E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (1 Viewer)

[Edwin Pereyra]

Okay, guys. The upcoming DVD and the revisions have been discussed to death at the software section for months now. Let's not rehash it here again. This thread is not about that.

~Edwin

 

[Seth Paxton]

Hmmm, tricky one to call.
I'll come in with a $45m guess. It should do rather well at least for a few weeks. Good one for parents to take kids to. Look at runs for films like Snow Dogs and Neverland and tell me that families won't come out for E.T.
If you build it (for kids), they will come.

 

[Terrell]

I'll predict 95 million.

 

[Steve Christou]

My guesstimate is that ET will open BIG, about $45m+, and it should pass $100m in its first couple of weeks, don't forget this movie was the most popular movie in the world for 11 years, until Spielberg broke his own record with Jurassic Park (worldwide unadjusted grosses). I'm not a huge fan of the film and won't be going to see it, ET never looked remotely real to me, but it's still a much loved movie, I think it will do very well in its modified reissue.
ps. If it opens small, this post will self-destruct.

 

[Shad R]

WHY didn't Speilburg want to release it on video????is there any reason he did this?

 

[Gruson]

I really hope it does good.

However, I wish they had just cleaned up the print and sound.

Why does every classic have to be ruined with a special edition!??!

I cannot believe the guns will be taken out of E.T. and who knows what else will be f*cked up. Star Wars was butchered by the SEs and now I am scared E.T. will be too.

Not to mention they already changed "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" and it will be released in a SPECIAL EDITION to theaters next year...

Horrible.

 

[Tino]

In regard to Raiders Of The Lost Ark being released to theaters next year as a SE, this is a RUMOR and nothing official has been announced.
E.T. I believe will do O.K. I predict a domestic gross of about $50 to $70 million.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Tino, what a spread. Do you want a bigger one?
~Edwin

 

[Tino]

Jeez Edwin.....$60 million then....O.K. Mr. Specific?

 

[Rob T]

I hope Blade 2 does well against it.

 

[Vickie_M]

Seth:

If you build it (for kids), they will come.

Oh Seth, if only that were true. Think of all the excellent kids films that bombed at the box office, starting with
The Iron Giant - $23,159,305
A Little Princess - $10,015,449
The Secret of Roan Inish - $6,029,332
These are all films that adults can appreciate too. I know I did.
Sad, sad, sad.
Vickie

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

E.T. will open in more than 2,000 theaters, according to Universal. Here's how other re-releases have fared:

The Exorcist (2000) - $40M

Grease (1998) - $28M

Wizard of Oz (1989 & 1998) - $15M

~Edwin

 

[Adam_S]

I think ET will be neormously successful, the people who aren't going to see it are the teenage kids too cool to go see it who will see blade two instead, any way you look at this weekend will be huge for the theaters.
Blade Two attracting all the teenagers and college crowd (and early teens too 'big' to see ET with Mom and the other little kids so they get a ticket bought to blade two for them ). ET on the other hand will pick up the 12 and under crowd and the thirty and older crowd. Yes this (the family) group isn't the ones that make huge consistent opening weekends like hannibal pearl harbor, JPIII and Planet of the Apes, when all the nonconformist rebellious teenagers go see them ovies the studios tell them to see, but instead this is the crowd that made ET an enormous success in teh first place, and rocketed HP, SHrek and MI to the grosses they achieved this past year. TEH question is will rentals eat into the profits. Well I'm in a town of forty thousand or so and we have probably 15 rental stores, I would be surprised if any of those had more than two copies of a twenty year old movie, so thirty-forty copies available to rent) not bad I got a on in a thousand chance of getting a copy. Well also A lot of people own it, but these are likely older families who bought it back in 1987 and their kids are now in college High school and goign to see blade two anyway, theymight see ET for nostalgia puropses but not until the crowds die down after a couple of weeks.
The one thing I don't really know is how available it is at retail, will the superexcited kid, at having found a film better than Land before time 8, be able to have thier parents go buy them the video so they can then proceed to watch it a gazillion times? or will the kid just HAVE to go back to see it again in the theater? It all depends, was ET ever pulled or stopped being produced like with Disney titles (Snow White)? if so and it's not very available in retail, then I can see ET doing about 150 million.
Adam

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yes, there have been some recent terrorist events lately. Should we now remove the word "terrorist" from all films and TV shows. Maybe we should just remove it from the language altogether. It's silly.

Rain and others,

Please, let's keep this discussion on topic. Thank you.

Crawdaddy

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

Not that it's always 100% correct, but my local paper lists the major releases for March 22 as E.T. and Sorority Boys. Nothing on Blade 2 then, which isn't to say that it won't come out then.

I think E.T. will do reasonably well--say, similar to The Exorcist re-release--but only last for the first couple weeks. Unlike the jazzed-up Star Wars films, I don't know that the promise of new effects/footage is going to be a big draw. While E.T. was very successful, I don't know that it's something people are dying to see.

 

[Chad R]

I was WAAAYY off back in '97 when I bet Star Wars SE would earn about $20 million.
I was just as off with 'The Exorcist' when I predicted $10 million tops.
And I though 'Grease' would do better than it did, but got skunked on that one.
So, I'm really reticent to make a prediction with this one, but for the fun of it I'll go with $80 million.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Well I agree with that Vickie except for one thing - adults have to know the film exists to take kids to or kids have to see 1000 ads to know to beg to go.
My point being that quality with kids film rarely matters (ahem, Pokemon) it's ADVERTS that matter. And in the case of E.T. it has already been established. It won't take much to let families know about it. We all lamented Iron Giant's dreadful campaign at the time of it's release as many members here had to be told it was good and should be seen, despite being a hyper-aware community here.
I'm certain that a vaste majority of America does not know this is coming (although I saw 2 kids talking about it while looking at a teaser poster "Is that a new one" "No, I think they are just putting the old one out all new looking"). But it won't take much in the way of advertising to ramp it to full scale and word of mouth will be strong simply because the name "ET" will mean something to other parents being told about it's rerelease.

 

[Rob_C]

I'm going to guess $115 mil. I have a feeling that the new release will go through the roof, considering that not a lot of new (or quality) films have been released.

I know a lot of people who want to see it on the big screen.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Hey, I loved E.T. I am looking forward to owning the original on DVD as soon as I can. But...

I hope Blade 2 does well against it.

I'll be doing my bit for Wesley and Del Toro. Got to line his pockets for Hellboy Anyways, I will be surprised if it does huge business. Like I said earlier...$40 million, most of it the first two weekends.
Take it to the banks, SUCKAS!
Chuck

 

[Vickie_M]

Seth, I get it now. Word of mouth helps, but marketing is everything. The movies I mentioned just didn't have the budget.
I plan to see the re-release of ET, but not on opening day. I'll be in line for LOTR/FOTR with its new ending.