According to Melissa Silverstein, 50 Shades of Grey is on track to make $158.3 million internationally this weekend. It's also opened at No. 1 during its debut in 56 of the 57 territories worldwide. If I did my maths right, it should bring in approx. $240M by the end of this month. Ouch.
We should all be well aware by now that it is possible to 'buy' an opening weekend.
The publicity campaign has been massive - of course many will be aware that it was a best-seller, and on top of that it had the controversy angle and also the sensationalistic aspect due to the nature of the sex scenes.
Frankly, its hard to see how even a 5 year old child could mess up the marketing on this one.
The publicity machine went into overdrive on this one, so much so that it became part of mainstream news...with ridiculous articles about B and Q and sales of cable ties, firemen removing people trapped in handcuffs, various religious and other organisations offended...and plus because the movie becomes a 'flavour of the moment' thing, every magazine, every chat show, every morning/daytime tv show etc wants to run an article or discussion on it. Basically, everyone wants a piece of it.
The end result is that for the majority of the public on the opening week, no other movie exists. It is 'the film everyone is talking about',
Then there are the simply curious, those who just want to see 'what all the fuss is about', and even those who want to see if it is as bad as they have heard.
When films are marketed in this way, the whole concept of the quality of the movie is immaterial. The vast majority of the cinemagoing public are going to see it anyway.
But as in all these cases, we need to wait and see what happens to the box office over the next month. In such cases if the movie does not live up to expectations, word of mouth will kill it.
After looking at this weekend's box office - no. It was never going to be.
These films have amarket. That market will pay to watch this shit and its sequels.
Good luck to them i say!
True.
Box office success is not a guarantee of quality - as I said earlier, if a film is marketed in the right way, even a complete turd of a movie can make money. And hopefully enough in the opening weekend to be considered a 'hit', and also to make profit and cover costs. What happens after that is immaterial...they have a hit.
And it is a somewhat depressing prospect that other movies/sequels will be made on the back of this...
Box office success is not a guarantee of quality - as I said earlier, if a film is marketed in the right way, even a complete turd of a movie can make money. And hopefully enough in the opening weekend to be considered a 'hit', and also to make profit and cover costs. What happens after that is immaterial...they have a hit.
And it is a somewhat depressing prospect that other movies/sequels will be made on the back of this...
I expect the hype to last all this week and the weekend coming and maybe even a few days after but that's about it really.
I dread to think what people of the future will think of this generation, literature, films and music all gone right down the pan.
They will react exactly the same way we think of those during the 1930s/1940s/1950s/1960s/etc: No one cares.
Have you read books published during those decades? Such as William Saroyan's The Human Comedy, Lillian Smith's Strange Fruit, Eric Knight's This Above All and Lloyd C. Douglas's The Robe? All these were best-selling novels of the 1940s. I read those (for work) and all are awful.
Watched any top grossing films of the 1940s lately?
Bambi - $103M (1942)
Pinocchio - $84.3M (1940)
The Best Years of Our Lives - $23.6M (1946)
The Bells of St. Mary's - $21.3M (1945)
Duel in the Sun - $20M (1946) - probably the nearest to 50 Shades of Grey
Sergeant York - $16.4M (1941)
A Family Story - $16M (1945)
Road to Rio - $4.5M (1947)
Cat People - $4M (1942)
Casablanca - $3.7M (1942)
It's a Wonderful Life - $3.3M (1946)
Citizen Kane - $1.5M (1941)
The Third Man - $596K (1949)
Brighton Rock - $224K (1947)
The Lady from Shanghai - $8K (1947)
How about music? Still listening to Frankie Laine's That Lucky Old Sun? It was one of biggest hits during the 1940s. Who Needs You? by The Four Lads was a massive hit. Have you listened to that lately? Are you even aware of its existence?
The whole Fifty Shades thing is a little unusual in that it is hugely popular & yet pretty much hated by critics.
The film was never going to be a flop because the books, for whatever reason, have become a huge phenomenon. So regardless of what critics think of it - and let's face it, if they weren't fans of the book (and I'm guessing they weren't), then they were never going to enjoy the film - the fans of the book (and there are millions of them), couldn't wait for the film to be released.
I read the books following the hype. I know the books had their flaws, but I was still gripped by the story & found them an easy read - and that's pretty much all I'm looking for when I choose a book. I enjoyed the film - it was cringey in parts (just like the book) but it was also very funny & there are worse things than sitting in the cinema with a bucket of popcorn while watching Jamie Dornan & having a giggle with your friends.
