John Harris

I Liked your post, cuz I agree with everything in it (even as a Marvelphile), but the truth is I Dislike everything it accurately states. This was supposed to be a fun week, with us Avengers-boosters trying to downplay every positive number that popped up for TDKR; while the Nolanites explained away any negative BO data - all in fun (for most of us, anyway!). Instead, it's just depressing for everyone.

But BO is the strongest indicator of WOM. I remember Spider-Man 3 had a pretty high rating on IMDB during the first week of its release; I'll bet a lot of people who vote this early are either the die-hards or even people who haven't actually seen the film. I ran into 2 more people at work on Wednesday who saw DKR and got an "it was OK" and "it sucked." That's about 10 people I know who've seen it, and I have yet to get an "I loved it - it was great!" reaction from any of them (or even close to that). Sure, my small circle doesn't mean much, but among this same circle I only heard one less-than-glowing review for The Avengers. I'm just not sensing strong WOM personally, and the BO may be reflecting that. We shouldn't discount BO completely, since it's the strongest barometer there is in every other case. This wouldn't be the first movie to be adored by critics that didn't catch on with the general public, by any stretch! (Not saying that's definitely the case here, just saying that love from critics does not necessarily equate to strong WOM. There are too many examples to cite, there!)

5th-fastest ever to reach that total. Twice as many days as it took The Avengers, though...

Of course I feel sympathy for this person, but they'd have a better case if this "Joker" a-hole just randomly shot at him at the Mall or the Post Office. The fact that the suing party was actually attending a midnight showing of the movie he is now suing over kinda hurts his case, no? He was obviously a big fan of the Bat-movies before the shooting or he wouldn't have been at a midnight show. He's changed his tune only after the unthinkable has happened. That's certainly his right, but to sue WB over it is ridiculous. He may have a case against Holmes' doctors, though...

I attended the Trilogy last Thursday, and there was decent applause after BB, rollicking, enthusiastic applause after TDK, and somewhere in the middle after TDKR (definitely lesser than TDK's applause, though). Could be because it was 3:15 in the morning, though, and we'd just sat through 9-plus hours of movies... :)Sadly, this film's run has been forever skewed in who-knows-what direction, as far as WOM. Unless we see a tiny 2nd-weekend drop, indicating very strong WOM, it will be difficult to pinpoint what people are saying about the film itself. A huge 2nd-weekend drop could just mean that the shooting is still in the forefront of potential viewers' minds, and have nothing to do with WOM. It's unfortunate this film isn't being judged on its own merit (which is quite shaky, IMO).

We shall see. I know three big-time CBM fans and their opinions ranged from "meh" to "strongly disliked." And I can't really recommend it, either.

Well that was anti-climactic.

IMO, the only thing anyone can definitively say is that the incident affected TDKR's box office somehow. How much and in what way can never really be answered. I could construct an argument that says it would've only grossed $150 mil OW if not for all this publicity - far-fetched? Probably. But only slightly less defensible than those who are saying it would've approached $200 mil without the shooting. No one knows. There's no precedent at which to point. Sure, people can say "look at the pre-release tracking numbers!!!" But, hey, am I mistaken, or have those numbers been 100% reliable in the past?!? Didn't think so. There's a million reasons why this shooting was beyond horrible. WAY down the list is the effect on TDKR's box office. Even further down the list: It prevents Marvel fans from gloating over this "win." It's presently taken all the fun out of this site for every side. Again, a VERY minor side-effect, but an indesputable one, nonetheless. We'll never really know if TDKR would've gotten close to $200 mil or not. The numbers are what they are, but as others have pointed out, this film's box office deserves an unprecedented asterisk. Let's just hope it's the only one ever used for this horrific of a reason.

Not meaning to sound like I'm taking this situation lightly, but Alfred's line in BB is 100% true in this instance: "It was him. And him alone." Sometimes bad people do bad things. In a free society, it's an unfortunate risk we all have to live with. I can't imagine what those poor families are going through today.

