Weekend Actuals: The Force Awakens - 90.2M !!!

[Magic]

So... 

 

TFAs run is basically over.  Time to move on to the next big thing people. 

 

Episode 8 OW predictions anyone?  Can it crack 250M? Can we open a thread for the Ep8 OW predictions now? 

 

I know it's 16-17 months away (if it doesn't get delayed), but lets face it, nobody cares about anything else until then. 

 

BvS and Civil War just aren't going to do it for me I'm afraid. 

 

 

 

[DeeCee]

1 hour ago, JonathanLB said:

I was also curious since I don't know where else on the Internet you can ask this question, but is there any very serious journal article or in depth look or even book about Gone With the Wind's domestic grosses, releases, or the history of #1 films at the box office? I just ask because I'm a bit curious how they come up with the domestic adjusted grosses and how accurate they are. I read that the first year of release was mostly road shows charging $1 per pop, even though my dad was born in 1942 and both him and his friend said they watched double features as a kid for 25 cents each. $1 in 1939 was WELL above average, even worse than an IMAX screening today. I was just curious how "sure" everyone is about the exact adjusted total of GWTW. 

I had a GWTW thread at BOM. I'll see what I saved. The first release roadshow prices were up to $2 when the average tickets at the time was only $0.25. And people talk about IMAX prices today. 

 

I started a thread for GWTW if people want to research and add anything

Edited January 4, 2016 by DeeCee

[XXRDJisDoctorDoom]

6 minutes ago, Magic said:

So... 

 

TFAs run is basically over.  Time to move on to the next big thing people. 

 

Episode 8 OW predictions anyone?  Can it crack 250M? Can we open a thread for the Ep8 OW predictions now? 

 

I know it's 16-17 months away (if it doesn't get delayed), but lets face it, nobody cares about anything else until then. 

 

BvS and Civil War just aren't going to do it for me I'm afraid. 

 

 

 

What about Rogue One???

[AniNate]

Those three movies aren't in my top ten

In anticipation, I mean

[Noodlebug]

42 minutes ago, Magic said:

So... 

 

TFAs run is basically over.  Time to move on to the next big thing people. 

 

Episode 8 OW predictions anyone?  Can it crack 250M? Can we open a thread for the Ep8 OW predictions now? 

 

I know it's 16-17 months away (if it doesn't get delayed), but lets face it, nobody cares about anything else until then. 

 

BvS and Civil War just aren't going to do it for me I'm afraid. 

 

 

 

 

How is a movie that just grossed 88M in it's third weekend "over?"

[syntaxerror]

Why do sequels never gross better than the first film?

[bladels]

1 hour ago, Darth AndyLL said:

 

Yeah... it's a family movie so the weekdays will drop hard and next weekend should be decent.  40-45%

 

Both Narnia and National Treasure... the 2 biggest family movies I found... were in that range.

It needs to drop smaller than 44% to take that 4th weekend record.

[JonathanLB]

I'm headed to Los Angeles next Monday through Wednesday for our annual company meeting. I founded my company in L.A. when I lived there and its where my 2 employees are based; we're hiring a 3rd in the L.A. area this year. I'm excited because I'm going to TFA with my editor on Monday night at the TCL Chinese. It's kind of a dream for me as I've never gotten to see a Star Wars movie at the Chinese and it's such an historic location for film fans and especially Star Wars fans. I think it's going to be fun!

 

Definitely, I'd love to know what else you can dig up on GWTW just out of curiosity. I wasn't sure how well movies' total grosses were tracked that far back and how accurate all of the ticket price adjusting is. I'm not calling into question the data I see, just curious how it was all put together. 

 

Even today, most people are not getting the ANH grosses correct. I keep hearing $300M first run, adjusted over $1 billion, blah blah, etc. I've done my research on Star Wars. That's not accurate. The first run was around $221M before it was re-released in 1978 and as was pointed out here, it was still playing at one theater because of a lawsuit. That theater is in my home city, Portland, OR, or more specifically the Westgate Theater in Beaverton, OR (where Nike is based), and they played ANH for 78 weeks. Their contract stipulated that if ANH made above a certain amount per week, they could keep it for as long as they wanted. Fox tried to take the film back, to my understanding because they wanted to end the first run and had plans for the re-release, but Westgate sued and won, allowing them to keep the film print as long as their contract terms continued to be met. 

 

In any case, ANH's first run adjusts to more like $850M in todays' dollars. 

