(LOTR) American filmgoers and LOTR
- Thread starter Edena_of_Neith
- Start date
Edena_of_Neith
First Post
Heh.
Just returned to the message boards with a thread, and whap!
It's going to be an interesting ride ...
- - -
Remember, 2/3rds of all the money to produce FOTR and it's sequels was put up by non-American investors.
Also, remember the film was made in New Zealand.
Thus, it is a foreign film, not a Hollywood film (which is good, considering what Hollywood would have done to it.)
That also means 2/3rds of the profits, will go to those foreign investors, methinks.
This is no Hollywood film.
But it is a good film. Worth the seeing, the time and trouble, and then some.
Too bad most of my fellow Americans don't agree with me, but go figure.
Just returned to the message boards with a thread, and whap!
It's going to be an interesting ride ...
- - -
Remember, 2/3rds of all the money to produce FOTR and it's sequels was put up by non-American investors.
Also, remember the film was made in New Zealand.
Thus, it is a foreign film, not a Hollywood film (which is good, considering what Hollywood would have done to it.)
That also means 2/3rds of the profits, will go to those foreign investors, methinks.
This is no Hollywood film.
But it is a good film. Worth the seeing, the time and trouble, and then some.
Too bad most of my fellow Americans don't agree with me, but go figure.
Wicht
Hero
I don't know about how many foreign investors invest in most movies so I woun't touch that point, but...
c'mon Edena... You make it sound like most Americans hate this film or something. The fact is, most people who see it are going to enjoy it and more people have gone to see it than go to see many films that are made.
Theatres may have their problems but the response to LotR has been pretty good IMO. So only 10% of Americans have seen the movie - so what. What exactly is your point? You think that 50% of Americans should watch it? 60%? I predict that by the time it has been around for 10 -20 years nearly every American within the right age range will have seen it and that it will be, in its own way, just as big as Gone with the Wind. But as far as going to see it in a Theatre, no - you will never get a majority of Americans IMO to go see any one movie in a theatre. Take the profits from Star Wars during the first 2 or 3 months and figure out the percentage of Americans that went and saw it - I bet its not a majority. What percentage of Americans actually watch the Super Bowl and look how big that is (I have incidentally never seen a Super Bowl in my life). Point is, revenue is what matters, not "percentages of Americans viewing", and revenue wise, LotR is probably making P.Jackson ecstatic.
Wicht said:
That's pretty high; the Super Bowl is almost always the highest-rated show on televesion for the year.
OTOH, LotR did better than any World Series (even this years, which featured games, great drama, and great baseball) or NBA Finals that I can remember (even Barkley's Suns vs. Jordan's Bulls).
I have to think that there's simply a lot more competition for entertainment dollars these days, between sports, movies, television, video games, other games, and the internet. Especially in a less than great economy, making $300 million on a movie is amazing.
Edena_of_Neith
First Post
I think Drothgery has the right of it.
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There's something else you may be forgetting - the movies in 1939 were a different creature than they are today. You didn't walk in, see a single feature and walk out. You walked in, saw some cartoons or short subjects, saw a feature, and saw one or more newsreels, maybe saw another feature...
The newreel was, IIRC, a huge draw. This is before CNN. Before television became a major distributor of news. Going to the movies was a major way of finding out what was going on outside your own town. Many of the people buying second-go tickets for Gone with the Wind may have been doing so more because there was a new newsreel than to see the feature again.
In general, it isn't fair to flatly compare 1939 filmgoers to today's, without taking the social context into account. The purpose of the movie house has changed over time, and you do both today's and yesterday's movies a disservice if you ignore that.
The newreel was, IIRC, a huge draw. This is before CNN. Before television became a major distributor of news. Going to the movies was a major way of finding out what was going on outside your own town. Many of the people buying second-go tickets for Gone with the Wind may have been doing so more because there was a new newsreel than to see the feature again.
In general, it isn't fair to flatly compare 1939 filmgoers to today's, without taking the social context into account. The purpose of the movie house has changed over time, and you do both today's and yesterday's movies a disservice if you ignore that.
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Super Bowl?
Yeah, but "highest-rated" doesn't mean people are _watching_ it. It means TVs are tuned to that channel. A fairly high amount of those TVs are in locales where 'Super Bowl Parties' are occurring, and--while it may be different outside my geographic area--and while I realize that American 'football' has its rabid fans--my experience with these parties (I typically attend--or, rather, shuttle between--2-3 per year.) is that the game is on, but serves primarily as background noise for the party. Ratings numbers can often be misleading.
