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Author Topic: Indiana Jones; Let's predict the first weekend gross Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-25-2008 09:35 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley Superman II (a subject of great debate, but I like it better than the first). I'm REALLY looking forward to getting to see the Richard Donner cut of Superman II soonish just to compare it to the Lester version.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-25-2008 09:36 PM                        Estimates are out....Indy did $126m for Thurs-Sun, expected to add $25m on Monday. B.O. is still down some from '07, but that's understandable considering the "big 3" that opened in this timeframe. Looks like Narnia, Iron Man and Vegas are holding up pretty well!  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 05-25-2008 10:48 PM                     My problem isn't with sequels, I love Last Crusade and I even really like Temple of Doom (when I was a kid, I absolutely loved the scene where the guy's heart is ripped out). My problem is with making a crappy sequel almost 20 years after the movie(s) is/are done and over with, just to make a quick buck. I mean, Last Crusade came out the year I was born! It has moved out of its parents' house and has a steady job and maybe goes to school part time, you know, trying to decide what to do with its life. (The Last Crusade's life is not, in fact, a reflection of my own, this is just personification.) But wait, here comes another one! Only now, this one is about aliens from some wacky dimension, and their heads are magnets or something. Awesome. Plus, you know how the action sequences used to be timeless and, well, good? Now they're full of shitty CGI that will look antiquated by the time the thing is out on the video format of the day! Great! Maybe I'm just jaded because I watched these movies when I was in diapers and loved them, but even if Crystal Skull was a good movie on its own, it would still be riding on the coattails of the trilogy to make a $150m opening weekend. That, plus it isn't good.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-25-2008 11:06 PM                     I call BS on part of that. Not too long ago, Last Crusade was on TV. I saw the part where Indy and his dad got into a small plane and hit some birds and stuff. And the first thing I noticed was that the background looked completely fake... because they didn't actually fly a plane around. So were the action sequences always good or ones that were sometimes fake and now look antiquated?  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 05-25-2008 11:18 PM                     Fine, they weren't perfect, but those special effects certainly looked nicer than nasty CGI. I mean, for some special effects awesomeness, watch Die Nibelungen and check out that dragon. Does it look realistic? Hell no, it's a big puppet. That is special effects Fritz Lang-school, and it kills George Lucas all day long. But even old school George Lucas beats new school Lucas.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 05-26-2008 05:11 AM                        I have to quibble about one point with regard to the new Indiana Jones. Obviously the financial incentive is what got the movie made. But I think the reason they wanted to make the picture is because the franchise continues to be so popular and all the principles were up for another movie. Although I haven't had a chance to see the new movie yet, I think any problems in the story are a separate issue for the fact they made another movie. In fact, had the new movie been really good, everyone would have been singing the praises of Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford. And as far as special effects integration, I would challenge you to go back and take another look at the original Star Wars movies - especially Jedi. While they might have been state of the art in their day, there are many shots that are very fake looking (actors in front of green screens, actors in front of moving mattes, etc).  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-26-2008 11:34 AM                        quote: Justin Hamaker Obviously the financial incentive is what got the movie made. I hate to ruin you guys' fantasy world, but financial incentive is what gets EVERY movie made.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 05-26-2008 02:30 PM                        Mike, I would modify your statement. Financial incentive is what gets major tent pole movies made as well as most mainstream studio releases. However, I believe there are plenty of movies that are made for the sake of telling the story, rather than to make money. Unfortunately most of these movies never see wide release and are largely ignored by the general public. Of course the people who make such a movie will do everything within their power to see a return on their investment, but I do believe many smaller films are made for reasons other than just to make money.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-26-2008 03:06 PM                        Moviemaking is a business -- a for-profit business. Of course there are people who make a movie just because it's a passionate thing with them (Mel Gibson is a good example) but they can afford to do it, and they still hope and pray that the public will latch onto it and it'll become a hit. And there are always plenty of other people attached to the product hoping the same thing. Indy 4 was made because they knew it'd be a moneymaker, sure. That may have been a lot of peoples' incentive to get on board with it. But it was also the public's love of the character, and the filmmakers' conviction that they had a good story to tell, that got it made. The fact that some people would not like it was a given from the start.  |  IP: Logged Phil Blake Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 558 From: esperance western australia Registered: Nov 2003 posted 05-26-2008 10:49 PM                        OK my guestimate for the opening weekend was way out , people did flock to it in USA and here. However my attendance predictions with 10 to 24 year olds was spot on. We had reasonable crowds here but not one teen , it was people 40's plus and parents with young children (up to 8yold) that made up 99% of the audience. The teens have marked it totally uncool. I would be interested to hear how many others have experienced the same effect.