Grindhouse

Mark CMG · Apr 12, 2007

Mistwell said:
(. . .)

Well, I guess you must know something I do not.

Cthulhudrew · Apr 12, 2007

Grindhouse didn't do that much worse than Are We Done Yet? (less than $3 million difference) and AWDY was in about 250 more theaters. That, plus its R rating, plus the fact that it is 3 hours long(!)- twice as long as AWDY- I think certainly adds up to plenty of rationale behind its poor showing other than "it stank!" That three hours really does hurt it compared to the other films, financially. You can get a lot more screenings of the others in within that time frame.

The top grossing movie of the weekend was $22 million dollars- hardly a OMGWOW! showing. Easter is not a great weekend to open any movie, frankly, for whatever reason.

That said, Mistwell is right that its numbers are unlikely to go up this weekend- but that's pretty much par for the course. Very few movies equal or exceed their opening weekend numbers. I doubt it will get pulled so soon, or at least not any earlier than most films do nowadays. Feature box office life is incredibly and increasingly short.

ShinHakkaider · Apr 12, 2007

Truth Seeker said:
Not a 'dropkick' but a Leg drop....a smashing one.

It's actually an AXE KICK.

ShinHakkaider · Apr 12, 2007

Cthulhudrew said:
1. The Passion of the Christ ($15.2 mil)
2. Hellboy ($10.8 mil)
3. Johnson Family Vacation ($9.4 mil)
4. The Alamo ($9.1 mil)
5. Walking Tall ($8.4 mil)

Of all of those movies in the top 5 during Easter weekend, I don't see any (aside from Phone Booth) that are rated R (though I'll have to double check a couple).

Passion of the Christ is rated R. A pretty hard R from what I heard, but the subject matter was relevant to the holiday...

Oh yeah...

They Frakked with the wrong Mexican!

MACHETE

The Grumpy Celt · Apr 12, 2007

I wonder whose idea it was to have an Easter opening anyway? That said movies make more these days on DVD sales than in theaters, so I think this flick will make its money back sooner or later.

DonTadow · Apr 12, 2007

I don't know about the dvd sales for this movie. It just feels so much like a Movie theater movie. I couldn't imagine seeing it at home unless I had a home theater.

Felon · Apr 14, 2007

Mistwell said:
Wow. Okay, I give up. You guys are right...the studio had no idea at all about what they were doing with their money. It was just obvious to anyone that this movie would tank because it was Easter Weekend. And as soon as a normal weekend hits, in 2 days, it will skyrocket.

You are being somewhat obtuse. The stuido didn't walk blindly into a brick wall.

We are well past the days when a movie's success or failure--or, to use a less nebulous assessment, profit margin--hinged entirely on its box office gross, and movie studios are well are aware of this even if the rest of the world isn't. Movies that are family unfriendly--namely, R-rated action and horror films--focus on cleaning up with DVD sales (and, to a lesser degree, pay-per-view and other secondary sources).

In fact, we are quite likely well past the days when we can actually expect another Robocop or Total Recall to clean up in the theatres. In-your-face over-the-top violence was, for a small time, the stuff of summer blockbusters, but the studio has figured out a formula that says that the date-movie crowds and the family-movie crowds are where the money is, and while they may want thrilling action and adventure, they don't want to see lots of gore (in direct defiance of all those pessimistic cyberpunk projections about the desensitization of the American public). This is why Spider-Man is the new millenium's champion of summer blockbusters and The Punisher isn't.

The day we aren't past, however, is the day where a movie can go the direct-to-DVD route without being written off as a shoestring-budget non-event. Grindhouse is an R-rated movie, it has a three-hour-and-twenty-minute running time, and it has a premise that was simply impossible to communicate clearly to the general moviegoing audience. Any one of those things hurt box office profits, and you can rest assured that none of these details were lost on the studio. But they know a big-budget movie still needs a widespread theatre release, so they do so and hope for lightning to strike.

And you know what else studios know? More and more, folks are deciding that going to the movies is a lousy deal. They'd rather own the $30 DVD. This is where a long running time doesn't hurt your sells. It helps! So do things like "extended version" and "unrated" and "director's cut". Can you imagine how jam-packed the Grindhouse DVD will be? They'll be releasing new editions for years to come.

You watch. This movie isn't going to suddenly rebound this upcoming weekend. Something went wrong with this film. Maybe the advertising, maybe how long the movie turned out to be, maybe people are not buying into the concept. But it wasn't external factors like competition or Easter.

Well, lightning didn't strike, but nothing went actually wrong here. Your outlook on this is just too short-term.

Felon · Apr 14, 2007

DonTadow said:
I don't know about the dvd sales for this movie. It just feels so much like a Movie theater movie. I couldn't imagine seeing it at home unless I had a home theater.

??? So you don't have LotR or Star Wars on DVD?

That's exactly the kind of movie that does well on DVD...which probably has something to do with the DVD being released once you don't have the option of seeing the movie on the big screen anymore (clever little suckers, those movie industry people!).

Cthulhudrew · Apr 14, 2007

Felon said:
That's exactly the kind of movie that does well on DVD...which probably has something to do with the DVD being released once you don't have the option of seeing the movie on the big screen anymore (clever little suckers, those movie industry people!).

Agreed on this point. Especially since the option of viewing only parts of the movie (like, say, watching Planet Terror 5 times and never once watching Deathproof, or just skipping to the chase sequence) makes it all the more appealing to people like me.

Mistwell · Apr 14, 2007

Felon said:
You are being somewhat obtuse. The stuido didn't walk blindly into a brick wall.

We are well past the days when a movie's success or failure--or, to use a less nebulous assessment, profit margin--hinged entirely on its box office gross, and movie studios are well are aware of this even if the rest of the world isn't. Movies that are family unfriendly--namely, R-rated action and horror films--focus on cleaning up with DVD sales (and, to a lesser degree, pay-per-view and other secondary sources).

Your insulting attitude aside, I do some work in that industry, as does my wife.
Pay per view? Are you kidding me?

I never said everything hinged on box office gross. But a LOT does, when you go for a box office release like the studio did with this movie. Studios do not make movies hoping to recoup expenses on DVDs, if they go for a wide release in the theaters for the movie. There are significantly different strategies used for a direct to DVD release vs. a theater release, and in this case the money was spent and route taken was towards theater release. Sure, they will make some DVD money, but that was not the plan, and it's not going to make up for all the money sunk into the box office release. This movie is going to come out a massive negative for the studio.

DVD sales are trending down by the way, not up. Movie ticket sales are trending up, not down. You information on those trends may be a few years old.

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 .

And you know what else studios know? More and more, folks are deciding that going to the movies is a lousy deal. They'd rather own the $30 DVD. This is where a long running time doesn't hurt your sells. It helps! So do things like "extended version" and "unrated" and "director's cut". Can you imagine how jam-packed the Grindhouse DVD will be? They'll be releasing new editions for years to come.

Well, lightning didn't strike, but nothing went actually wrong here. Your outlook on this is just too short-term.

Again movie ticket sales are UP, not down. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-04-01-box-office-2007_N.htm

And DVD sales are trending DOWN, not up.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/12/29/analysts-predict-declining-dvd-sales-in-2007/

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.