Friday Estimates by Paranormal Klady 3
Paranormal Activity remains one of the great marketing efforts ever. Paramount’s slate was clear that fall, they spent a ton – just like Blair Witch – selling the idea that this was real footage. They rolled it out in key geek markets first, never discussing the issue of reality directly. And then pushed into 1945 screens… which were booked before the first sneaks started, all the time calling for the audience to demand to see the movie. If it had gone bad, the movie would have still gone out on over 1000 screens… but it didn’t go bad at all. Last time, it opened to $40 million, though the legs were shorter and only got to $85m domestic. But the product was so cheap that it was still a major cash cow. This time, the price went up again… but slightly. The opening was better. And we’ll see how the legs hold up. Paramount is wisely predicting that it won’t double the Friday (with Midnight shows) over the weekend. Then you have to wonder whether it will double this weekend over the course of its run. But still… so cheap… lots of cash. And do keep in mind… Saw 3 was the height of that franchise’s history. It may well be that PA1 was the height of this franchise. But still… nothing but profit. And one of the reasons that Paramount’s marketing team is considered one of the best in town.
This probably won’t be the worst opening in Paul WS Anderson’s career since his first release (which went out on 1 screen)… but it will probably be #2. Well…. it’s definitely #2. Thank goodness that some studios have an in-house box office apologist who rarely leaves her house making excuses. But it’s the marketing. Summit seemed to run off the tracks on this one when they realized that the all-3D sell was a problem as 3D became less and less attractive to audiences outside of some carefully selected titles. Who is the target for this film? Teens? Adults? Boys? Girls? No idea from the push. It seems to be looking at 4 quadrants. Fair enough… but if so, a terrible date for this film. It feels like holiday or summer and unlike Fast Five, doesn’t have enough of its own steam to get attention outside of standard opening slots.
All that said, MIla Jovavich should have kept her mouth shut about the marketing. I could cost her and her husband work. The one deadly sin in this business is to be seen as pissing on your film in public as the distributor is trying to release it. She did it in a minor way… but it will mark her as trouble. Still, is she wrong? When Summit is releasing a Twilight film in a month, you don’t want to be The Other Child. It;’s a very talented group over there, but… it’s like being released within weeks of a Harry Potter film at WB. (Yet, Horrible Bosses was a surprise smash, released just a week earlier than Potter 7b.)
Every time there is a Rowan Atkinson comedy coming – and they all make their fortunes overseas – it feels like Universal marketing is just going through the motions. And yet, they’ve all opened to over $9m each time. This time… not. Hard to say why. Do Real Steel (another great hold) and Dolphin Tale really so dominate the kids market? Or did the ad buys for this one just get so low key that no one really saw it coming? Honestly, no idea. No sense of the campaign from here. Just a sad day of results.
Martha Marcy May Marlene‘s opening on 4 looks like the strongest of the weekend… but it’s about a third of what Tree of Life opened to and about double what Another Earth opened to. So is this a $3m grosser? And what does all this say about the parade of smaller titles from Fox Searchlight (which will soon unleash The Descendants, aiming for the stars)? Time will tell.
So now that PA3 is going to have a monster opening, will people shut up about the diminishing box office?
Three Musketeers should not have buried that they had Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz.
Media wants there to be a problem.
This will likely end up being the biggest box office year in history… again… catching up with last year by the end of Thanksgiving. This is after being down by more than 20% at the end the first quarter.
And they will write about how ticket sales were down.
That’s a nice number for Margin Call, which deserves the business.
Is Sound of My Voice going to see a release this year?
Agreed on Paramount. Megan Colligan one of the best.
Disagree on Summit. Marketing one of the weakest in town. Must have a daily prayer to the Twilight gods. Merger with Lionsgate might help both studios and result in one passable marketing department. “Shame” about MMMM. Searchlight pun intended. Usual year-end too much product, lack of focus, pick the child/children you love the most.
Krillian:
“Three Musketeers should not have buried that they had Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz.”
Yeah, because Bloom and Waltz are real box office gold, right?
Indiemarketer:
PA3 is Colligan, but she really hasn’t done much up until now with the day to day marketing of Paramount releases. Josh Greenstein is largely responsible for the creative and strategic approaches for Paramount campaigns.
