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Batman v Superman Friday Boxoffice Estimate: $82M

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Superman and Batman for sure, they are universally known and so are their origins and personalities. I don't think any other hero gets away with that (maybe spiderman). WW does not have familiarity outside comic fans, even with her show in the 70's.

You dont' need familiarity at all, though. You don't. You don't need to be familiar with a hero, and you don't need to explain the mysteries of superpowered people operating in a fictional setting. Again, Incredibles is a great example of this (Guardians and X-Men to a lesser extent).

This is the superhero, this is what they look like, this is what they can do. That can take less than 3 minutes.

The urgent need to explain concepts everyone in the audience is 100% familiar with is what's tripping a lot of people up. Fans included. They feel like somehow they're being cheated if they don't get to watch some semblance of an origin story, and that's fucking weird to me. Like, look at how people persist in thinking Civil War will be containing some aspect of Peter's origin as Spidey. They literally can't imagine his just showing up as Spidey. It's gotta be justified somehow, by Tony's making his "real" costume for him or somesuch.

Like, 9 movies into a film series with multiple spinoffs and people still feel like something as ubiquitous as Spider-Man needs to be explained to people.

It stunts pretty much everything.
 

inm8num2

Member
Especially with Batman. How many times have we seen Martha's pearls hit the ground by now? My memory isn't the greatest for films I haven't seen in decades, but I am pretty sure that scene has at least been in Batman 89, Batman Forever, Batman Begins, and now BvS. We don't need to recap on Batman's parents being shot every time we get a new director. People know what happened to Batman.

Batman's Parents Dying: The Supercut
 
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but I didn't realize the fan score is 73 percent. Not that it matters, but I'm surprised it's that high. Wonder if other poorly rated comic book movies also follow that pattern.

It had thousands and thousands of ratings before it was even released. Like bullshit amazon reviews, idiots rate things highly that they are excited for before they even see it. In the past few days that audience score has actually been going down, probably from people who have actually seen it.

Most of the more legitimate audience ratings seem to match the average critic rating, which is around 5/10. I hear 5 and 6 a lot.
 

kswiston

Member
Superman and Batman for sure, they are universally known and so are their origins and personalities. I don't think any other hero gets away with that (maybe spiderman). WW does not have familiarity outside comic fans, even with her show in the 70's.

I am assuming that Justice League Cameos being in BvS is not spoiler territory, since WB shouted it from the rooftops like 2 years ago.

That cameo scene for the least known member of the future Justice league in BvS? That wasn't far from being all you need to know about the origin of the character. Have a 5 minute pre-transformation scene in his solo film to set up his old life, have an extended version of what was in BvS as a credit montage, and move on. We don't need 2 hour origins for every character.
 

kswiston

Member
lmao

Can you imagine if neogaf was around when Batman '89 opened? The thread about the Joker being the one that killed Bruce's parents would be a complete dumpster fire.

Honest Trailers covered that recently

Batman 89 had:
- Controversial lead casting in Michael Keaton who looked nothing like comics Bruce Wayne and was best known as a comedic actor before
- Batman killing
- Black Harvey Dent
- Changed origin for Batman and the Joker

Pretty much everything that sets off fans today.
 

gamz

Member
Gitesh Pandya ‏@GiteshPandya 1m1 minute ago
$67.2M intl FRI incl $20M China opening day for #BatmanvSuperman. $115.3M intl cume, $195.2M global. Great overseas start.
 

gamz

Member
Honest Trailers covered that recently

Batman 89 had:
- Controversial lead casting in Michael Keaton who looked nothing like comics Bruce Wayne and was best known as a comedic actor before
- Batman Killing
- Black Harvey Dent
- Changed Origin for Batman and the Joker

Pretty much everything that sets off fans today.

I remember a shit storm back them. Of course there was no social media back then, but I do remember vividly people where upset or didn't get it.
 

jgwhiteus

Member
Even if this movie breaks even or makes a profit (which seems likely)... is that going to be enough for WB, the studio?

Didn't WB basically have one long string of bombs in 2015? Besides American Sniper (released in 2014), WB's biggest 2015 movies were "San Andreas" ($155M domestic) and "Mad Max" ($153M domestic, but which also had a hefty price tag). Aside from that, no other WB movie cleared $100M domestically, and there were a lot of high-profile under-performers like Jupiter Ascending ($47M domestic), The Man from UNCLE ($45M domestic), and Pan ($35M domestic) - all of which had $100M+ price tags to begin with.

