Little factoid about our "failed" movie

[imported_QuiGonJ]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/

By this time next week, it will also have beat last summer's most successful film, Shrek, in oh, what... it's fifth weekend of release? :)

It's doing fine, no matter what the pundits like to say.

[JMK]

Yeah, but they're going to jump all over it regardless. Even if it crawls to 300M.

[Jedi Master Carr]

It be hard to jump on it if it makes over 300 million and if it passes HP I think it will be impossible, I am hoping it sneaks into the top 10 maybe make 312-315 that would be awesome, add the 500 million we are going to get from overseas and we will have over 800 million WW pretty hard to criticize that when only probably 5 films have done better.

[JonathanLB]

IMO, looking at current numbers, it should not really start crawling until it hits $300M, then it should crawl its way to probably $310 million to $315 million, I am hoping. It needs to crack the top 10... That would be really monumental. Nothing at all wrong with that.

I have to admit, I think AOTC is the least logical of the Star Wars films for normal audiences. You know, in the OT it's always very clear: you got good guys, you got bad guys. They are fighting. Rebels. Empire. Very simple. Black and White, Light and Dark, Good and Evil. It's just not hard to see ESB even without knowing anything, and although you should know something if you see ROTJ, I don't think it matters all that much either to normal audiences.

I am sorry to those people who do not appreciate the prequels, but frankly, TPM and AOTC are just simply far more complicated films than the OT. That is not to say that is a good or a bad thing, but they are more complicated. In AOTC, who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? One bad guy used to be a Jedi, so the good and evil is really blurred there. One good guy, Anakin, is not so good apparently. The Clone Troopers, are they good? Uhh... hmm... not really. But they are fighting for the good side. It's just all a lot more detailed and complicated. After all, the galaxy is in turmoil. You don't have clear cut good guys and bad guys. I can understand how a normal moviegoer would enjoy Spider-Man more than AOTC in many ways because Spider-Man, as great as I thought it was, is fairly mindless entertainment. It doesn't require any thought to understand what's going on. Nerdy Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man and saves the day. Whoo hoo. AOTC is far more difficult to grasp because some people honestly haven't seen the OT in years, they haven't seen TPM at all, or if they did, they saw it a few years ago too, and they don't even remember who exactly this Palpatine is, they don't quite understand Palpatine = Sidious (hey there are SW fans still arguing about this!!! LOL), and they simply cannot appreciate the movie as we can.

I always thought AOTC was a fan's ultimate dream, but normal moviegoers...? I think ANH suits them much more. Even TPM, a much more understandable film for normal audiences, as it should be, because it's the intro to the saga. Although I don't think you can appreciate it as a truly great movie without knowing what happens in the OT.

[ReaperFett]

At rotten tomatoes, it is losing to TPM in freshness. And I thought TPM was panned bad :)

[JonathanLB]

What's losing to TPM...?

AOTC is beating TPM significantly, by about 10%. TPM was never fresh. It was at about 52%. AOTC is at 62%.

TPM was not panned at all, either, it received almost entirely positive reviews. Thing is, 2.5 stars is counted as "rotten" with rotten tomatoes. MOST reviews were in the 2.5 or C+ range, all of which means they are positive reviews. If I give a film 2.5 stars, and I give MANY films that rating, I don't want someone saying, "Yeah he thought that was bad." Huh? No. 2.5 stars is a positive rating. It's not a good rating (that would be 3 stars), but it is overall positive. That's why I give 2.5 instead of 2.

TPM got very, very, very few bad reviews. Maybe a couple of them, but not more than 3 or 4. They were mostly all at least decent reviews, if not slightly above average.

[ReaperFett]

wrong. EP2 is 61%, TPM is 64% :)

TPM (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/StarWarsEpisodeIThePhantomMenace-1084876/reviews.php) EP2 (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/StarWarsEpisodeIIAttackoftheClones-1112314/)

[Darth23]

TPM was fresh until the DVD came out and they managed to find 3 or 4 more Rotten reviews, with then put it into the Rotten category. (I was watching it att he time).

If it's Fresh again then they somehow decided to count a few more Fresh reviews.

[imported_QuiGonJ]

Couldn't that be just a sneaky way of trying to make AOTC look bad? Why should we even care what that site thinks?

