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[Deep Wang]

I'll never forget seeing TLJ twice before it opened, totally blown away by and thought it was gonna be rocking and rolling all Christmas and had no idea what that masterpiece was about to unleash.

 

 

[Porthos]

4 minutes ago, Alexdube said:

It's not like putting Star Wars there was a very bold choice when the 2 highest grossing movies of all time had that release date, I wouldn't call that "changing the ball game". I'll leave it at that

 

No one, and I mean NO ONE was expecting TFA to be a leggy monster ala Titanic or Avatar though.  Hell, it only got plopped into December because of scheduling delays.  Which is kinda ironic as the OG Star Wars only landed in May '77 (which helped launch the idea of the summer blockbuster in the first place) because of its scheduling issues.

 

It was before my time here, but I've scanned/caught up on some of the discussions and it very much was a point of contention about how releasing a film like SW7 would play in the holiday corridor.  And, yes, weather was absolutely talked about then.

 

It might look obvious now in hindsight, and it probably speaks more to the conservative to downright reactionary nature of studios when it comes to scheduling (see how they still shy away from some months for no good reason), but... yes it absolutely was... discussed at the time.

 

[jedijake]

1 hour ago, XXR Also in Boots said:

 

All of the Houston area BOT'ers are getting together at my house. Join us. 

Thursday's high will be 70 and the low will be around 15. It will drop 55 degrees by that night. That's, like, a 50 Shades of Gray drop!!!

[Ozymandias]

17 minutes ago, MrPink said:

 

Fans were not happy at the lack of Maz Kanata

 

butt hole eyes?

[Menor the Destroyer]

2 hours ago, Menor Reborn said:

It's looking at a 15% drop in the theaters that I'm tracking. But they don't do discounts on Tuesday.

Now looking at Wednesday presales...let's just say...very intriguing!

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

A ray of hope...?

 

 

 

[Cooper Legion]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

 

Preeeeeeety sure I can think of a worse year it could have been scheduled to be released.

2021 

[Alexdube]

4 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

May the 4th is celebrated as the Star Wars day for almost 50 years now. Star Wars Celebration is an official event for 22 years. Lucas literally invented the ‘summer blockbuster’. Not a single Star Wars film was released during Christmas before The Force Awakens, and while now in hindsight it makes perfect sense, it was controversial back when it happened, one of the reasons what happened with Avatar’s first weekends with the weather. If that doesn’t seems like a game changer for the franchise to you, I don’t know what to tell you. 

and Avatar still managed to become the highest grossing movie despite the weather? What?

I don't even know... ok I'm stopping there promise. Say whatever you want, that's enough for me

[redfirebird2008]

4 minutes ago, Deep Wang said:

I'll never forget seeing TLJ twice before it opened, totally blown away by and thought it was gonna be rocking and rolling all Christmas and had no idea what that masterpiece was about to unleash.

 

 

 

LMAO. I just remember Deadline kept reporting on the number of schools that were still in session. “Don’t worry, holiday boost is coming soon!”
 

Pretty disappointing multiplier of 2.8 compared to 3.4 for Rogue One and obviously 3.8 for TFA. Damn thing needed less than 3.2 multi for a $700M, but it wasn’t meant to be. 

[MikeQ]

11 minutes ago, Deep Wang said:

I'll never forget seeing TLJ twice before it opened, totally blown away by and thought it was gonna be rocking and rolling all Christmas and had no idea what that masterpiece was about to unleash.

 

 

For what it’s worth (cc: @Porthos), I really enjoyed the movie.  

 

Peace,

Mike

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, Alexdube said:

and Avatar still managed to become the highest grossing movie despite the weather? What?

I don't even know... ok I'm stopping there promise. Say whatever you want, that's enough for me

Avatar was sort of like a tech demo if you are into gaming. One could - and lot of us did back then - argue that the single reason why Alice in Wonderland made it to $1B was because of 3D. James Cameron is one of the best directors of all time, but the reasons why Titanic was one of the biggest films of all time and Avatar followed can’t be seen and understood in a vacuum.

