TServo2049

Don't quote me on it. I heard it back in the early 2000s, I no longer remember where. It may have been a conspiracy theory of sorts. That was a digression. My original point was that I agree with you, the AOL thing did do long-term damage to Time Warner and they never fully recovered from that.

Yes, I seem to recall reading that they never recovered from the losses/debt, even after they spun off/sold AOL (did Huffington Post buy AOL *from* TW or was it already spun off?)From what I understand, Bewkes' paring down of the company (dumping AOL, selling/spinning off Warner Books, Warner Music Group and Time Warner Cable, recently splitting off Time) is directly or indirectly related to the prolonged financial strain of the AOL merger.All for something which was not only poorly timed (dot-com crash + AOL's relevance just about to go into decline) but, from what I remember hearing, was less about AOL being a valuable addition to the company and more about Gerald Levin and other TW high-ups wanting to reduce Ted Turner's influence in the company. (Anyone wanna confirm?)

As I said before, DUFE has had two consecutive losses of 1000+ locations. Because I was curious, I've decided to put together a list of other films with which it shares this "distinction".1999:Chill Factor [first time this ever happened?]2002:Eight Legged Freaksfear dot comBallistic: Ecks vs. SeverI Spy2003:Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas2004:Catch That KidWelcome to MooseportSurviving Christmas2005:Son of the MaskxXx: State of the UnionHouse of WaxThe IslandStealthDeuce Bigalow: European GigoloDoom2006:The Ant BullySnakes on a PlaneThe Grudge 22007:Firehouse DogSurf's Up2008:Speed RacerThe Incredible HulkThe X-Files: I Want to BelieveBabylon A.D.Righteous KillYes Man2009:Land of the LostFamePlanet 512010:Valentine's DayThe WolfmanFurry VengeanceGoing the DistanceBurlesque2011:Sucker PunchYour HighnessGreen LanternConan the BarbarianFright Night*Apollo 18*The Thing*Paranormal Activity 3The Three Musketeers[Wow, there were a lot in 2011!]2012:Man on a Ledge*BattleshipRock of AgesAbraham Lincoln: Vampire HunterHit and RunResident Evil: RetributionSilent Hill: Revelation2013:Texas Chainsaw 3DThe Last Exorcism Part IIThe Incredible Burt Wonderstone*The Hangover Part IIIThe Lone Ranger*RiddickRunner RunnerEnder's Game47 Ronin[Wow, there were a lot last year, too!]2014:Paranormal Activity: The Marked OnesEndless LoveTranscendence*Deliver Us From Evil** = lost over 1,500 theaters one weekend, then lost another 1,000+ the next weekendDamn, there were actually more than I thought going into this. Still interesting how many there were in 2013, 2011, and 2005. There have been more in recent years, so I expect a couple more before the year is out.

Interesting to note that How to Train Your Dragon 2 is in over twice as many theaters on its 7th weekend as Kung Fu Panda 2 was in on its 7th. HTTYD2 has 1,538; KFP2 was down to 650.And the DUFE count makes me wonder - how many other movies have lost over 1,000 locations two weeks in a row?

"Qui-Gon's Noble End," nuff said.

Point well taken. As long as it's not aggressively bad like Smurfs 2 or the Chipmunks sequels or anything like that, I'm fine.I read Goosebumps, enjoyed them as a kid. Though I didn't really watch the TV show, I was more of an Are You Afraid of the Dark kid myself. (Now THAT show was scary. Oh, and Hayden showed up in that too, didn't he?)

This is going to be from the director of Gulliver's Travels. Is that cause for concern?

Holy shit, Sex Tape is doing a lot better in Quebec than in North America as a whole.

BOM's ticket price for the current year is based on the average of the quarters that have already passed. The Q2 average was released (down 5 cents from Q2 of '13), and the average of Q1 and Q2 is $8.15.Since (I think) Q3 or Q4 of 2009, BOM adjusts a film based on (at least it seems to me) the average ticket price of the quarter in which it was released. That means that, for example, everything from April-June is currently deflated since the Q1+Q2 average of $8.15 is lower than the Q2 average of $8.33. (In fact, Q2 and Q4 released are always deflated because those quarters always have higher average prices than those of the entire year.)I don't get this system.

I still think HTTYD2 is still going to end up with a higher positive profit from just its theatrical run than TASM2 will.

Oh, I love European Vacation too, make no mistake. I just disagree that it's SUPERIOR to the first one.Oh, and speaking of underrated comedy sequels: Agreed on Clerks II - even if the movie is nowhere near as good as the first, the Lord of the Rings and "porch monkey" scenes are absolute gold.