You can see WB's 2015 performance here:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/chart/?view=company&view2=calendar&yr=2015&timeframe=yty&sort=&order=&studio=warnerbros.htm

WB either has the most patient investors ever, or they were hanging their hopes that BvS would bring in megabucks and guarantee a new cashcow franchise of movies similar to Marvel (and WB's glory days of Harry Potter). I don't think this movie will have a problem turning a profit, especially given the merchandising / DVD, etc. coming down the line, but for a studio that I would assume was deeply in the red from last year, just "turning a profit" doesn't seem like enough... especially when there are future films hanging in the balance.
 
The question of "rushing" only really factors in if you feel like you need to stop down and explain why things are the way they are.

Which you absolutely do not have to do. Superheroes have been a thing for about 80 years now. Audiences are more than able to process a self-contained story that begins in a fictional world where nobody has to explain what superheroes are and how they could exist. They can just be. Hell, the Incredibles is proof enough of that.

There absolutely can be a movie where Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman are all known quantities with fully formed personalities from second one after the opening credits. But studios and their creatives seem to think such a notion is amazingly risky, even though they're exploiting the brand precisely because of that cultural familiarity in the first place.

It's fuckin' weird.

I agree with you there. That's not really what I meant by rushing though. I don't think all the characters in the justice league need an origin story. I just think they were introduced in a very haphazard manner that was detrimental to the overall product. I don't think it helped BvS as a movie and it achieved nothing in terms of the characters either. I just don't think it was necessary to have those cameos in there. Just introduce them when they're actually going to be in a movie whether it be a solo movie or a justice league movie.

Also I meant they rushed straight into doing a team up movie hoping it would lead to avengers like success. IMO a standalone batman film had the potential to do as well if not better than BvS. Then they could have continued to hopefully grow the MoS franchise whilst doing batman at the same time. The DC universe seems much more top heavy in terms of popularity which is why I wonder if trying to follow the marvel route having a heavy emphasis on team ups is necessarily the way to go.
 

scitek

Member
Especially with Batman. How many times have we seen Martha's pearls hit the ground by now? My memory isn't the greatest for films I haven't seen in decades, but I am pretty sure that scene has at least been in Batman 89, Batman Forever, Batman Begins, and now BvS. We don't need to recap on Batman's parents being shot every time we get a new director. People know what happened to Batman.

Honestly, I've seen that same scene so many times now, and the most graphic depiction of their deaths was the show Gotham.
 

kswiston

Member
Gitesh Pandya ‏@GiteshPandya 1m1 minute ago
$67.2M intl FRI incl $20M China opening day for #BatmanvSuperman. $115.3M intl cume, $195.2M global. Great overseas start.


That is an encouraging international Friday.

The Force Awakens made $56.8M on its first Friday. Subtract the $20M from China, and BvS is still within $10M of that.

Three day gross is $130M for The Force vs $115M for BvS. Star Wars Managed ~$280M overseas that first weekend. It looks like BvS is heading for somewhere around $250M (granted $55M of that is China, which Star Wars lacked its first weekend). .
 

Blade30

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, I think everyone's just waiting for next week's numbers.

Yeah, I'm pretty much in this mode

X1QlV4g.gif
 
It's not about painstakingly re-telling origin stories. It's about giving characters the room to firmly establish themselves as entertaining leads for their own franchises.

They dont' need it is what I'm saying.

This conventional wisdom is broken. You don't need to give superheroes room to establish themselves.

They've been established, firmly, for EIGHTY YEARS.

Just make a movie, and make it well.

A lot of this stems from the strange belief that liking superheroes is somehow complicated. Like it's a hard thing to do, and audiences need to have their hands held in order to dip their toes into this weird fictional world. But liking superheroes isn't hard, or complicated. Not at all.
 

gamz

Member
That is an encouraging international Friday.

The Force Awakens made $56.8M on its first Friday. Subtract the $20M from China, and BvS is still within $10M of that.

Three day gross is $130M for The Force vs $115M for BvS. Star Wars Managed ~$280M overseas that first weekend. It looks like BvS is heading for somewhere around $250M (granted $55M of that is China, which Star Wars lacked its first weekend). .

Which is still pretty good when compared to Star Wars.
 

gamz

Member
They dont' need it is what I'm saying.

This conventional wisdom is broken. You don't need to give superheroes room to establish themselves.

They've been established, firmly, for EIGHTY YEARS.

Just make a movie, and make it well.

I kinda agree with you. GOTG didn't need a origin story and Star Wars started with ep 4.
 

emrober5

Member
I liked the movie for the most part, I'm glad it's going to have a big opening weekend. Ultimate Edition is already preordered
 
The question of "rushing" only really factors in if you feel like you need to stop down and explain why things are the way they are.

