Box Office Discussion

[walshiam]

Which brings to mind the producers better "up the Annie" on the next film to avoid this pitfall, if true. I expect that will happen if another Toho icon is chosen to star in the film as long as it doesn't overshadow Godzilla.

[XvGojira]

You mean up the ante? Unless they're bringing in a giant curly haired orphan into fight Godzilla in the next movie.

Or do you want part 2 to be a musical?

[lhb412]

[walshiam]

Correction: "up the ante".

[walshiam]

The dollar theater in Wichita is always full. The parking runs over into other lots.

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

It's just a good value. Same experience, one dollar price tag.

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

Mine is $1 matinee, $1.50 regular showing, $4 for 3D.

Concessions are the same as at a normal theater.

I remember when it was the big, brand-new theater in town. I think it was the first with stadium seating (requiring the others to remodel). At age 10 I saw GINO in the theater! Anyway, in only a few years time it got replaced by newer, fancier theaters. It was really mismanaged for a while. I remember seeing a bunch of movies there in summer '05 because each time I went there something would go wrong with the film and they'd hand out free tickets for subsequent movies as recompense. Anyway, now it's been a dollar theater for five years or so and it's doing much better, gangbusters on weekends. A bit of a mess now, as they're doing some (much needed) remodeling.

[XvGojira]

[jellydonut25]

I HATE that my cheap theater has started doing 3D. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE it.

[jellydonut25]

So, you know how everyone is always like "Japan, Japan, Japan, when this movie gets released in Japan." Like Japan is gonna BLOW UP the box office?

I feel like people are expecting WAY too much.
Combining the following factors makes me feel like the box office won't be very big in Japan at all:
General lack of care about kaiju cinema in Japan.
Overexposure to Godzilla specifically.
Word of mouth already having had MONTHS to swirl in Japan.
Internet bootlegging having had MONTHS to ride through Japan (I feel like half its audience has probably seen it already over there, won't be too many speculative viewers).
I mean, I don't even know what a REASONABLE number to expect is, but I feel like people are thinking it's gonna be like $25 million....I don't think it'll sniff that.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

^

That's what I've been saying Jelly. Factor in Pokemon and Studio Ghibli have movies out last week and this week, I feel Godzilla is doomed in his homeland.

He's ours now, and that's okay.

[Destroysall]

[Gwangi]

[walshiam]

I think curiosity will win out to pump up the numbers. I think most will want to see for themselves if it was done right the second time.

[jellydonut25]

I don't think it was overexcitement that led people to predict after opening weekend that it would end up being HUGE...it opened higher than Captain America, Spider-Man, X-Men...in theory, that SHOULD have translated to like $750 million.

[Benjamin Haines]

[walshiam]

I think Godzilla still did pretty good considering the amount of competition it faced this summer.

[jellydonut25]

potato potahto on the Captain America thing...Godzilla was within like $2million of it. All of the excuses about competition and whatnot are just excuses. Every summer movie faces competition, and the fact remains that after opening at $90+ million Godzilla shouldn't have STRUGGLED to hit $200 million...which it is. The competition excuse flies out the window when every other summer movie that hit $90 million in its first weekend hits $200 million easy. I don't think it's fair to say people got overexcited by the opening weekend when it was one of the year's highest.


I'm not doom-and-gloom here, but runaway success Godzilla was not.

[Cookie]

[Gojiraknight]

Mind you, we were expecting X-Men:DOFP to punch "Godzilla" hard in the face...but had "Godzilla" been what audiences wanted (or rather, were sold in the marketing) then it almost certainly would've held better.

Most summer movie seasons have a breakout, powerhouse performer and this summer just hasn't. "Godzilla" had the ingredients, but it just didn't happen for myriad reasons.

That said, I do think better scheduling would've helped. Maybe it's just me but mid-May right before Memorial Day just seems like weak positioning. WB has staked out late summer in prior years to great success (TDK, Inception, HP, TDKR). Psychologically that just feels like a "bigger" time to open a movie. It has some bravado and confidence. Particularly after a so-so summer.

Had "Godzilla" come out last weekend, and had a marketing in May/June establishing that Godzilla was a "force of nature" fighting other monsters, I think we would've seen a better response.

[Gwangi]

[Benjamin Haines]

[jellydonut25]

Competition is a copout because EVERY summer film has to deal with competition. Maybe not in the immediate week following release (though many do), but eventually, EVERY movie faces competition. Competition may be the reason why nothing has hit the $1 Billion mark this year, but it's not a viable excuse for Godzilla sputtering to $200 million domestic (and still not yet at $500 million worldwide) after its ridiculously strong opening.

I'm not gonna sit here and speculate as to WHY Godzilla didn't do better (marketing, audience response, expectations, small fanbase, lack of star power, waning interest in disaster movies, no-name director, etc, etc, etc could be anything), but when Maleficent, which got bad reviews and had direct competition from Edge of Tomorrow (and X-Men was the week before...) can hit $230 million in the US after a modest opening and over $700 million worldwide, competition is no longer a viable excuse.

And who knows how well Apes will ultimately do, as well as the yet to be released Hercules, Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Interstellar, Maze Runner, Hunger Games, The Hobbit...

Yeah, Godzilla's currently the #6 movie for box office for the year, but it'll be lucky to stay in the top 10 for the year. After such a HUGE opening weekend, it shoulda been a top 10 for the year film easily.

Oh well, it did well enough to warrant a sequel, that's all I REALLY care about honestly.