2011 at the Box Office (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Jose Martinez


The only true 3D films I know of so far have been Avatar, Residential Evil Afterlife, Saw 3D, and of course most CGI toons. Of the live action ones, only Avatar seems to have succeeded.

Drive Angry was also true 3D, but bombed.

 

[cafink]

So was Tron: Legacy, wasn't it? It had a lot of CGI and some 2D sequences, but I believe the live-action 3D parts were "true" 3D.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yes, Tron Legacy was shot in 3D:


http://3dradar.techradar.com/3d-tech/3d-world-tron-legacy-17-12-2010

 

[TerryRL]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/pirates-of-caribbean-4-opens-huge-abroad/


[COLOR= #ff0000]Arrr, mateys, now I know why these marauders of the seas are always cranky. Because in North America t[/COLOR][COLOR= #000000]oday[/COLOR], Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is looking to open with only $36 million from 4,155 theaters. And that's helped by $4.7M in midnight screenings and higher 3D ticket prices from 2,747 3D locations including 256 IMAX (an IMAX domestic record). A Disney exec tells me IMAX grosses are "very solid" for the film. Even so, that probably translates into less than the $100M weekend which Disney was expecting. Although the 2011 Summer Movie Season has seen higher-than-expected Saturday attendance by family audiences. Right now, Pirates 4 is trailing Pirates 3, but that was to be expected in the U.S. and Canada given that reviews so far have been mediocre coming on the heels of fan disappointment with the franchise's 2007 threequel. However, CinemaScore was a B+. Meanwhile, Universal's Bridesmaids is having an exceptional hold at the start of its 2nd weekend. Here's the Top Five (numbers refined in the morning):


1. Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 3D (Disney) NEW [4,155 Theaters]
Friday $36M, Estimated Weekend $96M


2. Bridesmaids (Universal) Week 2 [2,937 Theaters]
Friday $6M (-24%), Estimated Weekend $22M


3. Thor 3D (Marvel/Disney/Paramount) Week 3 [3,924 Theaters]
Friday $4.5M, Estimated Weekend $15.5M


4. Fast Five (Universal) Week 4 [3,622 Theaters]
Friday $3M, Estimated Weekend $12M


5. Priest (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,864 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M (-75%), Estimated Weekend $4.5M

--Nikki Finke


To no one's surprise, Pirates 4 will earn the biggest opening of the year this weekend pulling in between $95-$105 million (depending on how strong business is on Saturday). Overseas, the movie is expected to pull in $44 million, giving it a global bebut in the neighborhood of $140-$150 million. The movie's budget is said to be in the area of $150 million-$200 million (down from the $300 million-plus price tag of the last film, At World's End). Star Johnny Depp is rumored to have pocketed a record-shattering $55.5 million to return to the role of Capt. Jack Sparrow, breaking his own salary record of $50 million for "Alice in Wonderland". Disney will cop to "only" paying Depp $35 mil to return, though I am leaning toward them forking over the near $60 million salary, which is also said to include an option for future films (well duh).

While Pirates 4 may not end up being as big a domestic hit as the previous three films (all of which topped out with more than $300 million domestically). Look for it to do huge business overseas. Pirates 4 will propel the series into rare air, making it only the fourth film franchise to top the $3 billion plateau in worldwide box office earnings, joining Harry Potter (a staggering $6.4 billion), James Bond ($4.9 billion), and Star Wars ($4.3 billion). Harry Potter will no doubt top the $7 billion mark after this summer's release of The Deathly Hallows- Part 2.


Next year will see four more franchises join this exclusive list, The Lord of the Rings (currently $2.9 billion), Batman (currently $2.6 billion), Spider-Man (currently $2.5 billion), and Twilight (currently $1.8 billion).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The actual numbers were closer to $90 million, but I'm frankly shocked it did that well. No one I knew wanted to see it, having been burned by the third installment, and when I was at the theater Friday, there was no lines whatsoever for the fourth Pirates. Even Thor had multiple lines, and it didn't have an opening weekend anywhere near that big.

