Crowd Reports Thread

[Incarnadine]

So far I've seen 16 movies releases in 2012The LoraxThe VowSafe HouseContrabandChronicleUnderworld AwakeningJohn CarterThis Means WarGhost Rider 221 Jump StreetHaywireWanderlustGoneGoonCoriolanusShame2 more coming up, Jeff who lives at home on Tuesday and The Hunger Games on Friday

Edited March 19, 2012 by Incarnadine

[CJohn]

Saw Wanderlust today. It was an ok comedy. No Jennifer Aniston boobs btw

[Dav]

21 Jump Street

3/16/12 10:15 showing

350 seater--sold out

Trailers:

The Raven--no reaction

American Reunion--some laughs, i personally can't wait for this

That's My Boy--laughs, sadly

Dark Shadows--no reaction

Men in Black 3--no reaction

Movie:

Solid comedy with two great leads in Hill and Tatum. Never was a big Channing fan but he was hilarious in this. Never saw the original series but the cameos were great and overall was a solid comedy. Nothing groundbreaking but a nice change of pace with all the action films dominating as of late.

B

[IndustriousAngel]

Best Exotic Marigold HotelMonday 19; 8pm55 in a 500 seater, average age 35+Trailers: Moneyball (baseball's no topic here at all), My Week with Marilyn (no reaction), Bel Ami (some ridiculing)The film: See review. Lots of laughs and sighs, audience loved the film, very positive chatter afterwards.While this was a small audience even for Monday, WOM should be really good and propel this to reasonable Box Office (say, 10 - 15 million $ Germany+Austria combined)Edit: Just saw that there is no thread for this in "Review that movie", so I'll put it in here:Very enjoyable film, if very predictable. Seven british retirees all fall for an internet "scam" advertising a cheap yet stylish hotel, specialising in the "old and beautiful", in indish Jaipoor. Well, it's not really a scam but the style and most of the hotel only exist in the determined mind of manager/part-owner Sonny (Dev Patel of Slumdog fame), as they learn in their first minutes there. Will they be able to survive India?While similar to "King's Speech" and "Intouchables" (underdogs beating the odds via friendships), it's more on the bitter side since the main protagonists all KNOW that death is waiting for them rather sooner than later - one even bites the dust midway through the film. Still, it's full of laughs (partly cheap ones, but most good) and strange situations and it's a joy watching those guys cope with the harsh realities in Jaipoor and in their relationships. The cast is superb - special mention: Judy Dench, John Nighy and Maggie Smith. Dev Patel tries maybe a bit too hard, he comes away as the weakest part in an otherwise effortless comedy. Most characters even get some dimension - no easy feat when you have about 8 main protagonists! Even Penelope Wilton's Jean - she's the most one-dimensional, playing simply "The Shrew" - gets a bit of depth in her last scene. Highly recommended if you like those actors and don't mind that you can guess about 90% of the script after 10 minutes.

Edited March 19, 2012 by IndustriousAngel

[Andy Stitzer]

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

6:15PM Monday, March 19th

AMC Boston Common 19 & Lie-MAX

Theater Capacity: 215 (5% full)

Ticket Price: $11.50

Concessions: Banana, medium popcorn ($0)

TRAILERS:

Chimpanzee (AMC Exclusive) - this looks really rich and exciting, and I'll definitely check it out opening weekend.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - it looks impressive, but so does every other action movie coming out this summer; no reaction

Five Year Engagement - very funny trailer and got a good reaction from the few people in the audience

Sound of My Voice - I hadn't heard of this investagative journalist story before seeing this trailer, but it looks kind of cool and got some talking.

Dark Shadows - okay trailer, some talking from the couple behind me.

What to Expect When You're Expecting - this looks like the next New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day, except with babies; no reaction

Bully - I've seen some press for this, but I can't imagine what people will think of it when it comes out; no reaction

THE FILM:

Jeff, Who Lives at Home was the first movie I went to see without first watching a trailer/reading anything about it since Martha Marcy May Marlene. There's something exciting about going into a movie without really knowing what to expect. I was just pumped to see Marshall and Andy Jason Segal and Ed Helms in a movie together.

This film is about a family that was happy once, but then they lost all that happiness and didn't realize it until the day one of them--Jeff (Segal)--decides to chase his destiny. In a series of both ominous and serendipitous events, Jeff roams aimlessly around his small town looking for "Kevin." Who is Kevin? Jeff doesn't know, but because someone called his house that morning asking where Kevin was, Jeff decided it was his destiny to find him. It sounds very simple, and for most of the film Jeff is ridiculed by his brother for thinking this way. And meanwhile, their mother (Susan Sarandon) has an alternate story of her own going on that day.

