My Opinion Means NOTHING!

[barbeml]

I often find myself taking the unpopular view of mega hit movies and critical favorites, but I really loved Nemo. I also loved the Toy Story movies, Shrek, Tarzan, Dinosaur, Mermaid, etc. Treasure Planet looked good, but I was too distracted by the "science" questions (did that ship generate its own atmosphere?) and I did not care about any of the characters, except I really liked Morph. I guess I'm a sucker for the "really cute" character that shows up in most Disney films (like the cricket from Mulan), so the adorable Nemo struck the right chord with me.

 

[tonyk]

Peter Pirate,
I don't feel the same as you do about Finding Nemo (loved it), but boy, do I know exactly what you mean. I also had the same underwhelmed feeling about Shrek. Cannot for the life of me figure out what the big deal was. And I really can't pinpoint the exact reasons it didn't work for me.

On the other hand, I absolutely loved "Iron Giant". A great movie, fantastic story, wasn't Over-formulated (i.e., no annoying sidekicks). I don't understand why it didn't do well. Although, poor marketing was definitely a factor. It just had no legs at the box office. Then again, "Finding Nemo" has no legs either!! [rimshot]...thank you...I'm here all week...try the fish.

 

[barbeml]

tonyk--My whole family adores "Iron Giant." It deserved to do so much better.

 

[Bob O]

Peter, you just have to realize that on some of these movies you are out of the mainsatream of the viewing public. Its obvious by the money made that the vest majorirty of the paying public much peferrred Shrek/Fing Nemo than the lates disney releases that you perferred.
And if TP/ L & S were up to the quality of Lion King/Little Mermaid the masses would have follwed in kind to see them.

 

[d-r]

It's not like people see the movies, decide whether they like it or not, then decide if they are going to pay for it.

 

[emmagata]

Originally posted by d-r
It's not like people see the movies, decide whether they like it or not, then decide if they are going to pay for it.

That would be nice. Sorta like ordering food at a restaurant.

However, I have heard of people asking for their money back from a movie theater because they thought the movie was lousy.

 

[roymccoy]

I asked for my money back at a movie one time. Star Trek Nemesis. Worst movie ever made. I watched about an hour and just had to go. The manager gave me back my money without any argument.

Roy

BTW - I WANTED my money back for Battlefield Earth but I didn't ask. I also wanted the theater to somehow warp time and space and give me back my two hours.

 

[emmagata]

Originally posted by roymccoy
I asked for my money back at a movie one time. Star Trek Nemesis. Worst movie ever made. I watched about an hour and just had to go. The manager gave me back my money without any argument.

Roy

BTW - I WANTED my money back for Battlefield Earth but I didn't ask. I also wanted the theater to somehow warp time and space and give me back my two hours.

Thankfully we saw ST Nemesis at the $2 discount theater.

The film strip broke about 3 times during the first 1/2 hour.

That surely should have been a sign of what was to come.

But we ignored it.

 

[erikthewise]

Didn't Hunchback come after Lion King? I really don't remember, but I think it needs to be mentioned as one of the Disney movies with that undefinable "heart", in the same league with Beauty and the Beast and Lion King.

I enjoyed Nemo but agree it is very "thin" as far as plot and "heart" go. I liked Monsters, Inc much more -- I can watch it over and over.

I hated Shrek long before it was released! At the time our children watched a lot of Nickelodeon, and for six weeks for the release, there was a Shrek promo on EVERY commercial break on Nickelodeon. It was like saturation bombing. By the time it was released, you couldn't have paid me to see it I was so sick of it. I did eventually see it on TV, and didn't really care for it.

 

[Planogirl]

I've never asked for my money back even though I've sat through a few dogs. I figure that it's not the theater's fault so I just sit and bear it. Silly, I know.

Interesting how we all differ. We enjoyed Shrek and Ice Age and Nemo. I'm also still puzzling over the relative failure of Spirit like I've mentioned all too often.

 

[raidermatt]

It's not like people see the movies, decide whether they like it or not, then decide if they are going to pay for it.

True, but they do pass on their opinions to their friends who haven't seen it. And they do then decide whether its worth seeing again, or purchasing on video/dvd, or buying plush. And their expectations for future movies from that studio/producer/genre/etc. are at least partially formed by their opinion of what they have seen.

 

[d-r]

Yes. I totally agree with you.

And also people decide to see a movie a second time or not based upon how much they liked it, and those second viewings can impact the box office (e.g., titanic). Both of these factors have a big impact on "legs" - how much the movie makes over time. And therefore, both of those account for a great deal of the individual differences in box office. But they have little impact on the opening weekend box office.

This is why so many movies have been so frontloaded. There is a lot of hype before it, the built in fans of it all go see it when it opens, an then there is a huge drop off based on less than positive word of mouth.

But do these two factors account for all of the variation between say $267 million and $38 million? I don't think they do -

People also make decisions - and even pass on word of mouth - about films they have never seen. It is called perception, hype, buzz. There were plenty of moms on their cell phones telling each other that treasure planet wasn't for little kids without ever seeing it. There were plenty of older kids who thought that disney movies were for little kids without going to see it. There was plenty of people who might like a sci-fi or action adventure movie who thought that ships in space looked weird and decided not to go see it without hearing from anyone who saw it. People who never saw it were spreading all kinds of bad word of mouth.

No, it got something like 70-ish fresh from the reviewers, and most of the people I've heard from who saw it liked it, at least something about it or marginally liked it. But nobody saw it to even make the word of mouth. I mean here is a more extreme example - what is the word of mouth on Justin and Kelly - terrible! But nobody actually saw it to make that word of mouth! I don't know anyone who actually saw it -

They opened that movie against the wrong competition, they aimed the movie at the wrong demographic. They pushed hard for the tween set, and when that is your only demographic the only box office you get is 40-60 million (e.g., Lizzie McGuier, Holes, et al.).

So these things impact both the initial opening numbers, and the legs.

Thus, I think it is a mistake to think that 100% of the variation in movie box office is based upon "how good the movie is," not only because of taste of the consumers, but by the fact that people "do not watch the movie and then decide if they will pay for it based on whether they liked it or not."