Which you absolutely do not have to do. Superheroes have been a thing for about 80 years now. Audiences are more than able to process a self-contained story that begins in a fictional world where nobody has to explain what superheroes are and how they could exist. They can just be. Hell, the Incredibles is proof enough of that.

There absolutely can be a movie where Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman are all known quantities with fully formed personalities from second one after the opening credits. But studios and their creatives seem to think such a notion is amazingly risky, even though they're exploiting the brand precisely because of that cultural familiarity in the first place.

It's fuckin' weird.

I agree with this as far as origin stories go and explaining characters and the world. But the real problem with BvS was needing to establish multiple characters motivations for an hour and a half. And that can be much better accomplished in stand-alone films. If the Wonder Woman film had released first, we'd already have an established WW character and know her motivations. BvS could have jumped right in with her just being there and the audience would have already been comfortable with it. If a stand-alone Batfleck film had released first, we'd already have an established new Batman and understand his motivations for disliking, even being afraid of, a Superman character. And then BvS wouldn't have had to spend 45 minutes driving that into our heads.

It's not just about explaining characters and the world and setting up an origin. It's about film pacing, which BvS suffers horribly from in the middle hour or so - and it suffers from that because the audience has never been told who the hell these new characters are (WW, Batman, Lex) or why they do the things they do or any of the other hints and cameos for other Justice League members, so naturally the movie creators feel obligated to do so - to the detriment of the entire film.

And that's where the Marvel films have done a much better job - even if the individual films are not as strong or successful - by slowly introducing new characters and establishing things in other movies so that when the big group film comes up, they don't need to take 15 minutes explaining why Captain America is a 90 year old that looks 30 and has a hard-on for 'freedom' or why Scarlett Johansson's boobs are considered a superpower or why Tony Stark, a billionaire playboy, decides to hook up with an adult version of Pippy Longstocking or why this Patrick-Swayze-Point-Break looking motherfucker even cares at all for our shitty planet when he basically rules paradise.

We already know the answers to all of these questions because they're firmly established in other movies. That allows Avengers to skip over all that setup and have it's own storyline - and have a much better paced and even film, regardless of its other faults.
 

gamz

Member
I agree with this as far as origin stories go and explaining characters and the world. But the real problem with BvS was needing to establish multiple characters motivations for an hour and a half. And that can be much better accomplished in stand-alone films. If the Wonder Woman film had released first, we'd already have an established WW character and know her motivations. BvS could have jumped right in with her just being there and the audience would have already been comfortable with it. If a stand-alone Batfleck film had released first, we'd already have an established new Batman and understand his motivations for disliking, even being afraid of, a Superman character. And then BvS wouldn't have had to spend 45 minutes driving that into our heads.

It's not just about explaining characters and the world and setting up an origin. It's about film pacing, which BvS suffers horribly from in the middle hour or so - and it suffers from that because the audience has never been told who the hell these new characters are (WW, Batman, Lex) or why they do the things they do or any of the other hints and cameos for other Justice League members, so naturally the movie creators feel obligated to do so - to the detriment of the entire film.

And that's where the Marvel films have done a much better job - even if the individual films are not as strong or successful - by slowly introducing new characters and establishing things in other movies so that when the big group film comes up, they don't need to take 15 minutes explaining why Captain America is a 90 year old that looks 30 and has a hard-on for 'freedom' or why Scarlett Johansson's boobs are considered a superpower or why Tony Stark, a billionaire playboy, decides to hook up with an adult version of Pippy Longstocking or why this Patrick-Swayze-Point-Break looking motherfucker even cares at all for our shitty planet when he basically rules paradise.

We already know the answers to all of these questions because they're firmly established in other movies. That allows Avengers to skip over all that setup and have it's own storyline - and have a much better paced and even film, regardless of its other faults.

Honestly, when I saw the Avengers I only saw the first Iron Man and I had no issues following what was going on. I mean these aren't overly complex character studies or anything, but I get what both of you are saying.
 

HeySeuss

Member
I think the word of mouth is going to be a lot better than the reviews would lead you to believe. I know it's anecdotal, but my Facebook feed has nothing but praise from the people that have seen it. Maybe the second week drop won't be so bad.
 

gamz

Member
I think the word of mouth is going to be a lot better than the reviews would lead you to believe. I know it's anecdotal, but my Facebook feed has nothing but praise from the people that have seen it. Maybe the second week drop won't be so bad.

