2010 at the Box Office - Page 35

Looks like Tron Legacy came in a bit above expectations with a $43.6 million opening weekend. A staggering 23 percent of the gross came from the film's 234 IMAX 3D theaters.

Do the studios factor in the recent abominable winter weather's effects on the box office?

I'm glad to see the day-to-day holding of Voyage of the Dawn Treader during the winter break. Seems like a lot of its audience was waiting until school was out and families were together. I'm hoping the total world wide box office makes it to $350-375 mil, which coupled with home video sales should be enough to greenlight The Silver Chair, though likely at a smaller budget ($75-90 mil.). Right now it's at $260 mil. worldwide.

By compariosn, Prince Caspian cost $225 million (with a much larger ad budget I suspect) and made just $420 worldwide with good home video sales and we got Voyage. Voyage cost $155 with a decent but not outlandish ad budget so I would think my $350-375 number should be correct.

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Originally Posted by Brandon Conway 

I'm hoping the total world wide box office makes it to $350-375 mil, which coupled with home video sales should be enough to greenlight The Silver Chair, though likely at a smaller budget ($75-90 mil.). Right now it's at $260 mil. worldwide.

 

Is it even possible these days to make an FX-heavy fantasy film for less than $150 million? Isn't the budget for the two "Hobbit" films over $600 million?

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Originally Posted by TerryRL 

The early year-end numbers are not encouraging as it looks as though the month of December only managed about $650 million at the box office, marking the lowest number the frame has seen since 1999.  With only about 81 million admissions sold in the month (by comparison last December tallied 142 million ticket sales), this will easily go down as the worst attended December in movie theaters since the mid-1990s.  Overall, 2010 pulled in $10.3 billion domestically, the second biggest in history behind last year's $10.6 billion mark, but given that ticket sales are at the highest they've ever been 2010's 1.3 billion worth of admission sales ranks as the lowest the industry has had since 1995. 

 

The suits at the studios are hoping (praying actually) that 2011 turns things around.

Perhaps the suits should give us better films then.

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Originally Posted by Robert Crawford 

Perhaps the suits should give us better films then.

Yeah, considering that the two biggest hits of the month are pretty bad movies (Tron and Little Fockers), they ought to be happy that they managed to make as much as they did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TerryRL 

The early year-end numbers are not encouraging as it looks as though the month of December only managed about $650 million at the box office, marking the lowest number the frame has seen since 1999.  With only about 81 million admissions sold in the month (by comparison last December tallied 142 million ticket sales), this will easily go down as the worst attended December in movie theaters since the mid-1990s.  Overall, 2010 pulled in $10.3 billion domestically, the second biggest in history behind last year's $10.6 billion mark, but given that ticket sales are at the highest they've ever been 2010's 1.3 billion worth of admission sales ranks as the lowest the industry has had since 1995. 

 

The suits at the studios are hoping (praying actually) that 2011 turns things around.

Perhaps the suits should give us better films then.

Yeah, I don't understand the thinking in Hollywood executive suites. If you put out garbage films, you'll get garbage grosses. Amazing how they never seem to make the connection that it's their poor product that results in the poor box office.

It's also depressing to look at the release schedule Terry posted in the 2011 BO thread. I'd expect next year to be even worse. Expectations cannot be that high if "Smurfs" and "Piranha 3DD" are expected to be the top grossing films of their respective months.

People have always enjoyed garbage films.  I think the biggest problem is that they spend $120 million on something like HOW DO YOU KNOW.  Even if it had turned out to be a minor hit it still would have lost a lot of money.  Now I guess the film is going to lose over $100 million and I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this.  Brooks has never really had a "hit" so why on Earth did a studio greenlight $120+ million?  Even the WALL STREET sequel had a crazy budget.  If it takes $100+ million for these type of movies then I'd be worried too.

^ For what it's worth, I did think that Tron Legacy had some of, if not, the best use of 3-D that I've seen. The virtual world in the movie really lent itself to some really nice immersive (and not goofy) 3-D effects.

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Originally Posted by Edwin-S 

Everyone has their own definition of what makes up a "garbage" film. TravisR thinks TRON: Legacy was a bad film and I thought it delivered exactly what I was expecting: an FX heavy film. I certainly didn't go to TRON with the expectation that the film was going to have some kind of award winning writing. The original film didn't exactly achieve any accolades for the writing either.

That's the problem, the original film I never liked so why would I spend my hard earned money to see a sequel?

"Perhaps the suits should give us better films then."

"Yeah, I don't understand the thinking in Hollywood executive suites. If you put out garbage films, you'll get garbage grosses."

Are you guys assuming that the suits know what will click with audiences?  You're forgetting the cardinal rule:  No one knows anything -- and that includes the wanks in the seats.  All they can do is look at what's been successful recently and try to ride the wave.  More often than not, doing something original and daring is an invitation to get kicked in the teeth.  What do you expect from a market that's mostly kids?

"That's the problem, the original film I never liked so why would I spend my hard earned money to see a sequel?"

That's much more wise than the people who went expecting everything they disliked about the original would suddenly be gone and replaced with new stuff that they would like...

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Originally Posted by Robert Crawford 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwin-S 

Everyone has their own definition of what makes up a "garbage" film. TravisR thinks TRON: Legacy was a bad film and I thought it delivered exactly what I was expecting: an FX heavy film. I certainly didn't go to TRON with the expectation that the film was going to have some kind of award winning writing. The original film didn't exactly achieve any accolades for the writing either.

That's the problem, the original film I never liked so why would I spend my hard earned money to see a sequel?

I never suggested that anyone who disliked the first one should spend their money on the sequel if they didn' t want to. All I suggested was that the term "garbage film" is relative. The first one didn't light any fires with me, but I didn't hate it either. The second one pretty well met my expectations; therefore, I personally don't consider it "garbage". I certainly liked it better than....say.....Iron Man 2, which I think was pretty well garbage. However, in my case, my disliking IM2 would not cause me to automatically write off seeing IM3, because there is always the possibility that a change in the production team could result in a better movie.

Terry, have they figured out that ticket sales are down because the 3D price premium made for enormous ticket price inflation in a single year for various blockbusters?

it's amazing how 2010 developed, Avatar created enormous good will for 3D it was all anyone could talk about.  Then Alice in Wonderland came out and killed all the interest, more or less.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TerryRL 

The early year-end numbers are not encouraging as it looks as though the month of December only managed about $650 million at the box office, marking the lowest number the frame has seen since 1999.  With only about 81 million admissions sold in the month (by comparison last December tallied 142 million ticket sales), this will easily go down as the worst attended December in movie theaters since the mid-1990s.  Overall, 2010 pulled in $10.3 billion domestically, the second biggest in history behind last year's $10.6 billion mark, but given that ticket sales are at the highest they've ever been 2010's 1.3 billion worth of admission sales ranks as the lowest the industry has had since 1995. 

 

The suits at the studios are hoping (praying actually) that 2011 turns things around.