Jeff definitely has a different vibe about it than other indie films I've seen in the last year. I think the movies it has the most in common with--strangely--are the Coen Brothers' Fargo and M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, and not at all for the reasons you'd expect. It's definitely a movie you need to watch to understand those particular comparisons, and it's easily a movie people could be divided on. Something I'll say with confidence, however, is that Jeff, Who Lives at Home is one of the most complete films I've seen in a long time.

Experience - 18/30

Story/Writing - 20/20

Acting - 13/15

Tech Specs (Cinematography, Editing, Effects) - 7/15

Direction - 9/10

Music - 9/10

THE VERDICT: 76 / 100, B

[Impact]

You know based off the crowd reports on here as well on Facebook, I would never think John Carter was a flop. (It was even a decent crowd at my theater)Anyway, next up for me is hopefully Titans 2.

[Cedarpoint1111]

You know based off the crowd reports on here as well on Facebook, I would never think John Carter was a flop. (It was even a decent crowd at my theater)Anyway, next up for me is hopefully Titans 2.

You MUST watch Hunger Games.

[Ezen Baklattan]

NEW

The Hunger Games (5 screens, 24 showings)

The Hunger Games: The IMAX Experience (1 screen, 5 showings)

HOLDOVERS

21 Jump Street (3 screens, 16 showings)

Casa De Mi Padre (1 screen, 7 showings)

John Carter (1 screen, 5 showings)

John Carter 3D (1 screen, 5 showings)

A Thousand Words (1 screen, 6 showings)

Friends With Kids (1 screen, 6 showings)

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (1 screen, 6 showings)

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax 3D (1 screen, 7 showings)

Act Of Valor (1 screen, 6 showings)

Safe House (1 screen, 5 showings)

SHARED SCREENS

Hugo 3D/Silent House (4 showings/2 showings)

LEAVING

Rampart (1 week)

Tyler Perry's Good Deeds (4 weeks)

This Means Way (5 weeks)

The Vow (6 weeks)

The Artist (9 weeks)

[kayumanggi]

Will watch THE HUNGER GAMES today!

[CJohn]

Saw John Carter today. Fine movie. Nothing really good, but not really bad either...

[rockNrollaDIM]

21 Jump Street (again)

Tuesday, 7 PM

Crowd: 150-200 people (pretty damn crowded!)

Mostly young people

Trailers:

Cabin in the Woods- I can't tell if this looks good, or really terrible. Probably the latter. There was chatting after.

The Dictator- Love this. People seemed confused by it but ultimately laughed.

American Reunion- Got a great response

Spiderman- Somebody yelled something at the end of the trailer but I couldn't tell if it was positive or negative. I decided I do want to see it though.

Movie:

Still fuckin hilarious! Crowd ate it up.... Saw it 3 days ago and still laughed at all the jokes. Stand by that Channing Tatum was the stand out. Way to take advantage of a good opportunity. Oh and Johnny Depp KILLED IT with the crowd. His reveal got a HUGE reaction with the crowd, clapping, cheering, the whole nine.

[Impact]

Hunger Games RTM thread:http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/2799-the-hunger-games/

[iceroll]

The Hunger Games IMAX

Date: March 23, midnight

SOLD OUT, I'm guessing around 400 seats

Trailers:

Dark Shadows - a few chuckles, not much reaction. I personally thought it was funny when I saw it online but there weren't that many laughs

The Amazing Spiderman - No audible reaction (probably because the sound in the theater was so loud during the trailers). My friends who haven't seen the trailer said they were definitely interested in seeing it (me personally not so much :/)

The theater we saw it at had 1 IMAX midnight showing and 2 regular midnight showings (they added the second one just a few hours before). We arrived at 9:15 and there were already huge lines waiting to go in. They let us into the IMAX at around 9:35, where we proceeded to wait for the next 2.5 hours. When they let us in at 9:35 about 70% of the seats were immediately filled with the people in line.

Experience

This was my first midnight showing so it was amazing seeing how people were dedicated to the series. I saw tons of T-Shirts, iPad backgrounds, and other memorabilia decorated with THG. When they let us in at 9:35 about 70% of the seats were immediately filled with the people in line.

