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

[Seth Paxton]

Well Vickie, I do think another key here is to play on NOSTALGIA.
ET really targets the families with kids at the same age as the parents were when they saw the film. Similar to the Star Wars thing.
Parents reflect back to their theatrical ET experience and want to bring that to their kids. That's the biggest selling point, and I think it's a strong one.
I just think kids films are the 2nd easiest to sell behind teen films. You can screw it up, make them so bad people avoid them, and mis-advertise them, but they are one of the easiest to get a built-in sale if you don't pull a total fubar.
Again, like the box office and Oscar thread, this is another where our opinions WILL be right or wrong in the end. You have to love finality.

I'll be in line for LOTR/FOTR with its new ending.

I hear ya brother...err...sister.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

100 million seems more than reasonable to me. Even if it doesn't have as huge an opening as ANH did, because it does not have the follow up movies, it will probably hold on longer than the Star Wars movies did. And besides, beloved family films always have a strong staying power. This is certainly one of the most beloved family films of all time.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

While we wait for the numbers this weekend, the ones to keep in mind are $32M or $62M to break the records of The Phantom Menace and Star Wars, respectively.

~Edwin

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

I'll be in line for LOTR/FOTR with its new ending.

Umm, did I miss something?

Bruce

 

[Tino]

Bruce

I believe Seth and Vickie are referring to the Two Towers preview that is being added to the final reel of FOTR on March 29th.

Also, E.T looks to make about $15 million this weekend, a bit below some predictions. So it looks like it will probably pass Phantom Menace but not A New Hope.

I say approx. $40-50 million now as a final domestic re-release total.

 

[Josh_Hill]

Its gonna be close. E.T. could just barely pass SW with like $2mil more or something. I was hoping E.T. would make another $200mil and break Titanic, guess that aint happenin now. **Goes into a corner and cries**

 

[Seth Paxton]

It's funny because in this thread I had it going for a total of $45m but in the weekend BO thread I had it coming out strong in the $30m range off the bat (which would easily carry it past $45m).
Apparently my right hand doesn't know what my left hand is doing.
Whichever hand said $45m total looks to be the smarter of the 2.
BTW, in no surprise to me at all Blade 2 is coming out huge (I said 30-35m). Sticking true to the formula that if your first film does average or slightly poor but then picks up a great video/cable following, then the sequel will go to the bank big time.
Just ask Austin Powers, Hannibal, even Mummy Returns.
Build a fanbase with one film, then cash in on them with the sequel.
If they made a Fight Club sequel it would probably triple the original's take even without Fincher involved, for example. Luckily I think we can safely say this will never happen.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The theater at which I work at was packed last (Saturday) night!
We had around 160 cars and nearly 3/4 of them were minivans.
It's safe to say E.T. was the main attraction (In the Sat. triple feature we had, there was E.T., Peter Pan 2 (with Playful Pluto attached to the beginning!) and We Were Soldiers) since there was an exodus of cars when the credits started.
We also did well with The Exorcist reissue earlier and the three Star Wars reissues. You haven't seen E.T. until you've seen it at a drive-in!

 

[Peter Kline]

I seriously doubt it will do as well as the reissue of the first Star Wars film. The fans of tthat film are/were enormous. Figures should be out later today (Sunday). I expect about 20 million for the weekend. The film will probably be first-run for 3 weeks with diminishing screens afte the second. Re-issues just don't do that well since the advent of home video. By the way, attendance figures have absolutely nothing to do with the merits of a film. You knew that, of course!

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

The estimates are in and the film made $15.1M. That looks far from the $62M it needs to break the record of Star Wars. The rest of this Easter week with kids on vacation should be interesting though.

~Edwin

 

[Peter Kline]

A bit disappointing, but there are two factors. Lots of children's admissions and some bad weather in parts of the country. With the kids out next week as Edwin suggests, there should be some better box office. It may actually be better then this weekend.

 

[Josh_Hill]

And dont forget, Ice Age is still playing and thats taking some thunder from E.T.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

And dont forget, Ice Age is still playing and thats taking some thunder from E.T.

It stole alot of thunder here. I went to Ice Age Friday night (late show) and it looked to be at 90% capacity. Went to E.T. last night and it was at 50% while Ice Age was again playing to a near full house.
Bruce

 

[Shane Martin]

I saw ET 8 times when it came out and loved it everytime. I have not seen the movie since then so I'm looking forward to seeing it now. From the reports I've read the new stuff doesn't distract away from this masterpiece(IMHO) and I have to say I'm surprised it made 15.1 million. That seems awful low however I'm expecting it to easily beat the Star Wars movies.

Seeing ET on a big screen is to me an entirely different experience than seeing it at home.

 

[TonyD]

for those who earlier in this thread were wondering about adjusted grosses look here

 

[Chuck C]

Welp, those minivans weren't just for ET...how bout Ice Age coming in at #2 with $31.1 M. (Blade 2, $33.1 M.). Boo to THAT!

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Last weekend, I mentioned to my wife that Universal must REALLY be sweating ICE AGE. Now, after this weekend, they certainly are. I didn't think this rerelease would have NEAR the impact of SW. Just a hunch. I heard a lot of $80M's and $90M's thrown around here. My $40M looks about $5-10M too high now. Ice Age is apparently the first "hit" of the year, as I believe it will easily cross the $100M mark this weekend (no competition in it's audience bracket). Congrats! ET will still make a pretty penny, and likely roll by TPM. But it might take another two or three weeks. Easter will help. I just think it'll help Ice Age more
Take care,
Chuck

 

[Malcolm R]

I'm unclear why everyone keeps saying "Easter will help film X."? Do people in some parts of the country actually get a day (Monday?) off or something?

I know that around here, it's just a weekend like any other then back to work on Monday. In fact, I'd think it'd hurt the box office, as many will be attending easter dinners with family on Sunday when they might instead be going to movies on a normal weekend.

I think that in Europe it seems to correspond to some sort of "Easter break," but I wasn't aware anyone here in the US really had any time off.

 

[John Berggren]

Traditionally schools in the northeast give easter week off as spring break for K-12. I assume this is true throughout the nation. So regardless of whether Mom and Dad are off, the kids will need something to do.

 

[Malcolm R]

Traditionally schools in the northeast give easter week off as spring break for K-12. I assume this is true throughout the nation.

I think it's different all over. I live in the NE, and our schools do not take spring break until late April. Sometimes Easter coincidentally falls around that time, but not always. Schools are in session here on Monday after Easter.