 

[TerryRL]

The $90.1 million was lower-than-expected, also the fact that 3D prices still couldn't put the movie over a $100 million debut weekend haul is a bit troubling. Still, Disney has to be happy that the movie has already earned a global haul of $346.4, marking the biggest five-day overseas opening haul in history. Pirates 4 also earned the biggest opening of the year thus far. Depending on where the movie goes from here, I don't expect Disney to green-light another sequel unless this one tops out with more than $250 million domestically, especially considering the movie is said to have cost the studio $420 million produce ($250 mil) and market ($170 mil). Disney will still see a pretty decent profit given that the movie's overseas debut was so large. The studio is likely looking a final worldwide tally well north of $700 million.


While the numbers do indicate that there is still some life in the franchise, there was no overwhelming interest in continuing the series after At World's End closed out (we thought) the trilogy back in '07. Disney should take the "quit while we're ahead" option, but if they do opt to make another one, at least have a (much) stronger script to work with. While the three sequels boasted more eye-candy, I still think the first one easily remains the best one. That's just my opinion.

 

[Pete-D]

I dunno it seems to me like the domestic take for this one will just be the icing on the cake, while the international box office is going to be what Disney really makes hay from.

They probably will try to do one more as the global audience spoke pretty loudly this weekend even if the opening wasn't as big in the US.

I think they would be well advised to get a better script for the next one though. The marketing, even though the budget was huge, seemed smaller than previous PotC films but maybe that's just me.

 

[TerryRL]

It was smaller, rumor has it that Disney spent well over $500 million to produce ($300 million) and market ($200 million-plus) just At World's End. Overall, the studio spent more than $1 billion on making and producing the first three movies. Money well spent considering the three movies pocketed over $2.7 billion worldwide at the box office. There's also the millions the movie brought in from home video and other merchandising sales.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by TerryRL

It was smaller, rumor has it that Disney spent well over $500 million to produce ($300 million) and market ($200 million-plus) just At World's End. Overall, the studio spent more than $1 billion on making and producing the first three movies. Money well spent considering the three movies pocketed over $2.7 billion worldwide at the box office. There's also the millions the movie brought in from home video and other merchandising sales.

It's too bad the last three weren't better films, but I blame the general public for buying those movie tickets and encouraging Disney to keep producing such mediocre films.








Crawdaddy

 

[TerryRL]

Crawdaddy, you can say that about a lot of would-be blockbusters. Of the original three Pirates flicks, I've always been of the opinion that Dead Man's Chest was the weakest one of the lot, but it turned out to be easily the biggest hit, pulling in over $1 billion worldwide.

Marrying the words masterpiece or great with a summer blockbuster is often rare. There are currently 27 film franchises that have topped the billion-dollar mark in worldwide box office earnings, how many "great" movies are amongst them?


-Batman

-The Chronicles of Narnia

-Die Hard

[SIZE= 12px]-The Fast & the Furious[/SIZE]

-Harry Potter

-Ice Age

-Indiana Jones

-Iron Man

-James Bond

-Jurassic Park

-The Lord of the Rings

-Madagascar

-The Matrix

-Mission: Impossible

-The Mummy

-Ocean’s

-Pirates of the Caribbean

-Robert Langdon Series

-Shrek

-Spider-Man

-Star Trek

-Star Wars

-Terminator

-Toy Story

-Transformers

-Twilight

-X-Men


Granted, during the late '70s through the early '90s there were some truly great work being released for summer patrons, but the last 15 years have seen the pickings become slimmer and slimmer. Now it's more about getting more bang for your buck in terms of CGI FX. Just an observation.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Terry,


Some of those examples had good films in those franchises besides the franchise starter while I found the Pirates of the Caribbean films mediocre at best, notwithstanding the first one. Actually, I found the third one horrible while the second one mediocre and I refuse to waste anymore money seeing the fourth one.

 

[TerryRL]

I think the Pirates movies benefited from the massive popularity of Jack Sparrow. I agree that the all the movies are mediocre (the first being the best). The Fast & the Furious series has always been a head-scratcher for me in terms of its popularity. The shocker with that franchise is that the last two films have been the biggest hits (films 4 and 5). "Fast Five" is already the biggest hit of the series and has tallied more than $500 million worldwide thus far, "Fast & Furious" (film 4), which had been the biggest hit, topped out at just over $363 million globally.


