Was going to the movies in the 80's different then it is now? 1 1

[valiantman]

On 8/11/2021 at 11:44 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

That one's margarinely butter.

Mr. Furious : Hey, I was wondering... have you seen my address book?

The Shoveller : What did it look like?

Mr. Furious : Uh, it's denim. Says 'hang loose' on it. Picture of a kitten.

[vheflin]

even the bombs in the 80s went on to be classics

movies now aren't worth watching for free

[vheflin]

and @kav already pointed out that the R rated excuse doesn't fly

The Exorcist, a hard R, is one of the top grossing movies of all time.

[Crimebuster]

My friend and I went to see Predator 2 in 1990. I was 17, he was 16 1/2. They wouldn't let him in. He was old enough to drive to the theater but not see the movie when we got there. 

[Gatsby77]

On 8/11/2021 at 3:59 PM, Crimebuster said:

My friend and I went to see Predator 2 in 1990. I was 17, he was 16 1/2. They wouldn't let him in. He was old enough to drive to the theater but not see the movie when we got there. 

Similar story but a few years later, with Interview with a Vampire at my local (2-screen) theater. I was 17 but my high school girlfriend was 16 - we got rejected at the door because I clearly wasn’t her “parent or guardian.”

[Larryw7]

Maybe it depends on where you lived. In Philadelphia, I was never turned away from an R rated movie. During the summer of 1979, I went to the same twin theater numerous times to see both Alien and the Frank Langella Dracula. The ticket seller, the ushers, the manager never said a word. Except maybe "Enjoy the show".

 

[Gatsby77]

On 8/11/2021 at 12:59 PM, vheflin said:

and @kav already pointed out that the R rated excuse doesn't fly

The Exorcist, a hard R, is one of the top grossing movies of all time.

This.

Among more recent films, It, Joker, Deadpool and Deadpool 2 all made well over $300+ million each domestically.

And Beverly Hills Cop is still a Top 5 grossing R film (inflation-adjusted).

Inflation-adjusted, it made >$640M domestically, more than the inflation-adjusted totals of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and or Batman '89 .

[Bosco685]

 

On 8/11/2021 at 6:20 PM, Gatsby77 said:

This.

Among more recent films, It, Joker, Deadpool and Deadpool 2 all made well over $300+ million each domestically.

And Beverly Hills Cop is still a Top 5 grossing R film (inflation-adjusted).

Inflation-adjusted, it made >$640M domestically, more than the inflation-adjusted totals of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and or Batman '89 .

Unfortunately (or fortunately) we have references to help determine how accurate this assumption is. Calling out top R-Rated movies as the gold standard could be perceived as disingenuous. Like calling out all the top PG-13 movies and noting every PG-13 movie should be crossing $1.5B-$2.8B USD.

• EXAMPLES: Birds of Prey as an R-Rated movie
• REFERENCE: 2020 MPAA Domestic Theme Report

So a movie that really should have been geared toward 12-17 yo girls as a starting audience - older audiences on top of that - allowed itself to be R-Rated due to themes and content in the story. BIG MISTAKE!

But then also WB Studios didn't do enough to convey the diverse casting to make it clear this was not your traditional comic book movie. Another BIG MISTAKE!

And the results convey this when it comes to the audience results, and the size of the audience that was kept out of the film (12-17 yo make up 11% the overall domestic audience, males and females). And anyone that has ever dated realizes around that age is when such young couples go to the theater together. So WB would have nailed male and female youth audiences.

Now with such a heavy male audience (traditional average is 55% male), this was too heavy on the male audience side to appreciate the themes of this film. And nothing like the female audience response Wonder Woman experienced leading to a large-scale success story due to their contributions (52% female).

So it isn't just 'do an R-Rated movie and the money will come flowing in'. It is also backing this with marketing to drive home the point to a very targeted audience why they need to see this film. And make sure it is a theme that fits into that R-Rated audience scope. Not a movie about young girl power and then cut that audience out completely.

Now the 44% Caucasian/White result broke the mold of 55% with traditional male-led films. But not to the scale of a Black Panther where a given minority category vastly differed from the box office norms. Yet with Cathy Yan she very much was trying to reach a wider audience. Unfortunately, the marketing message was just not there strong enough to convey this to those target audiences.

