• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bananafactory

Banned
If anyone is curious about how much Canada contributes to the NA box office

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/arts/star-wars-canada-record-opening-1.3373824

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has triumphed with the country's biggest opening weekend in history, according to Disney Canada.

Projected to bring in $17.1 million at Canadian box offices on its opening weekend, the J.J. Abrams-directed franchise movie has beaten the previous record held by Marvel's The Avengers.
Click to expand...

Seems like Avengers kept the record from Jurassic World. Canadians hate dinos confirmed
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
bananafactory said:
If anyone is curious about how much Canada contributes to the NA box office

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/arts/star-wars-canada-record-opening-1.3373824



Seems like Avengers kept the record from Jurassic World. Canadians hate dinos confirmed
Click to expand...

yeah I saw this earlier.

we are so fucking cute. $17.1 million over the entire opening weekend. adorable.

for what it's worth I was in Toronto for my thursday screening and north of Toronto on my Saturday screening and the theatres were jam packed like I've never seen before. the hype is real up here... our population is just so damn small.
 
B

bananafactory

Banned
Anth0ny said:
yeah I saw this earlier.

we are so fucking cute. $17.1 million over the entire opening weekend. adorable.

for what it's worth I was in Toronto for my thursday screening and north of Toronto on my Saturday screening and the theatres were jam packed like I've never seen before. the hype is real up here... our population is just so damn small.
Click to expand...

Haha yeah I'm always surprised how little we matter in stuff like this and games sales.


Same experience here in Edmonton though - 9 am showings were sold out and lineups everywhere
 
B

Betty

Banned
Lifejumper said:
I love my parents.
Click to expand...

image.php
 
T

True Savior

Member
kswiston (or wachie), what are the admission estimates (weekend) for TFA? ( in comparison with Spidey3 and TDK). The whole previews going back so much kind skews the comparison though.
 
Anton668

Anton668

Member
I vaguely remember my rents taking me to see Star Wars opening weekend, then going to see Empire for like a week straight cuz, why not, tickets were a buck or two and we were out of school. Have seen all the movies so far opening day, but nowadays, fuck the crowds. I'll prolly see TFA on Monday.
 
D

Dash_Riprock

Member
'90 kid here.

First saw The Empire Strikes back on VHS with my dad. It was the THX remasters I think. I was only 4/5 at the time, so the only part I remember is the scene where Luke sees Vader in the cave, it scared the crap out of me.

My first true experience with Star Wars was seeing all 3 special editions in theaters in 1997. Loved them all afterwards.

Saw Episode I with my dad the Saturday it came out. I loved Darth Maul and Podracing, but overall I remember being bored for a lot of it, especially the senate scene. When I got it on VHS, I would always just forward to the Podracing scene, then the Darth Maul fight, in sharp contrast to the OT which I would always watch from beginning to end, even to this day.

Saw Episode II with my sister and a bunch of friends after we convinced our parents to do a "Wookie Hooky" the day it came out. I remember all of us overall being indifferent about it, mostly cause LotR was out and had sucked everyone in by that point. Though we all said afterwards that Hayden Christensen was terrible.

Saw Episode III with my dad. Unlike with the other two, I knew from the first viewing it was shit. The opening had me hooked, but the moment the droids started speaking with their Looney Tunes voices I starting shaking my head. Then came Anakin and Padme's dialogue, and the fail that was General Grievous (especially painful since I loved the Clone Wars miniseries) And when Darth Vader did his "NOOOOOO!" I literally face palmed.
 
G

G-Fex

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
You should actually listen to it. They invite them down to their basement, introduce them as "the Real Housewives" of their show, make a blowup doll AND a "get in the kitchen" joke all in the intro, and then launch into the super-serious discussion topic of "how unfair is it that I can't buy new Slave Leia merchandise in 2016."
Click to expand...

Ehhhhh I'm not sure I can stand to listen those jackasses but since you linked it..

Lasted 3 minutes
 
S

Shaanyboi

Banned
Lifejumper said:
94 ' here. OT trilogy on vhs was my first experience. I love my parents.
Click to expand...

Born in 89.