I honestly wish all movie critics and box-office gurus had to see the Paranormal movies with the audience they attract. Seriously, they should change the name of the series from “Paranormal Activity” to “Fat Hispanic Muffin Tops Talk Through the Whole Motherfucking Movie.” Trying to imagine taking in a PA3 alongside the tweedy likes of Michael Phillips and Anne Thompson, instead of some hardcore vato going “This shit is gay as fuuuuuuuuuck” while his girlfriend goes “This is all scaaaary n’ shit!” for 80 minutes, all the more excruciating since most of the movies are in TOTAL fucking silence, so you ONLY heard the audience talking like a bunch of dumbasses.
Also blows my mind that after dozens of found-footage horror movies, the audience still seems to grouse through 70% of it because it doesn’t feel like a “real movie,” resulting in a low Cinemascore EVERY time out… then the next one is an even bigger hit. Makes no sense.
I think that’s what’s known as a vocal minority, Lex. Pun not really intended.
Marketer – what are you talking about re: MMMM? $30k screen average for the weekend is more than solid.
Agreed, Lex. The one comment I hear after every fucking found footage movie is “I want my money back!! It didn;t even have an ending!!” No shit. Not defending the genre nor am saying they are all good and should be embraced. Personally I am a MAJOR sucker for them. [REC] being the ultimate example, IMO. Towards the end, when the sihlouette of that…thing…emerges in the distance…the effect would not have been the same in a straight narrative film.
The Paranormal movies are simple little “Boo!” machines. And I like them for that. It’s like going through the same haunted house over and over, but it’s kind of pretty good damn haunted house. Either they work for you or they don’t but they are craftily put together and remaining refreshing throwbacks.
Hispanic chick holding COURT for all 75: “This fuckin’ shit is all GAY and shit… This is fuckin’ stooooooopid. This is fuckin’ gay, yo. This shit is STUUUUUUPID. BOO! This ain’t scary n shit. This is fucking GAAAAAAAAAY. Why did you wanna seeeeeee this hit? It’s fuckin’ GAAAAAAY, this shit isn’t SCARY… DUUUUUDE, that shit freaked me out and shit… That shit was fuckin’ freaky… Dude, this is GAY…. Ohhh! Did you see that? This is fuckin’ SCAAAARY.”
Movie ends.
“That was fuckin’ STUPID.”
Seriously, bring back segregation to movie theaters. Seeing these movies in the Valley with fat Mexican teens is just torture.
“PA3” wasn’t screened for critics, Lex. If they saw it, they did have to see it with its target audience.
Bullshit, Luke Thompson saw it like two weeks ago.
And I’m sorry to dwell on this, but as a WHITE GUY, you pay 10-12 bucks to see a movie, but the expectation is that any Latinos or Asian thugs who feel like ACTING A FOOL during the film, that’s THEIR RIGHT and you’re a BIG ASSHOLE if you have a problem with it. Because you’re DISRESPECTING THEM if you tell them to shut the fuck up, and you’ll probably catch a beatdown or bullet for even piping up in the first place. They don’t RESPECT THE WHITE MAN enough to shut up and NOT RUIN my fucking experience. because THE WHITE MAN always has to play the “BITCH” because of their fucking MACHISMO, so every white douche sits there and TAKES IT, sits there THROWING THEIR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN, another movie trip wasted and now I gotta go back and see it a 2nd time, even though I SPECIFICALLY went to the 10am show to avoid the riffraff.
Lex — I have two words for you: Arclight Pasadena.
Those are two pretty good words… I noticed it for the first time this week when I went out to see Take Shelter down the street from the Pasadena Arclight. Completely forgot it was there, if I ever knew.
I don’t know, I don’t always trust Pasadena… I’ve had some of the worst audiences in all of LA in Pas (Universal City being the ABSOLUTE worst in LA)… The old Paseo used to get all kinds of unsavory teens, and the Laemmle’s I always end up with some old fuck who looks like Sparky Anderson talking in my ear through the whole movie, or I have to sit in the front row with the screen basically behind me.
Sucks because Take Shelter and Margin Call seem to be Laemmle exclusives, but Encino and Pasadena I have OLD FUCK issues at both places.
Written from phone… I saw the Thurs at 10pm PA3 with a packed, but relatively respectful audience. And while the movie was pretty lousy (hardly a real scare until the final reel), it was kinda fun to see it with an enthusiastic audience. Even though I’ve never really liked any of the PA films (saw the 2nd one on DVD), it’s almost worth it just the watch the crowd reaction. It’s basically a variation on Where’s Waldo?, where the audience scans all corners of the screen to try to anticipate where the alleged jolt will come from. Long story short – was bored by the film, but entertained by the audience.