The ratings on Metacritic, IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes don't really matter. What matters is the ticket sales & reviews from the fans. Look at the reviews on Amazon for the DVD already (it's available for pre-order). The fans of the book are happy. The critics don't matter - they were never going to like it anyway.
It's quite a fascinating success story for EL James.
They will react exactly the same way we think of those during the 1930s/1940s/1950s/1960s/etc: No one cares.
Have you read books published during those decades? Such as William Saroyan's The Human Comedy, Lillian Smith's Strange Fruit, Eric Knight's This Above All and Lloyd C. Douglas's The Robe? All these were best-selling novels of the 1940s. I read those (for work) and all are awful.
Watched any top grossing films of the 1940s lately?
Bambi - $103M (1942)
Pinocchio - $84.3M (1940)
The Best Years of Our Lives - $23.6M (1946)
The Bells of St. Mary's - $21.3M (1945)
Duel in the Sun - $20M (1946) - probably the nearest to 50 Shades of Grey
Sergeant York - $16.4M (1941)
A Family Story - $16M (1945)
Road to Rio - $4.5M (1947)
Cat People - $4M (1942)
Casablanca - $3.7M (1942)
It's a Wonderful Life - $3.3M (1946)
Citizen Kane - $1.5M (1941)
The Third Man - $596K (1949)
Brighton Rock - $224K (1947)
The Lady from Shanghai - $8K (1947)
How about music? Still listening to Frankie Laine's That Lucky Old Sun? It was one of biggest hits during the 1940s. Who Needs You? by The Four Lads was a massive hit. Have you listened to that lately? Are you even aware of its existence?
Some very good points there, there has always been guff over the years that eventually gets forgotten about. Lets hope the same fate befalls 50 Shades.
The whole Fifty Shades thing is a little unusual in that it is hugely popular & yet pretty much hated by critics.
The film was never going to be a flop because the books, for whatever reason, have become a huge phenomenon. So regardless of what critics think of it - and let's face it, if they weren't fans of the book (and I'm guessing they weren't), then they were never going to enjoy the film - the fans of the book (and there are millions of them), couldn't wait for the film to be released.
I read the books following the hype. I know the books had their flaws, but I was still gripped by the story & found them an easy read - and that's pretty much all I'm looking for when I choose a book. I enjoyed the film - it was cringey in parts (just like the book) but it was also very funny & there are worse things than sitting in the cinema with a bucket of popcorn while watching Jamie Dornan & having a giggle with your friends.
The ratings on Metacritic, IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes don't really matter. What matters is the ticket sales & reviews from the fans. Look at the reviews on Amazon for the DVD already (it's available for pre-order). The fans of the book are happy. The critics don't matter - they were never going to like it anyway.
It's quite a fascinating success story for EL James.
Well said! I caught Film 2015 on iPlayer and the (male) reviewer was dreading the film and hated the books, but said to his surprise he enjoyed it, was swept along with it and the lead characters had a much more nuanced relationship than in the books.
[QUOTE=PunksNotDead;76991821]Some very good points there, there has always been guff over the years that eventually gets forgotten about. Lets hope the same fate befalls 50 Shades.[/QUOTE]
Yes, the guff gets forgotten and the gold remembered, which distorts the memory of what was really released and became popular. The great Golden Era...did it actually exist?
There have been some fabulous movies shown in this decade and great literature too, along with the dross - and the dross will be forgotten. In the meantime, the public will enjoy the dross and won't care two figs about the critics
Originally Posted by PunksNotDead;76991821Some very good points there, there has always been guff over the years that eventually gets forgotten about. Lets hope the same fate befalls 50 Shades.
Yes, the guff gets forgotten and the gold remembered, which distorts the memory of what was really released and became popular. The great Golden Era...did it actually exist?
There have been some fabulous movies shown in this decade and great literature too, along with the dross - and the dross will be forgotten. In the meantime, the public will enjoy the dross and won't care two figs about the critics
On the subject of "dross", the history of cinema is full of box-office smashes
and successful adaptations of bestsellers that ultimately failed to stay in the public
mind.
I've mentioned Nathan Rabin's "Forgotbusters" series here before:
Well said! I caught Film 2015 on iPlayer and the (male) reviewer was dreading the film and hated the books, but said to his surprise he enjoyed it, was swept along with it and the lead characters had a much more nuanced relationship than in the books.