I saw the original as a local channel's Sunday movie when I was 7. I remember the commercial had that shot of the X-Wings barrel-rolling, and that was the thing that made me go wide-eyed and say "OH MAN, WHAT IS THIS?!" Then I watched it and it blew me the fuck away. I became totally obsessed with Star Wars. Funnily enough, I played X-Wing, Tie-Fighter and Dark Forces soon after, and alot of stuff that came from the later movies like characters or music, I got introduced to through those games. Then that year for my birthday, my dad got me these:

h1tXn.jpg


I was like "THERE ARE TWO MORE MOVIES?!?!" I opened my present late at night, but the entire next day, me and my whole family watched all three movies. One of the best days ever. Changed my life, man.

Thing is too, these VHS' all opened with interviews between George Lucas and Leonard Malton, and I remember this was the first time I ever became conscious to the idea that all this stuff had to come from someone. There were people who wrote and designed this stuff. It was the first time I'd ever heard a creator talk about story, and having to change things, and solving narrative problems, etc. Also the first time I'd heard about the idea of a "prequel trilogy" and suddenly the 4,5,6 thing made way more sense and it made me super excited at the notion that there were still three more Star Wars movies coming. (sigh...)

But still, seeing all this, that's totally where I got excited about the idea of storytelling etc. Star Wars Lego wasn't a thing then, so I took the toy ships I could find, and the ones I couldn't I made out of mismatched Lego pieces, and would like compose shots. Like when most kids play, they would just pick up a thing and carry it over and land it, and bash some action figures together. But like... that wasn't real enough for me. I would hold the ships super close to my eyes and move them away and towards me as if I was staring at a camera frame. I was trying to recreate the cool awesome shots I saw in Return of the Jedi and Empire, trying to replicate how the ships moved and stuff. Action figures' arms couldn't articulate and shit, so I would just look at my two pointer fingers and focus on those, thinking of them as lightsabers. How they moved on screen, how they'd spin and shit. I looked like a fucking idiot and my family mocked the shit out of me, but man... In my head, I was making some epic shit.

And now, I get to do what I do as a storyboard artist with motherfucking superheroes, and it's all because of those three VHS'. Seriously, my life was never the same after seeing that first Star Wars movie.
 
S

sploatee

formerly Oynox Slider
Love reading these posts :)

My introduction was in the late 80s, we were the family that had Betamax so my choice of films was really limited. I was in the video rental store with my mum and they were selling off all their Betamax stock so she bought me Star Wars for about £5. That was it, I watched it over and over again and fell in love. That Chrismukkah I got the Millennium Falcon and some toys (from a second hand shop, we couldn't afford it new!) and it was the best time ever.

Eventually I saw ROTJ before TESB. ROTJ made me cry when Yoda died and when Anakin's mask came off!

Star Wars and the Goonies are the only films I have nostalgia for. Glorious.

Oh and the Force Awakens was perfect.
 
C

CassSept

Member
'91 here. National TV used to play Star Wars all the time during the weekends in the 90s and that's how I was introduced to the series. I don't really remember much of that time, but Hoth really stands out. I never saw TPM in theaters, only had an illustrated book which I really have to find during Christmas break. Then I saw AotC on VHS and I remember Geonosis in particular, but couldn't really care much since during that same week I saw Matrix, Indy trilogy and Fellowship of the Ring for the first time hah, and especially LotR made a huge impression. As mentioned above, LotR combined with prequels quality really killed SW for a while for my generation. I still saw RotS in the theaters near the opening week and I liked it, well hey, I was 13 and it had flashy lightsaber fights over lava and daaaark protagonist. Cool. But LotR still reigned king.

Now Hobbit dampened excitement around LotR and Star Wars is back. Funny how that works.
 
K

kswiston

Member
Canadian gross actually ended up being 18.6m CAD. Canadians don't watch as many movies as our American neighbours because we're cheap. Canada is always over represented in Netflix subscriptions and Steam sale purchases. But under represented in the purchase of Full price media.

True Savior said:
kswiston (or wachie), what are the admission estimates (weekend) for TFA? ( in comparison with Spidey3 and TDK). The whole previews going back so much kind skews the comparison though.
Click to expand...