Margin Call is pretty terrific, and a reminder of how good Spacey can be when he gets the right material. Tucci has the best scene and almost steals the picture, but that’s a cliche by now. Snowmen isn’t anything grand, but its a pleasant throwback to the old days when you actually made movies FOR kids instead of just presuming they’d see the same PG-13 tentpoles as their older siblings and parents.
On a slight digression, I was surprised by how good Puss In Boots was this morning. It’s lighter and ‘slighter’ than Kung Fu Panda 2, but it’s visually gorgeous and a pretty compelling adventure movie that plays it pretty straight (it’s funny when it wants to be, but it’s not a non-stop gag fest ala Monsters vs. Aliens). Point being, Dreamworks could have just treated it like a toss-off project, but they took the time/effort/money to craft a real movie that is gorgeous and again proves that Dreamworks is second-to-none when it comes to using 3D.
You might get old fucks at the Arclight Pasadena, but the $1 ticket surcharge, lack of jumbo size drinks and popcorns and lack of refills on same might weed out the “undesirable” elements of which you speak.
Unfortunately, shitty audiences are pretty universal. It’s just a case of “choose your poison.” AMC Century City, for instance, has become all chatty Persian teens using their iPhones non stop. Different demographic, same rudeness.
Puss N Boots sounds like something I’d REALLY enjoy, but it’s probably not what my mind wants it to be.
I saw PA 3 with a crowd in the Dome last Tuesday. There were a few other critics there but mostly really enthusiastic fans who’d been waiting in line 3 hours.
Lex, don’t you always say watching movies at home is for suckers and the theater is the only way to experience them?
Welcome to the magic of movies!
Jovavich is right. I saw the ad for musketeers about 6 times and I had no idea Orlando Bloom was in the film. Although someone has to twitter or pass a note to Anderson that says ” dude the Matrix was 12 years ago, time to find a new inspiration for your Eurotrash action movies”.
Really though, how do you sell Three Muskateers? They make one every three years and they are all fairly dull. But really folks this one will be different, it’s from the director of Soldier and Resident Evil 4.
Saying this for the 14,597th time:
WAIT A WEEK OR TWO. YOU’LL HAVE THE THEATRE TO YOURSELF.
Saying for the equal number of times:
I work in the DVD biz and every week it’s a countdown clock to see everything before I have to work on it frame by frame at a job I hate.
Also, not that BEING A DIPSHIT COMMENTER ON NICHE MOVIE BLOGS isn’t utterly ridiculous, but there’s a sense on these blogs that if you don’t see it right away, you’re not part of the discussion… hell, the guys I follow on Twitter (Tapley, McWeeny, LYT, etc) are always stroking off over seeing shit EARLY, so I gotta read them blabbing about three-week-off movies all the time… The moment is OVER come Monday morning for 99% of movies, over by SATURDAY NIGHT for almost as many… What’s left to say when you finally catch up three weeks later?
Agreed JoJo. Megan & Josh make a lovely couple, especially if Josh stands on a box.
Two things:
1. Irate reactions to “found footage” horror flix are nothing new. Back in the day, when I reviewed the original “Blair Witch Projcet” for MSNBC.com, I received scads of e-mails from pissed off people who wanted to know why I said anything good about that… that… well, insert the obscene remark of your choice here. Which is why I wasn’t the least bit surprised when the sequel tanked.
2. LexG: I saw “Paranormal Activity 3” with what I would argue was the best possible audience in the world: A midnight sneak preview screening at the Alamo Draft House in Austin during Fantastic Fest. I was seated right next to — no kidding — Harry Knowles. Didn’t see any tweedy types anywhere in the theater.
Yeah but each Paranormal MAKES MORE than the last, and EVERY TIME all the thugs exit the theater bitching about how much they hated it.
Then again, considering the audience for PA movies are 99% Mexican, maybe the audience didn’t see the predecessor.
And change of subject, what is this ALAMO DRAFT HOUSE?
Like are motherfuckers EATING A STEAK during the movie? Yeah, that’s not DISTRACTING AT ALL, some armadillo-fucking Texas guy USING A FORK AND KNIFE and making slurping sucking sounds gnawing on a PRIME RIB during a fucking movie.
It’s like that weird room here at the West-Pavillion where you gotta sit in a LOVE SEAT with another guy.
REGULAR THEATER SEATING AND DECORUM, Please. A fucking STEAK DINNER during a movie.
I have never had a steak at an Alamo Draft House. But pizza? Cheesburgers? Merlot? Hell, yeah.
