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Wkd Box Office Est. 05•18-20 •12 Avengers sinks the Battleship & drowns The Dictator

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kswiston

Member
Blame piracy?

Releasing 9 days early overseas didn't hurt the Avengers. For an even better example, look at Taken. That movie domestic success was entirely from positive word of mouth from people who pirated the movie months before the US release. If Battleship was good, people would have gone to see it.
 
I'm not trying to defend the film but pointing out Alrus's oversights in his post. Berg has one hit and Neeson is not a nobody. I have not seen the film so I have not clue how much screen time he got. I agree that Berg is not a known director but that does not takeaway the fact that he has a hit.

you're missing the point I was trying to make.

1.) Hancock might have been a hit, but no one has any idea who directed that. "Peter Berg" as a name has absolutely no value in terms of putting asses in seats. There are very, VERY few directors with enough recognition to be box office draws (Cameron, Spielberg, Scorcese, Nolan) and Berg is not on this list. His "hit" was entirely due to will smith's star power- and even then it's not regarded as one of smith's better movies.

2.) I haven't seen the film either (neither has most of america- har har) but I HAVE seen trailers. a LOT of trailers. Neeson is barely in them, and isn't given anywhere near top billing. There is at most one "blink and you'll miss it" shot of him speaking into some kind of microphone and looking concerned. Compare that to "Taken" which revolved entirely around his acting chops to draw people in. night and day. The marketing for battleship concentrated on exactly two things- that it was from "the people who brought you transformers" (complete with similar sound effects) and the BATTLESHIP name. It was a strange promotional decision and did not pay off.

I think they would have been better off not tying into the game.

This also. Tying BATTLESHIP to a movie about an alien invasion is straight up nonsensical. It would have done better as a WWII or Cold War era military film, rather than...aliens invading from underwater.
 

Ridley327

Member
Releasing 9 days early overseas didn't hurt the Avengers. For an even better example, look at Taken. That movie domestic success was entirely from positive word of mouth from people who pirated the movie months before the US release. If Battleship was good, people would have gone to see it.

But that's probably what Universal would say, since that's how they tried to excuse away Hulk's poor critical and commercial reception!
 

KevinCow

Banned
I'm not sure what pleases me more: Avengers continuing to kick ass, or Battleship flopping.

Just wait until next year's Candy Land, rumored to star Adam Sandler!

Man. Candyland could be a great movie. Just do like a Lord of the Rings epic, but it takes place in Candyland. And play the whole thing straight. It would be amazing.

But it probably won't be anything like that.
 
I was curious what the third Taylor Kitsch movie is that that article is referring to:

tBl6J.jpg


I think this will be the one to make him a star.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIPpdEjORas

Looks pretty bad to me.
 

kswiston

Member
That'd probably have the opposite effect. More likely that people came to see Rihanna than not.

I think almost all of that $25M was spent by people who wanted to see some explosions and had already seen the Avengers (or just hate superheroes). Why would anyone go to a movie to see Rihanna? Bigger musicians than her have tried to make movies that flopped hard.
 

Road

Member
Can't be one hour late when you have a movie breaking records.

Also, Disney sunk Taylo Kitsch's career.
 

johnsmith

remember me
Avengers is now #4 all time worldwide. Still 148million behind Harry Potter 7.2, but it's going to beat that for sure.
 
I think almost all of that $25M was spent by people who wanted to see some explosions and had already seen the Avengers (or just hate superheroes). Why would anyone go to a movie to see Rihanna? Bigger musicians than her have tried to make movies that flopped hard.

oh yeah. Remember "Glitter?" That almost ended mariah carey's career entirely.

25 million for a summer blockbuster is extremely poor. That's the baseline for people who are so bored they'll literally see anything just to get them out of the house.

So is MiB going to dethrone Avengers next week?

yeah, it's pretty much a certainty. it's taking a decent chunk of 3D theatres, has decent star power in the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones/Josh Brolin team up and there's virtually no one interested in seeing avengers that hasn't already by then.
 
The Dictator was actually hilarious, I saw it with my best friend yesterday. I never saw Borat or Bruno.

Supposed to go see Battleship today with my boyfriend but who knows...
 

DMeisterJ

Banned
I think almost all of that $25M was spent by people who wanted to see some explosions and had already seen the Avengers (or just hate superheroes). Why would anyone go to a movie to see Rihanna? Bigger musicians than her have tried to make movies that flopped hard.