I think record attendance for the entire weekend with previews and outside top 4 for the weekend proper.
 
B

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Almost 41. Saw ANH for a '78 rerelease. Somehow never saw ESB in the theaters (yet I remember we saw both Flash Gordon and Clash of the Titans in that year....) Saw every movie past ESB multiple times on release.

One of the greatest moments post-OT was West End Games launching the RPG. Up to that point that sort of nerdgasm simply did not exist for Star Wars. I mean they had ads by Incom and everything in there, not to mention an insane wealth of background information on everything.
 
S

Solo

Member
Born in 1983 (the year the OT ended), since we're doing the age thing. My first "blockbusters" seen in theatres I can recall were Batman, Licence To Kill, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Dick Tracy.
 
G

guek

Banned
Bobby Roberts said:
Your focus determines your reality.

You tend to focus on that sort of shit.
Click to expand...

Yeah I suppose that's true. We can't always pick what we find annoying though, as you well know.

I'm jealous of all of you that had the VHS tapes growing up. My family was too poor for that, I didn't get a VCR until 1999/2000. I did manage to catch the OT in theaters during the re-releases though. Those were some magical times as a kid.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Verendus said:
I didn't say that. I used Star Wars as an example in a larger point about "nerds" holding up their favourite franchises, while decrying others, when they share many of the same flaws, that results in a dialogue of hyperbole. This, in response to someone referring to "nerds" being overly critical. It seems strange phrasing it that way, because what we're really talking about is hardcore fans. Star Wars is topical considering the thread, but you could extend this to other franchises with hardcore fans too. Folks are overly critical when it comes to things they don't like, and resort to hyperbole. This is how we come to the stance that a movie like Avatar is garbage, when really it's no more offensive than most blockbuster movies even if you don't like it.

The nitpicking by fans of the original trilogy perfectly encapsulates my point. They don't nitpick the original movies. You've got a bunch of kids who watched these movies in the 70s, became obsessively attached, and then lashed out at the prequel trilogy in such a way that it feels almost cartoonish because they didn't quite capture them the way the originals did. Possibly because they weren't ten year olds anymore, but that mentality is something I've only seen on the internet. They elevate franchises above and beyond what they are due to attachment, and then have to, for some reason, bring down others. I guess you could say it's part of nerd or geek culture, but it's pretty consistent across a lot of discussions on GAF, whether it's with games or movies. I don't find that kind of absurdity in real life.

When you have folks call movies like Avatar garbage, and then pretend stuff like The Force Awakens is so much better, it's just weird. There really isn't much of a difference. Most people who watched stuff like Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Avatar, TFA etc. would likely say they enjoyed all of them. They'll have their favourites, and there'll probably be things they don't like about these movies, but as they are, they're made to be blockbuster movies that try to appeal to as many people as possible. There isn't some amazing character study or deep exploration of themes in these movies. They're safe movies. They're made to be that way. Some will just connect better with you than others.

Edit:


This is what I mean.

Making a cultural impact in today's world is very different than back in the 70s. Just the way movies were released back then is different from now where generations have access to everything and there are multiple big franchises releasing every year. Star Wars success is a matter of timing as much as anything else. Neglecting that, Avatar has 3 sequels to go, and the first grossed $2.8 billion dollars, and was, by far, the biggest movie ever made. Clearly, a lot of people enjoyed the movie. That success is significant.

For all you know, twenty years from now, you might be thinking it has stayed in the public consciousness when you're playing with your grandkids.
Click to expand...
On point.
 
G

George Oscar Bluth II

Banned
Born in '96. First time I watched Star Wars was when I was 5 and they were showing the OT on TV. I remember being scared of the scene Han gets put into carbonite but don't remember much else much else. When I was 8 I borrowed the special edition VHS set from the local library and found myself really enjoying it.

My silly young self liked the prequels until I was 12. Got Episode I and II on VHS back in 2002 and liked 'em. Saw Episode III in the cinemas and loved it, thinking all the spinny shit was so cool. Even had loads of prequel toys.

I think my first cinema experience was The Tigger Movie. Come at me.

