DHD Friday (03.23) 68.25 M | THE HUNGER GAMES (Crow-serving on-going :))

[TLK]

Wow. I just checked the theatre I am tracking and it sold out every Saturday show between noon and 4:40 PM. I have never seen this happen in last 10 years.

[Shawn Robbins]

If there's any opening in recent history as impressive as Hunger Games, it's Spider-Man 1 not the Dark Knight. I'm sure all the reasons have been said before, but I'll just reinterate:

1) This is a 4 year old franchise that only recently became mega huge in the last year.

2) The marketing has employed a unique method of showing NO action at all.

3) The film is, ultimately, about kids killing each other.

With all those factors, it's 50/50 on it beating Spider-Man 1's OW adjusted. If you think there's an opening more impressive than that, I'm all ears, but I'll take a lot of convincing.

My problem is the hyperbole of fans (not saying you're in this group) to want to put gold medals on everything, for any franchise. My underlying point today has just been that we live in a different era now than we did in 2001 or even in 2005. Social media has dramatically changed the way our culture -- especially youth -- absorb any kind of entertainment content. Not just changed, but expedited. That's why I feel putting a label such as "most impressive ever" on THG's opening isn't anything more than over-excitement exhibiting itself through fans who are simply happy to see something they like do so incredibly well.

In other words, think of it this way: how much bigger might the opening of Potter and/or Spider-Man have been in 2001/2002 had they received the full swath of a social media marketing campaign? Would it even change anything? Or vice versa, how big would THG have been WITHOUT social media? Probably not nearly big enough (yet) to generate such massive interest, IMHO. It would have gotten there, just over a slightly longer period of time (similar to how Twilight panned out).

We'll never know is the answer, which is an example of why I don't like the notion of calling *anything* "the most impressive ever" under virtually any metric.

Edited March 24, 2012 by ShawnMR

[Shawn Robbins]

No it just wasn't impressive...at all. It had very strong marketing and worked so well because it completely disregarded previous Star Trek properties.I can't get why anyone can downplay THG OD...it almost made as much as the first Twilight movie did in its OW in ONE DAY...IN MARCH.

No one's downplayed it, so you have nothing to get.

[fmpro]

Summer 2011, I knew nothing about THG.

I learned much later than that

[Shawn Robbins]

Please explain.

Read back three posts. Edited March 24, 2012 by ShawnMR

[CloneWars]

My problem is the hyperbole of fans (not saying you're in this group) to want to put gold medals on everything, for any franchise. My underlying point today has just been that we live in a different era now than we did in 2001 or even in 2005. Social media has dramatically changed the way our culture -- especially youth -- absorb any kind of entertainment content. Not just changed, but expedited. That's why I feel putting a label such as "most impressive ever" on THG's opening isn't anything more than over-excitement.In other words, think of it this way: how much bigger might the opening of Potter and/or Spider-Man have been in 2001/2002 had they received the full swath of a social media marketing campaign? We'll never know is the answer, which is an example of why I don't like the notion of calling *anything* "the most impressive ever" under virtually any metric.

That's fine, but I think we can all agree that this is "one" of the most impressive openings of all-time.

[fmpro]

Wow. I just checked the theatre I am tracking and it sold out every Saturday show between noon and 4:40 PM. I have never seen this happen in last 10 years.

Amazing... Sat will be huge too

[Noctis]

Shawn, have you seen the film?

[Gopher]

I think it's gonna fall over 60% next weekend but level out over Easter and through April. I'm sure it'll get a lot of repeat views from fans but if DH2 is any reference those don't really start until later in the run. March domestic total record (Alice's 330m) is going to fall.

Titans is so underperforming next weekend. I'm sure theaters are kicking themselves because they have to give over their HG IMAX screenings to it.

[spizzer]

So, essentially $148M is without a doubt the lowest we can expect this to open.

Logically speaking, yeah. I can justify it going above those IMs. I can't justify it going below the 7th and 8th films of an extremely frontloaded franchise, whose midnights made up such a large % of OD satisfying upfront demand. Not to mention DH2 opened in the summer, when Friday-to-Weekend ratio's are much smaller than the March market.

[B J]

Most epic opening of the social media era.

[AniNate]

I'm not sure HG would have much staying power in IMAX anyway. It's really not a film suited for the format.

[acsc1312]

Catching fire is gonna be a beast

[blackspider]

5th. It very narrowly beat New Moon. And it's very narrowly behind SM.

It was a great opening no doubt but it can thank 3D for having the record, for now.

[CloneWars]

I'm not sure HG would have much staying power in IMAX anyway. It's really not a film suited for the format.

I disagree.

[fmpro]

Catching fire is gonna be a beast

Some records could be in danger

[AniNate]

I disagree.

The nonstop shaky cam would make some viewers sick, I expect

[TLK]

Amazing... Sat will be huge too

Yep. All shows between 7:30 and 10:30 are sold out.To put it in perspective, it had 14 midnights and 32 shows yesterday. Only a couple of 2-3 PM shows yesterday weren't sold out. It is doing better than Potter or Twilight ever did. From what I can tell it is doing better than yesterday but this is just one theatre and I am too busy to check any other theatres.

[blackspider]

Not many sellouts in my area but there weren't many yesterday either. Just too many showings.

[Shawn Robbins]

That's fine, but I think we can all agree that this is "one" of the most impressive openings of all-time.

Yes...that's, like, one of the first things I said.

Shawn, have you seen the film?

Yep. Very good. Wished it had more backstory to set up the world and characters for non-fans, but other than that I really enjoyed it. Hopefully CF and MJ get more of a budget to beef up the visual settings, and they need to drop the overuse of the shaky cam. I'll probably start reading the books within the next couple of months. Edited March 24, 2012 by ShawnMR