DISTRACTING.
Lex, the Alamo Draft house is beyond awesome. I have a hard time imagining that even you wouldn’t like it if you gave it an open-minded chance. That said, the first time I was there, I, like you, thought waiters and food would be distracting. But I was not distracted at all. Pizza and wine with my movie just made the experience all the better.
Oh, and the love seat? The idea is that you cuddle up in it with a *date* — not a random stranger.
Oh, hi, Joe. Great minds think (and apparently post) alike.
I don’t like anything.
How can you drink WINE during a movie? Might as well shotgun about six Miller Lites before the show, seeing as how you’ll be running to the bathroom every 11 minutes.
I just want shit to be normal and for people to act like respectable human beings. Jeff Wells is RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING, EVER… except for his snobbiness about B-movies and his one-note politics. But the party elephant stuff is SPOT THE FUCK ON.
But LexG: They do keep the audience from talking. And texting. I think you’d actually love this place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs
“Seriously, bring back segregation to movie theaters. Seeing these movies in the Valley with fat Mexican teens is just torture.”
HAHAHAHHA!!!
Lex — seriously — GET THE HELL OUT OF HELL-A!!! As soon as I moved I felt about 150% better about my life. No more of what you describe if you just move.
Lex, Raisinettes with Merlot is my concession stand refreshment of choice even when not at Alamo Drafthouse.
And Joe, the other reason that the Blair Witch sequel tanked was because it was sucky and, unlike the first one, totally unoriginal.
and yeah, Lex, I’m with you, FUCK the Alamo draft house (and all other locations like it) with the eating and shit during the movie. MOVIES THEATERS SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE A FUCKING CHURCH.
Blair Witch 2 DID have awesome Jeffrey Donovan from BURN NOTICE.
Not saying it didn’t suck. But I strongly suspect the sequel could have been the Citizen Kane of horror movies — and people who felt they got burned by the first one still would not have gone.
No way Joe…the Blair Witch sequel tanked for two reasons…the smaller one being that it was shit and everyone could smell it, and the bigger one is that it wasn’t ENOUGH like the first. If they were going to make a regular movie out of the premise, they should have stuck with the original’s sense of fear and horror. They fucked it up big time.
You may have gotten a lot of angry emails from people, but people who send off emails like that are always the minority assholes. I can’t see a little movie making like 140 million if everyone hated it that much. I think if there had been a little more of a money shot at the end, a lot of the people who disliked the movie would have thought differently. Paranormal did the Blair Witch thing but gave more ghost shots, even if you don’t really see the ghost per se.
People generally come out of horror movies saying they sucked or were stupid for two reasons…one is that they were scared through the whole thing but they don’t want to admit it so they have to put on a show as they walk out, and the second is that most horror movies have really shitty endings that kind of ruin the good will it may have built up.
Perm: Maybe, maybe not. As I’ve always said: It’s risky to assume that just because a movie made a lot of money that it was liked by all the people who paid money to see it.
“Oh, and the love seat? The idea is that you cuddle up in it with a *date* — not a random stranger.”
Fine, if they showed VALENTINE’S DAY in that theater… but know what they show in there? TAKE SHELTER. Yeah, grab your best gal and cuddle up while Michael Shannon does weird shit for two hours. GUARANTEED, whatever movie they show in the CUDDLE LOUNGE, it’s ALWAYS some austere/psychotic moody indie movie that the only people who’d go to see it are lone Cinemania freakshows, not Date Night Couples.
I don’t care about steak, merlot, beer or pizza at a movie theater. What I do hate is not being able to have a hot coffee or latte when I head out to a December movie, freezing my ass off. I’m a coffee guy. The theaters I frequent are basic soda/candy. popcorn, with a some nachos and slushies. I want a fucking cappucino and some cheese-its, goddamnit.
Joe, all I’ve heard about the Star Wars prequels is non stop bitching. General audiences don’t think the same way that angry guys who write to movie critics do. I don’t think just because a movie made a lot of money that everyone liked it or a sequel would do well, but I also don’t necessarily take a lot of stock in what some angry guys would write to a movie critic. They aren’t the general audience.
Of course a ton of people hated The Blair Witch, I wouldn’t argue that…but the real problems with the sequel were they tried to do something radically different (mistake 1) and then they fucked it up and made something boring and stupid (mistake 2). You could smell the turd that movie was.
Of course it’s all guesswork since they never made that Blair Witch traditional sequel, so maybe you’re right!
