Wtf

Is anyone else angry that Superman Returns isn't doing that well at the box office. It's doing well but not where I think many people thought it would be, including myself. It definetly should have done better than War of the Worlds in it's opening weekend. I even expected it to rival Spiderman 1 and 2 in terms of opening weekends and overall gross; but now I see that's almost an impossibility. I loved the Spiderman movies but Superman Returns IMO is better and it would of been nice to see this iconic figure top the box office records in terms of opening weekend and overall gross.
Sadly I think it's just a reflection of modern society, Superman isn't as important to people (especially younger generations including my own) as it once was. Superman used to be the figure that Americans could unite under, he fights for truth, justice, and the American way. Now, it seems, to most people he's nothing more than another comic book superhero, people forget he was the first superhero, and even though i absolutely love Spiderman 1 and 2, and Batman Begins they don't have nearly as epic a story or feel as Superman the characters or Superman Returns.

It's number #1 at the box office...that's not bad. There is no way any comic book movie will rival any movie with a Marvel Comics character. Hype always prevails in the end.

That... or the Spider-Man movies were just... better.

This is Superman, the first Superman movie in 20 years. If anything hype should have been on its side.

Box office isn't always the deciding factor in how good a film is.

Most reviews (7 or 8 out of ten here, on rottentomatoes, and with most critics like TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Larry King) are good or GREAT and say that the movie is awesome.

X3 (which I personally loved) 😛 got shitty reviews from both established journalists and internet forum chatters....

yet it still managed to set a few box office records and make it's money back.

This movie will be viewed as successful in terms of its story, depth, and truth to the source material.

I've yet to see it (going tomorrow on 4th of July) but I watched all trailers, the 11 clips on IGN, am totally spoiled by all the reviews here, and watched Superman and Superman II this week.....

I think its safe to say that I will enjoy it.

First time out of the gate in 20 years, and I WANT Williams music.

I WANT to see him save a plane and tell Lois it's still the safest way to fly.

I WANT Luthor to come up with a hair-brained scheme. (Better than being Zod's be-otch.)

I WANT my wooshing opening credits and my smile-by flying over the Earth at the end.

The next movie can take care of other things.

I would be curious to see if the film hasnt' topped 200 mil by NEXT mon. (currently at 84 mil.)

Also, once people have seen Pirates, Miami Vice and other films that will pass away soon, I can see them still catching a 2nd or 3rd showing of this in late August or even Sept.

It may win in the end, we shall have to see. 🙂

Originally posted by sithsaber408
Box office isn't always the deciding factor in how good a film is.

Read you loud and clear. If the box office sales decide whether it's a good or bad movie. Then by that logic Titanic is the greatest movie ever. Whereas any independent films are the worst.

Originally posted by WrathfulDwarf
Read you loud and clear. If the box office sales decide whether it's a good or bad movie. Then by that logic Titanic is the greatest movie ever. Whereas any independent films are the worst.

Right. It's not a 1:1 corellation. And we're so glutted on $100Mil+ openings in our society that anything less seems like a letdown. It opened on a Wed, so it was trying mroe for the 5-day take than a monster weekend.

As long as comic movies keep doing well enough for more to be made, whether they are the same franchise (Superman in this case) or smaller characters (DD, Ghost Rider, etc.) then it's us, the fans, who win.

🙂

Originally posted by sithsaber408
Box office isn't always the deciding factor in how good a film is.

Originally posted by sithsaber408
The next movie can take care of other things.

Originally posted by sithsaber408
I would be curious to see if the film hasnt' topped 200 mil by NEXT mon. (currently at 84 mil.)

Even being incredibly generous and saying it only drops an implausible 20% in its second weekend against the backdrop of Pirates i.e. 40 million, it would have to make another 80 million throughout this working week.

flop

You're forgetting that many people aren't working today, and that many more have tomorrow off for the 4th of July. (Me, my wife, my bro-in-law, his wife, and 2 of our friends are watching it tomorrow)

I saw Cars yesterday, with my dad and lil sis, and when I poked my head in Supes, it was packed full of people.

As I said, box office a great film does not make, but it's still too early to tell if this is gonna fail.

You saw it X, I'm curious to see if you think it has good legs on it, and that it may last through most of the summer in the top 5?

Originally posted by sithsaber408
You're forgetting that many people aren't working today, and that many more have tomorrow off for the 4th of July. (Me, my wife, my bro-in-law, his wife, and 2 of our friends are watching it tomorrow)

Originally posted by sithsaber408
I saw Cars yesterday, with my dad and lil sis, and when I poked my head in Supes, it was packed full of people.

As I said, box office a great film does not make, but it's still too early to tell if this is gonna fail.

