Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2015

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Vidiot, Dec 12, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Tickets sold, not buts in the seats.{I think}
     
  2. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I have a FB friend who's fairly obsessed with "Saturday Night Live" and all its alums. She complained that it wasn't fair "Star Wars" chose to come out the same day as "Sisters", for she felt "SW" would kill the Fey/Poehler movie's commercial chances.

    That was a weird interpretation - like "Sisters" claimed 12/18 and Disney said "we gotta take down that movie!"

    If the studio behind "Sisters" was concerned about how "SW" would affect its finances, they could've changed the release date. They knew what they were getting into with the release date.

    Maybe the studio figured the movie wouldn't do well so they gave it a brutal release date to spare the egos of those involved - it "Sisters" flops, they can shrug it off and blame "Star Wars"...
     
  3. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I didn't read the sign closely, but at the "SW" screening I took in last night, I saw a notice warning people about not going too crazy with costumes. I'm sure this was a continued reflection of the 2012 "Dark Knight Rises" shooting - they didn't want to admit anyone with anything that even vaguely looked like a real weapon, methinks.

    Edit - I see Vidiot beat me to it!
     
  4. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Star Wars will ruin the whole industry. From now on no movie will get made until they troll the internet to find out what fans want, hire a script doctor to make it gel and unleash in on a public who wrote it anyway. :laugh:
     
    johnnyyen, spewey and Karnak like this.
  5. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    I heard that at some screenings fans were turning on their lightsabers during fight scenes, now that would annoy me to no end.
     
    Vidiot likes this.
  6. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Don't think that kind of stuff allowed inside.
     
  7. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Those weren't lightsabers - they were just happy to see you...
     
  8. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Oh, I misinterpreted. Actually the movie sounds like it reflects the book reasonably well; the entire second half of the movie, after the spectacular whale attack, is basically a survival story. Actually, as I noted, it's kind of similar to Life of Pi, and like the movie of the latter it's careful to avoid being too gruesome vis-a-vis the cannibalism.
     
  9. spewey

    spewey Senior Member

    Location:
    Little Rock
    Yup...totally agree.

    Say what you want about the prequels....but they were original....and didn't recycle the same plot from 1977.
     
  10. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    I'm thinking not.
     
  11. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Star Wars just beat the single-day record with over $120 million domestic on Friday (including Thursday previews, which accounts for over a third of the total). Seems to be on track for a $215 million+ weekend, could be as high as $250 million. Perhaps needless to say, that would be the highest weekend domestic gross ever, unadjusted of course. The record for an entire top 12 in a weekend is $266 million, set last June...even that record is at risk by Star Wars alone.

    Reviews have been very good so now I think $700 million is reachable. I am still not sure it has the legs to beat Avatar ($760 million), which made over $15 million in its tenth week. It's just not the kind of new experience that gets people to the theatre who wouldn't otherwise go. However, Star Wars is starting from a much stronger position. It's already a third of the way there in weekend 1.
     
    lbangs likes this.
  12. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    Had tickets for IMAX 3d last night and the wife had a migraine so we gave them away. Amazing that it was more difficult to give them away than I expected as nearly everyone in my office had tickets for this weekend. That kinda says a lot. These are not a bunch of movie goers.
     
  13. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    There are those who believe that the original Star Wars ruined the industry because it convinced Hollywood that big, blockbuster franchises could rule the summer. I don't know if I'd use the word "ruined," but it definitely changed things forever, and not necessarily in a good way. I think even George Lucas has regrets over that, because he's definitely a man who likes small films, medium-sized films, and big films. Not everything has to be a blockbuster.
     
    deadcoldfish, budwhite and Mylene like this.
  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    But don't we still have plenty of small and medium films? Yes, Hollywood has a blockbuster mentality, but it's not like smaller films no longer exist...
     