Saw TDKR at a midnight showing here in Baltimore last night. My heart goes out to my fellow fans in Colorado who were doing the same thing I was, enjoying a fun night at the movies, watching a flick they'd been eagerly awaiting (casual fans don't go to midnight shows!). Just crazy...I'm very curious to see what the WOM will be on this movie. I actually attended the Trilogy last night, and after watching BB and TDK again, I gotta tell ya, TDKR disappointed. It wasn't a Spider-Man 3 level mess, but, honestly, I didn't think it was that far from it. Some of the story lines are truly eye-rolling. And, unlike the tight universe that Nolan leads us through in the first two, there's virtually no sense of time, of progression, in this one. The middle section is endured, not enjoyed. I did like the ending, at least until the very last scene, which was another eye-roller - more of a WTF? moment, actually. I'll be very surprised if people are enthusiastically recommending this to their friends the way they did the first two. I surely won't be.

Before it was released, did anyone think TDK would make over 2.5 times what BB did? Spidey has some similar factors in his favor: A semi-successful reboot film after a very disappointing previous film, and, like Batman, Spider-Man has proven to be a BO giant if handled properly. Am I predicting $550 mil DOM for ASM 2? Emphatically, No! But to paraphrase Lloyd Christmas, I am telling you there's a chance...! To say otherwise is to ignore the recent history of A-list super-hero movies.

Isn't that a pretty nice jump from Monday? What am I missing?

I'd pretty much rank the Spidey films the same way. TASM definitely suffers because of the similarities to the first movie. I still think it was a mistake to show the whole origin again. They should've gone the Incredible Hulk route, and just shown a new origin during the credits, an effective way to establish immediately that this is a new version of the character. Specifically, I had no desire to see yet another take on Sure, I enjoyed the movie - it's well-done in a lot of ways, and Garfield and Stone are at least as good as Maguire and Dunst ever were. I greatly look forward to the sequel, which hopefully will bear no resemblance to any of the storylines used in the first trilogy.

Would hate to see what the ASM-haters here would have had to say when Batman Begins opened to such middling numbers.ASM is on track for 250-280 mil, which should put it around #5 for the year (behind TA, TDKR, Hunger Games, and The Hobbit). That seems more than acceptable to me - not mind-blowing, but decent for an unprecedentedly soon reboot. BB ended up #8 back in '05, and was considered a franchise-saver. ASM will probably do considerably better, but people want to call it a disappointment. Is that because they consider Spider-Man to be that much more popular than Batman?

$609,614,000 later... :lol: :lol:Sadly, TA has just lost too many theaters this weekend. I saw TASM last night (2nd time), and TA wasn't playing at our theater after 3:30 PM (only two showings all day). Tough to make money if it's not playing! It's PTA only dropped 22% from last Friday...

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Have faith - TA has exceeded expectations at every turn. Maybe today's heat wave in the mid-Atlantic region will convince more movie-goers than usual to flee to a nice air-conditioned theater! I say it'll be just a hair over $1 mil on Wednesday.

Yes, and as usual, our TA-hating friend's gloom-and-doom prediction about TA and its massive theater drop was waaaay off. :lol:Still holding out hope that it can stay above $1 mil today... In some areas, today is the first official day of summer vacation.

My son tried to take me to see TA (for the 7th time) today for Father's Day, but the late afternoon matinee show was Sold Out. How could a movie that's been out for 7 weeks be sold out?!? Amazing.

BO.COM predicts a $9 mil weekend for TA. That would be impressive (especially considering the massive TC drop! )

It outperformed the top 4 for its Tues-to-Wed hold; hopefully Thurs is more of the same!

Where's that Thurs TA number???

My son and I have seen Avengers 6 times, and we can pretty much recite the whole movie by now. That requires some pretty "memorable" lines, I'd say. The only other movies I can recall that I can pretty much recite are Blazing Saddles, The Jerk, Arthur (the original, of course), and Die Hard. Memorable all!

Took note of BO in the 1980s, around when ET had its record-breaking stay at the theaters. I definitely remember being a little disappointed at the BO performance of my favorite movie, DIE HARD. It did OK, but nowhere near what the best action movie of the decade should have! This was back when you had to read a newspaper or magazine like Variety to get any B.O. data.I joined the BOMojo boards when Spider-Man came out in 2002, inspired by its amazing run.

TA had the 2nd-best jump on Thursday in the Top Ten (10.3%; only the amazing Hunger Games had a better Wed-to-Thurs bump).

So, like last week's 3rd-weekend records, TA will easily beat Titanic's 4th weekend (28.7 mil) but fall short of Avatar's 50.3 mil 4th weekend. Awesome!