I respectfully disagree. I also think that European Vacation is underrated, but I still think the original Vacation is superior. One of the funniest comedies of the 80s.

So is Mars Needs Moms. And Cowboys & Aliens is based on a comic book.

Remember, HTTYD1 only made $277m OS. So while it will increase, it was expected to break out more than it has.

Jedi is underrated - still the weakest of the original trilogy, but the Death Star space battle was not topped by anything in terms of size/scale/complexity until...Independence Day? And unlike the CGI cacophony of Clones or Sith, the ROTJ battle has an actual structure.

My favorite Marx Brothers movie, and one of my favorite comedies period. This is the only Marx Bros. movie to be absolute non-stop comedy, with no romantic subplot to interrupt it. Most feature-length comedies before or since (or at least good ones) have some element of drama or romance or pathos or something else other than laughs. This is one of the precious few that goes for 100% jokes, and hits the mark every single time. A

Brazil was the only major market for Smurfs 2 (other than domestic) where it dropped over 50% from the original. That movie was a dud.

BTTF 3 (I think it's a stronger movie than 2 - I love 2, but 3 is IMO a better story with actual character arcs)Superman III (absolutely freakin' stupid, but still a guilty pleasure of mine because of how dumb it is - you want a REAL bad Superman movie, watch Superman IV)Star Trek III (most people assume it's bad because it's an odd number, others think it's weaker than II - which it is, but II was so good that ANYTHING would look weaker in comparison)

Probably took away a bunch of showtimes from movies that would have done better business last night than Planes and Sex Tape did.

That Frozen admissions/gross difference vs. TASM2 is interesting. Did Frozen have 3D in Brazil? If so, why did so many people spring for 2D, compared to Rio 2 which sold over 100k tickets less than Fault but grossed more?

That's what I was saying. As I said before, on KFP2's sixth weekend it was down to 1,250. It lost 947 when Cars 2 opened, and another 1,246 when TF3 dropped 5 days later. So in the space of a week it lost almost 60% of its locations.

HTTYD2's daily grosses are almost 2x those of KFP2 at the same time in its run. Yes, it had Memorial Day and some good weekday legs, but as soon as Cars 2 released it dropped like a rock. Four straight weekend-to-weekend/week-to-week drops of o/u 50%, three straight weeks where it lost half its theaters.The Wednesday TF3 released, KFP2 was down 65% from the previous Wednesday. It lost 1,250 theaters (I'm sure Paramount had something to do with this) and dropped 60% on 4th of July weekend. Other than the 4th itself, it didn't have a single day where it was down less than 35% week-to-week from June 24 until July 21. By then it was only in 250 theaters.Actually, KFP2 is IMO still more shocking than HTTYD2 no matter what, because of how much its admissions dropped compared to KFP1. HTTYD1's unadjusted gross is a little higher than KFP1's, but it had that huge 3D share. KFP1 adjusts to $20m more, and it had no 3D. KFP2 dropped $50m (or ~$75m adjusted) with 3 years of inflation, plus the addition of 3D (and probably a higher share than Dragon 2's anemic 32%). Even with a shorter gap between films, KFP2 still lost more of its predecessor's audience than HTTYD2 will.Doesn't really make HTTYD2's performance look much better, but it DOES make KFP2's look even weaker.

Agree with all, if anyone dies it will be Tony and/or Steve. Most likely Steve, if Evans really wants out of acting.Actually, this could be a blessing in disguise for Marvel, since we could then get Rhodey as Iron Man and possibly Sam Wilson as Cap - even though I don't have an issue with the MCU being "too white," there are people who do, and the MCU's two biggest heroes being black would be excellent PR. (Though it's more likely we get Rhodey as IM and Bucky as Cap, with Sam remaining as Falcon...)If Hemsworth leaves, and they decide to follow the direction of the comics Thor, we could get the Big Three being either one or two black men and a woman. Again, that would improve their image - and it doesn't hurt that I would personally be intrigued by the prospect of Don Cheadle and/or Anthony Mackie headlining an MCU film.

Japanese trailers seem to generally be spoilerrific. Try to find the Japanese trailer for Return of the King (but only if you've already seen the movie).

Some, including me, were worried that it WOULDN'T increase OS (remember that it was extremely frontloaded in most of its earliest territories - mostly in Southeast Asia). There was also the fact that it was DWA's third straight underperformance, then the layoffs, and so on.Obviously it was overreacting, the only thing I'm a tiny bit nervous about is if film 3 will be pushed to be "lighter" a la Return of the Jedi.