May 4, 2012 Weekend (AVENGERS Opening Discussion): ACTUAL 207.4 mill!!!!

[Jack Nevada]

Citizen Kane was a movie that stayed with me after watching it. I enjoyed it immensely, it had brilliant acting, editing, writing and fabulous cinematography. I wasn't bored for a second. It's one of the best movies I have seen.

Edited May 5, 2012 by Jack Nevada

[Biggestgeekever]

It'll be remarkable to see if this success translates into the rest of the summer. Avengers basically had all the huge films of the summer attached with trailers, and this is really the best exposure imaginable for them.

My take is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that the film, in some ways, acted as the quasi-finale to a franchise. Five films have been building up to this massive meet-up. Similar to how the middle Potter flicks served as less interesting to mainstream viewers, installments like Hulk/Cap/Thor were just filler for most non-comic fans.

By the way, Shawn, I just want to say very well done with your prediction for The Avengers! Your call $180+m was really gutsy (and is now looking to be LOW, good lord), and you were basically the only person I saw who called the possibility of $200m happening.

[redfirebird2008]

Its kind of funny... I look at Avengers as the kind of popcorn movie with substance that Michael Bay has been trying for years to make (and, in many's eyes, failing at -- even though I personally enjoy most of his work). Battleship, meanwhile, is a blatant and almost insulting attempt to capitalize on Bay's biggest and most well-liked success...without him having a single thing to do with it.I love this industry.

Indeed. My hope is that Avengers will open the moviegoing public's eyes. You can have a big, "fun," "lighthearted" spectacle with smart writing and legitimately funny moments. You don't have to accept the trash of Bay's Transformers series with its fart joke material and shaky cam action sequences.

[ecstasy]

Are you going to read them all?

LOL I tried reading some of them but no. I really lowballed my prediction but I must say I'm happy to be wrong. Good Lord.Nikki's last estimate at around midnight for 70m was interesting. I'm pretty sure the West Coast exploded. People were still going in to the movies at 11;30 pst. This is a great weekend to be a box office fan. I loved the movie and so did my daughter and that makes it even better. It's so much fun I can see people enjoying this for a long time to come.

[baumer]

Maybe I ask why is TA opening this big? I dont know much about the comics, but does the hype on TA simply equal Ironman, Thor, Hulk and so on combined together or sth? I mean, the biggest of them is Ironman 2, which only opened to a 128m wknd.

I'll take a stab at this, and to be fair, Mav and BKB have been saying this for months, I just happen to agree with them.Avengers is unique in that it is not a film just for superhero or comic loonies. By now most people have heard of Iron Man and the rest. So by putting them in a film together, you not only bring out the hardcores, you bring out the casual fan who loves the novelty of seeing something that has never been done before and that is to take four movie characters and put them into one movie. Imagine if Rambo and The Terminator and say Riggs and Murtaugh were in a film together back in the late 80s early 90's? People would have lost their minds. The curiosity factor in this is perhaps bigger than any film before it simply because something like this has never been done.

[Heretic]

I'm sure he's not serious.

Oh no, he definitely is.

[Dementeleus]

To be fair, I think the individual movies provide an important (and overlooked) necessity: character development. A movie like Avengers can't afford much time to make you sympathize with or understand every single top-tier character. Its built on its nature as a popcorn flick and non-fans have to go into the movie with at least some understanding of each character and where they come from. Context, basically.

What character development is left to do?

P.S. Why are we even talking about KANE? (A tremendous, stunning, timeless film.... but hardly one that's usually discussed in a thread about superheroes).

[redfirebird2008]

I'm sure this has already been mentioned but does anyone know what its OD would be without 3D?

I calculated $69.3 million. That was assuming 3D prices are 30% higher than 2D. Some have said that's too low on the premium, that it's more like 35-45%. Who knows. But you can safely say it added at least $11m to the gross.

[baumer]

That does not bode well for its legs if true.

You're being a bit of a moron now. What does that have to do with legs? How about the A+ CS? That's a hell of a lot more telling than it's 3D share.

[Jawa]

Ha ha. The Battleship trailer got booed at my theatre. It was awesome. I even heard someone say, "More like BattleSHIT."

[Jack Nevada]

BattleSHIT you say?

[Tower]

You should see Amadeus, thats a near-perfect movie. And Citizen Kane is awesome.

Really, IMO citizen Kane is one of the worst films I have ever seen, easily in my top 10 least liked films of all time.

[baumer]

Whats up with the Citizen Kane hate? I love that movie. I wasn't bored at all.

It's one of the worst films I've ever seen.But this is about Avengers today. I will not bog it down with mentioning of it anymore.

[riczhang]

Citizen Kane shouldn't even be there.....haven't seen Amadeus.

Come on Citizen Kane is the epitome of a perfect movie, #1 all time for me, and Amadeus is pretty much as perfect as it comes, ranks #19 on my list. But #31 for The Avengers is way too high, probably deserves top 250, but definitely not that high, wouldn't have a problem with the ranking if it was 200 or lower.

[Shawn Robbins]

What character development is left to do?

Well, obviously *now* its a little trickier. I mainly was referring to the initial set-up films. But still, maybe I'm alone here, but I think Cap and Thor could use some more development on their own. Especially the former since he's kind of the intended star of the Avengers and he takes a back seat to Stark in Whedon's film.(Not a complaint, either, just an observation.)

[Biggestgeekever]

You're being a bit of a moron now. What does that have to do with legs? How about the A+ CS? That's a hell of a lot more telling than it's 3D share.

No one can possibly be negative about The Avengers now, not at this point, but gosh darn is that RTX giving it his damnedest!

[iceroll]

We're gonna hit 100 pages on this daily thread soon. I think the biggest daily thread on BOM was around 75 pages for New Moon.

[Olive]

How is TA performing today?

[Neo]

Maybe I ask why is TA opening this big? I dont know much about the comics, but does the hype on TA simply equal Ironman, Thor, Hulk and so on combined together or sth? I mean, the biggest of them is Ironman 2, which only opened to a 128m wknd.

Its more than that. Its a 4 year plan, a CB fans dream to see this one screen and add this together and you get the Avengers.

[riczhang]

No one can possibly be negative about The Avengers now, not at this point, but gosh darn is that RTX giving it his damnedest!

And an A+ score for effort, but it's not working.