|
|
This topic comprises 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Are there too many "tentpoles?"
|
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 07-23-2013 01:03 PM
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
Well, you sure are wrong Bob. Comparing an Avatar sequel to Ghostbusters 2, Robocop 2 and Speed 2 is a bit silly.
News flash, Terry: Avatar 2 has not been released yet. Declaring it as a sure fire hit years before anyone sees it is crazy. Do you enjoy gambling?
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
I guess you never saw the sequel to Alien or the sequel to Terminator, both are James Cameron films in case you were not sure, both were successful and both were good, but perhaps they were not your thing.
I'll return that ignorant assumption by saying you never met a sequel you didn't like. Are you on pins and needles, hoping and praying for the release of Ishtar 2?
No director alive is immune from a success streak coming to an end. Not even James Cameron is immune to it. Even though Avatar made a lot of money, there are quite a few people out there that hated it. Let's also remember The Abyss didn't do very well in it original theatrical release.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
Bobby, the "film look" is done. End of story.
BULLSHIT. If the "film look" was done every single movie shot with a video camera would keep the video looking like video, with its soap opera, 6 o'clock news wide RGB gamma "warts and all" present for everyone to see. No one would be pulling all the color grading tricks in post production to try to make video look like film. The only "end of story" moment that's going to occur is when they finally succeed with the technology in the cameras and post production tools.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
Part 2 apparently is going to be motion capture under water. I am excited to see this.
WTF? I'm talking about the story line for Avatar 2, not the cake-icing technology to render giant blue kitteh beings.
quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
The Silence of the Lambs was a bad example.
You say that's a bad example of unconventional release timing (outside of the normal convention of cramming as many would-be hits into the May-July period). Please PROVE why The Silence of the Lambs is a bad example of this with specifics. Merely calling it a "bad example" isn't really saying anything.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 07-23-2013 03:46 PM
Avatar did "pretty well" on video, at least in the US, Canada and the UK:
Avatar set a first-day launch record in the U.S. for Blu-ray sales at 1.5 million units sold, breaking the record previously held by The Dark Knight (600,000 units sold). First-day DVD and Blu-ray sales combined were over 4 million units sold. In its first four days of release, sales of Avatar on Blu-ray reached 2.7 million in the United States and Canada – overtaking The Dark Knight to become the best ever selling Blu-ray release in the region. The release later broke the Blu-ray sales record in the UK the following week. In its first three weeks of release, the film sold a total of 19.7 million DVD and Blu-ray discs combined, a new record for sales in that period. As of July 18, 2012, DVD sales (not including Blu-ray) totaled over 10.5 million units sold with $190,806,055 million in revenue.
Source: Wikipedia
And I'm sure that the opening of Avatar 2 will be huge, since there are obviously quite some fans of the "franchise". But if it will ever reach the level of the first movie has to be seen.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008
|
posted 07-23-2013 05:21 PM
The problem with this entire discussion, in my not so humble opinion, is what defines a "tentpole" and what defines a "blockbuster?"
Pacific Rim is a "bomb" because it "only" opened to $37m. Yet if this had opened in January and done the exact same business, it'd be the second biggest January opening ever.
There really are only four weeks which are box office poison: the weekend before Labor Day, Labor Day weekend, the weekend after Labor Day, and the first weekend in December. The other 48 weekends have shown one can open a big movie, or two, or three, and see audiences go out to the movies. But they have to be movies they want to see. It doesn't matter how good of a movie Pacific Rim is, and it's a pretty good movie, but if the masses do not want to see a movie about giant robots fighting giant monsters, they just are not going to see it. The only reason my wife and I went to see Pacific Rim is because of three actors in the film: Ron Perlman, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman. But we're strange people, who'd see a Kaiju movie because of supporting actors rather than the director or the premise.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 07-23-2013 05:52 PM
quote: Edward Havens
The problem with this entire discussion, in my not so humble opinion, is what defines a "tentpole" and what defines a "blockbuster?"
In this discussion, I think there is very little difference... A tent pole is nothing more than a production that's been planned to be a blockbuster and hence receives "adequate" upfront funding for both production and marketing.
quote: Edward Havens
Pacific Rim is a "bomb" because it "only" opened to $37m. Yet if this had opened in January and done the exact same business, it'd be the second biggest January opening ever.
Obviously it depends on the price that has been paid to make that movie. With a price tag of an estimated $180M excluding marketing costs and the steep competition of other movies in the same league, it will be hard to break even for this movie. Especially because this movie is expected to recoup most of its initial investments in the first weeks, because of the limited theatrical run-time. Hence, this movie has already been declared a bomb and it probably will be.
quote: Manny Knowles
Slippery slopes and lots of bending over. And no end in sight.
At least we've got the Internet now to complain about it, that will probably solve everything, right? ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
| IP: Logged
|
|
Terry Lynn-Stevens
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1081
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2012
|
posted 07-23-2013 08:41 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson was the last to post
a bad example
Bobby, it is a bad example, period. What you conveniently fail to mention is that between the years 1982 and 2002, only five movies had grossed close to what Silence of the Lambs grossed when they were released in the first 12 months of the year, those five surpassed the $100 million mark. It was a fluke what Silence of the Lambs did in 1991. And Silence of the Lambs is not a fucking tentpole movie, so why did you bring it up?
Only in the last ten years have the studios a bit better, but for the most part, $200-$300 grosses are generally unheard of in the Jan-Feb months. $200-$300 are also rare in the month of March.
quote: Marcel Birgelen
Obviously it depends on the price that has been paid to make that movie. With a price tag of an estimated $180M excluding marketing costs and the steep competition of other movies in the same league, it will be hard to break even for this movie
Pacific Rim has now grossed back its production budget. It should break even or at least make some profit.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic