This is topic Highest grossing picture of the summer? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 06-14-2000, 12:52 PM:
Anyone have any guesses or bets as to what the highest grossing movie of the summer is going to be? It appears that there are several promising pictures comming out this summer... It would be interresting to see who can guess what it will be...
Posted by Tyler Skinner (Member # 229) on 06-14-2000, 01:56 PM:
Chicken Run.
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 06-14-2000, 03:03 PM:
My Top Five: "X-Men"
"Nutty II"
"Chicken Run"
"The Patriot"
"Mission Impossible II"
Honorable Mentions:
"Me, Myself & Irene
"Big Momma's House"
"Shaft"
This Summer's Biggest Sleeper:
"Titan A.E."
Keep It In The Can . . . Forever:
"Hollow Man"
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-14-2000, 03:28 PM:
Whatever it is, I'm sure I won't like it. The biggest moneymakers are always crappy films.I'm really looking forward to Chicken Run though. If it's anything of the caliber of the Aardman animated "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, it'll be great!
Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 06-14-2000, 04:34 PM:
I have to agree with Brad somewhat, the manufactured "money makers" are far to often very bland, and predictable. But sometimes there is a shocker or 2. I also have to agree with "Chicken Run" it looks great.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-14-2000, 05:58 PM:
I think "Perfect Storm" will beat Nutty 2 (which looks like a waste of film to me...getting pretty sick of toilet/gross-out type humor), Chicken Run and X-Men. At least I hope it will, 'cause we have it booked! 
Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 06-14-2000, 07:10 PM:
In a perfect world, it would be John Waters' Cecil B. DeMented, but I think we're going to have to settle for X-Men, The Kid, and Space Cowboys as the top three. I have a funny feeling that The Patriot is going to tank big time. Why? 1. Rated R 2. Two hour forty minute running time 3. Does the target audience for summer movies really want a history lesson?
I am also a big Wallace and Gromitt fan and looking forward to Chicken Run. This could be big, but is the G a kiss of death for a non-Disney, non-Nickelodeon film? Rocky and Bullwinkle could be great fun if done in the Jay Ward spirit.
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 06-14-2000, 09:31 PM:
Tom,I disagree with your thoughts about "The Patriot". True, most Americans don't want a history lesson at the movies, but look at the success of "Titanic", "Gladiator", and dare I say . . . "Braveheart". Crowds flocked to see these movies because of two things: star-power and special effects - not history. "The Patriot" will deliver, I'm sure. Anyway, my predicted gross for "The Patriot" is $110 million (give or take a million or so).
Aaron
Posted by Russ Kress (Member # 461) on 06-14-2000, 10:58 PM:
Well, it sure won't be "Timecode".When the newspapers checked on upcoming releases that week, they absolutely raved and praised us for bringing it in! They said that art film fans would flock to the theatre.
They were right. At last count, all EIGHT of them had showed up over the course of the weekend.
One guy actually complained that we were showing it in a 90 seat house.
"Well sir, I am sorry that you do not like your seat. Might I suggest any of the 89 REMAINING ones?"
Does anyone else catch flack from the media for not showing independant films?
I like them, but that only means that there were seven paying customers.
Russ
Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 06-15-2000, 12:29 AM:
With all the crap coming out, I'm gonna have to say X-Men will be the highest grossing film this summer. And if it's good, it'll gross over 200 million easily. ------------------
The man with the magic hands.
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 06-15-2000, 01:03 AM:
X-Men will be 'the' movie of the summer. The Kid is going to tank just like Bicentinial Man did.
Posted by Martin Frandsen (Member # 74) on 06-15-2000, 04:21 PM:
''Gladiator'' is big time overhere right now, and everybody is talking about ''MI2'' which will be released July 6/7.I think ''MI2'' will win because it's a Tom Cruise film. 
------------------
It's the new small talk. You do it so awfully well! - My Fair Lady
Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 06-16-2000, 12:06 AM:
Aaron,
$110 million probably won't even cover the production and distribution costs for The Patriot. I stand by my original hunch-I don't see it doing much at all. I hope I'm wrong, but I really think the 4th of July weekend will be ruled by Irene, Chicken Run, Perfect Storm, and Bullwinkle. I do think the summer on whole is rather lackluster. Aside from Space Cowboys, August looks horrible. The Cell looks like a strange, strange film. The trailer frightens me-to think that this is New Line's only summer picture.
I still want to see Cecil B. DeMented-looks like a riot-did anyone see John Waters' promotional suggestions in Boxoffice? Hilarious!
Posted by Richard Quesnelle (Member # 391) on 06-17-2000, 04:53 PM:
I agree with most of you that X-men will be the biggest movie now since MI-2 sucked big time. Perfect Storm and Irene will do very well also. What a junky summer for movies.
The best are yet to come (O' Brother How Art Thou.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-20-2000, 06:52 AM:
I like Mission Impossible but I'm afraid it won't have the legs. Chicken Run looks fun. The one that I think will do well is Me, Myself & I.As far as independant films, we get a lot of crap from the newspaper for not playing enough of them. People just don't understand that there are about 9,000,000 people who complain that we don't get them but there are only 9 people who actually show.
At Mercyhurst, we average 200 people for just about any movie. End of the Affair and Topsy Turvy did really well. Princess Mononoke did well with the anime' crowd. These are all one-off shows, too! If the pattern keeps up, the bosses here are thinking of having movies on two nights. We are worried that doing that will "dilute" the audience. (Same number of tix spread over two nights.)
I guess it all comes down to reputaion and atmosphere... TT-17 doesn't get a big response to those movies 'cuz people don't think of the place as a place to watch that kind of movie. M.H. College get's a better response because it's more of an "academic" atmosphere where people can gather after the movie and talk about it.
It's not about presentation quality because the picture at M.H. College is just a hair bit better than TT-17. The auditorium is bigger than TT-17's "big house" and the decor is a lot classier. The only thing that the college doesn't have is digital sound. That's okay because people don't come to watch those movies because of DTS. 1/2 of the prints don't even have digital.