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[Toothless]

Or of curiosity why do you think most people, critics and regular viewers who saw it pan the movie as one of if not the worst of the year?

It's got a really awful ending. You've probably read about it online. It's also not necessarily a good movie - it's a fun one. It's got some cheap jokes, some clever ones, but you get the feeling every actor except Monaghan and Sandler are having a lot of fun with it, and the effects are cool. Monaghan and Sandler are bad though, and thus, with two poor leads and an awful ending, I understand the negative reviews.

On another film site I'm on, everyone who has seen it agrees that they were positively surprised by it, and the friend I saw it with liked it too. We went into it expecting to riff on it, but after 20 minutes, we were just enjoying it for goofy fun.

 

[wachie]

Revenge of the Sith came out 10 years ago. I'm not sure why you are sticking to absolute number differences between films that came out 3 years apart (and even there you are mixing up domestic and worldwide differences). Age of Ultron will make 70% more worldwide than the highest grossing comic film of all time circa 2005 (Spider-man with $828M). Obviously expectations are different in our post-3D/post-IMAX era.

Also, scale matters. Is Age of Ultron a bigger disappointment than Ted 2 domestically by your reckoning because it dropped ~$165M vs Ted 2's ~$140M?

$165M makes up a 27% drop for Age of Ultron (worldwide the film is down only 8%). $165M down from Revenge of the Sith would be a 43% drop, ignoring the fact that the Force Awakening is a direct sequel to Return of the Jedi (not the prequel films), and is coming out a decade after any Star Wars film.

The fact that you are comparing Ultron to Ted 2 just goes to show that it's a fucking disappointment.

It also has the second worst multiplier in the MCU, heck the weak ass Incredible Hulk had a better multiplier. Still the ~170M domestic shrink is far less a worry than an overseas contraction where even the generic Transformers sequels have been growing.

No, because that's not what I'm fuckin' doing.

I'm talking about a fandom, specifically Star Wars fandom, taking every opportunity to look at Jurassic World grosses, and then responding with sentiments along the lines of "It's going to crush that opening weekend record" and "It's going to top Titanic," and making that assumption so automatic that if and when the movie DOESN'T do those numbers, the media narrative will then be locked in, because everyone has been hearing for over a half a year that whatever it is Jurassic World did won't be shit compared to what Star Wars does. Sorta like how a whole bunch of Marvel fans legitimately expected an opening weekend north of 215 million, and a domestic tally somewhere between 650-675 million - partially because of how much money Furious 7 made, i.e. "If Furious 7 did that? Man, Marvel's going to fucking KILL IT"

I'm equating knee-jerk, poorly thought out predictions-turned-expectations turning into overstated disappointment, to the potential of knee-jerk, poorly thought out predictions-turning-into-expectations becoming a disappointment narrative come December.

It's pretty obvious what I'm doing, too, if you read along, as opposed to misunderstanding the discussion and then misunderstanding how "akin to" is not "exactly like". Kswiston's basically covered the rest of it.

That makes slightly more sense, however you seem suffer from the same extremism mentality that there are only two type of people - either people call films all-time successes or bombas. There are films that make a lot of money while still fail to gross more than the predecessors and hence termed disappointments.

 

[kswiston]

The fact that you are comparing Ultron to Ted 2 just goes to show that it's a fucking disappointment.

It also has the second worst multiplier in the MCU, heck the weak ass Incredible Hulk had a better multiplier. Still the ~170M domestic shrink is far less a worry than an overseas contraction where even the generic Transformers sequels have been growing.

I think you are missing the point of what people mean when they make certain comparisons.

But to address your actual points based on objective data, Age of Ultron increased over Avengers overseas. If you mean "overseas contraction when you subtract Chinese grosses" that goes for Transformers 4 as well.

If we are talking about first weekend to total gross domestic multipliers, Age of Ultron had a better multiplier than Iron Man 3, and is within 1% of Thor: The Dark World, the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2. Coincidentally enough, those are all the MCU sequels, save The Winter Soldier (which was the only MCU sequel with improved WOM over the original). Since Ultron is still in theatres (and will likely have a re-expansion before it is pulled from screens), it will probably end up tied or ahead of Thor 2's multiplier. Chances of Age of Ultron hitting $460M are decent with a re-expansion.

 

[American Eskimo]

They finally added budgets to a bunch of movies.