You saw it X, I'm curious to see if you think it has good legs on it, and that it may last through most of the summer in the top 5?

Originally posted by WrathfulDwarf
Read you loud and clear. If the box office sales decide whether it's a good or bad movie. Then by that logic Titanic is the greatest movie ever. Whereas any independent films are the worst.

It's almost the same opening King Kong had last Christmas; a bit less than they expected. But, there are other reasons - (1) Length. KK was a half hour longer than was needed, which made some kids restless, and I noticed some restless people at my showing of SR (2) Greater emphasis on the relationships and romatic triangle, at the expense of action people expected to see - KK had same problem (3) Both were very-long awaited projects with defeaning hype. Sometimes, there is too much hype.
I can see it breaking 200 million domestically by the end, and even more oversees, and it will be a success. Then, they will address the nagging problems with this interpretation, and fix it for the sequel.

👆 ✅

Depends on how you define "success". If indeed on average the studio only makes around 50% of the final gross, then the film needs to generate around 600+ million at least in ticket sales just to break even (and that's excluding overseas prints and marketing costs) - and an opening weekend of 50 million doesn't really bode well for a 600 million box office take. It may not actually turn a reasonable profit until DVD sales play a part.

Originally posted by xmarksthespot
Depends on how you define "success". If indeed on average the studio only makes around 50% of the final gross, then the film needs to generate around 600+ million at least in ticket sales just to break even (and that's excluding overseas prints and marketing costs) - and an opening weekend of 50 million doesn't really bode well for a 600 million box office take. It may not actually turn a reasonable profit until DVD sales play a part.

A lot of films anymore don't mkae a profit until DVD sales and rentals, so you're right in that respect. Even big openings sometimes just get their money back, then the sales give them their profits.

The big thing to watch is North America, because in the Hollywood community it's about optics. Godzilla in 1998 did over $400 million worldwide, but barely $130 million domestically; half of what the studio thought it would make. And though nearly all films can eventually be profitable through DVD and cable, that opening run means something for publicity's sake. The North American market is the first bragging point. For Superman Returns, I would say anything below $150 million will be looked at as failure; $150 and up can be spun into a success story. It's just tough, because this film cost as much as $100 million more than Batman Begins, if the stories are true.

I just saw the Superman movie. Here is why it isn't doing so well.

1. The chemistry between Bosworth and the guy who plays superman is non existant.

2. The music was relied on too much. there was more noise than script.

3. Too much drama killed the climax.

4. Inconsistent premise with the use of kryptonite.

5. The lack of appeal in the Lois character besides her attractivenes.

6. The lack of dialogue to build up the lois lane and clark kent relationship.

7. do yourself a favor and save you money. This movie sucks!!!

Don't be suckered in by the previews like I was.
Spiderman was a good movie whereas this movie was cow manure.
Plus sales don't make a good movie. Don't be a drone.

If the movie reaches at least $200 million to $250 million in the US, and around $400 to $450 million worldwide, there's a much better chance at a sequel within two to three years, especially considering the merchandise and DVD add-ins.

But if it doesn't get past $200 million dollars in the US, and it somehow only makes around $350 million dollars worldwide (remember that Superman is predominantly an American icon. Much like Batman Begins did, I'll wager that it's worldwide gross will be less than the American gross), then I highly doubt a sequel will be made until some creative changes are unfortunately made.

Theater chains keep almost exactly 50% of all revenues, so for this thing to break even it'll have to make at least $400 million worlwide.

This situation sucks. I really liked this movie. I want this film to get to the $250 million point here at least and $450 to $500 worldwide. Hopefully it'll pull a Batman Begins, which grossed 75% of its remaining gross after its first week, meaning it gets some really strong legs. There's some indications that it might since it's a really feel-good movie, and generally those kind of movies have really long legs, so maybe it'll pull it off.

Comic superhero movies tend be top heavy and have crap legs. BB is an exception not the rule.

Batman Begins had phenomenal box office legs, but from what I can find 35% of its domestic gross was made by it's opening weekend. If SR performs similarly then it could end up with domestic box office of around 240 million. However there are two things that BB had favouring profitability that SR won't, very little competition in the weeks following its opening and a production budget 100 million dollars less than SR.

With a production budget of 250 and (probably) somewhere in the region of 60 million in prints and (lackluster) marketing it will need to make like 6-700 million.

ahh yes, give it time, people a lot of people are holding their money for pirates of carribean, when they see it and go yea thats good, now that superman film... the box office will jump up... all my mates want to see both and will go see both, just not superman first.... stop worrying that is a fact... a lot of people are just waiting, thats why im not worried that there wont be a sequel becaues there will be! ciao!