Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How well is "The Village" doing?

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Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 07-31-2004, 01:57 AM:

How well is "The Village" doing at your theater?
The midnight showings of it last night turned out very well. We were #1 in the nation at AMC Mesa Grand 24. And we've been selling out pretty much all night.

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 07-31-2004, 02:07 AM:

We sold out the 7:00 show in our largest auditorium at our five-plex.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 07-31-2004, 07:54 AM:

Oh it is selling out...

But people are coming out yelling at us - saying they feel they were suckered out of their $8.75 - and wanting their money back.

I then direct them to Touchstone Picture's website.

**EDITED FOR CORRECT FILM COMPANY

[Big Grin]

[ 07-31-2004, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: Dennis Benjamin ]

Posted by James B. Openshaw (Member # 1310) on 07-31-2004, 08:00 AM:

It's sort of humorous to see the Buena Vista (Disney) films aren't doing that great (few winners, more losers), this looks bad for Eisner. [Big Grin]

[ 07-31-2004, 04:07 PM: Message edited by: James B. Openshaw ]

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 07-31-2004, 09:40 AM:

It is definately a Disney film under the Touchstone badge. (Did the Cast and Crew screenings just outside of Philly earlier this week and Disney was the studio present).

Steve

Posted by Matthew Nock (Member # 1575) on 07-31-2004, 10:18 AM:

quote: James B. Openshaw
It's sort of humorous to see the Buena Vista (Disney) films aren't doing that great (few winners, more losers), this looks bad for Eisner.

You know, I was thinking exactly the same thing. I received my "You got your figures" call last night from ACNeisen/EDI and they didnt want King Arthur figures anymore! I mean, its only been open here for two weeks. BVI must know some of their stuff is not as strong as it should be.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 07-31-2004, 11:13 AM:

One of the local alternative newspapers here issued its "turkey alert" for The Village on Thursday. This is standard policy here whenever no local press screening is scheduled for a picture, the assumption being that the studio knows they have a loser on their hands and want to minimize bad word of mouth on opening day.

I did a screen check for The Village yesterday. Sat through it three times. Noticed most customers were very unsatisfied or disappointed with it. It's not that the film is that bad, but it's not what people are expecting either, especially after seeing the trailers. People go in expecting a horror flic and get something else (I'm not quite sure how I'd characterise it) instead. They feel cheated.

[rant]
Congratulations go out to the Century Suncoast 16 for the 6:15 screening in auditorium #8 (at 465 seats, one of their two big houses) for running the entire presentation out-of-frame. And I mean way out--heads, faces, and cue marks half cut off at the top. Way to go Century! You guys should stick to running only 'scope pictures as proper presentation of open matte 1.85 seems to be beyond you.
[/rant]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-31-2004, 01:43 PM:

I.M.E. said "The Village" has a crappy ending.

I didn't like the ending of "Signs" either.

Looks like Night Shyamalan had one killer idea.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 07-31-2004, 02:50 PM:

quote:
People go in expecting a horror flic and get something else (I'm not quite sure how I'd characterize it)

I know that Brad will be unhappy that I am going into 'p' word territory, but basically the film is a political allegory. I trust that y'all got that the town elder who runs things, the guy named "Walker", is the metaphorical stand-in for none other than El Presidente, George Walker Bush, who likes to . . . well . . . ummmm . . . er. . . scare people with something that's not really there after all so that they will stay scared and not get out of line. Well, that's what I got out of it, at least. I could be wrong.

I liked it, but then I knew that I would when the film critic at the New York Post blasted it for its "liberal message". Or shouldn't I go there?

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 07-31-2004, 06:18 PM:

I dont know how one can say it has a crappy ending. If you had a problem with it, it would be much earlier in the movie when the secret was strongly hinted at. I thought the movie worked as something about extremists of all types - religious fundies, hippies- anyone who try to form their own society to protect their kids from themselves and the big bad world. The twist wasn't the point of the movie. I dont think it was overtly about political tactics of using fear like our goverment does to keep in control because these village elders honestly had no selfish agenda.Their agenda was foolish and naive. If there are some parts that remind you of the government, it is because goverment(especially this one) sometimes uses the same tactics as religion.

As far as the Regal Perimeter POinte in atlanta, they didn't come close to selling out the 4pm show which was a surprise. Signs was much more packed in the same theater. However, the reaction of the audience wasn't as negative as the other reports for this movie.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-31-2004, 10:44 PM:

I had to sit through this crap three times as well. Twice out of focus, no less.

For those of you complaining about the ending... THERE WAS NO ENDING! We learned in the middle of the movie (Reel 4 I think) that there was going to be no ending.

I will never forget this young black woman who was sitting next to me when the credits started. She got up and yelled, "Aww, HELL NAH!! Fuck dis movie! M. Night Sham-al-a-man, you ruined my day!!" at the screen. [Big Grin]

My guess: First weekend #1, then a steep D - R - O - P!

=TMP=

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 07-31-2004, 11:02 PM:

Umm ... the AMC Mesa Grand 24 was the #12 engagement in the nation.

#1 was Loews E-Walk 13 in NYC with a $55,000+ gross

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 08-01-2004, 04:12 PM:

Sorry, I meant for the AMC theatres. My bad [Frown]

. If I'm wrong on that one too my DM told the whole staff wrong.

Posted by Stephen Jones 1 (Member # 114) on 08-01-2004, 05:36 PM:

Where do you get these theatre grosses?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-02-2004, 12:12 AM:

Pravin - IME didn't say "crappy ending" in so many words. What they said was: "The movie's long buildup of suspense and character development lead to a tame conclusion."

In plain English, that says crappy ending to me, hence my (possibly unfortunate) choice of words.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 08-02-2004, 12:25 AM:

Top AMC Grosses - Friday - Village
AMC Neshaminy 24 - Bensalem, PA (#2) - $52,976
AMC Gulf Pointe 30 - Houston, TX (#5) - $43,388
AMC Burbank 30 - Burbank, CA (#6) - $42,939
AMC Mercado 20 - Santa Clara, CA (#7) - $38,528
AMC Block 30 - Orange, CA (#9) - $38,206
AMC Willowbrook 24 - Houston, TX (#10) - $37,358
AMC Barrington 30 - Barrington, IL (#11) - $37,070
AMC Mesa Grande 24 - Mesa, AZ (#12) - $36,204

However, you were the top gross in the Phoenix, AZ DMA. Maybe that's what he meant.

Grosses from Rentrak.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 08-02-2004, 12:41 AM:

Are those the midnight showing results? Meaning Thursday night going into Friday. I'm pretty sure he said (nation). We were having a meeting of about 13 people in a small room. And he announced it making it very clear.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-02-2004, 03:35 AM:

With its opening Saturday gross being lower than its opening Friday gross I think we can expect a major fall-off in business for this one. I haven't seen it yet myself so can't comment on quality but its certainly not looking to be a blockbuster.

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 08-02-2004, 09:40 AM:

being a small theater in a small town, we usually do not sell out. But we have been doing quite well, for a crapy movie, I think next week it will die down becuae the people that have not seen well know not to waste there time or money

Posted by Jason Miller (Member # 2341) on 08-02-2004, 01:08 PM:

wow... some guy stole my name...

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-02-2004, 01:53 PM:

I shagree...The big unfold of the secret came too soon. The biggest problem was the lack of substance after the middle of the movie and the fact that everyone going in expects to see a scary movie and there's only a couple suspenseful scenes.
What's up with that?

Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 08-02-2004, 01:54 PM:

...and your Photo as well [Big Grin]

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 08-02-2004, 06:51 PM:

You may very well be right. Midnight showings are reported as part of Friday's grosses. I can not separate using my source. I'm sure your DM has the information available. Sorry I didn't understand what you were saying.