Now I get your educated response will be 'Uhhhmmmmm' and other such statements. But the theory any R-Rated movie should be an instant hit doesn't account for proper marketing to reach the target audience effectively. And most probably it does not account for a pandemic, where BOP didn't get an extended window when at 34 days the COVID announcement came out.

[Gatsby77]

On 8/11/2021 at 7:07 PM, Bosco685 said:

 

Unfortunately (or fortunately) we have references to help determine how accurate this assumption is. Calling out top R-Rated movies as the gold standard could be perceived as disingenuous. Like calling out all the top PG-13 movies and noting every PG-13 movie should be crossing $1.5B-$2.8B USD.

• EXAMPLES: Birds of Prey as an R-Rated movie
• REFERENCE: 2020 MPAA Domestic Theme Report

So a movie that really should have been geared toward 12-17 yo girls as a starting audience - older audiences on top of that - allowed itself to be R-Rated due to themes and content in the story. BIG MISTAKE!

But then also WB Studios didn't do enough to convey the diverse casting to make it clear this was not your traditional comic book movie. Another BIG MISTAKE!

And the results convey this when it comes to the audience results, and the size of the audience that was kept out of the film (12-17 yo make up 11% the overall domestic audience, males and females). And anyone that has ever dated realizes around that age is when such young couples go to the theater together. So WB would have nailed male and female youth audiences.

Now with such a heavy male audience (traditional average is 55% male), this was too heavy on the male audience side to appreciate the themes of this film. And nothing like the female audience response Wonder Woman experienced leading to a large-scale success story due to their contributions (52% female).

So it isn't just 'do an R-Rated movie and the money will come flowing in'. It is also backing this with marketing to drive home the point to a very targeted audience why they need to see this film. And make sure it is a theme that fits into that R-Rated audience scope. Not a movie about young girl power and then cut that audience out completely.

Now the 44% Caucasian/White result broke the mold of 55% with traditional male-led films. But not to the scale of a Black Panther where a given minority category vastly differed from the box office norms. Yet with Cathy Yan she very much was trying to reach a wider audience. Unfortunately, the marketing message was just not there strong enough to convey this to those target audiences.

Now I get your educated response will be 'Uhhhmmmmm' and other such statements. But the theory any R-Rated movie should be an instant hit doesn't account for proper marketing to reach the target audience effectively. And most probably it does not account for a pandemic, where BOP didn't get an extended window when at 34 days the COVID announcement came out.

Uhhmmmmmmmmm…

That’s a lot of words and fancy charts to try to explain Birds of Prey’s sub-par performance.

When the reality’s far simpler:

That film sucked donkey balls.

[Bosco685]

On 8/11/2021 at 7:27 PM, Gatsby77 said:

Uhhmmmmmmmmm…

That’s a lot of words and fancy charts to try to explain Birds of Prey’s sub-par performance.

When the reality’s far simpler:

That film sucked donkey balls.

Weaksauce analysis on your part, Umminator!

[Ken Aldred]

More the late 70s for me. I was always tall, and so I was asked all the time for my age from around 13 yrs onwards, to be granted a kid’s under 16 discount.  We don’t get carded as such here in the U.K., but being forced to take a birth certificate with me every time I went to watch a film became tedious.  That, coupled with the ease of getting in, meant that instead I watched X or 18 certificate films from age 14, such as Alien, Apocalypse Now, Death Race 2000, Damien Omen 2, The Hills Have Eyes, The Warriors, Quadrophenia, and never got carded once to check if I was underage. Then again, everyone at school did exactly the same: our cinemas were very lax.
 

The age restrictions don’t appear to be that severe now, for example, Deadpool 2 and Suicide Squad are only 15 certificate here, and far more extreme than many of the X / age 18 films I saw back then.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Ken Aldred

[Cat]

On 8/12/2021 at 7:45 AM, Gatsby77 said:

Similar story but a few years later, with Interview with a Vampire at my local (2-screen) theater. I was 17 but my high school girlfriend was 16 - we got rejected at the door because I clearly wasn’t her “parent or guardian.”

'I'm not her parent but she does call me daddy....'