When the movie started a few people clapped, and at the end a lot of people clapped. There were a lot of laughs and "awws". I also heard a lot of people crying during the sad scenes. At 2:30 when the movie ended about 1000 people rushed out of the theater and we were cab hunting for about 10 minutes.

The Movie

I didn't read the book before watching the movie because I know people are always dissatisfied with the movie compared to the book so I wanted to go in with a fresh perspective. Overall I thought it was a superb movie based on great acting and plot. Unlike most people, I actually liked the score and I thought it suited the movie quite well. It was a very emotional journey, there were tons of sad, happy, funny, and even frightening moments.

If I had to describe any qualms with the movie, they were quite minor. The shaky camera was unnecessary with some of the shots and there were a few slow moments of dialogue because I'm not really invested in that Team Peeta/Gale thing.

Right now I'd give it a 9/10

[Noctis]

Just came back from the film.

Fantastic theater experience, but nothing can top DH2. Although understandably, there's a difference between an audience of 200 vs 1,700. Anyway, two guys asked if we were Team Peeta or Team Gale and one girl shrieked, "I LOVE BREAD!" LMFAO. Absolutely hilarious!

Trailers:

Avengers: Spectacular response, and received the largest applause of the trailers by a landslide. Amazing trailer indeed.

Snow White and the Huntsman: Looked great and a lot of chatter when Charlize was on screen, but the theater groaned when Kristen Stewart showed up. The girl next to me said and I quote, "Ugh, is that Kristen Stewart? She's so stupid." No applause and I suspect it was because of Kristen.

Abrahim Lincoln: Vampire Slayer: a lot of laughs at the end for some reason

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2: A woman screamed, "Get off the screen!" and then a guy said, "No one cares!" The theater laughed at the same temperature line and shrieked with hysterics when they saw Bella about to attack the deer.

As for the film:

I really enjoyed it. The performances were all spectacular (Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, and Stanley Tucci were especially evocative), they got the feel and look of the Capitol down, and they were faithful to the novel. However, I absolutely LOATHED the overuse of the shaky camera. In some cases it was fine, but in others, totally unnecessary and detracted from the intense it could have otherwise achieved. The biggest problem I noticed was that they would simply glance upon a dead tribute when I am sure they could have lingered a little longer to soak up the death. Some deaths were fantastic, especially the end one.

I hate to use Potter as an example here, but they could learn a thing or two from the way they filmed Severus Snape's death. The shaky cam used on half of the deaths was just repetitive and somewhat lazy.

I'm sorry if I sound I'm hating on it, because I'm not. I REALLY enjoyed it and I'm definitely going to see it again very soon to judge the film better. My friend who hadn't read the books and knew absolutely nothing about it cried a lot during a certain someone's death (I thought it was quite well done, but more development could have been achieved beforehand).

The final battle was easily the highlight of the film. Intense, brutal, breathless, and genuinely frightening. And you know why? It's because they didn't use the shaky-case. The extra scenes for Seneca were great, particularly the last one (LOVED LOVED the final shot of his scene). I'm not sure if I found the ending menacing enough, so a second viewing will make me judge it better.

Right now, it gets a B+.

[Andy Stitzer]

The Hunger Games - Regal Premium Experience

12:05AM Friday, March 23rd

Regal Fenway 13 & RPX

Theater Capacity: 500+ (100% full; all 13 screens were sold out)

Ticket Price: $15.00

Concessions: one small Coke Zero ($0), one shared medium popcorn ($1)

TRAILERS:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II - "Oh my God!", "Bella's a vampire!", and "Hahahahaha!" were the resounding collection of reactions to this teaser.

What to Expect When You're Expecting - this got all of the girls in the crowd talking and a laugh-out-loud reaction from many.

The Amazing Spider-Man - this is my favorite TASM trailer so far. Definitely effectively gets your attention, and got a great audience reaction.

Dark Shadows - even though I've seen this trailer 4 other times, watching it in a packed theater actually made it look new again. Tim Burton, a good cast (even if just a recycled one), a great audience reaction, and a funny trailer spell good news for Dark Shadows.

Snow White and the Huntsman - the trailer shows a lot... maybe too much. I'm concerned this'll be the next Robin Hood redux for Universal, even though I want this to succeed.

Prometheus - HOLY SH!T!!!! I was too busy convulsing from the sheer awesomeness and perfection of this trailer to gauge everyone else's reaction. I've watched this trailer a good 15-20 times now and am still blown away by it.

