Forum - View topicNEWS: Ghost in the Shell Film Estimated to Earn US$20 Million Over 3-Day Debut Weekend
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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Uh, no... I only have so much money like many other people. I am NOT going to support something that looks and smells like a steaming pile of pooh to me! I don't get the Scarlet Johannson fascination many guys have, either. To me, she's like most celebrities now -- all looks, no on-screen charisma whatsoever! I've found her acting is wooden at best... You can try to explain "emoting" to people but for them to understand it and actually apply it is another thing! There's a gulf between being a celebrity and a decent, working actor... The people you see in the movies are generally celebrities. There are more actors on television (which is turning into the Net as we speak) despite TV being generally more reviled than the silver screen. Charisma isn't all about looks... Humphrey Bogart had it in his day and most people would say he was NOT the best-looking guy of his era, either. He just had a "cool aura" about him. AND he was a very good actor who played tough guys -- bad guys AND good guys -- well. Marilyn Monroe WAS physically attractive BUT she was a mega-star BECAUSE she also had charisma AND could act -- that's why she still has a large fanbase worldwide almost 60 years after her tragic death. Most of the people onscreen now will be regarded as jokes within a decade. They're not Bogey at a minimum and they do NOT have all the qualities for long-term memorability that Monroe had, either. Some already ARE entering the joke or reviled territory and they've been around less than a decade! |
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tasogarenootome
 Posts: 593 |
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I'm so disappointed to see how poorly this movie is performing. It is by far one of the better adaptations of an anime Hollywood has turned out. Is it a subtle and nuanced exploration of identity? No, but this is a big budget Hollywood film, I tempered my expectations going in. I think they did a good job blending action while touching on some of the themes presented in past iterations of the franchise. I think the heart of the franchise shines through in many places and I kind of liked how at the end they spoiler[blended Kuze's plot and the Puppetmaster, even though one of his last lines was cheesy as hell. I hated the way things ended for the Kuze character in Stand Alone Complex and for some reason, I actually kind of liked what they did here.] Though I'm still conflicted on what they did with spoiler["Motoko Kusanagi".]
All in all, I really enjoyed this for what it was. I hope more people see this and that they are able to at least recoup their money. The effort is certainly here. |
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writerpatrick
 Posts: 671 Location: Canada |
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According to BOM, It made twice as much in foreign markets as domestically (US), which goes against the trend for most films. It's overall take is $60 million for the weekend. Given the generally pattern that most shows tend to fall very roughly about 50% each week, it could make back it's production in three weeks.
Given that it's not getting a Christmas or Summer release, it's at a disadvantage to begin with. But DVD sales for this film should be strong since it will be popular with GitS collectors. So as long as it covers most of it's costs in the theater, it's DVD sales will be where the movie makes it's profits. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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I'll preface by saying that I have not seen, and do not plan on going to a theater to see, this movie. I haven't gone to the theaters to see a movie since... probably about 15 years ago to be honest - I just don't do the whole movie-going experience. So, feel free to take my opinion with a healthy dose of salt.
I believe that there is an inherent flaw in the expectation that you can adapt a Japanese anime/manga/video game into a truly successful Hollywood movie. These are niche genres in Japan. Most of the time they haven't even transcended that status in Japan, so expectation that they could do that outside of Japan is optimistic at best. I think it's also important to look at what did win the box office this weekend - Boss Baby. It's an animated film that covers the well-trodden "baby that can talk and secretly is/acts like an adult" that have been done to death in children's movies. As much as anime has grown in the US, let's not forget that you say "based on a Japanese anime" and the first thing most folks think of is either cartoons or hentai. ScarJo running around in pseudo nudity will push those people into thinking its a pale attempt at the later. This limits the ability to draw in new people. This can be overcome if everything else is above average, but I haven't heard anyone, even those who liked this movie, claim that to be the case. GitS niche appeal came from exploration of the cyberpunk genre, as well as its exploration of metaphysical concepts and advanced psychological theory. It's not that younger audiences can't get into it, but throw in partial and implied nudity, younger audiences in the US are not going to particularly be as readily apt to see this movie when other more action packed affairs are out there. For older audiences, the action level is not particularly great, the cyber-terrorist angle is going to come off a more of a cheap gimmick in relation to real cyber-espionage talk that is abound dating back to the last election and further back, as well as the fear of actual terrorism. And the fact that the metaphysical angle isn't played up much in the movie means that there isn't even that attempt to pull folks in to be inquisitive. In other words, the movie even standing on its own is average at best, doing nothing to really step out on its own and be uniquely memorable. The Dragonball movie tried this, but failed spectacularly. Not doing that, it also isn't a particularly faithful reproduction of the source material. You're not gonna win a lot of existing fans that way, considering the vitriol the anime fandom tends to spout whenever any anime adaptation of some other work deviates in even the most innocuous manner. Their tolerance for deviation of a known work is low as it is - having Hollywood do that to a "beloved" project makes the problem worse. And finally, the resulting project is neither shallow enough to be mindless fun, nor deep enough to be genuinely interesting. There is minimal chance, I believe, that there will be a follow-up in the Hollywood iteration of the franchise. It's certainly possible that it could do well in the international box office, do better than just break even. But I doubt that would be enough to inspire Hollywood to revisit and try again if it can't do considerably better in the US in following weekends. So, that leaves a sub-par entry that's not likely to get a follow-up, into a franchise that has much better entries already out there, but has not seen any expansion in over a decade. |
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TranceLimit174
 Posts: 958 |
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This actually is no longer the case in the "golden age" of TV. If an actor can get a key role on a prestige TV series like Game of Thrones or Walking Dead, that does way more for their career than starring in a major Hollywood film. More and more want TV deals instead of movie deals, and part of that is because studios cannot create stars anymore. If anything, the reverse of TV > Movies is becoming the more commonly held belief. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Or some other country. China doesn't always have to be the deciding factor, like with Pacific Rim. Also, a genre may be dead, but it doesn't mean its future is gone forever. I mean, pirate films were considered dead when Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl came out, and look at it--the sixth movie is about to come out. Granted, Pirates of the Caribbean is the only pirate movie franchise from Hollywood currently still alive, though there weren't many other attempts in the first place.
