VolvoManiac850
Let's Go Bucs
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2008
A few thoughts after reading the past day's worth of threads...
1. If everyone knows Mark Hamill will do more in Star Wars VIII, it should be a bigger success. You also have the amount of people who have seen Force Awakens on DVD and perhaps have warmed up to it. While some of you may have your opinions on Force Awakens, I personally think it's better than any of the prequels--which weren't bad movies, just not up to the standards of the original Trilogy.
2. Moana will do well, and I feel it's because kids these days seem drawn to really terrible movies. I was not impressed at all with the trailer. I thought it looked loud, silly, and repulsive. These were three adjectives I could also apply to Secret Life of Pets, which wound up being a huge hit (although I can also argue that it was very well-marketed). BFG, on the other hand, was a GREAT movie, and one I personally lauded for its production values and lack of utter stupidity...yet it tanked. Pete's Dragon seems to be the same way. (I'd see it now but movie tickets are so darn expensive in Pittsburgh where all the theaters are first-run...it's actually cheaper for me to drive to Youngstown and see them at the second-run theater for $3 each).
3. The most impressive thing about Avatar, to me, is that after such a great theatrical run, it's a movie nobody ever talks about. A lot of my friends are movie buffs, and in the past three years, I think Avatar may have come up once. Everyone loved it in 2009, but today? Everyone I know is more apt to talk about random comedies from the 80s or 90s, classic Disney movies, whatever is current, or storied franchises like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, James Bond, etc. I actually am friends with a LOT of people who I could see liking Avatar, yet it NEVER comes up. Maybe the new park will revive it, but even among my buddies who like Disney World, nobody talks about it--they're all more interested in the Star Wars and Toy Story lands.
4. There has been a lot of Marvel talk in the other threads, particularly about GoTG. Amazingly, even with a bunch of Marvel nerds in my friend circle, GoTG barely gets brought up--and I've been with some of these guys to Marvel movies on opening day (GoTG wasn't one of them). I know maybe two people who saw GoTG. Yes, it grossed a lot of money, but how much do you want to bet some of it was because nothing else looked remotely good at the time?
I looked up the time period in which it was released. GoTG came out on August 1, 2014. There was a Planet of the Apes movie which came out a few weeks earlier which quickly fell from its spot, losing to a couple of no-namers within that time span. The number two movie during GoTG's first week was Lucy, which made $76K LESS than GoTG that weekend. I don't even remember that movie existing, yet alone seeing it. Planet of the Apes (which wasn't all that good IMO) fell pretty hard. Basically, there was no competition that weekend.
The following weekend? GoTG makes about half as much and loses to Ninja Turtles. The following weekend, everything falls off a cliff but TMNT and GoTG are still #1 and #2. They flip flop positions the next weekend and make even less money--and that trend continues for two more weekends. Long story short, Summer 2014 was a dud for movies and GoTG was arguably one of the better ones of the lot. It only has impressive numbers because it had no competition.
Put GoTG in the same release time in another year and it doesn't stand a chance if the movies coming out were good. Take 1996 for example. You had A Time to Kill and Independence Day vying for #1 and #2, with the latter already out for a while. Matilda had come out and did well for the younger set. Hunchback of Notre Dame was still in theaters. Nutty Professor was still pulling in some cash. I'd rate all five as decent to well above average movies, something you just didn't have in 2014.
Credit due where due...www.boxofficemojo.com is where I found these figures
1. If everyone knows Mark Hamill will do more in Star Wars VIII, it should be a bigger success. You also have the amount of people who have seen Force Awakens on DVD and perhaps have warmed up to it. While some of you may have your opinions on Force Awakens, I personally think it's better than any of the prequels--which weren't bad movies, just not up to the standards of the original Trilogy.
2. Moana will do well, and I feel it's because kids these days seem drawn to really terrible movies. I was not impressed at all with the trailer. I thought it looked loud, silly, and repulsive. These were three adjectives I could also apply to Secret Life of Pets, which wound up being a huge hit (although I can also argue that it was very well-marketed). BFG, on the other hand, was a GREAT movie, and one I personally lauded for its production values and lack of utter stupidity...yet it tanked. Pete's Dragon seems to be the same way. (I'd see it now but movie tickets are so darn expensive in Pittsburgh where all the theaters are first-run...it's actually cheaper for me to drive to Youngstown and see them at the second-run theater for $3 each).
3. The most impressive thing about Avatar, to me, is that after such a great theatrical run, it's a movie nobody ever talks about. A lot of my friends are movie buffs, and in the past three years, I think Avatar may have come up once. Everyone loved it in 2009, but today? Everyone I know is more apt to talk about random comedies from the 80s or 90s, classic Disney movies, whatever is current, or storied franchises like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, James Bond, etc. I actually am friends with a LOT of people who I could see liking Avatar, yet it NEVER comes up. Maybe the new park will revive it, but even among my buddies who like Disney World, nobody talks about it--they're all more interested in the Star Wars and Toy Story lands.
4. There has been a lot of Marvel talk in the other threads, particularly about GoTG. Amazingly, even with a bunch of Marvel nerds in my friend circle, GoTG barely gets brought up--and I've been with some of these guys to Marvel movies on opening day (GoTG wasn't one of them). I know maybe two people who saw GoTG. Yes, it grossed a lot of money, but how much do you want to bet some of it was because nothing else looked remotely good at the time?
I looked up the time period in which it was released. GoTG came out on August 1, 2014. There was a Planet of the Apes movie which came out a few weeks earlier which quickly fell from its spot, losing to a couple of no-namers within that time span. The number two movie during GoTG's first week was Lucy, which made $76K LESS than GoTG that weekend. I don't even remember that movie existing, yet alone seeing it. Planet of the Apes (which wasn't all that good IMO) fell pretty hard. Basically, there was no competition that weekend.
The following weekend? GoTG makes about half as much and loses to Ninja Turtles. The following weekend, everything falls off a cliff but TMNT and GoTG are still #1 and #2. They flip flop positions the next weekend and make even less money--and that trend continues for two more weekends. Long story short, Summer 2014 was a dud for movies and GoTG was arguably one of the better ones of the lot. It only has impressive numbers because it had no competition.
Put GoTG in the same release time in another year and it doesn't stand a chance if the movies coming out were good. Take 1996 for example. You had A Time to Kill and Independence Day vying for #1 and #2, with the latter already out for a while. Matilda had come out and did well for the younger set. Hunchback of Notre Dame was still in theaters. Nutty Professor was still pulling in some cash. I'd rate all five as decent to well above average movies, something you just didn't have in 2014.
Credit due where due...www.boxofficemojo.com is where I found these figures
