STAR WARS : The Force Awakens Dec, 18, 2015

[zuckuss2003]

I have a friend who will be seeing it for the 4th time today...

[TupennyConan]

Avatar. Good golly that movie sucked.

 

It was visually spectacular.

 

Really? It gave me a headache.

 

I get nauseated by contemporary cgi cartoons, which is what this movie was, of course.

 

Pixar & the SW prequels cursed us with dizzying cgi.

[NewEnglandGothic]

Avatar. Good golly that movie sucked.

 

It was visually spectacular.

 

Just because it was visually spectacular doesn't make it a great film

 

Tree of Life is a beautiful looking film but a bit hard to digest

Sucker Punch was visually spectacular, but not for me.

I thought Avatar was great, but I'm the board's Jeremiah Johnson and love all these "nature" movies, so I'm not a reliable critic on this one. What I didn't like was Sigourney Weaver in this, because I thought she was too distracting to the plot for some reason. I love Sigourney (Working Girl, Ghostbusters, Gorillas in the Mist, Aliens, etc), but I felt she was sticking out too much like a sy-fy credibility card and not a performance. Michelle Rodriguez stole the movie in turn, from the other live action actors.

[Aces]

I just got back from a late afternoon 3D viewing.

It was sold out.

I got the last ticket.

[Bosco685]

Rushing toward its first billion dollars fairly quick.

 

 

[JayT]

When this thing opens in China we will see if it becomes a legit threat to break into the top 2 in Box Office.

[rjrjr]

When this thing opens in China we will see if it becomes a legit threat to break into the top 2 in Box Office.

 

It's funny because I keep hearing China will be an unknown. I don't think that will be the case. China has had no less than 6 different adaptation of the Star Wars movie in comics! That doesn't happen unless there is interest in a property. Additionally, there are Chinese translations of U.S. books. And, Lucasfilm has been marketing heavily over there.

 

I think the only unknown is just how high will the movie go over there. Will it see Transformer: AoE and Furious 7 numbers? Or are we looking more at Iron man 3 and Captain America: Winter Soldier numbers? It doesn't need to be the highest grossing movie in China to threaten the top spots on the charts.

 

It passed Avengers: AoU domestically today. As of Friday it was $115 million ahead of where Jurassic World was at this point. Regardless of where it lands, this movie is a juggernaut.

 

My only surprise is Disney is pulling Episode VIII into the summer. Why? I think these movies will have more legs if they release them around the Christmas time period. With a summer release, you have to compete with so many other movies. With a Christmas release, you have the automatic push for all the merchandise as well. Seems like a no brainer to me that they should just permanently make them a season release at this time of the year.

 

TFA made all of its money back before the movie even hit the theater! The money from the movie goers is just gravy for Disney.

[valiantman]

My only surprise is Disney is pulling Episode VIII into the summer. Why? I think these movies will have more legs if they release them around the Christmas time period. With a summer release, you have to compete with so many other movies. With a Christmas release, you have the automatic push for all the merchandise as well. Seems like a no brainer to me that they should just permanently make them a season release at this time of the year.

Because they might need an excuse.

 

If Episode VIII is bigger than Episode VII, then there won't be any complaining.

But, if Episode VIII is lower than Episode VII, they can blame the summer competition.

 

Either way, they've already got an answer for what Episode VIII does at the box office.

[Bosco685]

[Bosco685]

A fan?

 

[JayT]

My only surprise is Disney is pulling Episode VIII into the summer. Why? I think these movies will have more legs if they release them around the Christmas time period. With a summer release, you have to compete with so many other movies. With a Christmas release, you have the automatic push for all the merchandise as well. Seems like a no brainer to me that they should just permanently make them a season release at this time of the year.

Because they might need an excuse.

 

If Episode VIII is bigger than Episode VII, then there won't be any complaining.

But, if Episode VIII is lower than Episode VII, they can blame the summer competition.

 

Either way, they've already got an answer for what Episode VIII does at the box office.

 

Well, there's also that they don't have to pick one or the other, they have both covered. The Saga films will be huge summer blockbusters, and Rogue One is coming out next December to get all that Christmas/Holiday money.

[Bosco685]

 

 

What an amazing ride in only ten days!