I think you misread what I posted. The fact that Rihanna is in the movie probably helped more than her not being in the movie, was my point.
 
The Dictator was actually hilarious, I saw it with my best friend yesterday. I never saw Borat or Bruno.

Supposed to go see Battleship today with my boyfriend but who knows...

Borat is a good movie. Fresh concept (for a mainstream comedy) for it's time- perhaps less so now.

Bruno is excruciatingly bad- I sat through a straight minute of a penis spinning around at a camera, only to see it start talking and say "Bruno!!" at the end. And that's not the worst thing in the film.

Shock/Ambush comedy is one thing, but that movie is something else entirely, like Baron-Cohen just felt like trolling the audience with the worst gay jokes he could find for 90 minutes.
 

3N16MA

Banned
you're missing the point I was trying to make.

1.) Hancock might have been a hit, but no one has any idea who directed that. "Peter Berg" as a name has absolutely no value in terms of putting asses in seats. There are very, VERY few directors with enough recognition to be box office draws (Cameron, Spielberg, Scorcese, Nolan) and Berg is not on this list. His "hit" was entirely due to will smith's star power- and even then it's not regarded as one of smith's better movies.

2.) I haven't seen the film either (neither has most of america- har har) but I HAVE seen trailers. a LOT of trailers. Neeson is barely in them, and isn't given anywhere near top billing. There is at most one "blink and you'll miss it" shot of him speaking into some kind of microphone and looking concerned. Compare that to "Taken" which revolved entirely around his acting chops to draw people in. night and day. The marketing for battleship concentrated on exactly two things- that it was from "the people who brought you transformers" (complete with similar sound effects) and the BATTLESHIP name. It was a strange promotional decision and did not pay off.



This also. Tying BATTLESHIP to a movie about an alien invasion is straight up nonsensical. It would have done better as a WWII or Cold War era military film, rather than...aliens invading from underwater.

1. I don't think you're getting the point I'm trying to make as I don't care what value Berg's name has. The fact remains he has a hit and that is all I am pointing out considering the post I quoted said the studio chose a director that only made bombs. I am not disputing that Berg has very little to no brand value. I am just stating a fact.

2. The post I quoted also said they put no big stars in it, well Neeson has become a bigger star in recent years. Again I don't care or know how much screen time he gets and I'm not disputing that. I'm simply stating that Neeson has some pull in Hollywood and with audiences.

I believe you're taking my post to mean more beyond simple facts.
 

Ridley327

Member
Good point. Ugh, MIIB was terrible for product placement. BURGER KING YO

god damn now I kinda want burger king

I saw a recent ad where they had Will playing a PS3, and I suddenly had a flashback to the conclusion of MiB2, where he controlled his vehicle with a PS2 controller.
 

xaosslug

Member
x-D, honestly had no idea there was another thread otherwise I wouldn't have gone to the effort. Anyway, it's no biggie. I'm glad box office is popular on GAF, now.
 

WillyFive

Member
Lol!


I'm sure that in the actual movie this is pretty awesome, but taken out of context at face value, this is incredibly corny and stupid looking.

See the movie. With all of the character development behind it, the threat established, and Alan Silvestri's score, that one shot is one of the most awe-inspiring scenes ever in a superhero movie.
 
Depends on what they paid her.

True.

but I don't see Rhianna as a good OR bad thing- just not compelling enough to make a difference for a mainstream audience. Doesn't sing- so her musical talent means nothing, spends the movie in combat fatigues and a hat, so the sex appeal thing is out, and has no previous acting credits so isn't going to be drawing anyone in with her sparkling personality.

The movie is clearly not "about" her- Rhianna superfans might be curious but I can't see her presence convincing anyone on the fence to actually see this.
 

artist

Banned
From the other thread, thought I needed to address this so posting here.

so did I. I called anything over 30 million "a stretch" and got flamed for it.
That was me questioning your rationale (that it would do ~30M when tracking data at that time was pointing at 45-55M), flaming would be an exaggeration. You should have taken up that bet with me and won comfortably. Shame that you backed out. :p

I'm shocked..., SHOCKED that Battleship managed to open to such a pathetic number. I've been rooting for this film to crash and burn since day one and even I'm stunned that it managed just $25m over three days.., truly dire.

To say that Battleship is a disaster is a gross understatement. This is the sort of apocalyptic, seismic event that cause studios to take their chairman into the parking lot and shoot them as a warning to others. Remember that Battleship is the most expensive film that Universal has EVER made.
I cant fathom the amount of hate in this post.
 
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