I'm seeing it tomorrow, but I assume the majority of the people aren't invested into SH movies as some people on here. They just want to be entertained for a couple of hours and watch a big budget spectacle. That's all I want going in.
 
The problem comes it when they need to sell you on future solo films for half the cast.

And I'm saying that's not really a problem until you make it one. And if you can go out and make an Exiles movie right now with zero explanation, then why do you need to justify the existence of an Exiles movie in a preceding movie at all?

Studios and creatives are kneecapping themselves by treating these characters as if they need the backdoor pilot treatment when they don't.
 

Animator

Member
I love how the haters are quick to move goalposts.

"no man we knew it was going to be huge opening weekend, but next week it's totally going to tank!"

Can't wait for next weekend.
 
I thought China was treating it decently.

K-Swiss, where you at?

Saturday AM Update #2: Batman v Superman pulled in an estimated $67.2 million internationally on Friday for a total international cume of $115.3 million and global cume just shy of $200 million. The international total includes a $20 million opening day in China, the largest ever for a Warner Bros film; $9 million in the UK; $2.54 million in India; and $1.2 million in Japan. Additional international estimates will be available tomorrow morning, with actuals rolling in over the course of the day on Monday.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4170&p=.htm
 

Astral Dog

Member
mr. Snyder will be able to make all the DC movies now, after a few more most people will be missing the quality of Man of Steel.
 

gamz

Member
And I'm saying that's not really a problem until you make it one. And if you can go out and make an Exiles movie right now with zero explanation, then why do you need to justify the existence of an Exiles movie in a preceding movie at all?

Studios and creatives are kneecapping themselves by treating these characters as if they need the backdoor pilot treatment when they don't.

Or we get cash grabs like the origins of Han Solo. I mean do we really care? Honestly? Part of what makes him and Chewie so bad ass is because they just exist. I don't need to know a movie with their back story.
 
You dont' need familiarity at all, though. You don't. You don't need to be familiar with a hero, and you don't need to explain the mysteries of superpowered people operating in a fictional setting. Again, Incredibles is a great example of this (Guardians and X-Men to a lesser extent).

This is the superhero, this is what they look like, this is what they can do. That can take less than 3 minutes.

The urgent need to explain concepts everyone in the audience is 100% familiar with is what's tripping a lot of people up. Fans included. They feel like somehow they're being cheated if they don't get to watch some semblance of an origin story, and that's fucking weird to me. Like, look at how people persist in thinking Civil War will be containing some aspect of Peter's origin as Spidey. They literally can't imagine his just showing up as Spidey. It's gotta be justified somehow, by Tony's making his "real" costume for him or somesuch.

Like, 9 movies into a film series with multiple spinoffs and people still feel like something as ubiquitous as Spider-Man needs to be explained to people.

It stunts pretty much everything.

I mean to be fair, the belief that they'll shoehorn in Spidey's origin story is that they do it in every representation of him in a new media line. People can't imagine him just, being Spider-man, because he's never gotten to just be that before.
 

jett

D-Member
I have to admit that marvelboyz had it right, and starting with individual movies was a much better decision than this mess, and I don't even like most of Marvel's movies.
 
Honestly, when I saw the Avengers I only saw the first Iron Man and I had no issues following what was going on. I mean these aren't overly complex character studies or anything, but I get what both of you are saying.

And this is where I agree with Bobby, it doesn't need to be explained to the audience. But it's not just the audience who needs reassurances. Establishing characters (and their motivations) eases the studios and producers enough that the writers and directors aren't encouraged to shoe-horn in unnecessary explanations of every little detail, bogging the movie down and screwing with the pacing.

It's as much for the studio (and the writing staff) as it is for the audience. Because even if you haven't seen all the preceding movies, you have the option to. There's films you can go see that will explain this crap to you. If those films don't exist, you can't do that, and the studio is going to demand the writers/director slip in those explanations - if only as a setup for future films.
 
I think the word of mouth is going to be a lot better than the reviews would lead you to believe. I know it's anecdotal, but my Facebook feed has nothing but praise from the people that have seen it. Maybe the second week drop won't be so bad.

Its hard to tell right now because everyone is all over the place. Like my Facebook feed absolutely hates it. I've seen no less than 10 or 12 people on my feed absolutely trashing it and only like 2 or 3 who like it.

I think its hard to tell what people think of it overall. My guess is its just a total mix
 

Tobor

Member
I love how the haters are quick to move goalposts.

"no man we knew it was going to be huge opening weekend, but next week it's totally going to tank!"

Can't wait for next weekend.

This is all anyone's been saying all along. The goalposts haven't budged.
 
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