FF fights H'wood slump...and wins...

[DarrenJSeeley]

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20050710/112103124000.html

Opening weekend take is in the $50+ mil range. That was better than projected. Now, the only folks the FF has to worry about is some Wedding Crashers...

Anyway, hate it, love it, or mildly accept it, if nothing else, the FF is credited with breaking the so-called H'wood box office slump.

Those who loved the film may gloat now.
Those who hated the film could have your heads spin.
Fox may be 24 hours away from giving the sequel go ahead....[/url]

[DS]

Proving once again that writing for the "Spy Kids" crowd will make you money... at least until word-of-mouth does you in from the 2nd weekend on.

So far, the ONLY people I actually know who have gone to see Fantastic Four are the twin 3-year olds my girlfriend watches and their parents. Everyone else (comic fan or not) has either turned their nose up at it outright, or will only see it during the lower-priced matinee.

Poop-on-a-stick still stinks no matter how many kids want to eat it up.

[easy D]

Hey, I liked it. Although, "Spy Kids" maybe a bit overstating it a bit, but Hollywood does know that family films usually brings in a good amount of money, so shooting for family money does make sense.
Look at the Harry Potter and Spider-Man franchises.

[The Xenos]

As I said in the Batman thread, this makes me wonder if Batman Begins would have done better had it been released on a Friday like FF instead of a Wednesday? Perhaps that might have been heraleded as the one that beat the slump of not beating the same weekend the year before. Then again it all depends what crappy film was released on year ago. Makes me wonder how much fluff all these media hypes stats are.

-Xenos

[Zac]

I think the problem BB had is that it's in no way your typical Hollywood Summer Blockbuster. Yes, it was a great film, but when people think of summer movies, they think of explosions, action, famous stars, etc. All of which BB was very lacking of, it was a very plot-driven movie, and while it did good, it just wasn't the type of movie that busts blocks the way War of the Worlds and Fantastic Four have done. FF is a prime example of how an action-packed movie with a bad story can still dominate the box office in the summer, as it's just what people want to see.

[CaptainSkeptic]

I think the problem BB had is that it's in no way your typical Hollywood Summer Blockbuster. Yes, it was a great film, but when people think of summer movies, they think of explosions, action, famous stars, etc.


Uh...BB lacked famous stars? Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldham, Leam Neeson, Michael Caine...?

Just nitpicking you there. I agree it was not cliche box office blockbuster material. They went against formula and it is paying off.

[The Xenos]

I would like to repost some comments and discovers on this slump beating I posted in another thread here.

First, everyone should read this article:
http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=9059
They even mentioned fanboy complaining at Comics2Film along side the putz talkbackers at AICN. "comic book fanboys were downright furious with The Fantastic Four, especially at geek-popular websites like Comics2Film and AICN." Seems this site is getting some reconition along side Knowles's band of nuts.

Also the articles states that the Hulk had a better opening than Begins and FF at $62 million. So why is no one crying out how much better Hulk was thatn Batman Begins and FF?

Overall, I am extremely happy to say that the losing streak at the box office is finally over. Last year over the same weekend, the top ten earned about $132 million on the strength of the second weekend of Spider-Man 2 and Will Ferrell's Anchorman. This year, thanks mostly to The Fantastic Four, the top ten at the box office earned $137 million, ending the 19 consecutive weekend losing streak at the box office.

Ah. it seems that losing streak is for the ENTIRE TOP TEN at the box office. So maybe it was the punch of Fantastic Four, War of the Worlds, and Batman Begins that did it, not just the #1 spot that broke the streak. Plus it beat least year by only $5 million. (Did I jsut say only $5 million?) I doubt too many peopel at Fox would admit to this, but open minded people, instead of the stypical hyping media hacks that you see on the news, might realize this.

Of course you can check out last year's take here (http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=8425) .Some intersting competition. You had Spider-man 2 in its second week in number one and Anchorman in number two as was said in the quote above. For number 3 we have King Arthur starring Mr Fantastic himself. This was followed by Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (a title for which Ray BRadbury should kick his ass). Then we have the chick flick and tear jerker The Notebook. Then we have just the tears and vomit inducing White Chicks. If Hollywood wants to scare people away from the box office more, they should make more movies like that. Anyway, just trying to add context to these stats and the end of this slump.

Still, FF did good. I'm glad FF did good. Now they can make a sequel and hopefully THAT will be better done enough to warrent me to see it.

-Xenos

[The Xenos]

Actually, it seems I'm so bored that I was tabing back and forth between the two charts, comparing and contrasting like a 6th grade English paper.

Kinda trying to see how that $5 million difference was. Of course considering that last year had for its #1 spot a sequel to a popular superhero movie in its second week with a 48% drop, well it should be no wonder FF beat it by ten million.

War of the Worlds in its second week beats out the number two spot last year of the new that week Anchorman. $31.3 to $28 million.

For third slot, the new that week King Arthur last year beat out Batman Begins in its third week. $15.2 to $10.2 million.

In fourth places we have last year's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (in its 3rd or 4th week!) beating out this year's Japanese horror remake in the summer Dark Water (which was new this week). $11 to $10.1 million.

Seems like last year this week was just a plum crappy movie week. PLus the whole summer seemed damn weird. You had both suerhero Spider-man 2 and the Anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 both hitting number one spots at various weeks.

Of course, let's see the whole summer box office. One small victory pluggin a hole of one week does not make a victory over a sinking skip of overall box office. Plus you had the movie White Chicks coming in second to F9/11 on their opening week. WHITE CHICKS! *shudder*

So I'm not just looking at FF or Batman or this week. I'm looking at mvoies a whole. Thom started an interesting Are Movies Dying thread (http://www.comics2film.com/BB2/viewtopic.php?t=3023). Certainly this thread relates to that one.

-Xenos

[kymedicineman]

I have yet to see the film, thanks to some unexpected fireworks with the kids last night, but from what I have heard is that this movies was not made for us comic book fans.

It was made for everybody else. Gene Schalt (I dont know how to spell the guys name) said it is as fantastic as SpiderMan. What he meant by that is that it appeals to such a wide variety of people. Even though its PG-13, you can take kids to see it. And look at the marketing these people have done. FF is everywhere, from E! (just like BB), to Burger King, NBA. I'm sure every Charmin has a FF campaign.

They have successfully targeted everyone to see this movie, except us....

Fox did not make the FF to be satisfy comic book fans or be true to everything Marvel. They did it to make money... And so far they are accomplishing their goal. Maybe this will bring more attention to Comics and hook some new readers. To bad comics cost $3 each. What kid can afford that?

[Pod]

Fox did not make the FF to be satisfy comic book fans or be true to everything Marvel. They did it to make money... And so far they are accomplishing their goal. Maybe this will bring more attention to Comics and hook some new readers. To bad comics cost $3 each. What kid can afford that?

I can afford that... 8)

[DS]

I work full-time and I can't afford comics nowadays... at least not in the quantities I did when I was 10 and comics cost 40-50 cents each. Comic books are prohibitively expensive nowadays for 15 minutes worth of pleasure. That's why I stick to graphic novels and trade paperbacks, which will give you up to 20 issues of comic goodness (like the Marvel Essential series) for as little as $10! Even less, if you buy them certain places online.

With competition from DVDs, video games and other distractions which provide far more for the money, kids are much more likely to gravitate toward those activities than a $3.00 comic book.