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Wkd Box Office 12•18-20•15 - Force Awakens does good... gOOOood, opens w/ $248m

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Nibel

Member
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Not only are the two biggest box-office successes in 2015 both revivals of decade-dormant popular film series, but two of the biggest critical successes are as well.

And aside from Jurassic World (which kinda clumsily checked boxes until the WWE-tastic crowdpleaser of a Dino Finale), the other three (Force Awakens, Mad Max, Creed) seem to be working because they're taking old familiar formulas, and not just amping them up, but ensuring the moments that made those series beloved in the first place are replicated (or topped) in a careful manner, while making the film itself look and sound more like the audience watching it.

Which makes me really curious as to how Ghostbusters is going to run when it drops next year.
 

BumRush

Member
as far as we know, Lucas approached Iger. I mean don't get me wrong, Iger is possibly only behind Steve Jobs as greatest CEO of all time.. But Lucas wanted to be done with Star Wars and saw Disney as the only studio capable of taking it over.

But yeah.. Iger's moves are crazy. Pixar (both mending that relationship AND then buying them), Muppets, Marvel, Star Wars.. insane to think of Disney at the end of Eisner's reign compared to today. Holy shit.

Agreed and well said.
 

kitzkozan

Member
Which makes me really curious as to how Ghostbusters is going to run when it drops next year.

I'm sure the Ghostbusters movie will open well with the female audience and critics (Feig last movie Spy was very well received), but the task at hand is bringing in the geeky male crowd. If it does, it's going to be one of if not the most lucrative comedy given modern box-office potential.
 
I'm sure the Ghostbusters movie will open well with the female audience and critics (Feig last movie Spy was very well received), but the task at hand is bringing in the geeky male crowd.

They're coming anyway.

Besides which, the amount of money "geeks" actually lend to a movie's totals is often overvalued on forums/social media, as seen by what happens when a film is built specifically to cater to that audience. They hit a ceiling pretty quick, usually.
 

BumRush

Member
Which makes me really curious as to how Ghostbusters is going to run when it drops next year.

The only thing that worries me about Ghostbusters:

With Star Wars (returning characters, same universe), jurassic world (returning characters, same universe) and creed (same), major players from the originals were involved and it was a continuation of the overarching story. Fans of bill murray, et al, may not associate a Melissa McCarthy, Wiig, etc movie with the franchise they loved. A lot of it will come down to how the movie is marketed in my opinion.
 

Ganhyun

Member
I didn't see it mentioned above, but AMC gold passes do work for any movie. Its just the red or green ones that are limited. I used a gold pass I got as a gift to go see TFA.
 

Empty

Member
star wars is a very very clever balancing of obsessing about matching past franchise expectations (old cast, fan service, film structure, highlighting stuff like focus on practical effects etc) with modern elements (way more more diverse cast, focusing on a woman as you already know everything else brings in the boys, subverting gender expectations often in the story).

i don't think ghostbusters will carry enough of the existing fans and i don't mean the hardcore obsessives but just people who watched it and enjoyed it in the past, it's too risky with the new direction as it completely commits to it, it doesn't have the balance of star wars. people don't know what they are getting, they don't feel secure. honestly financially i think it will be successful but also considered a missed opportunity given jurassic world and star wars mega success. ppl like to be pandered to sadly.
 

LevelNth

Banned
This is purely anecdotal and likely pointless wondering, but I'm planning on seeing TFA again because it was just so damn good, and I never, ever go to the theaters twice.

I wonder if there are others like me who are thinking of doing the same.
 

tomtom94

Member
star wars is a very very clever balancing of obsessing about matching past franchise expectations (old cast, fan service, film structure, highlighting stuff like focus on practical effects etc) with modern elements (way more more diverse cast, focusing on a woman as you already know everything else brings in the boys, subverting gender expectations often in the story).

i don't think ghostbusters will carry enough of the existing fans and i don't mean the hardcore obsessives but just people who watched it and enjoyed it in the past, it's too risky with the new direction as it completely commits to it, it doesn't have the balance of star wars. people don't know what they are getting, they don't feel secure. honestly financially i think it will be successful but also considered a missed opportunity given jurassic world and star wars mega success. ppl like to be pandered to sadly.

It does, however, have the "From the director of Bridesmaids and Spy" thing going for it. So I don't think it will be a complete bomb.
 

Matt_

World's #1 One Direction Fan: Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you~~~
Box Office Mojo ‏@boxofficemojo 5m5 minutes ago
If $41.1M est. holds for 'Star Wars' the 33.8% drop would be exactly the same as 'Avatar's first Mon.

absurd
 

Matt_

World's #1 One Direction Fan: Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you~~~
Insanity. $40 mil Monday, $85 mil worldwide.


Wait, $40 mil would still be bigger than any December single day gross, right? Bigger than any movie before did on weekend?

Yes, beats the Hobbits opening day of 37M and ROTK's opening day of 34M
 

The Beard

Member
Just think how much higher next week will be when all the people who avoided the cinema, were xmas shopping or in school come to see what the excitement is all about. I predict a minimum of a 3% increase.

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Aside from a few "sleeper" movies that gain incredible word of mouth marketing, movies never do better in their second week, especially not ultra-high profile movies like this.
 