Now I'm making retirement home GAF feel older than ever.
 
Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
Born in '79, first memories I have of Star Wars are Empire's Hoth battle and the majority of RotJ. As a kid I watched those three movies over and over again. My brother and I had all the original toys. Shit was great.

Needless to say I was super pumped for Episode I. After all, Vader is my favorite villain of all time, across all entertainment media. The soul crushing moment hit when the movie was about halfway over and I realized that fuckall had happened yet and what I was watching was garbage. I went to Episode II opening night with tempered expectations but it still massively disappointed me. After Episode III I pretty much lost all interest in Star Wars besides the KOTOR / SWTOR games. While we could argue which of the prequel trilogy is the worst (most would say AotC), I would say Revenge of the Sith is my personal least favorite due to it massively missing the mark and wasting so much potential. Awful writing... ugh.

Episode VII has definitely renewed my interest in Star Wars. Sure it had issues and was a soft reboot in many ways, but the bottom line is we got the first good, quality Star Wars movie in 30 years. Kids love it. Adults love it. Star Wars is no longer a joke and it's back in the mainstream. This makes me very happy.
 
G

Garlador

Member
'86.

I first saw Empire Strikes Back, shockingly enough, on TV I think. I was about 4 or 5, and I remember it terrified me. The Wampa scene, the torture of Han, the asteroid worm, the creepiness of Dagobah, the carbonite "death", Vader slicing off Luke's hand...

... Yeah, I was hooked. I had to know who these people were in the original and what was going to happen to them.
 
B

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
I mean lets be fair. It's impossible for ANYTHING to do what Stat Wars did. Read the Slate article on Star Wars being one of the last great post-modern masterpieces. We toss the term space opera at it, which is pretty disingenuous. Largely sci-fi today would not exist as it does without Star Wars. Sci-fi before Star Wars was STILL rooted in Wells and Verne. Even Burroughs, Clarke, etc were still primarily building on what those two did 70+ years before. Star Wars said "yeah we'll use that.. But why can't Japanese samurai, and Wild West gunslingers, and 50s muscle cars, and modern military warfare and machines, Greek mythology and heroism, theistic spirituality, and medeval chivalry and villainy also exist in sci-fi?"

As great an accomplishment as the LOTR movies were, when people said "kids growing up on these would be like kids growing up on Star Wars" my thought was "that's impossible. These are incredibly made movies. Star Wars..... Nothing else like it existed at the time, or was competently created/copied until probably over a decade later"

Honestly the closest that I've ever seen is Titanic. And really the biggest exceptional part of that was a perfect marriage of 1.5 hour romance story for the ladies and 1.5 hour disaster flick for the men. But IMHO even that was simply more clever than brilliant/bold like ANH was.

There may never be "another Star Wars" in our lifetime, because that sort of narrative paradigm shift comes around maybe a handful of times total every hundred years.
 
…

……forgetit

Member
'92

My first Star Wars experience was seeing the phantom menace in theaters at the ripe old age of 6. I finally saw the originals in a TV marathon leading up to Revenge of the Sith and.....they put me to sleep and I thought they looked too fake, still do on the later btw. It wasn't until I was in highschool and I decided to research them that I realized the originals were much better movies.
 
I

Inferno313

Banned
I was born in '93 and saw the OT when I was about 5, when my dad rented them all at Blockbuster and sat down and watched them with me. I loved them, the space battles in particular. I used to go to a baby sitter's house on the regular, and they had the whole trilogy on VHS. I used to watch ANH every time I went, and if I didn't feel like watching the whole movie I'd fast forward to the Death Star sequence, I thought it was so cool.

I saw all three prequels in the theater, and really was into them as a kid, but they don't hold up at all for me anymore. Even as a kid though, I liked the originals more. I was also hooked on the games. Rogue Squadron in particular was my jam. I spent so much time playing the original, and Rogue Leader. KOTOR and Battlefront were also favs.
 
D

DudeWithNoName

Member
'72. I've seen them all in the theater. Admittedly, I don't recall much from ANH othrr than being really scared of Vader and loving the Tusken Raiders.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
My first experience was seeing ROTJ in the theater, one of my first movies, got a toy scout blaster by Kenner after the movie at the mall toy store too!
 