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 05-26-2008 11:42 PM                        My theatre was just as busy as last memorial day, but it was mostly Indiana Jones and it covered all demographics from kids through seniors. The audience might have skewed toward 30+, but there were plenty of teens and early 20's. In fact, we did just as well with 1 print of Indy as we did with 2 prints of Pirates last Memorial day. If we had 2 prints of Indy, we probably would have done 30-40% more because we turned a lot of people away.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-27-2008 01:01 AM                        We're not playing it yet, but all the teens on my staff are excited to see it. We're getting inquiries from lots of adults of all ages as well.  |  IP: Logged Joe Tommassello Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 547 From: Coatesville, PA, USA Registered: Jan 2008 posted 05-27-2008 01:20 PM                  quote: I mean, Last Crusade came out the year I was born! Wow, 18 y/o? No wonder you know everything! Well, Galen, that explains much to me. Your off-the-cuff, pretentious film appreciation minor course Fritz Lang reference didn't impress me. Seeing Indy on the screen in a respectable film (better than Temple of Doom in my opinion) was a treat. Seeing him matured and coming full circle in certain aspects of his life is touching to some of us. He's a character I and many movie lovers "bonded" with years before you were born. We are not primarily interested in whether the CGI looked as good as some other movie...we wanted to see our old friend. I would say it's likely you may NEVER in your entire life love and respect movies the way many of us here do. When I became aware of the movies it represented an event...something special to do with your friends or family. A bonding experience in many cases. You had to go out and sit with hundreds of other people. And they didn't talk while the movie was on like they were in their own living room. They didn't have obnoxious electronics ringing and beeping and buzzing. And you couldn't hear explosions from a theater next door while the hero was kissing the girl. When YOU gained movie awareness it was a piece of plastic you could throw around your house. If you broke it you could replace it for $10. If I wanted to see "The Wizard of Oz" when I was a child I had to be sitting in front of the TV the same night once a year at 8:00 (Easter?) with my TV tuned to CBS. It was my only option. YOU could pop a VHS tape in every day if you chose. Even when I was old enough to be aware of the 16mm and 35mm collector's market such titles were near impossible to find and even if you could they were astronomically expensive. When I started collecting film I had to set up my screen and projector in a suitable place and I could invite some friends over because people actually got together to watch movies then instead of (in the words of a wise projectionist friend Bill R.) "jerking off alone in their basement". "Raiders..." came out before home video cheapened movies. I was two days back from my honeymoon when my then-wife and I saw it reviewed by Siskel and Ebert (back when they were still on PBS). We ran out to see it that afternoon. The Rosenberg family whom we hadn't seen since high school were there. They had watched Siskel and Ebert that morning too. Two days later I got my dad to go, then a few days later took a friend who couldn't drive himself because he had broken his ankle. In all I saw Raiders six times during it's initial release. I had to...I didn't know when I'd ever be able to see it again because movies weren't coming out on video like they do now - and the video formats of that day were far inferior anyway. It was 1981 and Star Wars wasn't even out on videocassette yet. As the movie (IJ4) started I thought about a friend who passed away last year. I was with him when "...Last Crusade" came out. We were in "the business" and attended the trade screening. I missed him so much on Saturday my eyes filled with tears. I'd have given nearly anything at that moment to have Clyde there with me. Maybe I am a sentimental ass, but that's the emotion a movie can bring out in me. I hope one day they will do the same for you. In the meantime you can debate which movies had sequels that were better than the originals (I think Spiderman 2 was mentioned) or if the CGI was up to par in Indiana Jones...and I'll appreciate all the old-school stunts they did live on the set and then go home and watch Godfather II. Here's a scan of what remains of something Clyde and I organized together with another friend named Dave. It cost about $2000 to produce and we made the money back and a few hundred bucks in addition...but that wasn't the point. RIP Uncle!  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 05-27-2008 02:39 PM                     I will thank you not to insult me. How could you possibly know how much I appreciate what movies? I enjoy the original Indiana Jones movies immensely, and have seen them each dozens of times. Ditto for Star Wars. The fact that I think that these decades later sequels are pieces of shit, inspired by their makers loss of any artistic vision and immense greed, both for money and additional repute, does not detract from the original films, but it does detract from their dumbass directors/producers. And, attacking me based upon my age is childish and unbefitting of the professional I assume you are. I do my damnedest to provide a fantastic viewing experience for my patrons, and while the fact that I am only 19 and relatively inexperienced in projection does detract from my actual skill, I feel it reflects all the more on my passion that I provide such excellent presentation. This is a forum for professionals, and I would very much appreciate if you would treat me like the professional I try to be. I will reciprocate, and treat you like the professional that I will assume you are despite your pigheaded attacks on my person.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-27-2008 03:00 PM                     I think he was more attacking your attitude than your age but I'm sure you won't see it that way.  |  IP: Logged

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