Sinbad narrowly misses record!!

[rwodonnell]

I have actually thought your ramblings were quite interesting, d-r. There are insights there I hadn't considered, especially the main theme of "finding home". I think you're right on on that one.

Regarding the most recent post about suspension of belief, I think you are on to something here as well, and I think it explains box-office failures because it happens so early. What I mean by that is, if going to a film that has some strange thing that makes you want to say "cmon!", you might be likely to not go at all. I had that reaction when I saw the trailer for Treasure Planet - I thought it looked dumb. Then my 4 year old son, who somehow is so pop-culture savvy that it defies my understanding, got caught up in Jim Hawkins Mania. He had to go. My wife took him midday one day, and the rest of us had no interest in seeing it. He and my wife both liked it, so we got the DVD, and what do you know, I liked it too. Not a huge amount, but at least as much as some of the older Disney animated "classics".

I think while I was watching it, once I was immersed into the Treasure Planet World, I could go along with the flying ships, the crescent planet thing, etc. But before I sat down to watch it, I was not very interested. If I am at all typical, that goes with your box office results theory.

 

[crusader]

Treasure Planet's failure to get the audience also has to do with Atlantis. I happened to see Atlantis and disliked the complication for an animated feature. Too much to pay attention to with too little to identify and connect with.

Treasure Planet by name sounded like it was another film of this type and I for one subconsciously avoided it.

 

[Planogirl]

I think that I'm seeing a trend here thanks to d-r's observations. Treasure Planet and Sinbad seem similar in premise and the suspension of disbelief is particularly interesting when it comes to these two movies. I recall thinking that Treasure Planet looked uninteresting so we never saw it in the theater. We saw it at home however and it was much better than I expected so maybe that's why I was willing to give Sinbad a chance. But if you look back, these types of animated movies have not fared particularly well and with moviegoing down all together this summer, Sinbad was bound to do even more poorly.

Thanks d-r for working through some of this. I'm always amazed when people use the reason "it's a bad movie" when it's been out for only a few days.

 

[d-r]

Crusader, I agree with you that the timing of a release, in terms of how it matches with pop culture (reminds people of a rescent flop, catches a wave of popularity, etc.) accounts for the some of the variance in film box office.

There was something that I was hoping that someone would call me on, but since they didn't I went back to find this just so I could say it. All these variables may be associated with the box office success of animated films, but they are not the factors that are associated with the quality of a filim. It is when people like me make lists like this, and executives use lists like this to make formulas, rather than encouraging and trusting artists to create, that we have problems. Just had to say that.

 

[DancingBear]

D-R's ramblings remind me of a thread on the Debate Board "Why Does Disney Do That?" about how in Nemo, and many other movies, the mother gets killed off. Most in the thread said that type of element was part of classical storytelling, and essential to the emotional involvement in the story.

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by d-r
Crusader, I agree with you that the timing of a release, in terms of how it matches with pop culture (reminds people of a rescent flop, catches a wave of popularity, etc.) accounts for the some of the variance in film box office.

There was something that I was hoping that someone would call me on, but since they didn't I went back to find this just so I could say it. All these variables may be associated with the box office success of animated films, but they are not the factors that are associated with the quality of a filim. It is when people like me make lists like this, and executives use lists like this to make formulas, rather than encouraging and trusting artists to create, that we have problems. Just had to say that.

I agree that studio executives will use every excuse they can think of to explain a poor return. I usually suspect that the real reason for a bad box office is that the movie is just plain bad. The problem I have is when a movie opens badly. My argument is that no one knows yet whether the movie is really good or bad and that other factors are actually effecting the movie. At any rate, the movie executives have a valid argument in this case.

It seems to have happened to Gigli. The word was that the movie was bad and the public bought into that sight unseen. It may be horrible and even I feel like it is but I really don't know why.