Grindhouse

[Felon]

Your insulting attitude aside, I do some work in that industry, as does my wife.

I don't think my attitude has been insulting, but then again you probably don't think yours has been snide. I guess it's a push.

...This movie is going to come out a massive negative for the studio...There is no question at all - NONE - that this studio is extremely disappointed with how this movie did, and it is losing money. That's not debatable, it's not a matter of opinion, it's a fact....There is no way you can make lemonade out of that lemon....I know you think I have some dog in this fight. I don't....This movie is bombing so hard it is making splashes through the industry.

I don't know if you have a dog in the fight, but you sure are cutting loose with the hyberbole full-blast. massive bomb, major disaster, spashes through the industry, and so forth.

Bottom line: a movie that wasn't expected to make a great deal of money wound up making less. I'm curious as to what you think the studio's expectations for the opening weekend was. Throw a number out there for us. If you are indeed involved with the industry, then you should know how assiduously studios avoid an R-rating, and how significantly a long running time can impact ticket saltes. Kill Bill's $50 mil opening was considered a surprising success, and it had a low runtime due to the whole two-volume approach.

And DVD sales are trending DOWN, not up.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/2...-sales-in-2007/

That's a good example of your exaggeration right there. That article does not indicate a "trending down". All it does is take a report on Best Buy & Circuit City's 2006 DVD sales and makes a projection that 2007 might be "the first year in consumer spending history that DVD sales actually decline". So, looking at consumer spending history as a whole, DVD sales have apparently been doing pretty well.

And that article on Harry Potter avoding "Grindhouse fate" is so specious that it's kind of funny. A classic exercise in rumormongering. A movie got its runtime cut. Well, that simply has to be Grindhouse blowback because, y'know, movies almost never get their runtimes trimmed down. Note that the article's author, "our ANI correspondent" (gee, wonder why a real name isn't provided) states a correlary as fact ("What has movie bosses really spooked is the fate of 'Grindhouse', a three-hour plus double feature by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez which bombed at the box-office.") but doesn't provide any support for it. Yet some folks will still take it as gospel, then tell other people there's no room for debate or opinion because it's simple fact.

 

[Mistwell]

Bottom line: a movie that wasn't expected to make a great deal of money wound up making less. I'm curious as to what you think was studio's expectations for the opening weekend. Throw a number out there for us.

I don't have to, the studio did. The listed expectation was just about 100% more than it made on opening weekend, and from there you calculate about a 50% drop on each weekend thereafter, give or take. Studio had expectations set at athe ballpark of Tarantino's two ''Kill Bill'' movies and Rodriguez's ''Sin City,'' whose opening weekends ranged from $22 million to $29 million (though they were talking on the low end of that, as usual being conservative).

So the movie made 50% of what it was supposed to make on opening weekend, and then 50% less again than it was supposed to make (a 75% drop instead of a 50% drop) on the second weekend.

If you are indeed involved with the industry, then you should know how assiduously studios avoid an R-rating, and how significantly a long running time can impact ticket saltes. Kill Bill's $50 mil opening was considered a surprising success, and it had a low runtime due to the whole two-volume approach.

Yes, I know all of that. Not relevant however. I am working off of the standard numbers. Which is the number of theaters, the ratings, the weekend, etc.. all of which goes into the listed expectation for a movie. We don't need to guess. This stuff has gotten down to a science for many years now. You can look up expectations for a movie before it comes out now, and most of the time it is right one the money or really close to it.

That's a good example of your exaggeration right there. That article does not indicate a "trending down".

Yes, it does. If you sell X DVDs in year one, and you expect X-10% in the next year, , then trend is down. The article doesn't need to use the word trend for it to be an actual trend.

All it does is take a report on Best Buy & Circuit City's 2006 DVD sales and makes a projection that 2007 might be "the first year in consumer spending history that DVD sales actually decline". So, looking at consumer spending history as a whole, DVD sales have apparently been doing pretty well.

Neither of us made any claim about if DVD sales over many prior years overall doing well. I said it was trending down, not up. Your claim was that it was trending up, not down.

And that article on Harry Potter is so specious that it's kind of funny. A movie got its runtime cut. Well, that simply has to be Grindhouse blowback because, y'know, movies almost never get their runtimes trimmed down. Note that the article's author, "our ANI correspondent" (i.e. "anonymous rumormonger") states a correlary as fact ("What has movie bosses really spooked is the fate of 'Grindhouse', a three-hour plus double feature by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez which bombed at the box-office.") but doesn't provide any support for it.