Looking forward to seeing it tomorrow
Dakota is a real surprise - she has great screen presence & is naturally funny - great comic timing. Jamie is funny for different reasons - his character is like something from one of those Scary Movie-style spoof movies - a mixture of serious & cringey but he's so attractive. There's no inner goddess or subconscious in the film so naturally that makes Ana far less annoying.
Hope you enjoy it. I'm looking forward to film #2 already.
I must admit I don't understand the wholly negative reviews.
I thought this was a far more interesting 'romance' film, with a better plot than any others I've ever seen.
Okay, it's not the best film in the world (as most aren't) but it was enjoyable and kept me watching; it's certainly stands out among others in the same genre.
Clearly though, the movie isn't an 'erotic' piece of film and was never conceived to be as such. People should judge it for what it is, a tale of a complex romance, and not as pornography.
Absolutely fantastic. It surpassed all expectation and is a rare example of a film far surpassing the book! It's sexy, passionate, intelligent, nuanced, interesting and warm. This is no passive girl being bullied by a control freak, despite what the critics sneer.. It is, as Christian says, her changing him. She is in love (and lust) enough to open her mind to try things his way, but she is no puppet and there is always, always a get out clause. He isn't the icy sadist of the critics either. I loved it and can't wait for the sequel. Disappointing to see the poor reviews but each to their own.
If you must sneer - at least go and see it first with an open mind
Comments
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a629064/fifty-shades-of-grey-makes-record-breaking-us-box-office-debut.html
/the sound of no one surprised.
Except for the original poster who seems to have missed the whole 50 Shades thing entirely.
Oops wrong figure.
$81.67 million
To which the book's detractors responded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s
;-)
It made that amount by the end of the weekend.
0_o I really did expect a classic slow-down.
That will probably be by the end of next weekend.
The publicity campaign has been massive - of course many will be aware that it was a best-seller, and on top of that it had the controversy angle and also the sensationalistic aspect due to the nature of the sex scenes.
Frankly, its hard to see how even a 5 year old child could mess up the marketing on this one.
The publicity machine went into overdrive on this one, so much so that it became part of mainstream news...with ridiculous articles about B and Q and sales of cable ties, firemen removing people trapped in handcuffs, various religious and other organisations offended...and plus because the movie becomes a 'flavour of the moment' thing, every magazine, every chat show, every morning/daytime tv show etc wants to run an article or discussion on it. Basically, everyone wants a piece of it.
The end result is that for the majority of the public on the opening week, no other movie exists. It is 'the film everyone is talking about',
Then there are the simply curious, those who just want to see 'what all the fuss is about', and even those who want to see if it is as bad as they have heard.
When films are marketed in this way, the whole concept of the quality of the movie is immaterial. The vast majority of the cinemagoing public are going to see it anyway.
But as in all these cases, we need to wait and see what happens to the box office over the next month. In such cases if the movie does not live up to expectations, word of mouth will kill it.
$158 million internationally ($21.1 million of that is from the UK alone)
$90 million in the USA (estimated)
So, almost $250m in just over 4 days... It's a hit.
After looking at this weekend's box office - no. It was never going to be.
These films have a market. That market will pay to watch this shit and its sequels.
Good luck to them i say!
True.
Box office success is not a guarantee of quality - as I said earlier, if a film is marketed in the right way, even a complete turd of a movie can make money. And hopefully enough in the opening weekend to be considered a 'hit', and also to make profit and cover costs. What happens after that is immaterial...they have a hit.
And it is a somewhat depressing prospect that other movies/sequels will be made on the back of this...
Green Lantern
It did great numbers opening weekend, but died off very quickly afterwards.
Also the amazing spiderman 2
great opening numbers, but we all know what happened there
I expect the hype to last all this week and the weekend coming and maybe even a few days after but that's about it really.
Sadly i agree with this.
Yes, but the TV is good...'Breaking Bad', 'The Wire', 'Mad Men', Boardwalk Empire', "The Sopranos', 'The Shield'...etc.etc.
Does seem to be where all the creativeness is nowadays.
They will react exactly the same way we think of those during the 1930s/1940s/1950s/1960s/etc: No one cares.
Have you read books published during those decades? Such as William Saroyan's The Human Comedy, Lillian Smith's Strange Fruit, Eric Knight's This Above All and Lloyd C. Douglas's The Robe? All these were best-selling novels of the 1940s. I read those (for work) and all are awful.