[jedijake]

No friggin' legit lightsaber fight. Rey was nobody. Snoke died like a chump. Luke was Oscar the Grouch and a washed-up sap who threw away his lightsber.  Pointless Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro roles. Storylines like Canto Bright that accomplished squat. Mary Poppins Leia. And Luke milking weird creature titties and slobbering it. Why are people even asking?

Edited December 21, 2022 by jedijake

[CoolioD1]

23 minutes ago, Deep Wang said:

I'll never forget seeing TLJ twice before it opened, totally blown away by and thought it was gonna be rocking and rolling all Christmas and had no idea what that masterpiece was about to unleash.

 

 

i saw it at the midnight show and i was disappointed because my feeling was that like Force Awakens it played it a bit too safe but the fans would probably be into it. uhh i guess not. 

[MrPink]

Benicio Del Toro in TLJ is hilarious, no notes

[Alexdube]

7 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

Avatar was sort of like a tech demo if you are into gaming. One could - and lot of us did back then - argue that the single reason why Alice in Wonderland made it to $1B was because of 3D. James Cameron is one of the best directors of all time, but the reasons why Titanic was one of the biggest films of all time and Avatar followed can’t be seen and understood in a vacuum.

[Porthos]

17 minutes ago, Alexdube said:

and Avatar still managed to become the highest grossing movie despite the weather? What?

I don't even know... ok I'm stopping there promise. Say whatever you want, that's enough for me

 

The thing is, it's not what you or I think, but what the studios thought at the time.

 

Even now, studios still reflexively shy away from some months for no good reason (at least IMO).  Take Labor Day Weekend.  Even after films have proved that September and October can have blockbusters succeed just as much as other months, they're shying away from Labor Day Weekend.  January is still viewed as a "dump month.

 

It wasn't that long ago that February was lumped in with January as  a "dump month".  Now the idea of Feb being a "dump month" is rightly seen as ridiculous.

 

Studios would tie themselves into logical knots searching for a "perfect" time for a type of movie without realizing that getting more of a maybe slightly lesser pie was better than everyone going after the same time period in, say, the summer.

 

As for the holidays?  The thinking was: Drop blockbuster movies in November so they could rake in money during Thanksgiving and then leg it out with all of the other movies in the Xmas period.  Even Avatar was pointed to as an example of (nearly-impossible-to-repeat) legs as opposed to more upfront blockbuster style frontloadedness.  

 

Now I will agree that if studios had been less reactionary/hidebound, they could have seen the signs for a potential breakout in December.  But it wasn't films like Avatar that pointed the way, but the LOTR films.  Even The Hobbit films proved to be something of a "Proof of Concept".

 

But it still was a gamble to put a 175m+ type opener (never mind 200m+ type opener) in December, as no one had attempted it before.  The closest we can point to would be RotK and its 124m 5day OW back in 2003.  But that had a long list of its own reasons why it might have been viewed as unique.

 

So, I will agree with you that studios shouldn't have viewed it that way... I'm just telling you they did and that once TFA showed what was possible... Well it did change studio thinking about what was possible in December for blockbusters.

 

Which, if one recalls, is my comment that started all of this.  

Edited December 21, 2022 by Porthos

[ZattMurdock]

4 minutes ago, MrPink said:

Benicio Del Toro in TLJ is hilarious, no notes

He honestly has Boba Fett type of potential. Intriguing character, intriguing past, memorable lines. Nothing that Star Wars nerds like it more, myself included.

[MrPink]

1 minute ago, ZattMurdock said:

He honestly has Boba Fett type of potential. Intriguing character, intriguing past, memorable lines. Nothing that Star Wars nerds like it more, myself included.

 

If Kathleen Kennedy approved a Master Code Breaker series with Justin Theroux and Benicio Del Toro, I'll be 10x more annoying than the Andor stan that I am

[Eric Prime]

It's been 5 years guys.

[Porthos]

Just now, MrPink said:

I'll be 10x more annoying than the Andor stan that I am

 

So... about as annoying of an Andor stan as I am then. 

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, MrPink said:

 

If Kathleen Kennedy approved a Master Code Breaker series with Justin Theroux and Benicio Del Toro, I'll be 10x more annoying than the Andor stan that I am

Maybe 20 years from now. Maybe showing up somewhere else. I don’t know. Give me a Finn series.