[Daxtreme]

13 minutes ago, JonathanLB said:

I'm headed to Los Angeles next Monday through Wednesday for our annual company meeting. I founded my company in L.A. when I lived there and its where my 2 employees are based; we're hiring a 3rd in the L.A. area this year. I'm excited because I'm going to TFA with my editor on Monday night at the TCL Chinese. It's kind of a dream for me as I've never gotten to see a Star Wars movie at the Chinese and it's such an historic location for film fans and especially Star Wars fans. I think it's going to be fun!

 

Definitely, I'd love to know what else you can dig up on GWTW just out of curiosity. I wasn't sure how well movies' total grosses were tracked that far back and how accurate all of the ticket price adjusting is. I'm not calling into question the data I see, just curious how it was all put together. 

 

Even today, most people are not getting the ANH grosses correct. I keep hearing $300M first run, adjusted over $1 billion, blah blah, etc. I've done my research on Star Wars. That's not accurate. The first run was around $221M before it was re-released in 1978 and as was pointed out here, it was still playing at one theater because of a lawsuit. That theater is in my home city, Portland, OR, or more specifically the Westgate Theater in Beaverton, OR (where Nike is based), and they played ANH for 78 weeks. Their contract stipulated that if ANH made above a certain amount per week, they could keep it for as long as they wanted. Fox tried to take the film back, to my understanding because they wanted to end the first run and had plans for the re-release, but Westgate sued and won, allowing them to keep the film print as long as their contract terms continued to be met. 

 

In any case, ANH's first run adjusts to more like $850M in todays' dollars. 

 

Great post.  I definitely didn't know that, thanks!

[Caladbolg]

12 minutes ago, syntaxerror said:

Why do sequels never gross better than the first film?

 

Some sequels do, go check out the incredible runs of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Shrek 2, The Dark Knight, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, each of the Lord of the Rings films, X-Men 2, many more.

 

[MovieMan89]

13 minutes ago, syntaxerror said:

Why do sequels never gross better than the first film?

Plenty of sequels outgross the previous/first. Admissions is not very common but has still happened. A well liked mega hit always has its work cut out for it with the sequels living up to it. And then there can be  a sort of law of diminishing returns with a lot of sequels. 

[LinksterAC]

17 minutes ago, syntaxerror said:

Why do sequels never gross better than the first film?

 

That used to be more true than it is today.  The LOTR films grew their audience from one to the next.  The Matrix Reloaded out grossed the Matrix.  The Dark Knight absolutely obliterated Batman Begins. 

[JonathanLB]

The Westgate story was really interesting to me, I guess Guinness had the run as the longest continuous theatrical run in a single theater? I don't know if that's true, or if that's a modern record, because I suspect that some IMAX theaters have played the same scientific documentary for even several years. So maybe they meant Hollywood feature film? In any case, still an incredible run there. People I know here who are older said that when you were bored one weekend, sometimes friends would just say, "We could go see Star Wars again?" But the waits were insane in those early months, like many hours just to get into a screening because it simply wasn't playing anywhere else for much of the time. 

 

Sadly the Westgate went the way of many classic theaters. It was a movie palace back in the 1970s with all of the luxuries, but it began to decline as the years passed and it finally shut down just after Revenge of the Sith had finished its run. It was torn down the next year I believe and there's nothing there now but a parking lot. 

[arlo]

1 hour ago, JonathanLB said:

I was also curious since I don't know where else on the Internet you can ask this question, but is there any very serious journal article or in depth look or even book about Gone With the Wind's domestic grosses, releases, or the history of #1 films at the box office? 

 

This was investigated by people on the old BOM forums and basically what was discovered is that, with a few exceptions like the original Star Wars, box office simply wasn't reliably tracked before the 1980s. We'd get scattershot reports of box office gross but the industry and reporters were focused on rentals (the box office that went to distributors after exhibitors took their cut) and those figures were far less reliable than the exact amounts we get now. Variety reported them only as estimates subject to change at any time. For example, they drastically downgraded My Fair Lady's rentals from $32 million to $12 million ten years after it was first released. 

 

Years ago BOM was referred to reliable reporting of many re-releases it has failed to document for older movies, most notably Gone with the Wind, which only made a tiny fraction of its gross in its initial release, and charged premium prices that percentage-wise dwarf anything in IMAX. BOM knows their adjusted list is fraudulent but they simply don't care, as our lazy media is happy to promote it anyway.

[terrestrial]

4 hours ago, kayumanggi said:

But all the major markets already opened, right except for China? But yes, the numbers will obviously be different since the release patterns are different.

You miss the point I think. The discussion (spread out over several posts and areas) was not about that. He uses a chart of the past, that has collected the datas of 54 to 60 territories and one actual one, even less complete that thas amassed the datas of 45 +/- 1 territories and tries e.g. to proof OS / dom percentages out of that, concludes final sounding prediction out of those,..  plus does not understand the difference between OS weekend by calendar to OW / 2nd WE / 3rd WE by territory/country. Hence the reason I saif to him he should wait till all datas are added. It was not about what you seem to think.

