Weekend numbers - July 6

[Darth23]

Are these for real?

www.entdata.com/bonews/bonewsframes.html (http://www.entdata.com/bonews/bonewsframes.html)


Cats & Dogs - 21.67
Scary Movie2 - 21.00
A.I. - 14.14
Kiss of the Dragon - 13.64
Fast and Furious - 12.35
(Dr. Doolittle 2 - 10.10)

[CMJ]

Probably so.... Man A.I is doing as I feared....tanking.

[DaBoSsNaStY]

LOL!

man at what point do we have to say to ourselves: We are bad at this guessing game:p

[JonathanLB]

Those numbers all really suck hard. This isn't January for crying out loud, what is the deal here?! Those are terrible numbers for the July 4th weekend (basically). Dang, how disappointing.

AI seems to have the Kubrick touch or something, it drops like a rock. That is really frustrating. I have no idea why that happened because AI is a masterful movie! It is the best of the summer so far.

CMJ did you see that according to Box Office Guru the movie averaged a C+ from Cinemascore? I have never seen a single movie in history have such a poor rating, including Godzilla and all of the other movies. I mean, for some reason movies practically ALWAYS average a B or better on opening weekend, so I don't even believe the C+ rating. Everyone I know liked the movie except my sister. Everyone I've talked to online loved it, my friends all liked it at least at a 3 star level. I thought it was easily 4 stars...

[Force Master Hunter]

Ouch, what a rancid weekend for the B.O!

I think the Wednesday openings hurt the totals for Cats n Dogs, plus Scary Movie2

[CMJ]

Yeah Jon...I made mention of that in another thread. I have heard of other films with C+ and lower ratings with Cinemascope....and they always tank like this. Most everyone I know who saw the film was dissapointed. Grrrr. It really is frustrating to me...but...Oh well. I've championed plenty of films that have not been commercial favorites in the past.

There is plenty to break down about the film....I think I may add to the "AI ending" thread that we have. The more I think about it...the more brilliant that film becomes.

[JonathanLB]

Of course, it is a great movie. I don't understand how anyone could NOT like it. Idiots. It's like all they want is stupid action or something. God forbid someone make a two hour+ film that actually required you to think and isn't constant action.

It's such a great movie, I just don't understand moviegoers sometimes. They eat up stupid nonsense but when you have an intelligent film like AI, it does terrible after opening weekend.

I guess it is all in who you know, CMJ. You said most people you know were disappointed. I think I have heard from probably 15 people about the movie and 14 of them gave it three stars or higher, my sister didn't like it at all. That is it. Then again, there are other movies that everyone I know hated but the movies actually did very well.

AI doesn't apparently have enough teenage appeal. I think most teenagers are pretty lame and moronic so all they want to see is a gross-out comedy or a mindless action film or even a car film, etc. Of course, people my age are more adult-like in their moviegoing habits, but teenagers includes the 13 and 14 and 15 year olds that probably lack the mental skills to understand, let alone enjoy, a film like AI.

Anyway, I'm just disappointed by AI's performance, especially given great reviews from Time and Newsweek and MOST of the respectable critics. Maybe it will gain some form of redemption at the Oscars, even just nominations in several important categories. Hard to say, though, because the saying goes, "Oscar doesn't like drooping box office grosses," hehe. The Oscars are not about the quality of the film, anyone knows that, if you want to see what movies were the most critically acclaimed of the year, you look at a critics circle like the New York Critics Circle of the Los Angeles one, or even the National Board of Review. The Oscars includes too many people who probably don't even see the smaller films, so generally a massive box office grosser can top smaller projects, even if other critics circles disagree (Titanic, Gladiator). Gladiator deserved it, though, that's the difference ;)

[Jedieb]

Here's something to ponder. Maybe A.I. is tanking because it's just a bit over people's heads? Maybe Spielberg did too good of a job of emulating a director he, Lucas, and a host of other directors greatly admired. It always seemed to me that Kubrick was always more interested in getting HIS vision on screen than in making a film that would be commercially or even critically successful. If Spielberg really did stay faithful to Kubrick's original story and vision than can we really be surprised at these B.O. numbers? Just a thought.

[CMJ]

I kind of like the Oscars because it represents the combination of critical and commercial favorites. To me it represents more MY taste in film than anything. There are alot of people that like what I would call cinematic garbage...and thats about the extent of their taste. Then there are people who are elitists and can't enjoy alot of FUN films. The Academy has members of both of these classes as well as those in the middle...which is why I tend to respect the Academy as sort of the great barometer. I don't always agree with them either...but I do more so than most critics organizations...or the People Choice awards.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I guess the curse of Kubrick continues past his death. I'm surprised too I really like it but I guess a lot of people didn't understand the film and saw it as too preachy. I still think it should have been released in the fall where it would have excelled. Its difficult in the summer for a film like this when popcorn films dominate.