I give up. Have it your way. This movie will be known as a massive success for this studio, due to DVD sales which are increasing. Besides, nobody cares about ticket sales, because nobody is going to the movies anymore. Glad we have that all settled.

 

[el-remmen]

Robert Rodriguez has not made a good movie since "El Mariachi".

Planet Terror was 20 minutes of good stuff made four times as long. . . Blech.

Deathproof was much better, but the diner dialogue was Tarantino at his self-indulgent worst.

I am glad I saw a sneak preview a few weeks ago and did not pay for the ticket.

 

[Gunslinger]

I loved Planet Terror, it was pure adrenaline fueled fun. Death Proof...not so much (I didn't care for the ending, I like to root for the bad guys most of the time).

[Edited to fix having mentioned Planet Terror instead of DP ]

...and I hit quote instead of edit, what do you know

 

[CrusaderX]

There is no question at all - NONE - that this studio is extremely disappointed with how this movie did, and it is losing money. That's not debatable, it's not a matter of opinion, it's a fact. Weinstein himself said he is "[R]eally disappointed with the paltry opening" http://in.news.yahoo.com/070411/139/6eepb.html . In fact, he just said (in addition to that disappointment): "We tried to do something new and obviously we didn't do it that well," See: "Even Weinstein says Grindhouse a dud". http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/202618 .

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As far as this movie, it just dropped SEVENTY-FOUR PERCENT in the second weekend.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/disturbia-opens-no-1-on-friday-the-13th/

"Meanwhile, there was more bad news at the box office for Quentin Tarantino's, Robert Rodriguez's and Harvey Weinstein's double-feature Grindhouse. Not only did the Hard R-rated pic place only 11th its second week out, but The Weinstein Co.'s release dropped a whopping 74% Friday to squeeze out only $1.3 mil from 2,629 venues for a paltry new cume of $16.7 mil. Its per-screen average of just $494 meant the much-hyped movie was playing in near-empty theaters. The most it could make this weekend is $4 mil."

There is no way you can make lemonade out of that lemon. Even the pessimists surrounding this movie didn't predict that big a drop in the second weekend. This is a disaster for this movie. It's already become a cautionary tale in the industry, with the new Harry Potter movie having it's run time cut because Grindhouse bombed so hard: http://www.dailyindia.com/show/133217.php/Fifth-Potter-flick-shortened-to-avoid-Grindhouse-fate

I know you think I have some dog in this fight. I don't. I wish the movie HAD done well, and I have nothing against this movie or it's creators, and I plan on seeing it soon (before they pull it from the theaters). But I'm telling you, sometimes movies fail, and this one failed. I'm not being short sighted in saying that, or uneducated, or anything like that. This movie is bombing so hard it is making splashes through the industry.

Mistwell is right. This movie bombed big time, and I can't see how anyone can spin this any other way.

Ka-Boom!

 

[Mouseferatu]

And that's the way my luck runs...

I chose not to buy tickets online because the movie's doing so poorly, get to the theater, and discover it's sold out.

Bleah.

 

[Felon]

I give up. Have it your way. This movie will be known as a massive success for this studio, due to DVD sales which are increasing. Besides, nobody cares about ticket sales, because nobody is going to the movies anymore. Glad we have that all settled.

Your right to complain about any else having an insulting attitude is hereby revoked.

 

[Felon]

Mistwell is right. This movie bombed big time, and I can't see how anyone can spin this any other way.

Thanks for your comments. Next time I watch "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back", I will think of you and the rest of the drive-by snipers at Poopshoot.com.

Sorry, but if the projection for an opening weekend was 22 million, and it only made 11, well that ain't much of a margin between "did OK" and "ka-boom". If only it had made a whopping two or three mil more, it would've just snuck as a "disappointment" I suppose.

 

[Felon]

And that's the way my luck runs...

I chose not to buy tickets online because the movie's doing so poorly, get to the theater, and discover it's sold out.

They were just screwing with you, man. They figured they could just convert that theater into a giant-sized employee's lounge and nobody would notice....

 

[hong]

Sorry, but if the projection for an opening weekend was 22 million, and it only made 11, well that ain't much of a margin between "did OK" and "ka-boom".

I dunno mang, that 11 million shortfall would buy a lot of D&D minis.