The Box Office Buzz, Tracking, and Pre-Sale Thread

[Porthos]

Seriously gonna sit and stew over what I'm gonna do about this.

 

I don't want to throw out about a month-a-half's worth of tracking but I'm not entirely certain of an alternative.

[M37]

1 minute ago, Bob Train said:

Seeing showtimes pop up for 3PM Fri, so it's the latter. Also seeing some for Thurs.

I'm seeing 2PM for Friday now

[TwoMisfits]

17 minutes ago, M37 said:

All the trackers who have been updating Friday sales for like 5 weeks

 

Yeah, frankly this is a pretty shitty thing to do all around, announcing early shows the day before, not only to fans for the reasons mentioned, but to theater operators who aren't equipped (or staffed) to handle the potential extra volume on less than 24 hours notice. Who exactly wins in this scenario, when there was already a minimum 4-week engagement and November looking fairly weak holding beyond that?

 

I'm seeing some 6PM and on showings pop up for Thursday already (not MTC1 nor PLF fwiw), but nothing earlier than 6pm on Friday (yet). EDIT: MTC2 seems to be the first out of the gate to get these tickets on sale, with locations running the full slate - not just a single show or two - from 6P-11P

 

Mine has 5 showings each - pretty much ripped off some of the Thursday night movie showings that had sold nothing anyway...5 showings IS fewer than the Friday sets at both, but still decently significant...

 

Edit to Add: And when I say ripped off other movies' showings, I mean it...this was a scramble b/c of the 5 shows, they are in 4 different size theaters (1 biggest, 1 2nd biggest, 1 midsize, and 2 smallest at one theater)...

Edited October 12, 2023 by TwoMisfits

[Bob Train]

3 minutes ago, M37 said:

I'm seeing 2PM for Friday now

Yeah looks like 2PM also. Saw one at AMC Lake Square 12.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Bob Train

[Derpity]

My guess is either her or her team really wants that $100m opening, and it was looking in jeopardy with sales trailing off and not picking up this week.

 

Also not sure how much this will actually add to the bottom line. A lot of her fans who hadn't yet bought tickets probably were going to buy tickets anyway, so it just shifts demand from Fri/Sat/Sun to Thurs. Where it will definitely make a difference is the true die-hards who will see it multiple times.

[Relevation]

3 minutes ago, Porthos said:

Seriously gonna sit and stew over what I'm gonna do about this.

 

I don't want to throw out about a month-a-half's worth of tracking but I'm not entirely certain of an alternative.

Track THU, FRI/matinee, and FRI/evening separately 

That way you don’t have to throw out FRI/evening tracking and can continue tracking growth but you can still get a good idea of where this is going 

 

Spoiler

So with this I presume Wish is not getting any day 1 updates lmao

 

[Speedorito]

4 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

This is what she does, she always does this type of surprises with her releases. Her fans was even expecting something and they like those things. 
 

This will just bring more money to the OW, not upset her fanbase. 
 

It’ll mess the tracking tho which is sad, but could also bring some fun making the event numbers a bit more unexpected than before.

Yeah, I remember when she sold four identical versions of Midnights last year and people bought them all. It’s really shameless imo but her hardcore fans eat it up, so what can you do.

[M37]

1 minute ago, Derpity said:

My guess is either her or her team really wants that $100m opening

That’s my gut feeling. After the change in sales announcement based on this thread, now the last minute early shows, I get the feeling someone on her team is (or at least is now) a BOT lurker 

[VanillaSkies]

13 minutes ago, Grand Cine said:

Clearly the objective is to pass 100 million and have the biggest debut of all time for a October movie

To be fair, almost every movie has Thursday previews included in their opening weekend, so why not this one too.

 

Just odd that they didn’t do this from the get go.

[Porthos]

1 minute ago, Relevation said:

  Hide contents

So with this I presume Wish is not getting any day 1 updates lmao

 

 

Wish wasn't on my radar anyway.

 

2 minutes ago, Relevation said:

Track THU, FRI/matinee, and FRI/evening separately 

That way you don’t have to throw out FRI/evening tracking and can continue tracking growth but you can still get a good idea of where this is going 

 

 

Gonna depend on just what the local sets turn out to be, but splitting in three doesn't sound very appealing.  It's either All in one or a Thur/Fri split.

 

Problem here is, part of tracking isn't just to get the actual preview/whatever number.  It's also to establish growth patterns for other films.  Now, sure, this was already really atypical, but at least it had value for an extremely frontloaded type film.  Or any other music themed film that blew up.

 

But adding a whole day and a half 24 hours before first showtimes just completely wrecks all future utility.  

 

About the only thing it's worth would be for the numbers reported on Friday/Saturday.  Which isn't nothing but it's exceedingly thin gruel .  For me at least.

 

 

[eman92]

My theater has already removed all dolby and IMAX times on Thursday after 2 PM from Exorcist and Creator. That alone will add 6-8 showings, I'm curious how many regular showings they'll add. I think AMC knew about this earlier in the week because the Thursday showings already looked light before they did this. 

 

I still don't really understand the move, the no refunds basically means that anyone who sees it tomorrow will have to buy a 2nd ticket.

[VanillaSkies]

8 minutes ago, Speedorito said:

Yeah, I remember when she sold four identical versions of Midnights last year and people bought them all. It’s really shameless imo but her hardcore fans eat it up, so what can you do.

I mean, no one is forcing the fans to buy multiple version, see the film multiple times, etc. They have fun doing it, and her team makes money providing that. It’s hard to call it exploitive when it’s all voluntary. Do we call MCU shameless when they monopolize screens for weeks, do 3am showtimes and fans see films in theatres 3/4 times? 

[Bobzaruni]

I don't think its that much of a dick move from an audience perspective lol, its a recording of a concert not a narrative feature that can be spoiled

Edited October 12, 2023 by Bobzaruni

[emoviefan]

Is this really going to add to the weekend total? Her fanbase was going to go this weekend no matter what and has bought their tickets hence how frontloaded it was in presales. I guess if they don't allow refunds and the extreme diehards just go see it twice which they were probably planning already. 

[TwoMisfits]

I should mention, for Friday, my non-PLF Cinemark is now also starting at 2pm, and calling these EA showings...and again, they just ripped off any unsold showings...

 

More interestingly, my PLF 14 actually took down all their schedule for Friday except Taylor's original showings...ALL of the other showings are gone.  So, I guess they are rethinking the Friday schedule in full...

[Speedorito]

1 minute ago, VanillaSkies said:

I mean, no one is forcing the fans to buy multiple version, see the film multiple times, etc. They have fun doing it, and her team makes money providing that. It’s hard to call it exploitive when it’s all voluntary. Do we call MCU shameless when they monopolize screens for weeks, do 3am showtimes and fans see films in theatres 3/4 times? 

…Yes? It’s also not sprung on theaters at the last minute.

[Grand Cine]

Box office Pro who should change the OW prediction at the last minute

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Grand Cine
The GIF didn't pop up

[vafrow]

Nothing updated for MTC4 website, either for Thursday or Friday matinees.

 

They'll probably do it overnight I guess. I'm curious to how many showings they give the Thursday previews, and what type of rush we might see.

 

Just seeing how MTC4 allocated showtimes when it fonakzisz schedules for the weekend, my guess is they take a light touch.

[abracadabra1998]

23 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Has all this tracking been for nothing lmao I’m having an existential crisis over these news 

[Grand Cine]

@Porthos let other tracker for the Thursday , stay focus of the rest of the weekend , i think maybe @keysersoze123 could make the early access of tomorrow if he could