Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Upcoming Blockbuster Weekend


Big grosses are near.

Interstellar is looking at a debut of more than $50 million based on early tracking and that number could rise as reviews roll in, television commercials become ubiquitous and word-of-mouth increases. An opening in the range of “Gravity’s” $55.8 million seems achievable, even though Disney’s animated “Big Hero 6″ opens the same weekend and is also generating excitement with potential ticket-buyers.

Our prognostication: both Interstellar (the live-action movie with heavy VFX) and Big Hero 6 (the VFX movie with no live action) will open north of $50 million. We're not the only ones.

... The Nov. 7 weekend is shaping up as a box-office blockbuster — and potentially a close race — for the Christopher Nolan space epic and Disney Animation's film inspired by the Marvel comic. ... projections could well rise, but both studios have to be pleased with the early data on what are their most important releases of the season. There's room for both pricey projects to succeed because, at least initially, they target different audiences.

Diz Co. (and Mr. Lasseter) are being smarter about feature animation releases here in the 21st century. During the 1990s, the Mouse released one animated musical after another until the audience said enough already. This time, Disney is mixing up its pitches a bit.

Smart thing to do.

5 comments:

David said...

" During the 1990s, the Mouse released one animated musical after another until the audience said enough already."

Really ? I seem to remember that the audiences stayed away in droves from films like "The Emperor's New Groove" , "Atlantis" , "Treasure Planet" , which were not musicals . Non-musical "Lilo & Stitch" did well , critically and at the box-office, but other than that the non-musical films mostly flopped.

Unknown said...

That's because they were bad movies. The others were just bad musicals. lilo and stitch was cute for kids, and a mild box office success, but director Dean Dublois has done better since.

Kyle O said...

@ David. 'Emperor's New Groove' opened terribly, but the reviews were strong and word-of-mouth was very powerful. I mean, it opened with $9m then crawled - slowly but surely - up to $89m, almost 10x the opening. It's just too bad the film didn't cover its costs. I heard that when it hit video, it did extremely well. Problem is, I guess most people didn't want to see it before it hit.

Unknown said...

Here's what actually happened. In the early 2000s the rise of CGI films: Shrek, Ice Age, Toy Story & Monsters Inc. were the hip, next thing. Audiences never seen animation like this before. So films like New Groove, Atlantis & Treasure Planet felt old fashioned. TP was actually the only true flop up til that point. But post Pocahontas, Hunchback, Hercules & Mulan struggled as well. Hunchback & Hercules barley reach $100 million at the domestic Box Office. But it just wasn't 2D films at Disney Animation. When Disney jumped on the CGI bandwagon in 2005 Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons & Bolt all struggled just as the early 2000s 2D films did. If you look at the CGI giants today Pixar has been critized for sequels to Cars & Monsters Univerity, Blue Sky, outside of 4 Ice Age & 2 Rio films have nothing else. Then there is Dreamworks, who outside their franchises have lost $100s of millions on flops like Guadians, Turbo & Peabody.

Unknown said...

DeLuxODonnell92. Atlantis did the same thing. It struggled at the Box Office behind Shrek 1 but did gangbusters with VHS & DVD sales. $157 million! Clear that people who skipped it in theaters bought it on home media.

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