In addition: the territories that get tracked at BOM changed over the years, there were even invocations asking for help tp find sources for certain countries (including modern world countries like Switzerland). Someone who tries to proof things out of the OS area at BOM should know the sites' OS specifics, hence the reason I tried to help him learn that.

 

2 hours ago, theendsnotnearitshere said:

Another thing that bothers me when comparing modern flicks with fossils like GWTW BO wise is jus how the entertainment industry has evolved since. I mean, I'm writing this while watching turtle porn on my iPad and wirelessly playing Adele's new album. I doubt people led such profound, leisure filled lives back in 1939. Tele, can you confirm this?

 

People then went to the cinemas also for other reasons, like to get to see news (news by the week), learn about their politicans per virewing them,... glitz and, depending on the year war news, learn where their loved ones fight,... I already used that example: try to imagine no one has a TV.... 9/11 happenes, the cinemas have filmed news before the movies.

 

 

general speaking:

Are you aware about when people even got TVs?

Never were wondering why we have a lot of filmed news / documentation material about a time without TVs?

 

14 minutes ago, syntaxerror said:

Why do sequels never mostly gross better than the first film?

 

there are exceptions (are there are not always exceptions?), see e.g. MCU's CA 1 ( $176,654,505) and CA 2 ($259,766,572)

[BadAtGender]

17 minutes ago, syntaxerror said:

Why do sequels never gross better than the first film?

 

Several do. Some have improved dramatically. Shoot, some happened just this past year, like Hotel Transylvania 2 and Pitch Perfect 2.

 

Other examples: Terminator 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Shrek 2, Catching Fire, Blade 2, The Dark Knight, Despicable Me 2, Die Hard 2, Meet the Fockers, Lethal Weapon 2, Thor 2, Captain America 2, Mission Impossible 2, The Mummy Returns. 

 

Some series had improvements over three films: Austin Powers, Bourne, Furious (From 3 through 7, actually), LotR, Mad Max, Twilight, X-Men.

[Gokai Red]

As far as mega blockbusters go (where the previous installment grossed 400m adjusted or more) DOM-wise, there are only a handful of occasions where the sequel outgrossed the previous one. Here's all the ones that I could find, listed in reverse chronological order from the release of the sequel:

 

ROTS to TFA (510.8 to whatever TFA makes)

TLWJP to JW (429.7 to 680.6)

THG to CF (437.9 to 440.1)

TS2 to TS3 (411.9 to 449.6)

COTBA to DMC (436.1 to 556.5)

AOTC to ROTS (447.8 to 510.8)

Shrek to Shrek 2 (407.2 to 611.7)

TTT to ROTK (493.3 to 529.8)

FOTR to TTT (467.0 to 493.3)

ROTJ to TPM (697.3 to 730.4)

ESB to ROTJ (679.0 to 697.3)

TB to GF (570.8 to 644.0)

 

Honorable Mention:

TF to ROTF (399.5 to 464.1)

 

Arguments could be made against TFA, JW, TS3, and TPM belonging on the list considering the gap between installments, and against CF considering how close the two are; CF could very well be below THG in attendance. 

[junkshop36]

The whole thing about sequels dropping from the first came about, I think, in the 70s and 80s. A lot of sequels to really popular movies saw drops, some significantly so, during that time. 

 

Jaws2, ESB, Temple of Doom, Aliens, Superman2, Ghostbusters2, BTTF2, Batman Returns and so and so forth. Star Trek 2 dropped from the first even though it's a much better movie. It's just kinda the way it went back then. 

[tokila]

1 hour ago, MovieMan89 said:

Plenty of sequels outgross the previous/first. Admissions is not very common but has still happened. A well liked mega hit always has its work cut out for it with the sequels living up to it. And then there can be  a sort of law of diminishing returns with a lot of sequels. 

the simple answer would be that Sequels are somewhat limited by the audience they saw the 1st. You could say the pool of people going to see EP 8 is the people who went to see TFA. TFA even though a sequel was designed to be accessible to everyone, even at that there are alot of people who did not go to TFA because they had not seen Star Wars before. The sequels that do better than the originals tend to be movies that the original was unknown and grew in popularity after it left the theater. Bad Boys, Terminator fall into that category.

 

That is what was so amazing about TLOTR. Each gotten better and better results with each movie. 

[eXtacy]

So you maths wizards where is this realistic heading. Will it topple the billion