Of the 27 franchises I listed, I can name only 7 that yielded more than one truly great movie (IMO), while the rest ranged from decent, mediocre, or god-awful.


Batman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, James Bond, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Again, just my opinion.

 

[TravisR]

The Fast & the Furious series has always been a head-scratcher for me in terms of its popularity. The shocker with that franchise is that the last two films have been the biggest hits (films 4 and 5)

I saw the first two FF movies and thought they were the epitome of what was wrong with modern action movies. However, seeing the trailer for the fifth one where they tore a bank vault out of a building with cars and then were driving down the street with it, I was almost interested in seeing it.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by TerryRL


-Batman

-The Chronicles of Narnia

-Die Hard

[SIZE= 12px]-The Fast & the Furious[/SIZE]

-Harry Potter

-Ice Age

-Indiana Jones

-Iron Man

-James Bond

-Jurassic Park

-The Lord of the Rings

-Madagascar

-The Matrix

-Mission: Impossible

-The Mummy

-Ocean’s

-Pirates of the Caribbean

-Robert Langdon Series

-Shrek

-Spider-Man

-Star Trek

-Star Wars

-Terminator

-Toy Story

-Transformers

-Twilight

-X-Men

Series (to me) with (more then 1!) honest to goodness home-runs in that list:


Batman, Harry Potter, Toy Story, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Terminator.


But most have a few clunkers.. really, if I was to say: give me a series that is complete in it's accomplishment, where every film is a solid "A" or better, it narrows it down to Toy Story.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by TerryRL

I think the Pirates movies benefited from the massive popularity of Jack Sparrow. I agree that the all the movies are mediocre (the first being the best). The Fast & the Furious series has always been a head-scratcher for me in terms of its popularity. The shocker with that franchise is that the last two films have been the biggest hits (films 4 and 5). "Fast Five" is already the biggest hit of the series and has tallied more than $500 million worldwide thus far, "Fast & Furious" (film 4), which had been the biggest hit, topped out at just over $363 million globally.


Of the 27 franchises I listed, I can name only 7 that yielded more than one truly great movie (IMO), while the rest ranged from decent, mediocre, or god-awful.


Batman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, James Bond, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Again, just my opinion.

I said good, not great when it comes to some of these franchise films as I think the use of "great" is overstated in describing many films.








Crawdaddy

 

[TerryRL]

Point taken. I also agree that great is extremely overused in terms of describing a lot of movies.


A buddy told me once that in today's Hollywood making a good big studio movie is tough, but making something truly great is a damn near miracle. In his opinion, studio execs (even the good ones) tend to "tinker to death".

 

[Michael Elliott]

I'm not really one who goes to the movies to catch "Summer Blockbusters" but I decided to check them out this year. Before doing that I had to catch up with the previous films so I started with the original three PIRATES movies. Well, I made it through the first two and I must say that I'm shocked these movies were hits at all. They're way too long IMO and I'm really nervous about starting the third one later tonight because if I couldn't take the length of the first two then a 3-hour slot probably isn't going to go well and especially after hearing even "fans" hate the third one. Even though I sat out to watch part 4 this week, that has been put on hold because there's no way I'm going to drop $10 for one of these movies.

Stretching a 70-minute "B" movie to nearly three hours is just crazy to me but I'm sure most think I'm crazy for watching films from the 1890s.


It's good to see Woody Allen's latest doing so well though.

 

[TravisR]

^ For what it's worth, the newest Pirates movie doesn't feel half as long as the other two sequels. Plus, the plot makes sense. It isn't the best movie but Johnny Depp and Ian McShane have fun with their roles so I enjoyed it.

 

[Malcolm R]

Originally Posted by TerryRL

Still, Disney has to be happy that the movie has already earned a global haul of $346.4, marking the biggest five-day overseas opening haul in history.

I thought it was the third-best, behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($381.6 million). Or were those not 5-day grosses?

 

[TerryRL]

Those numbers for Harry Potter and Spidey 3 were three-day grosses.