The gallows made money

 

[King Tubby]

They must've spent a ton on marketing for Pixels, right? I saw ads for it every other break during the NBA Finals.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

That makes slightly more sense,

Of course it does.

however you seem suffer from the same extremism mentality

No I don't, I'm more or less criticizing it, explaining how such a mentality can end up feeding into a backlash that otherwise wouldn't exist if people with knee-jerk, extreme expectations, hadn't so consistently built a narrative that's very hard to realize.

Basically, I don't know if you've understood what it is anyone's saying for the entirety of your inclusion in this particular line of discussion.

 

[Messofanego]

I hate Adam Sandler in every other work of his besides Happy Gilmore, and he even wasn't that great in Pixels. Doesn't change the fact that Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than everything this summer besides Inside Out, Mad Max, and Avengers. It achieves its quality in spite of Sandler though.

Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than Kingsman and Spy, how? I'm not buying it.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than Kingsman and Spy, how? I'm not buying it.

To be fair, Kingsmen wasn't released this summer, in the US at least.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than Kingsman and Spy, how? I'm not buying it.

Besides which if it makes less than 30 mil opening weekend in July it's not a blockbuster, period.

 

[DarkFlow]

I hate Adam Sandler in every other work of his besides Happy Gilmore, and he even wasn't that great in Pixels. Doesn't change the fact that Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than everything this summer besides Inside Out, Mad Max, and Avengers. It achieves its quality in spite of Sandler though.

 

[Bel Marduk]

I really expected Pixels to be Sandlers biggest movie. Surprised to see it flop like this, in the states at least.

I'm surprised to see that it did so well considering the target audience didn't seem much interested (that is, older video-game playing people.. at least from what I've seen on this forum) and the horrible reviews it got.

There's still a market for ultra lowbrow movies though, Paul Blart 2 was successful.

 

[G-Fex]

I hate Adam Sandler in every other work of his besides Happy Gilmore, and he even wasn't that great in Pixels. Doesn't change the fact that Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than everything this summer besides Inside Out, Mad Max, and Avengers. It achieves its quality in spite of Sandler though.

 

[Future Foundation]

They finally added budgets to a bunch of movies.

The gallows made money

For some reason I thought it was a disappointment. Then I caught the budget - fucking $100,000.

 

[Shaanyboi]

I hate Adam Sandler in every other work of his besides Happy Gilmore, and he even wasn't that great in Pixels. Doesn't change the fact that Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than everything this summer besides Inside Out, Mad Max, and Avengers. It achieves its quality in spite of Sandler though.

....wat

 

[Matt_]

I do wonder how Spectre will do compared to Skyfall.
its in a similar situation in that there wont be a very big movie to compete with when it opens, and the competition coming is a teen targeting movie (The last Twilight vs the last Hunger Games) and the return of a massive beloved franchise (the Hobbit vs The Force Awakens)
The only difference is it has one weekend more to breathe before the Hunger Games opens whereas Twilight was the weekend after. Although it is certain that a. The Hunger Games will open bigger than Twilight and b. there is probably a much larger cross over in crowds, given the direction the film is taking. The same can be said for for TFA, which shall surely dominate cinemas from its opening onwards.
If I had to bet I'd say a higher opening but with worse legs. No idea how it will compete with life time grosses but I'd say around 280M

 

[Kathian]

It also has the second worst multiplier in the MCU, heck the weak ass Incredible Hulk had a better multiplier. Still the ~170M domestic shrink is far less a worry than an overseas contraction where even the generic Transformers sequels have been growing.

Some might say tieing your hugely successful franchises to a single story about some stones is a bad idea. I still don't really know what Age of Ultron was about; it was plot points and set pieces that had links rolled over the top.

 

[Son Of D]

Left out Spectre, too.

Shit. No idea how I forgot about that.

What does box office GAF think about Spectre? Bond has always been a solid consistent mid-level blockbuster but never was a gigantic blockbuster level franchise till Skyfall which blew up overseas and domestic and pulled a billion.

Was Skyfall a fluke or has Bond pulled a Fast and Furious sort of franchise shift into the big leagues and not look back?

At least anecdotally the amount of attention and discussion about the latest Spectre trailer seems to dwarf the amount of attention pre-Skyfall Bond movies have got. It "feels" like the leap into the big leagues has so far been sustaining and could pull off being another billion dollar movie.

I don't see it doing Skyfall numbers but I don't expect a big drop from Skyfall either. At most I'm expecting it to barely reach $1b.

 

[Abounder]

Looks like the copycat shooting hurt the family friendly weekend, but Pixels will do enough thanks to the worldwide numbers. Ant-Man is on track to making its budget but it's definitely a disappointing addition to the MCU, I suppose there wasn't enough mouths for the word of mouth to mean anything

As for the recurring Star Wars discussion, yea I still think it'll at least be the 2nd biggest movie of the year. It's the biggest movie event since Avatar and it'll have marketing that rivals Minions - Star Wars and Life Day is going to be a huge combo. Just don't be stupid and get boycotted by German theaters like Marvel did. I wonder if it'll have a longer IMAX run than JW

 

[Jigorath]

Star Wars opening? Man, Superman v Batman is going to Annihilate it

Batman gets top billing. Not Supes.

 

[DarkFlow]

Looks like the copycat shooting hurt the family friendly weekend, but Pixels will do enough thanks to the worldwide numbers. Ant-Man is on track to making its budget but it's definitely a disappointing addition to the MCU, I suppose there wasn't enough mouths for the word of mouth to mean anything

It's already made $226 million ww, what were you expecting? I know I was expecting cap 1, Thor 1 ww numbers, around $450 million ww. It seems right on track for that.

 

[Acorn]

Remember when Peter Dinklage was hot shit?

 

[Jigorath]

Remember when Peter Dinklage was hot shit?

He was never hot shit. Being in a popular TV show does not automatically translate to box office success.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

They gotta give us that Power Pack first.

Night Thrasher

 

[Slayven]

They finally added budgets to a bunch of movies.

The gallows made money

Found footage horror movies are easy mode for hollywood.

He was never hot shit. Being in a popular TV show does not automatically translate to box office success.

 

[Acorn]

He was never hot shit. Being in a popular TV show does not automatically translate to box office success.

He was hyped to the moon is what I mean, didn't mean as a proven film star. Although I liked that indie flick he was in where he was a train conductor or something.

 

[Toa TAK]

He was hyped to the moon is what I mean, didn't mean as a proven film star. Although I liked that indie flick he was in where he was a train conductor or something.

His greatest performance.

 

[fritolay]

Chiming in again, Pixels not that bad. I'd actually see it again on video with family. I think it will do good on home rentals too.

 

[Abounder]

It's already made $226 million ww, what were you expecting? I know I was expecting cap 1, Thor 1 ww numbers, around $450 million ww. It seems right on track for that.

Nothing definite but I thought it would be closer to numbers from Phase 2 than the bottom of Phase 1 considering MCU's brand building and Ant-Man's word of mouth. But it was a more troubled than usual production and didn't have the budget or marketing on par with the rest of the MCU. All that said there's no real way of spinning Ant-Man as a success story...even at $450mill it would only maybe break-even after the marketing and planning time

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Not even Yancy st folks would eat that

Those things look delicious. My bae eats it.

I know fanboys want Fantastic Four to bomb in the hopes that Fox makes a deal with Marvel similar to the deal Sony made with Marvel over Spider-Man.

I would like to see the Fantastic Four villains in the MCU.

 

[Kinsella]

I hate Adam Sandler in every other work of his besides Happy Gilmore, and he even wasn't that great in Pixels. Doesn't change the fact that Pixels is a more fun blockbuster than everything this summer besides Inside Out, Mad Max, and Avengers. It achieves its quality in spite of Sandler though.

I knew you were joking when you said Avengers was fun. Good one!

 

[DonasaurusRex]

I know fanboys want Fantastic Four to bomb in the hopes that Fox makes a deal with Marvel similar to the deal Sony made with Marvel over Spider-Man.

nah they will just tie it with the more popular xmen then if it becomes an expensive bust then either they will sell it back or let it lapse , or they could be integrated into the xmen.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

From a financial standpoint, what in the world makes you think they're going to do that?

 

[Exterminieren]

I see Spectre doing well, but I don't see it matching Skyfall. That really was a perfect storm (really good WOM, Adele, good advertising campaign, publicity over the 50th anniversary, an appetite for a Bond film after several years without one).

It's obviously a little early to say, but Spectre doesn't seem to be building momentum like that although the last trailer was well received. I see it falling just a little under the billion this time.

 

[Abounder]

Skyfall did have a lot of great buzz, it was even hailed as "the best, the best Bond of them all" . It would be one hell of an accomplishment if the bloated Spectre could rival that, can Blofeld really bring in more $$$ to the box office?

 

[Busty]

I'll eat my hat and the coat that came with it if Pixels really cost 'just' $88m to produce. I suspect that Sony are having their PR goons spread that number around to try and lessen the embarrassment of having their big summer film open under $25m in July.

I have a feeling that Sony, who co-financed the film with partners, are just reporting the number that they invested in the film rather than the production's total cost.

