument would be "if it's a great movie, those ratios are less meaningful". GOTG, an unknown commodity, made 57% of its gross in foreign markets. That's better ratio-wise than any prequel. It was an entertaining movie. Does Star Wars not resonate with overseas audiences so that this franchise will never see Furious 7-like boxoffice proportions, no matter how good it is? It can be hard to pin down what is that spark that ignites overseas markets. For one, "overseas" is not one single entity. What works in France, may not be as popular in Brazil. Then you get Ice Age which is unfathomably popular overseas. *shrug*

Just make the best movie you can make. *another shrug*

TFA will make a profit based on domestic alone and I'm pretty sure Episode VIII is not in danger of not being greenlit.

 

I was talking popularity brought about by fascination with the events of the Titanic, and how well the special effects were done, not accuracy in terms of exactly how the events took place. I don't think it is as different as you are making it out to be in terms of how the actual ship physically went down; it did split in half from what I have read. I don't know as far as the drama around it; I'm sure they put that together for dramatic effect.

In any case, that wasn't the gist of what I was saying. I was talking about why the movie was popular and why people thought it was great.

 

Second (or is it third now?) that recommendation for Man on Wire.

It's on Netflix -- watched it last night purely based on Jabba's mention here yesterday. It did not disappoint. Tremendous little film.

 

Yeah, I rolled my eyes when they announced "The Walk" project.

Yes, it's quite an interesting story, but I find little reason for why they needed to make it, as "Man on Wire" excellently recounts the story. Yes, one is a non-fiction documentary, while the other is a narrative retelling of the event, but I just can't muster any interest in Zemeckis' film.

 

You also say that kids/teenagers don't like Star Wars, and they will only see TFA if they are dragged to it by their parents.

Kind of makes it hard to take anything that you say seriously.

 

That's important information. I worry a lot about whether you take me seriously.

But seriously, the only reason I say that about kids and teenagers being dragged to TFA by their parents on Christmas Day is because it's 100% true.

 

Well we could argue this ad nauseum but at this point the proof will be in the pudding. Let's just see, shall we?


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My sister is a kid who is dragging her parents to see the movie.

So I guess your 100% theory is a little off.

 

Your sister is I'm sure a wonderful person. Not her fault that she's statistical debris at the far end of the bell curve.

 

From the information we have now? Sure, but that's forgeting the fact that the film tried to be as realistic as possible to the event with the knowledge they had at the time. It's a similar situation to Jurassic Park, the filmmakers tried to recreate everything and used professionals from the field, and then the film itself helped spawn more interest towards their respective subject matters, which itself lead into new discoveries that showed the films were actualy off when it comes to certain facts.

 

Partly but also a big part of it is movies are made to make things more dramatic even if they are based off a true story like Titanic which again I am fine with. Well at least most movies do. Miracle's last game was pretty much shot for shot of what actually happened in the game. Just Brooks pregame speech was a lot more "colorful" in real life then it was in the movie.

 

https://www.thewrap.com/stars-wars-force-awakens-rival-studios-christmas-gift/

 

Pan is forecasting for an absolutely horrific weekend:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4111&p=.htm

This could turn out to be a bigger box office bomb then Fantastic Four.