[ReaperFett]

Every day, a new conspiracy theory ;)

[imported_QuiGonJ]

Not a theory, just recognition that human biases can and do factor into what goes on web sites, specially if they are named for decaying fruit in the first place. :p

[ReaperFett]

If the review is bad, they want to be seen. If its good, its a conspiracy to make another film look bad. Maybe, they have just found more positive reviews?:)

[Doc Milo]

In AOTC, who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? One bad guy used to be a Jedi, so the good and evil is really blurred there. One good guy, Anakin, is not so good apparently. The Clone Troopers, are they good? Uhh... hmm... not really. But they are fighting for the good side. It's just all a lot more detailed and complicated. After all, the galaxy is in turmoil.

The galaxy is in turmoil -- and/or -- this is illustrative of the imbalance in the Force. Everything is blurred. The line between good and evil is not clear -- these are almost the exact same words Lucas used to describe what "Balance to the Force" means in an interview with an online magazine soon after TPM came out.

And yes, I agree, Jon, that does make it less appealing to the normal movie-goer. People who go to see a SW movie because they have a clear cut good guy and a clear cut bad guy and they know who to pull for, and who to hope gets it in th end. Here, you pull for Anakin -- but Ooops, he becomes Darth Vader. You pull for Palpatine, because he's in charge of keeping the Republic and Democracy alive -- but, Ooops, he gets all that power and becomes the Emperor. The Clonetroopers -- they become stormtroopers. The Separatists, they're under control of the Sith. Pull for Yoda, Mace, Obi-Wan. They seem clear cut good guys, but they are so out-numbered, and pulling for them means pulling for those others as well.... Imbalance.

[JonathanLB]

Reaper, dude, I don't care what TPM is at now, that really has no point whatsoever. TPM is 52%. That is not including DVD reviews or whatever the hell else they want to count. I was around in 1999, if you'll recall, and that was its percentage. It's great that it went up, very cool, but AOTC's current percent can only be counted versus the percent TPM had after its theatrical release. That was 52%. AOTC is at 61% now (it was 64% the other day, it changes a bit each day). Big whoop.

I would personally majorly redo their site to make it more accurate, or I'd explain a little more clearly that, uhh, rotten films are not really always rotten even by critical standards. Forget it, I'd just redo it ;)

50% OR OVER should be considered fresh. All 2.5 star and C+ reviews should be considered fresh. This would give a more accurate reading as to when a movie is TRULY considered rotten, i.e. Bad Company, and when a movie is really considered fresh, i.e. TPM should have always been at like 85% because most critics did give it at least 2.5 stars. I really don't care, though. No critic who saw TPM and AOTC 1 or 2 times can possibly hope to have a valuable opinion compared to mine when I have seen them a combined 75 times. I simply know more, understand more, appreciate more, and am smarter in every way about the prequels than any other critic who works for any other organization in the country and probably the world. If they want to understand the films enough to write an intelligent review, they need to do what I do and sit through A LOT of showings. Maybe not 50, but 8 to 10 would be a start, lol.

Don't get me wrong, they are free to comment about the movies after one viewing, and *normally* with any other movie that is just fine (some require two viewings, like Memento, I think, and The Game), but not with Star Wars. And, while they ARE free to comment on the films, I'm also free to think their opinions are not even valid until they've seen the films a significant number of times, because I have. I have done my homework, they haven't, and it shows. If the best they can muster is "a funny looking alien that looks sorta like..." NO. Call it what it is. If you don't know what it is, look it up. Stupid saps. Critics are just dumb. If they want to review a Star Wars film, they should have to meet certain qualifications because Star Wars films are simply not the same as other movies. Other movies do not have that type of depth where you MUST understand the other films to comment on the actual quality of any given part of the saga.

"Oh gee I think I will just go read chapter 15 of Jurassic Park without reading anything before or after, and then I'm going to PRETEND that my opinion is not only AS valuable, but MORE valuable than anyone else because I am a critic."

That is how I see their attitude about Star Wars. If I were to start writing detailed essays on the current political situation in the U.S., I would sound stupid because I don't keep close track of that as I do the box office, the entertainment business, and Star Wars. Those are my areas of expertise and that's why I write books on that subject matter specifically. So while my opinion is technically "equal" to anyone else, it would be uninformed. The same goes with critics. Their opinions on Star Wars are impossible to take seriously for me at least because they are uninformed people making judgments they are not prepared to make. They seem like foolish amateurs commenting about something about which they know nothing.