 

[Penguin]

Skyfall did have a lot of great buzz, it was even hailed as "the best, the best Bond of them all" . It would be one hell of an accomplishment if the bloated Spectre could rival that, can Blofeld really bring in more $$$ to the box office?

I was wondering about that as well, Skyfall was also built on the hype of Bond's 50th anniversary.

 

[Jigorath]

Skyfall did have a lot of great buzz, it was even hailed as "the best, the best Bond of them all" . It would be one hell of an accomplishment if the bloated Spectre could rival that, can Blofeld really bring in more $$$ to the box office?

Bloated?

But I think Spectre is going to decrease domestically as it's the fourth film in the Craig series. Like POTC4 and Transformers 4 it'll end up around $250m. Though I think it'll do well enough OS to cross a billion.

 

[aerts1js]

Bloated?

But I think Spectre is going to decrease domestically as it's the fourth film in the Craig series. Like POTC4 and Transformers 4 it'll end up around $250m. Though I think it'll do well enough OS to cross a billion.

Maybe not.

Spectre is coming off the (arguable) best entry in the Craig entries whereas POTC4 & T4 were coming off disappointing third entries.

 

[guek]

Bloated?

The production reportedly hasn't been smooth.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

The production reportedly hasn't been smooth.

Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the film itself will feel overlong and/or overstuffed.

Granted, it's a Bond film, so the odds are decent it will be kinda bloated (almost all of the Bonds have about a half-hour of bellyfat hanging off the front of it, except for maybe From Russia With Love and Quantum of Solace) but dude still used a term to describe a movie that you can't really use until you've actually watched the movie.

 

[Abounder]

Bloated?

But I think Spectre is going to decrease domestically as it's the fourth film in the Craig series. Like POTC4 and Transformers 4 it'll end up around $250m. Though I think it'll do well enough OS to cross a billion.

Spectre reportedly has a budget over $350mill, it's one of the most expensive productions of all time.

I was wondering about that as well, Skyfall was also built on the hype of Bond's 50th anniversary.

I agree with Jigorath and others that say it will decrease domestically much like Baleman's TDKR and other follow ups to great sequels

Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the film itself will feel overlong and/or overstuffed.

Granted, it's a Bond film, so the odds are decent it will be kinda bloated (almost all of the Bonds have about a half-hour of bellyfat hanging off the front of it, except for maybe From Russia With Love and Quantum of Solace) but dude still used a term to describe a movie that you can't really use until you've actually watched the movie.

Whoops yea poor choice of words - I mean budget wise it's bloated. I still love Bond even with the belly fat lol

 

[guek]

Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean the film itself will feel overlong and/or overstuffed.

Yeah, I'm just clarifying where that likely came from.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Whoops yea poor choice of words - I mean budget wise it's bloated. I still love Bond even with the belly fat lol

Heh. We can only hope part of that 350 mil includes some Spanx, basically.

 

[Circinus]

Spectre reportedly has a net budget over $350mill, it's one of the most expensive productions of all time.

Wow, $350 million?!

Wouldn't that make it the most expensive film to date?


And doesn't that mean that it needs to gross like $1 billion to be considered a commercial success?

 

[Kathian]

And doesn't that mean that it needs to gross like $1 billion to be considered a commercial success?

Believe the rules for Bond are slightly different due to the money they rake in from product placement. 350 million sounds a bit much to me to 'bloat' into.

We'll get a better feel during the marketing buzz; Skyfall was the anniversary and had huge promotion, so you might expect Sony were happier to spend more as it was part of increasing the brand for the movies to come - however it was such a huge success I suspect they might go all in here. Slightly more muted but still a decent promotion. Its not the hardest series to promote either.

 

[johnny956]

Wow, $350 million?!

Wouldn't that make it the most expensive film to date?


And doesn't that mean that it needs to gross like $1 billion to be considered a commercial success?

I'm confused why the budget is so high for this movie

 

[mreddie]

Nothing definite but I thought it would be closer to numbers from Phase 2 than the bottom of Phase 1 considering MCU's brand building and Ant-Man's word of mouth. But it was a more troubled than usual production and didn't have the budget or marketing on par with the rest of the MCU. All that said there's no real way of spinning Ant-Man as a success story...even at $450mill it would only maybe break-even after the marketing and planning time

Isn't making a profit a success?

 

[The Technomancer]

Good job Ants

Gants

 

[mugurumakensei]

Marvel's biggest failure in regards to Ant-Man was marketing for Ant-Man as well as AoU.

WoM is great for Ant-Man so audiences at least believe it to be a really good movie.

 

[mreddie]

Gants

Thants.