Some perspective

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...akens-box-office-40-1m-monday-610m-worldwide/

What’s most impressive is the hold that this Walt Disney blockbuster had between Sunday and Monday. The film dropped 33.8% from Sunday to Monday. Now in terms of big December blockbusters, that’s significantly ahead of every major December opener on this weekend of this size ever except for Avatar, which it basically tied.

Avatar dropped 33.8% on its first Monday, albeit on a weekend that was about 32% the size of Star Wars. But otherwise? Yeah, this was a better hold than (deep breath) Titanic (-40%), Return of the King (-41%), I Am Legend (-59%), The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (-46%), King Kong (-63%), and the IMAX-only sneak preview release of Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (-46%).

Going in terms of conventional summer blockbuster debuts (often when kids are off school like they were yesterday), this opening Monday is a smaller drop than (deep breath again) The Avengers (-66%, but on a school day), Jurassic World (-55%), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (-53%), The Dark Knight Rises (-51%), Toy Story 3 (-51%), Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (-51%, on a school day), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 (-49%), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (-48%), The Dark Knight (-43%), and, why the hell not?, Tim Burton’s Batman (-43%).
 

Toxi

Banned
Legs like Avatar while breaking every weekend and weekday record. If it keeps that up through the holiday season $1 billion domestic is possible.
While the Monday gross is impressive, it doesn't imply "legs like Avatar"; Avatar's legs were weeks after opening weekend, when it still was topping the charts.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Avatar started picking up steam in weekends 2 and 3.

yeah.. people forget this with Avatar and Titanic. They actually WENT UP in grosses on certain weekends, or dropped less than 5% WoW on other weekends.

Legs on those didn't only mean small drops, but in some cases no drop or increases.. for TFA to hit $900M it will have to play similarly. If it keeps dropping every week, even small-ish drops (<40%), I doubt it will make it much beyond $800M if it even gets there.

If either this weekend or next is crazy small drop though (<30%), it should be pretty safe. If either are increases.. THEN $1B may be possible, though far from a safe bet.
 
yeah.. people forget this with Avatar and Titanic. They actually WENT UP in grosses on certain weekends, or dropped less than 5% WoW on other weekends.

Legs on those didn't only mean small drops, but in some cases no drop or increases.. for TFA to hit $900M it will have to play similarly. If it keeps dropping every week, even small-ish drops (<40%), I doubt it will make it much beyond $800M if it even gets there.

If either this weekend or next is crazy small drop though (<30%), it should be pretty safe. If either are increases.. THEN $1B may be possible, though far from a safe bet.

I think this weekend drop will be pretty steep (40%), but I could see its third weekend holding very well. After that, who knows?
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Man the CGI has aged. Nowhere near as bad as some other films, but its still noticeable for me.

Wut. Nothing since then has been able to top that, the only movie that would be a serious contender would be Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - that motion cap was great.
 
So I think we can all agree that the domestic record is falling.

But for someone who doesn't know the box office that well, is it kind of doing just meh WW? We don't seem to be talking about it at all. It would be be crazy if got around a billion domestic and still didn't even beat Titanic.
 

Branduil

Member
While the Monday gross is impressive, it doesn't imply "legs like Avatar"; Avatar's legs were weeks after opening weekend, when it still was topping the charts.

Well, obviously Avatar-like drops aren't actually possible. OTOH, something like the first Hobbit film, which had close to a 4x multiplier, could happen.
 

mcfrank

Member
So I think we can all agree that the domestic record is falling.

But for someone who doesn't know the box office that well, is it kind of doing just meh WW? We don't seem to be talking about it at all. It would be be crazy if got around a billion domestic and still didn't even beat Titanic.

It set the world wide opening record without China. You tell me.
 
This is purely anecdotal and likely pointless wondering, but I'm planning on seeing TFA again because it was just so damn good, and I never, ever go to the theaters twice.

I wonder if there are others like me who are thinking of doing the same.
This is me as well. Myself and three kids are going to catch it in 3-D over Christmas break.
 

Matt_

World's #1 One Direction Fan: Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you~~~
I'm gonna say $125M second weekend. A 35% drop from OW without the thursday previews
 

mcfrank

Member
Sitting in a 600 seat theater 45 minutes before the start of the 12:30 showing and it is already 70% full. Mostly multi generation families.
 

wachie

Member
yeah.. people forget this with Avatar and Titanic. They actually WENT UP in grosses on certain weekends, or dropped less than 5% WoW on other weekends.

Legs on those didn't only mean small drops, but in some cases no drop or increases.. for TFA to hit $900M it will have to play similarly. If it keeps dropping every week, even small-ish drops (<40%), I doubt it will make it much beyond $800M if it even gets there.

If either this weekend or next is crazy small drop though (<30%), it should be pretty safe. If either are increases.. THEN $1B may be possible, though far from a safe bet.
And who is setting this 900M as target?
 

Anth0ny

Member
This is purely anecdotal and likely pointless wondering, but I'm planning on seeing TFA again because it was just so damn good, and I never, ever go to the theaters twice.

I wonder if there are others like me who are thinking of doing the same.

I'll be going for my third time this week. The last time I did that was with Avengers, and besides Avengers I don't know if I've ever seen a movie at the theatre three times.
 
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