Regards,
Darrell King
drothgery said:
Yeah, but "highest-rated" doesn't mean people are _watching_ it. It means TVs are tuned to that channel. A fairly high amount of those TVs are in locales where 'Super Bowl Parties' are occurring, and--while it may be different outside my geographic area--and while I realize that American 'football' has its rabid fans--my experience with these parties (I typically attend--or, rather, shuttle between--2-3 per year.) is that the game is on, but serves primarily as background noise for the party. Ratings numbers can often be misleading.
Regards,
Darrell King
Edena_of_Neith
First Post
Heh.
All good points.
Well, we can wish for the stars, but we will not reach them just by wishing, I suppose.
I thought FOTR was extremely good.
So good that I wish every American who could have gone to have seen it, would have done so.
Heh ... I'm willing to bet a greater part of them would not have regretted the time and effort!
1 out of 10 Americans who could have gone, did.
I say, 10 out of 10 Americans who could have gone, should have gone!
But, I'm a Tolkien Fan, and I liked the film, and I dragged the folks to it, so go figure.
I might wish that 10 out of 10 would have gone, but then again, I can wish for the stars too.
- - -
By the way, I ran across a figure that stated that FOTR needed to make $225 million just to break even.
Considering FOTR cost $93 million to make, I wonder where that extra $132 million came from??
I suppose that if FOTR needed $225 million to break even, then TTT will need $225 million, and ROTK will need $225 million.
Or, $675 million, just to break even.
Now, FOTR has already grossed $587 million, so if my scenario (worst case? I don't know how it works in films, folks!) is true, then FOTR has already almost paid for the entire trilogy.
But I must wonder where $132 million came from.
That's a lot of money, to come out of the blue like that, even considering the cost of films nowadays.
All good points.
Well, we can wish for the stars, but we will not reach them just by wishing, I suppose.
I thought FOTR was extremely good.
So good that I wish every American who could have gone to have seen it, would have done so.
Heh ... I'm willing to bet a greater part of them would not have regretted the time and effort!
1 out of 10 Americans who could have gone, did.
I say, 10 out of 10 Americans who could have gone, should have gone!
But, I'm a Tolkien Fan, and I liked the film, and I dragged the folks to it, so go figure.
I might wish that 10 out of 10 would have gone, but then again, I can wish for the stars too.
- - -
By the way, I ran across a figure that stated that FOTR needed to make $225 million just to break even.
Considering FOTR cost $93 million to make, I wonder where that extra $132 million came from??
I suppose that if FOTR needed $225 million to break even, then TTT will need $225 million, and ROTK will need $225 million.
Or, $675 million, just to break even.
Now, FOTR has already grossed $587 million, so if my scenario (worst case? I don't know how it works in films, folks!) is true, then FOTR has already almost paid for the entire trilogy.
But I must wonder where $132 million came from.
That's a lot of money, to come out of the blue like that, even considering the cost of films nowadays.
Wicht
Hero
High ratings also IIRC do not always equate with majority percentages. If you get only 5% of the country watching any one show at a time its gonna get a high rating - so what percentages do the high ratings of the super bowl equate out to... 15%, 20%
And again the real question is how much revenue did the movie generate, not how many people watched it.
hellbender
First Post
The theatre draw of a movie anymore is a pretty moot point anyway. Theatres are dying? Good! Maybe they will learn to provide customer service and lower prices to reasonable rates. Your real sales anymore is in video and dvd sales and rentals.
That said, I saw the Fellowship 3 times already, and it is the first movie I had bothered to hit the theatres to see since Gladiator.
Movie theatres are overpriced and annoying. I would rather the movie went straight to DVD than have to wait for a theatre run.
Having seen movies overseas, it is amazing to see that some places actually have a great theatre atmosphere. At home I don't have to tell the people around me to be quiet, and popcorn is much cheaper.
hellbender
That said, I saw the Fellowship 3 times already, and it is the first movie I had bothered to hit the theatres to see since Gladiator.
Movie theatres are overpriced and annoying. I would rather the movie went straight to DVD than have to wait for a theatre run.
Having seen movies overseas, it is amazing to see that some places actually have a great theatre atmosphere. At home I don't have to tell the people around me to be quiet, and popcorn is much cheaper.
hellbender
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