Typically, movie theaters get less than half. They really only get a small proportion, which has to be made up for at the concession stand (and is the real reason your bags of popcorn are $9). The reason behind "twice as much" is the marketing. Hollywood spends millions of dollars on marketing, hundreds of millions if it's a major blockbuster release (which Ghost in the Shell admittedly is not). Those Happy Meal toys, Pepsi endorsements, advance screenings, and TV commercials aren't free, after all.
The professional critics not familiar with the original move enough to make comparisons largely said that it's audiovisually spectacular but light on story and full of plot holes. As for those who ARE familiar enough with the origianl movie, you can see some dissonance between them and anime fans: Whereas I'm seeing a lot of opinions here that it strayed too far, I also saw a number of critics saying they didn't deviate far enough (calling it timid and risk-averse). Some said that this version cannot compare to the movie itself, but I thought it was interesting that it was frequently criticized that, as an adaptation, there wasn't a big enough effort on behalf of the director to make this movie his own.
It is always quie frustrating when a movie flops due to that. I think there are other factors in play for this one (but Scarlett being white is not one of them), but it is quite unfortunate when it came out. Power Rangers stole much of its thunder. It's in the same boat as Wanted: Came out at the same time as a hyped family film, so the parents will choose that over this.
And Power Rangers and Boss Baby (and possibly Smurfs: The Lost Village), which have collectively taken away much of this movie's audience. This is the March I can remember with the most movies people are talking about. It's crazy. And with February's Logan, Get Out, and Lego Batman, it's like as if 2017 has no dump months.
Well, that's what people said about Jim Carrey and Leonardo DiCaprio in the 90's. I'd say it's best to wait a decade or two and see who becomes remembered from this era. (Bear in mind that acting methods of Humphrey Bogart's and Marilyn Monroe's time were quite different from the acting methods of today. I personally have no problems with the A-list actors of today, for the record.)
Boss Baby succeeded, not only because of its saturation-type marketing, but also because the movie runs on kid logic. The movie resonates well with older siblings, who had to experience a baby coming into the house and becoming their parents' center of attention, the mom and dad tending to the baby's every whim where the older sibling used to get all of the attention. In this, the premise makes for a good metaphor for such a situation, with built-in character development in that the older sibling must learn to accept the baby in the life. (The Rugrats Movie did this too, though more directly, and frankly, executed it a lot better.) However, what the trailers don't tell you is that this movie is bat-guano insane in its logic. A baby acting like a big-time CEO is only the tip of the iceberg. Basically, babies are made on an assembly line (not unlike in Storks), where they're given a tickle-test. If the baby laughs, they're sent to Earth, and if not they're sent to BabyCorp, where they monitor the well beings of the babies with families and drink a special bottle formula that keeps them physically infants but mentally mature normally. Meanwhile, the parents work at PuppyCorp, whose boss wants to spoiler[make a puppy so cute that people will get puppies instead of children, and no child will ever be born again]. This is the sort of story a little kid with a lot of imagination would come up with. It'd thus resonate well with kids like this too. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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If this movie (or Wanted for that matter) lost significant business due to coming out at the same time as a "family film" then someone, somewhere made a HUGE mistake. (either in who they THOUGHT this movie should be for, or in what they actually made) I admit, I haven't seen the film, but ALL the marketing (and the PG-13 rating) suggest that this isn't a "family film". (if nothing else, the thought that it lost business to BOSS BABY and/or maybe later the new smurfs film is pretty crazy IMO) I do completely agree that it was a big mistake to release it so close to Power Rangers (which seems like it was probably be targeting a similar audience) but absolutely nothing in the marketing of the movie screams "family friendly". |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I know these aren't family films, but I forgot to mention one thing: Parents are an important audience for movies, as they get caught between family films to watch with their kids (hence the name) and not-family films to watch for themselves. And based on my experiences, parents are more likely than not to bring their kids to watch movies. In other words, the presence of a big-name family film can negatively affect a not-family film's box office because the parents, if they'll only watch one movie, will most often choose the family film. Even more so if the family film is so compelling that the kids want to watch it more than once, which will rapidly drain their wallets leaving no more budget for other films. That essentially leaves teenagers and adults who don't have kids to bring to the movies (and parents who leave their kids behind), which is still a pretty big audience, but not as big as this group combined with parents. That's what I mean, and I mistakenly omitted that part. I apologize for the accidental suggestion that Wanted and Ghost in the Shell are family films. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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The official weekend "actual" for Ghost in the Shell at the domestic box office is $18,676,033.
So only a little over $100K above the inflation-unadjusted opening weekend number for Speed Racer from 2008 ($18,561,337). Also, it was frontloaded in that its biggest day was Friday and declined on Saturday, the opposite of the normal opening weekend pattern in which Saturday is usually the biggest day, so it's not getting a strong word-of-mouth boost. |
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