Weekend Estimates by Klady, The Needy Speed
Brutal 3-day for Need For Speed. 2.7x Friday is not good and suggests that as weak as the launch was, it represented much of the demand for the film that existed in the marketplace.
Also frontloaded was Veronica Mars, which is in no way a real Warner Bros motion pictures release. It’s a Home Entertainment stunt. And $6,873 per-screen for that, with a tiny marketing spend, is okay. It’s not a game-changer, but it’s pretty good for the VOD-in-theatrical market these days. But after a $1 million estimate on Friday, a $2m for the total weekend is a little disappointing. This film has the same problem as most VOD product… it’s a very limited market and there isn’t going to be a marketing spend to break it beyond the core audience. This will be a profitable venture, especially with production costs largely covered by the fans. But no real news here.
I got into Tyler Perry’s The Single Mom’s Club yesterday. Not a lot more to say. Worst TP opening ever. Series to come on OWN.
The Grand Budapest Hotel has another strong weekend in limited. $55m domestic, $80m worldwide, here we come!!! The good news about that, joking aside, is that it will keep an auteur working without many constraints, within a reasonable budget size. Hooray for good movies and great, ambitious filmmakers.
12 Years A Slave hits $55m domestic and $160m worldwide.
Can someone explain to me why a company would adapt a property such as a video game and then go out of its way to avoid association with that property?
I realize video game adaptations have not done enormously well. But why then would it adapt one in the first place, especially one without a built in narrative or iconic hero?
I want to throw out a theory and get some feedback: It’s my contention that anywhere from half to three-quarters of the people in this country who are cable subscribers have no idea that they can order VOD movies like Veronica Mars or The Art of the Steal. No, I’m not saying they have no idea how to order. I’m saying they have no idea that they can order. Yes, they may be aware that it’s possible to order recent theatrical releases. But indies? Limited theatrical release items? No clue. They simply don’t know the product is out there.
Joe,
I think you may be right. I know of one distributor who got insanely excited that his latest VOD film had a title that started with the letter A. It would show up on the first page of rentals.
Apparently a lot of VERONICA fans are watching it on VOD to preserve the original experience of seeing the series at home. I wonder how much better it would have done in theatres if they’d given them a week or two head-start.
That Need For Speed trailer looked so damn cheap I thought it was a commercial for some product, not a movie. This should have been a VOD project.
“Apparently a lot of VERONICA fans are watching it on VOD to preserve the original experience of seeing the series at home.”
And now I struggle to find a word that captures exactly how depressing that fact(?) is.
Joe, I think the non-awareness level probably extends to ANY releases for a large segment of cable subscribers who still think such a thing is something they’d only find on a hotel room set.
Additionally, in my hometown where Comcast is king, czar, emperor and galactic potentate, VOD is STILL NOT AVAILABLE AT ALL. Not sure how far and wide this extends across the other small town markets, but we’re only two hours north of San Francisco for crying out loud.
“Budapest” is the first movie to crack $50,000 per theater while playing in at least 50 theaters. You’re probably spot on that $50 million is the ceiling here (though overseas, it’s already at 20 million), but seems like there is an added layer of frenzy to see this movie immediately for some reason.
Because of “Veronica Mars”, Fox expanded “The Grand Budapest Hotel” to some less-than-desirable locations. You can see the Wes Anderson pic in the AMC Garden State but not (yet) in the Loews Palisades Center.
The VOD experience still leaves a ton to be desired. Magnet often has a number of flicks each year I would watch over VOD but finding out when it’s available and then finding a specific title in the huge list of other titles is annoying. If I didn’t know it was out I would have never seen it.
As a result I rarely, if ever, use VOD.
I doubt most people know about the VOD option for those films that are in theaters. Awareness is #1. I wonder how much is price point an option. Even though VOD of V Mars may be less than it is in a theater, is there a point where someone says “F- That! I’m not paying an extra $6-$7 bucks to watch TV! Especially only one time.” I wonder that in general. Who buys VOD? There are movies I hate I missed in the theaters and wouldn’t mind seeing as VOD but why pay an extra $4-$5 when it’ll be on cable or netflix in a month or two? Even if there’s a chance it won’t be available I have to cap what I’ll shell out for in home ent. Funny I know. I would’ve paid more to see it in a theater but then when it’s on VOD I get all principled.
I think I’d be better served knowing more of the arthouse films that are available. I may see some ads for the big budget action movies that are on VOD. Which, had to be excited for something that I wish I had seen on the big screen. But I didn’t know V Mars was on VOD. That’d be something I’d try to get a couple of people over to watch and have like a dinner party. I saw In The Loop on VOD years ago. It was part of a technical snafu but without the cable guy there to tell me, I wouldn’t have known it was there. I totally forget to peek in on VOD to see what’s there. There’s still the chance that I’d spend the time, money and effort going to see a matinee of the film but it could be a nice alternative if I am reminded or informed of it.
I haven’t stayed in a hotel for a while, but when did in-room movies get to the $17.99 price point? Not just the movies that are “still in theaters”, but even stuff that you can get from a Redbox across the street for a fraction of that price. Eighteen bucks for one video isn’t even close to an impulse purchase for me.
And for the travellers who’d be all up in the “Adults Only” stuff, they can just wifi their way onto the net for an “all you can beat” smorgasbord of mature entertainment for less than half of that charge here.
“Who buys VOD? There are movies I hate I missed in the theaters and wouldn’t mind seeing as VOD but why pay an extra $4-$5 when it’ll be on cable or netflix in a month or two? Even if there’s a chance it won’t be available I have to cap what I’ll shell out for in home ent. Funny I know. I would’ve paid more to see it in a theater but then when it’s on VOD I get all principled.”
Y’know, I never really thought about it this way, but I’ve felt something along these lines for a while now. I’m perfectly fine missing a movie and waiting for it to come out on a cheaper platform now because I have so damn much other stuff just in places like my Netflix queue that it isn’t like I can’t find something else good to watch while I wait. It’s one thing to miss out on a movie in theaters, but once you’re already at the level of seeing it on TV, there is just no urgency anymore because I’m hip deep in a “Breaking Bad” catch-up anyway.
The standard price for a VOD title “before it plays theaters” is $9.99; $6.99 once it officially goes D&D.
I rarely pay the top price. It has to be something I’m really chomping at the bits to see (e.g., “Nymphomaniac”). Otherwise, I’ll just wait a few weeks for the “rental fee” to drop.
Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass to wade through an endless litany of alphabetized On Demand titles. But if there’s a movie you absolutely, positively have to see
NOW, it’s pretty much the only option in flyover states like mine.
“I haven’t stayed in a hotel for a while, but when did in-room movies get to the $17.99 price point?”
About the same time a 6-oz. bottle of Coca-Cola hit $7.50.
If you have DirecTV, you can’t help but know what’s on VOD. DirecTV Cinema has Veronica Mars advertised in that section of the guide.