The Avengers - excellent trailer, lots of talking, and the best audience reaction.

THE FILM: (SPOILER FREE, as always)

Before anybody wonders: NO, I have not read The Hunger Games novel(s) which this movie is based on. [i already hear in my mind the shrieks and complaints of several classmates/friends crying fowl... whatever]

Movies like The Hunger Games, I believe, are best experienced in a shared environment. If thousands of cinemas across the country are selling out showtimes for something, then it's probably worth buying a ticket for. So I went with four friends of mine tonight to watch this, three of whom had already read the book(s). To their surprise, The Hunger Games "was the most accurate book-to-film adaptation" they'd ever seen. If that's the case, then I understand now why the books are so popular.

The Hunger Games offers a fascinating commentary on human behavior in a dystopian industrialized society. The whole premise of cheering aloud when the enemy fails and weeping when the favorites perish in a "reality" game show pitting the strong against the weak would be a lot less interesting of a plot if it didn't seem so believable. But because humans are a cynical, disillusioned, voyeuristic species, its not alarming why the audience connects so closely with the story. In fact, there was a particular two-shot scene in the film that elicited the same two back-to-back reactions from every single person in the audience, and I think that best demonstrated the way people in our society are wired to respond to particular situations.

While the young actors in the film acted inconsequentially, it was the older characters played by Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson, and especially Stanley Tucci who really added to the film's quality. And Jennifer Lawrence? She's a superb leading actress who dependably commands the audience's attention from start to finish, demonstrating a plethora of range within the human emotional spectrum and instilling empathy throughout as well. Even so, the movie had its share of little annoyances that I'll decline to elaborate on (in a nut shell, I think it veered into Twilight territory a couple times, which I have a very low tolerance for). Mostly, I think the hype surrounding the film's release is justified and the story is an interesting one for people to reflect on.

Experience - 29/30

Story/Writing - 18/20

Acting - 12/15

Tech Specs (Cinematography, Editing, Effects) - 11/15

Direction - 7/10

Music - 7/10

BONUSES: Award Caliber +3 (definitely a contender for lead actress, make-up, and costume design)

THE VERDICT: 87 / 100, A

[iceroll]

I'm disappointed I didn't get many trailers. It was a perfect opportunity to gauge reactions, I guess IMAX just doesn't show more than a few trailers. I heard a ton of angry responses when they didn't show Breaking Dawn Part 2, which was kind of funny.

[DeeCee]

Every IMAX I've been to has had only 2 trailers at most.

[rockNrollaDIM]

My crowd booed the BD2 trailer too and laughed at the temperature line/deer scene. :lol:What I found interesting is that Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer EASILY got the biggest reaction, the whole theater was buzzing/chatting, but I couldn't tell if it was positive, negative, or simply WTF?Avengers got a generally muted reaction, Dark Shadows got a few laughs but ended with a dud as well..The Amazing Spiderman probably got the worst reaction of all: silence.What to Expect When You're Expecting: Some laughsSnow White and the Huntsman: Pretty good reaction, buzz, talking... my friends want to see this one thankfully.

[CoolioD1]

The Hunger Games2PM, 23rd March320 seats. 20 people (Wow! That sucks. It's not like the film isn't popular or anything since the evening showings are close to sold out. All the fans must be in school or something, idk)Trailers: The Avengers - AwesomeMen in Black 3 - EhDark Shadows - Pretty funny trailerBattleship - MehWhat To Expect When You're Expecting - MehHard to do a crowd report when there's barely a crowd to speak of. Though the few people there who I guess were fans of the book sounded fairly satisfied as they were leaving. I went with a friend who's a huge fan and she loved it.

[rockNrollaDIM]

My crowd booed the BD2 trailer too and laughed at the temperature line/deer scene. :lol:What I found interesting is that Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer EASILY got the biggest reaction, the whole theater was buzzing/chatting, but I couldn't tell if it was positive, negative, or simply WTF?Avengers got a generally muted reaction, Dark Shadows got a few laughs but ended with a dud as well..The Amazing Spiderman probably got the worst reaction of all: silence.What to Expect When You're Expecting: Some laughsSnow White and the Huntsman: Pretty good reaction, buzz, talking... my friends want to see this one thankfully.

Also my showing was sold out, and people seemed to love the movie. All fans. Lots of girls dressed like Katniss, a couple Effies, people clapped and cheered at the end... heard crying in certain scenes, lots of "awws" and things like that. Definitely a happy crowd.