Lex is not wrong regarding those loveseats? I went with a friend to see Control which was in one of those small loveseat screening rooms…something we didn’t know until arriving, so we were stuck there uncomfortably close during this uncomfortable film. Landmark really should have planned that better.
Mdoc: Bloom’s role in MUSKETEERS isn’t much — and certainly not a selling point. Also, I didn’t see any MATRIX influence in the film. Maybe it’s just me.
I hope Lex live tweets his experience at PA4 next October. It’s not as if anyone will notice one more cell phone light.
Here in Boston, most of the independent theaters (Somerville, Coolidge Corner, Brattle) have started serving beer from local brewers on draft, which I highly appreciate. Although I do have to pee in the middle of fucking everything.
Bloom’s hair is definitely a selling point in Musketeers.
Also (rehashed material warning!) amused that with Anonymous in the wings, that’s two weeks in a row with movies where the production design/wigs/costumes appear to be based on the Army of Lovers “Crucified” video.
Don’t be surprised if weekend estimates for PA3 are bumped up tonight or tomorrow morning. It’s not behaving like a traditional horror/thriller film.
Perm: Didn’t a sizeable number of folks complain that Blair Witch Project made them sick? I mean, literally sick, woozy and dizzy because of the camera movement? If memory serves me correctly, the manager of the theater where it opened here in Houston seriously complained that at least 2-3 times a week, her staff had to clean up after someone in the audience barfed.
Hey Leydon, what is Texas like?
I found out recently that AMBER HEARD (the IDEAL WOMAN) is from Texas, and then I realized that aside from Austin, which sounds like a hipster town, EVERYTHING about TEXAS sounds awesome– Amber Heard, McCounaughey, Barbecues, Armadillos, Chainsaw Massacres, Rick Perry, George Bush, COWBOYS, Pantera… Is Texas just OFF THE CHARTS AWESOME? Would a pasty New England WASP-Irish-Italian dork like me go over like GANGBUSTERS there? Are there a lot of white women? Or is it just as Latino as Los Angeles?
I want to move to a state with BLONDE CAUCASIANS, which they don’t have in California unless you have mad money.
Unmentioned yet, but do you think FOX in their wildest nightmares would’ve thought a bright-colored comedy with Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson would not only be out of the top 10 in ONE WEEK, but on to second-run houses by its second Friday? In LOS ANGELES, it’s been booted out of all the big rooms already, playing mostly in secondary houses (ie, moved from the Arclight to the Chinese 6, Burbank big theater to the eight) in its SECOND WEEK.
How did that ever happen?
Well, for openers, there’s no state income tax.
Every once in a great while, a studio film with A-list talent seesm to come from out of nowehere, and returns there with amazing speed. Indeed, it gets such a half-assed release, with minimal publcity, that I can’t help wondering why they bothered to make the film in the first place. Town & Country was one of those films. Looks like The Big Year is another.
Aw, but it looks cute and I like birds… I was kind of pulling for it… Every once in a while after all the cynical squack-heavy crass stuff I like, I root for a nice little movie like that, and it gets steamrolled. It looks so harmless and genteel.
MIla Jovavich should have kept her mouth shut about the marketing. I could cost her and her husband work.
David: I really hope that should say “It could cost her and her husband work.” But if you meant what you wrote, then I apologize and I’ll try to stay on your good side from now on.
Interesting how Sony has decided not to go wide with “Anonymous” next weekend after all. That’s after months (seemingly years) of the trailer running before every damn movie I paid to see. According to B.O. Mojo, the “Anonymous” screen count is now a modest…200.
Chances of it ever widening beyond, say, 500 screens are probably slim to none thanks to the deluge of “holiday” films that’ll be hogging up screens with multiple prints (four for “Muppets,” six for “Twilight,” two for “Immortals,” three for “Happy Feet” and “Jack and Jill,” etc.) in the coming weeks.
“Harmless” and “genteel” are nice words to describe “The Big Year,” Lex.
“Sweet,” “gentle” and “charming” work, too. I liked it a lot.
Too bad that nobody else saw it.
“BY” was the 2000+ print break equivalent of “Margaret” (curiously, both are Fox products).
Ah well. Home video should be a lot kinder to both.
Yancy,
I am basing my Matrix influence statement off of the slow mo shot of Jovavich in the trailer ducking under cannon fire. I watched the first 20 minutes of Anderson’s last film, Resident Evil 4 and there was all kinds of Matrixy slo mo and bullet time shots.
After sitting through AMC’s ANONYMOUS advertisement for the past six months, I will be distraught if it doesn’t make it out to my neck of the woods. I am now, because of that insistent clip that plays before every movie, bound to see what Professor Emmerich has uncovered…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsIPGQzSQdw
WE’VE ALL BEEN PLAYED
JKill- I could see “Anonymous” being platformed (such a delightfully old-fashioned concept!) if it was opening in mid-to-late September. But an October 28th slot gives Sony precious little wiggle room.
Any meaningful expansion beyond that date seems like a pipe dream.
They’re probably more interested in getting “J&J” onto 3,500+ screens than “Anonymous” ever reaching 1,000.
Lex: Texas is increasingly hot, dry, treeless, and Hispanic. So sort of like LA? Some very nice places and nice people though, just like most everywhere else if you look for it.
What is the best, most satisfying, end of horror movie money shot? I’m the opposite of a horror expert but I really liked the (SPOILER WARNING) girl climbing through the tv set in The Ring. That was a very good horror movie.
Lex, why why why do you not move to silverlake/echo park/los feliz? You’ll have better access to everything you seem to want, plus good food. What’s to lose?
You would like Austin, Lex. It’s kewl enough for you so you wouldn’t beat yourself up for leaving la-la.
San Antonio is very Mex. Houston is “urban”. Dallas nightlife is crazy. Big “dancer” community and all the offshoot lifestyles & occupations that come with it.
Persian teens…damn that’s a funny line
Big Perm, you are SPOT ON with this: “…the Blair Witch sequel tanked for two reasons…the smaller one being that it was shit and everyone could smell it, and the bigger one is that it wasn’t ENOUGH like the first.”
My thoughts EXACTLY, except I’d reverse which was the smaller and which was the larger reason.
Also, Joe, I was one of the people who felt sick at Blair Witch; I didn’t throw up, but I did have to look away from the screen for a while. But that didn’t stop me from liking the film.
My only problem with Blair Witch was that when I left the theater, I really wished that I hadn’t parked at the end of the parking lot next to the freaking woods. I was scared to go to my car. LOL
Hey don’t gtet me wrong: I really liked Blair Witch Project.
http://www.movingpictureshow.com/archives/mpsBlairWitchProject.htm
Mdoc: Pretty sure there’s no bullet time in MUSKETEERS, and I guess I’m too old to associate slo-mo with the Wachowskis. 🙂
Lex: True, Bloom’s hair is one of the better special effects in the film.
JKill… don’t think they abandoning a wide release on Anonymous… but I think they are seeing that it’s not tracking as they’d like. So since they know the movie plays well, they want to get word of mouth going to push it out, baiting less likely ticket buyers.
I hope it works. Because it’s Emmerich, it’s one of the biggest surprises of 2012… it’s actually quite good.
Two words, Lex: North Dakota. That state is so white they hardly have any Unitarians.
DP, I hope that that’s the case and not the (very plausable) scenario that movieman envisioned. It looks like the type of film that demands to be seen big and loud. Your positive response (along with that of others) to it has me quite, quite intrigued.
The only problem with movieman’s theory is that we really haven’t seen it with big studio films, as best I can recall. Remember, this movie is pretty much guaranteed to make money because of worldwide numbers and Emmerich is a guy who delivers $600m ww grossers.
Keep in mind, Reign Over Me got 1700 screens. I’d be truly stunned to see Sony dump Anonymous in that way right at this stage.
I’ll consistently drop $80+ per ticket for opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pav or recital at Disney Hall and that crowd is as restless and rude as any theater. I have no idea why a lot of them go. It’s not like a niece or nephew recital they’re obligated by family to attend. The price doesn’t seem to curtail the rudeness. It’s almost like “I paid all this money, I should be allowed to carry on my inane convo the entire performance.”
I liked having a few beers before heading into a midnight movie in college but nowadays, I’m happy with popcorn and coke. Maybe some candy if sharing with a group. Nachos might fly but anything else is just too cumbersome. I never understood the free refill joy. Once I’m in and seated I’m there ‘til the credits roll. I hate how after 20 mins of previews and commercials I’ll be about done w/my popcorn but I’d rather be dry than miss any of the movie, which I can almost guarantee that if I try to rush out and come back in there’ll only be one person working the concessions. Scratch that, possibly two. But one person is training the other.
I just think going out is a crap shoot. It’s upsetting but thinking there’s some place or crowd demo that’s gonna exclude the possibility of having the experience by even one idiot is foolish.