JeepCSC

Haha at these Star Wars doubters. Like what? TFA was well-enjoyed and left on a cliffhanger with merely a glimpse of the most famous Jedi ever. It will open huge and remain huge through the holidays.

I was severely underwhelmed by Shrek. A burping misanthrope of an ogre and a reheated Mushu weren't nearly as interesting as the fractured fairy tale world they inhabited. Shrek 2 took me by complete surprise. I loved it. It fixed some of the balance by exploring the fairy tale world more, though most importantly it was just a funnier, more interesting film. That scene is also my favorite part of the film. "Not the gumdrop buttons!" Oh you kill me Gingerbread Man.

When I worked at a theatre 15+ years ago, we weren't allowed to do 100% sell-outs because then people that couldn't find seats together would just come out and get refunds. A "sold-out" movie was simply when we stopped selling tickets. Over 80% and our screens would go yellow, over 90% and our screens would go red. Only Phantom Menace did we push down past 95%. Of course now my old theatre is one where you pick your seat. It does now seem to get to 100% or 99% on busy days like today.

Not Netflix. iTunes is the main alternative to HV sales.

I mean that just sounds like a Portugal-problem.

Here in the capital city of NC, only the main roads were cleared yesterday. Side roads were dicey and most people stayed home. We didn't get much snow, but ice is worse for driving. So from us north, I'd say the storm cut movie-going drastically. That's a large chunk of the US, population-wise.

Well, it's at least in the top 3 Cameron films from the 90s.

Spotlight got hurt when it didn't get director at BAFTA. It's also missed a few guilds, most notably the editing one. The Big Short seems to be the likely beneficiary of Spotlight being dimmed.

V is atrocious.

Titanic is the most impressive uber-blockbuster of the last 25 years, but for the life of me I think MBFGW is probably the most impressive. It makes no sense and yet it sold more tickets than 50% of the HG, any X-Men film, Guardians of the Galaxy, and 3 of the Potter films. Mindboggling.

I live near an old Roman building too, a circa 1994 Little Caesars. Pizza Pizza!

Greenland is in North America even if some Europeans still own it for now. We will soon help the Greenlanders from the yoke of oppression. #monroedoctrine

I was so confused about continent size because of Greenland. My World Book said Africa was bigger than North America, but my wall map showed Africa roughly the same size as Greenland which should have meant NA was much bigger. It took my globe to show me to not trust the wall map. Incidentally there is also a great West Wing episode that discusses this issue.

It could have just been better at overperforming domestically than at overperforming overseas.

On that note, place Force Awakens in 1939, and Gone with the Wind outdoes it across-the-board. The audience simply wasn't there then. Tickets sold, even rough estimates, seem the best way to discuss this. How many tickets could the sell at market price when it was released? There are of course other considerations, but that seems to get to the heart of the matter. How popular was the film in its own era compared to other films in other eras.

Titanic was a fascinating film to follow. It was just an unrelenting drip drip drip of money piling up. The second weekend was the first wow! moment, but really it's milestones (passing Jurassic, passing Star Wars) were ones spotted a month in advance. It was all people talked about movie-wise for months. Avatar's 3D and Ledger's Joker were probably the closest I had seen to Titanic-mania, but were smaller. This is just a different animal. It is probably more talked about than any film I've ever seen. Titanic was talked about for a long time, but it didn't dominate conversations. People will begin conversations asking if you've seen it so they can decide how much they can talk to you about it. When someone hasn't seen it, you can see faces cringe as they realize they will have to be circumspect. Likewise people have been compelled to begins conversations by saying they aren't Star Wars fans and have seen none of the others and won't be seeing this. It's become basically an extension of the formal greeting. "Hi, my name is Jim Bob and no, I'm not a Star Wars fan". It's all very insane. We will likely never see something quite like this again. It really is the 21st century's A New Hope.

Witchcraft

Have you heard the one about glass houses and rocks?

Just say no to the prequels. Search your feelings you know it to be true.

But last Friday proper was beaten by last Saturday despite an advantage on presales. Seems likely the same thing happens here.

Dont be pedantic. I don't think Jack was really proclaiming he was king of the world when standing on the bow. And I'll be happy when I see Cameron pen an ad to Disney saying congrats.

Bleh. Enough about the soon-to-be-ex-King of the world.

The series is basically our national epic. Others might have Beowulf or the Illiad, but America has Star Wars.

I know Cameron is an egomaniac, but that couldn't possibly be true, could it?

Avatar didn't decrease either.