  15. neo123

    neo123 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Kentucky
  16. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    They tend to get buried by the weight of the blockbusters. The number of Hollywood studio films that come out year after year is shrinking, and studios are now far more concerned about marketing than they are about the actual quality of the story or the cast or the director. That book I constantly cite, Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales of the New Abnormal in the Movie Business goes into this extremely well. Read what Spielberg & Lucas say here:

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielberg-predicts-implosion-film-567604
     
    eddiel likes this.
  17. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident

    The movie Spotlight got strong reviews and made a lot of top 10 lists this year. Saw it in Seattle a week ago, and we had a good audience that applauded at the end. I know it's a tough subject, but I would have thought it would have done more than the $23 million it's grossed so far in the c. month that it's been out. The production budget was a relatively modest $20m, even with the great cast, but that probably means it needs to get to c. $40m to breakeven, and that's not looking likely at this point. For anyone who hasn't seen it, I recommend it. It deals sensitively with the subject. In other words, there are no flashbacks (if that makes sense), and it gets an R for just a few uses of language. Here's the trailer, which features a haunting piano/chamber score by Howard Shore, as well as a haunting cover version of an old XTC pop song ....One of the best newspaper movies ever made imho.

     
    heatherly likes this.
  18. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident

    In contrast, Steven Spielberg has managed yet again to produce one of his "art house" historical movies for c. $40-60m (depending on what source you look at) that seems to be a solid hit:


    Bridge of Spies
    Domestic Total as of Dec. 17, 2015:$69,719,654
    Distributor: Buena Vista Release Date: October 16, 2015
    Genre: Thriller Runtime: 2 hrs. 20 min.
    MPAA Rating: PG-13 Production Budget: $40 million
    Total Lifetime Grosses
    Domestic: $69,719,654 53.6%
    + Foreign: $60,353,171 46.4%
    = Worldwide: $130,072,825
     
  19. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Not that it needs anymore recommendations but...I bought it based on Vidiots recommendation and it is a really good book. It's well written and very interesting.
     
  20. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    What's interesting is that I had been seeing similar essays since the early 2000s, as well as hearing interviews from Martin Scorsese, Spielberg, Ron Howard, and other "traditional" filmmakers who were complaining how difficult it is to make a deal with a studio to make a $30M-$40M "small" dramatic film. There's very little attention being made to those films nowadays. It's either low-budget $8M (or lower) indie films, or it's $80M+ blockbusters. Almost nothing in between. It's madness.
     
    eddiel and lbangs like this.
  21. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member

  22. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think Spielberg was disappointed that the film wasn't better received critically, and I think he was hoping for a few Oscar nominations for it. But the reality is that Bridge of Spies kind of got buried by a lot more visible films, both artistically and commercially. I'm glad that the movie at least made $130M, but by comparison, Lincoln (another historical film with critical aspirations) made $250M and was nominated for 12 Oscars.
     
    benjaminhuf likes this.
  23. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Bridge of Spies was hyped mercilessly in Australia. Lots of talk radio personalities talked it up non stop. By the time it hit the cinemas I was sick of hearing about it.
     
  24. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    As much of a Spielberg fan as I am, I never got around to seeing it (which I regret). The only other film of his I didn't see in a theater was Amistad, which is kind of a forgotten Spielberg film -- also another historical costume drama. In Amistad's case, it didn't make much money.
     
  25. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    I guess this falls into the category Top Stolen movies of 2015

    http://variety.com/2015/digital/new...ing-increase-in-downloads-1201667982/#respond

    The most pirated movies of 2015 - that's a lot of stolen cheddar $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

    #1) 46,762,310 Interstellar (2014)
    #2) 44,794,877 Furious 7 (2015)
    #3) 41,594,159 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
    #4) 36,881,763 Jurassic World (2015)
    #5) 36,443,244 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
    #6) 33,953,737 American Sniper (2014)
    #7) 32,126,827 Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
    #8) 31,574,872 The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armys (2014)
    #9) 31,001,480 Terminator: Genesis (2015)
    #10) 30,922,987 The Secret Service (2014)

    #11) 26,792,863 Focus (2015)
    #12) 25,883,469 San Andreas (2015)
    #13) 23,495,140 The Minions (2015)
    #14) 22,734,070 Inside Out (2015)
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine