Weekend #s: Straight Outta Compton - 26.8M; Mission Impossible - 11.7M; Sinister 2 - 10.6M; Hitman - 8.2M; American Ultra - 5.5M

[Warhorse]

This is as good a place as any to bring this up. Terminator is going to make more than Mad Max worldwide. Yet for some reason people are praising Mad Max as being a box office hit and they are claming Terminator to be a complete failure. Both have the same kind of budget yet Terminator will probably end up making about 50 million dollars more worldwide. Strange isn't it lol

That's because Mad Max has the internet darling Tom Hardy in it. If the movie had someone like Sam Worthington or Liam Hemsworth in it, they would have been claiming it's a BO failure.

[terrestrial]

This is as good a place as any to bring this up. Terminator is going to make more than Mad Max worldwide. Yet for some reason people are praising Mad Max as being a box office hit and they are claming Terminator to be a complete failure. Both have the same kind of budget yet Terminator will probably end up making about 50 million dollars more worldwide. Strange isn't it lol

 

Totally agree, they even have nearly the same budget ($150m MM:FR, $155m T???)

 

It's the same with MI:RN ($150m) and Ant-Man ($130m), I do not understand the 'failure', later 'meh' or similar comments especially about the dom numbers.

One of the main reasons why I tend to jump in then, way too like looking into a distorting mirror or like those people re-writing history, when the recognised history doesn't match what they want it to be IMHO.

[Ezen Baklattan]

I think the key word people are missing here is "relative to expectations prior to release"

 

Yes, revisionism does occur, and we're all guilty of it in one way or another (especially for films we're biased for or against), but I think most of the time, people had higher expectations for Ant-Man/Terminator than Mad Max/MI5, at least prior to release.

[cookie]

I wouldn't argue either being a major box office hit. Mad Max pretty much broke even at best and Terminator is going to lose money due to its low domestic gross.

 

But WB probably has more of an incentive to make a sequel to Mad Max than Paramount has with Terminator due to their wildly different audience and critical receptions.

Edited August 22, 2015 by C00k13

[CJohn]

I think the key word people are missing here is "relative to expectations prior to release"

 

Yes, revisionism does occur, and we're all guilty of it in one way or another (especially for films we're biased for or against), but I think most of the time, people had higher expectations for Ant-Man/Terminator than Mad Max/MI5, at least prior to release.

Terminator is yet to open in China. 

[Cochofles]

Expectations and overall perceptions. The Terminator franchise is seen as a dead horse that Hollywood keeps beating, while Mad Max is not. Also, while Terminator 5 got bad reviews and left no mark in pop culture, MM 4 was one of the summer's most critically acclaimed films and seems to have given birth to a genuine action heroine (which is exactly what happened to T2 back in the day) to add to the silver screen pantheon of iconic ass-kicking women (a list which is, sadly, quite short).

[Cochofles]

Does Ant-Man have enough fuel left in its tank to outgross Captain America: The First Avenger?

[druv10]

I think the key word people are missing here is "relative to expectations prior to release"

 

Yes, revisionism does occur, and we're all guilty of it in one way or another (especially for films we're biased for or against), but I think most of the time, people had higher expectations for Ant-Man/Terminator than Mad Max/MI5, at least prior to release.

 

Who's expectations? Ant-Man and MI5 both will reach average predictions in Baumer's game. Both will make money, Ant-Man with lower budget at 130 to MI5 150M+. 

[DAR]

I think the key word people are missing here is "relative to expectations prior to release"

 

Yes, revisionism does occur, and we're all guilty of it in one way or another (especially for films we're biased for or against), but I think most of the time, people had higher expectations for Ant-Man/Terminator than Mad Max/MI5, at least prior to release.

 

 

I'd switch Ant-Man and MI5

[narniadis]

War Room is the next film from the Fireproof and Courageous company. My church is going gaga over WR so I am sure I will hear a lot about it.

Also means that it should fairly easily hit 9-10m on opening weekend.

[cookie]

Does Ant-Man have enough fuel left in its tank to outgross Captain America: The First Avenger?

 

Considering they're about equal through this point and Ant-Man is holding better than Cap I would say yes.

[druv10]

Does Ant-Man have enough fuel left in its tank to outgross Captain America: The First Avenger?

 

It definitely does. With little to no comp for the next month plus LD weekend boost, I'm fairly certain it's beating CA1 and it has a shot at Thor 1's 181M+. 

Edited August 22, 2015 by druv10

[terrestrial]

Most of the time, these successes are measured by domestic and not international grosses. Honestly, mid-budget and up sci-fi and fantasy films save a LOOOOOOOTTTTT of face overseas.

 

Seventh Son, Jupiter Ascending, Terminator: Genisys, TF4, Chappie, RoboCop, Transcendence, and so many others made at least 70% of their worldwide gross overseas. Foreign auds love these genres more than we do, it seems. Hell, most of the big flop-labled films here fit into this category.

 

Also, Mad Max had a huge handicap overseas by not being shown by friend to all big budget adventures, China. That certainly gave Terminator another advantage. 

 

Then it's just the idea that Mad Max was expected to do a lot less than Terminator.

 

I think it is

1.

also about something a lot here seem to totally forget:

each bigger country (and a lot of the smaller ones too) have their own film industry, in other countries it is often way more common that foreign movies (incl. US movies) will be released too.

So the franchise movies have often the best chances to get more than their toes into the market, as people have a general feeling about what the movie is about.

And some countries film industry doesn't do as much or at all big event / explosion / ... movies, so if a person in country XY wants to see one... the chances are high it will be an US made one.

 

Beside that:

sites like BOM... only list movies in their international lists... if the movies on it had a release in the US too. A rather very wrong giving impression ...

 

E.g. China, India, SK... appear usually multiple times on the true international top 20 lists as some of those are even big eventers/explosions... ones, and some of those Asian big effect movies start to make money in other countries too

E.g. weekend 33: 7 movies out of the top 20 were Asian made ones.

 

2.

The 7 most successful movies out of a top 7 chart in China' 3rd quarter - for now - are all Asian movies (partly 'local movie studio protection weeks/month'

2nd quarter top 10 list: top 4 = big US eventers, no release restrictions like it is actual.

After a time of 100% restriction the appetite for US action... will be stronger again for a short time = release dates too are extremely important for what Chinese audience wants to see, it's not only 'they want generally to see such kind of movies'.

[filmlover]

And with that, another summer went into the record books. A historic performance from Jurassic World, huge numbers as expected from Avengers, Inside Out and Minions kicked ass as we always knew they would, and a bunch of really strong performers. Of course, there were almost as many underperformers/flops as there were hits, but the writing was on the wall for them by the time opening day came.

[Gopher]

This is as good a place as any to bring this up. Terminator is going to make more than Mad Max worldwide. Yet for some reason people are praising Mad Max as being a box office hit and they are claming Terminator to be a complete failure. Both have the same kind of budget yet Terminator will probably end up making about 50 million dollars more worldwide. Strange isn't it lol

Difference is reception. Mad Max got an insanely positive response and its legs are approaching 3.5x from opening weekend. Audiences didn't care about Terminator at all. Paramount knows a sixth Terminator would drop even from this one, just as Sony knew an Amazing Spiderman 3 would drop from 2.

[Cochofles]

Considering they're about equal through this point and Ant-Man is holding better than Cap I would say yes.

 

It definitely does. With little to no comp for the next month plus LD weekend boost, I'm fairly certain it's beating CA1. 

 

Yay!!! So there's no question that the film was a hit! No Avengers-level uber-smash, but a decent-sized hit, especially considering the alleged "lameness" of the character. I still think that Marvel has proven, particularly with GOTG and Ant-Man, that their brand is still white hot, and that even a Squirrel Girl movie would be a hit at this point. I am loving the fact that Marvel is giving some of their B and C-list characters a chance to shine on the big screen.

[cookie]

I kinda wish Paramount has the guts to make the two Terminator sequels and keep T6 where it is. Seeing Guardians 2 and Star Wars 8 completely obliterate it would be absolutely hilarious.

Edited August 22, 2015 by C00k13

[TalismanRing]

Yay!!! So there's no question that the film was a hit! No Avengers-level uber-smash, but a decent-sized hit, especially considering the alleged "lameness" of the character. I still think that Marvel has proven, particularly with GOTG and Ant-Man, that their brand is still white hot, and that even a Squirrel Girl movie would be a hit at this point. I am loving the fact that Marvel is giving some of their B and C-list characters a chance to shine on the big screen.

 

GOTG was Z list so yeah.  Ant-Man, a much smaller movie with a much smaller budget though making more than the Wolverine solos with Jackman are just further proof a if needed that the brand has power.

[TalismanRing]

Difference is reception. Mad Max got an insanely positive response and its legs are approaching 3.5x from opening weekend. Audiences didn't care about Terminator at all. Paramount knows a sixth Terminator would drop even from this one, just as Sony knew an Amazing Spiderman 3 would drop from 2.

 

It also matters that MMFR did far better domestically where it not only gets a bigger % of the B.O. but much better ancillary revenues.

[dashrendar44]

Difference is reception. Mad Max got an insanely positive response and its legs are approaching 3.5x from opening weekend. Audiences didn't care about Terminator at all. Paramount knows a sixth Terminator would drop even from this one, just as Sony knew an Amazing Spiderman 3 would drop from 2.

 

So MM4 is somehow spinned into a failure and TG is a mild success despite the latter being a PG-13 movie featuring its (once) superstar appeal compared to MM4 being a niche R-rated movie reviving/rebooting a franchise whose last installment was released in 1985 not even featuring its star; still managed to be critically acclaimed and receiving great WOM, the exact polar opposite of TG's reception. Terminator franchise has always been more popular than Mad Max but will make less than T3 and T4 Dom. What an achievement indeed...

Edited August 22, 2015 by MADash Rendar