Back to the rest of the box office. This week does seem low for the fourth and next week to me at least probably will not get much better. Again it will be hard to predict which film will be #1 Final Fantasy or the Score. I am hoping its the Score but I am not sure if the appeal is their for this DeNiero vechical. I actually expect the #1 film to be under 30 million.

[CMJ]

I think you're right Jedieb...SS did an excellent job of making a Kubrick film. I thought it was just as much a SK film as a Spielberg one. Of course Koob did have 2 huge hits. Both SPARTUCUS and 2001 did quite well....but the last 25 years or so no Kubrick film fared well. Of course alot of films that are "thinking" films divide audiences....so it's really not a surprise to me(though a tremendous dissapointment).

[Darth23]

I think one reason for the poor rating for AI might be that audiences the first weekend didn't see the kind of movie many of them were expecting. It could be that movies usually get better ratings because the people being polled are the people who wanted to see the movie - so horror movies the good scores because it's a horror audience. Same thing with comedies, or action flicks.

I've read comments that maybe AI was darker that the Speilberg name might have lead audiences to believe, hence their 'dissapointment' after viewing the picture. But really this would be a failure of marketing. Publicity for a films is supposed to generate awareness and interest in a film, but it's also generally supposed to let the audience know what kind of a movie it is.

I think that the last Jennifer Lopez movie, Angel Eyes, suffered partly because the producers didn't want to give away too much about the plot. It could be that AI's being 'shrouded in secrecy' for so long hurt it as well. AI opened at about the level as Saving Private Ryan, but perhaps the wrong people were in the theater. I think word of mouth is letting it down, because not enough of the people who'd enjoy the movie saw it when it opened.

....Or maybe it just didn't have enough explosions and fast cars. ;)

[Jedi Master Carr]

Was the Shinning a box office failure? Just wondering if it was I know a lot of films since 2001 have not done well but I thought that one did pretty good because of Stephen King and the popularity of the novel.

[Darth23]

Courtesy of The Numbers:

www.the-numbers.com/movie...0SHNN.html (http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1980/0SHNN.html)


Shining, The - May 23, 1980 (2 days after ESB)

Total US Gross: $75,500,000

Pretty impressive for 1980.

It's not in the Adjusted Top 100, but 2001 is (9:cool:

At least according to The Movie Times.com:

www.the-movie-times.com/t...verad.html (http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsdir/Top10everad.html)

[Force Master Hunter]

I think the last Jennifer Lopez film failed becuase it was a piece of crap. :)

[Darth23]

It might have been - but hardly anyone went to see it early on, and she's has decent numbers of people at lest got see her films in the beginning. I reand an interview where the male lead was allowed to talk about his weird name, but not the plot of the movie - that's kind of a funny way to promote a film, imo.

I know I had no idea what the film was about - maybe if people had at least known it woudl have had a decent debut.

[Darth23]

FEATURE-''A.I.'' Advertised Inconsistently
Monday July 9 12:59 AM ET

By Carl DiOrio

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Even before its release, marketing efforts on behalf of ``A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' seemed at best scattershot.

movies.yahoo.com/news/va/...58100.html (http://movies.yahoo.com/news/va/20010709/099466558100.html)

Kind of what I was trying to say.


Few pricey, tentpole pictures have split critics more than this sci-fi fantasy; similarly, industryites have been divided on the effectiveness of WB's marketing. In the week since it opened, it's clear that ``A.I.'' was preordained for Monday morning quarterbacking.

Many feel that the PG-13-rated ``A.I.'' could have been marketed to wider demos. Others complain that ``A.I.'' commercials have keyed too much on child star Haley Joel Osment, leading audiences to expect a kinder, gentler picture.

[Jedieb]

Darth23 has brought up a pretty solid reason for why many AI viewers were dissapointed, marketing. Even before the movie was released some people on this board had problems with some of the trailers and commercials. It was as if WB was marketing 2 different movies. Those commercials may have brought the wrong audience in.

I wasn't implying that every Kubrick film tanked. The Shining, Strangelove, Spartacus, and 2001 were all solid B.O. hits. But Kubrick was never one to crank out the box office mega hit, especially not after Spartacus. Studio interference during Spartacus really put a bad taste in his mouth. It was similiar to what GL experienced with ANH. After Spartacus Kubrick made films at his own pace. It didn't seem to matter whether they made a lot money or barely broke even, he just wanted to get his film made.