 

[kagenish]

My only surprise is Disney is pulling Episode VIII into the summer. Why? I think these movies will have more legs if they release them around the Christmas time period. With a summer release, you have to compete with so many other movies. With a Christmas release, you have the automatic push for all the merchandise as well. Seems like a no brainer to me that they should just permanently make them a season release at this time of the year.

Because they might need an excuse.

 

If Episode VIII is bigger than Episode VII, then there won't be any complaining.

But, if Episode VIII is lower than Episode VII, they can blame the summer competition.

 

Either way, they've already got an answer for what Episode VIII does at the box office.

 

Well, there's also that they don't have to pick one or the other, they have both covered. The Saga films will be huge summer blockbusters, and Rogue One is coming out next December to get all that Christmas/Holiday money.

they're only doing one film a year. next year is Rogue One in December and then Star Wars takes May 2017 back with the release of Episode VIII followed by the Han Solo movie in May 2018. a lot of people want them to do two films a year the episode in may and the star wars story in December.

[kagenish]

[JayT]

yeah that's what I meant, they have (next) Christmas and the Summer covered. Disney seems to have Summer covered this year in general (it's really a pretty exciting year in film in general)

 

I suspect that there's no way we won't see two STAR WARS movies a year and I think we see the beginnings of that with basically 3 movies a definite go as we speak. I'm really interested in how well Rogue One does, and if we see one good Han Solo movie, I just don't see Disney not adding more of them with whomever they cast and having another movie in the works that isn't the Solo film (meaning, I don't see a situation where we are only getting a Saga film and a subsequent Solo film). I definitely feel a MARVEL like schedule, though (and it is a different animal) it did go so well with Pixar and Good Dinosaur.

 

If Rogue One hits, I think we will see a much more aggressive phase announced, and I think Rogue One will hit because the machine that was behind promoting Force Awakens (which I think was excellent) will get on Rogue One. If Rogue One does well and if the young Solo is a revelation, I can't see Disney just sitting.

 

I definitely can feel a stockholder call with that kind of announcement sooner than later ( the only such calls I take because they happened to buy everything I love).

 

I wish I can get a VALIANT movie somewhere.

[paperheart]

$600MM today, $750MM by the end of the weekend. $1BB US is a very distinct possibility.

[valiantman]

$600MM today, $750MM by the end of the weekend. $1BB US is a very distinct possibility.

 

If you look at the all-time biggest 2nd weekends:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/weekends/moreweekends.htm?page=2&p=.htm

 

The box office of the 2nd weekend is always 10% to 19% of the eventual final domestic number.

 

Avatar had the most "staying power" and its 2nd weekend was 10.1% of the final domestic number.

If that is true for The Force Awakens, then the final domestic number for The Force Awakens could be as high as $1.48B.

 

If The Force Awakens follows the "staying power" of The Phantom Menace (though I can't imagine more people wanted to re-watch Phantom Menace....) then the final Force Awakens domestic number will be around $1.25B.

 

Otherwise, if people suddenly get tired of re-watching Force Awakens at the same rate that people got tired of re-watching every other movie on the list, the final domestic number will be around $900M.

 

I'd say a final over $1.25B is definitely possible.

[drotto]

Just saw it for a second time. It is the rare movie that is actually better on the second viewing. Instead of concentrating on the similarities, I focused on the differences. Something else I noticed about the Starkiller base. When the base died, did it go back to light? Meaning the planet was destroyed but instead of being just dust did it leave a small star in its place?

 

But what really struck me was the Star Wars tone truly was perfect. A Rey is going to be an amazing character.

[rjrjr]

Just saw it for a second time. It is the rare movie that is actually better on the second viewing. Instead of concentrating on the similarities, I focused on the differences. Something else I noticed about the Starkiller base. When the base died, did it go back to light? Meaning the planet was destroyed but instead of being just dust did it leave a small star in its place?

 

But what really struck me was the Star Wars tone truly was perfect. A Rey is going to be an amazing character.

 

I agree a 2nd viewing did make the movie more enjoyable. Once you get past the similarities, it is a fun movie to watch.

[rjrjr]

I have no doubts TFA will be the all time domestic box office champ. I also believe it has the best chance of any movie in recent memory to climb into the top 10 for adjusted domestic gross. What will be interesting is to see if it will be able to overtake Avatar internationally.