JetBlackPanda

JetBlackPanda

Member
I was born in 82.

I had an uncle that was probably 17 when I was born. He was into video games, Star Wars, Slot Cars, Arcades. I'm talking obi wan level of nerd for 80s

He showed me his Atari and my love of video games he also sat me down and showed me Star Wars, I can't remember he year, I was maybe 8-9 I remember it was on VHS and he was like, it's time.

It was one of the best things I have ever experienced. It blew my child like mind. Since then I've been obsessed.
 
G

Gonzalez

Banned
cacildo said:
This thread started as box office, went to avatar bashing and now we are sharing

qsqpt.jpg
Click to expand...

86... Saw New Hope on the Disney Channel during a free preview week in the late 80's. I assumed for awhile that Star Wars was a Disney property, and New Hope was the only Star Wars Film. That was until USA(The channel) had a Star Wars all day film marathon, and I found out there were two other Star Wars. I turned to my sister, and said to her "What the fuck? Did you know about this?".

This is real nice, guys. TFA was still an average blockbuster, and no where near as well crafted of a film as Avatar was.
 
C

Cheebo

Banned
Solo said:
Born in 1983 (the year the OT ended), since we're doing the age thing. My first "blockbusters" seen in theatres I can recall were Batman, Licence To Kill, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Dick Tracy.
Click to expand...
Wow, same here with the earliest I remember seeing being Batman, Last Crusade, Licence To Kill and then TMNT as well.

Summer of '89 kicked me off. I was so so so so obsessed with the Keaton Batman film.

As for Star Wars, I was introduced to them on VHS. Not those faces VHS, I remember when those came out in 95. My dad showed me them. Passed down the franchise to me.

This was during the so called dark times of Star Wars. Before the VHS re-release in 95 everyone posted pictures of. Before the relaunch of the toy line also in 95. There was NO merchandise at all when I saw it. And because this was pre-Internet the fact there was no toys, no marketing, no nothing that would start back up in 1995 (and never stop) I assumed it was this little seen thing my dad likes and showed me. It as my little special franchise that was just mine. If I discovered it after Star Wars came back to the forefront starting in 1995 I highly doubt I would love it like I do now. It being "mine" that no one else knew of that I was aware of made it very special to me.

He still loves the originals and went to see TFA twice, he texts me constantly his theories about Rey's
parents
from TFA.
 
T

trembli0s

Member
Not even sure when I saw these.

My dad is a certified low-key SW nut though. He saw the original movie in '77 16 times in the theater when it came out. We were the first in line (he got there at 7:30PM for the starting at 4:00AM marathon) at the Houston Marq*e theater.

I remember watching the original trilogy on his VHS tapes when I was pretty young. Subsequently have watched every single movie with him the theaters.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
I think the earliest blockbuster I saw in theaters was The Lion King. I swear, we wore out the VHS release so bad my siblings and I could just reenact entire segments of the movie word for word, and eventually the tape just stopped working lol

remember VCR tracking?
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
ViewtifulJC said:
I think the earliest blockbuster I saw in theaters was The Lion King. I swear, we wore out the VHS release so bad my siblings and I could just reenact entire segments of the movie word for word, and eventually the tape just stopped working lol

remember VCR tracking?
Click to expand...

lion king, jumanji and space jam tapes were all played to death in my player.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Box Office: ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Aims for Weak $15 Million in Opening Weekend (Lower than Madam Web)
33
1K
Reizo Ryuu replied
Weekend Box Office - Jul 19 - 21, 2024 - The twist here is we hate Disney shills
Business
36
2K
Valonquar replied
Weekend Box Office - Jul 26 - 28, 2024 - Alive & Howling
Business
17
1K
jason10mm replied
Wkd B.O. 11•02-04•18 - Queen finds somebody to love @ box office as Disney, Tyler Perry bite the dust
2
925
black_13 replied
Wkd B.O. 11•09-11•18 - Grinch steals box office, over 'lord and dragon tattoo'd girl
0
1K
xaosslug replied
Top Bottom