Watched any top grossing films of the 1940s lately?
Bambi - $103M (1942)
Pinocchio - $84.3M (1940)
The Best Years of Our Lives - $23.6M (1946)
The Bells of St. Mary's - $21.3M (1945)
Duel in the Sun - $20M (1946) - probably the nearest to 50 Shades of Grey
Sergeant York - $16.4M (1941)
A Family Story - $16M (1945)
Road to Rio - $4.5M (1947)
Cat People - $4M (1942)
Casablanca - $3.7M (1942)
It's a Wonderful Life - $3.3M (1946)
Citizen Kane - $1.5M (1941)
The Third Man - $596K (1949)
Brighton Rock - $224K (1947)
The Lady from Shanghai - $8K (1947)
How about music? Still listening to Frankie Laine's That Lucky Old Sun? It was one of biggest hits during the 1940s. Who Needs You? by The Four Lads was a massive hit. Have you listened to that lately? Are you even aware of its existence?
Not to mention "The Shadow Line",
"The Honourable Woman", and "Wolf Hall". :cool:
The film was never going to be a flop because the books, for whatever reason, have become a huge phenomenon. So regardless of what critics think of it - and let's face it, if they weren't fans of the book (and I'm guessing they weren't), then they were never going to enjoy the film - the fans of the book (and there are millions of them), couldn't wait for the film to be released.
I read the books following the hype. I know the books had their flaws, but I was still gripped by the story & found them an easy read - and that's pretty much all I'm looking for when I choose a book. I enjoyed the film - it was cringey in parts (just like the book) but it was also very funny & there are worse things than sitting in the cinema with a bucket of popcorn while watching Jamie Dornan & having a giggle with your friends.
The ratings on Metacritic, IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes don't really matter. What matters is the ticket sales & reviews from the fans. Look at the reviews on Amazon for the DVD already (it's available for pre-order). The fans of the book are happy. The critics don't matter - they were never going to like it anyway.
It's quite a fascinating success story for EL James.
Some very good points there, there has always been guff over the years that eventually gets forgotten about. Lets hope the same fate befalls 50 Shades.
Well said! I caught Film 2015 on iPlayer and the (male) reviewer was dreading the film and hated the books, but said to his surprise he enjoyed it, was swept along with it and the lead characters had a much more nuanced relationship than in the books.
Looking forward to seeing it tomorrow
Yes, the guff gets forgotten and the gold remembered, which distorts the memory of what was really released and became popular. The great Golden Era...did it actually exist?
There have been some fabulous movies shown in this decade and great literature too, along with the dross - and the dross will be forgotten. In the meantime, the public will enjoy the dross and won't care two figs about the critics
On the subject of "dross", the history of cinema is full of box-office smashes
and successful adaptations of bestsellers that ultimately failed to stay in the public
mind.
I've mentioned Nathan Rabin's "Forgotbusters" series here before:
http://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/
Will Rabin be doing a "Forgotbusters: "Fifty Shades of Grey" in 2025? ;-)
Dakota is a real surprise - she has great screen presence & is naturally funny - great comic timing. Jamie is funny for different reasons - his character is like something from one of those Scary Movie-style spoof movies - a mixture of serious & cringey but he's so attractive. There's no inner goddess or subconscious in the film so naturally that makes Ana far less annoying.
Hope you enjoy it. I'm looking forward to film #2 already.
I thought this was a far more interesting 'romance' film, with a better plot than any others I've ever seen.
Okay, it's not the best film in the world (as most aren't) but it was enjoyable and kept me watching; it's certainly stands out among others in the same genre.
Clearly though, the movie isn't an 'erotic' piece of film and was never conceived to be as such. People should judge it for what it is, a tale of a complex romance, and not as pornography.
Absolutely fantastic. It surpassed all expectation and is a rare example of a film far surpassing the book! It's sexy, passionate, intelligent, nuanced, interesting and warm. This is no passive girl being bullied by a control freak, despite what the critics sneer.. It is, as Christian says, her changing him. She is in love (and lust) enough to open her mind to try things his way, but she is no puppet and there is always, always a get out clause. He isn't the icy sadist of the critics either. I loved it and can't wait for the sequel. Disappointing to see the poor reviews but each to their own.
If you must sneer - at least go and see it first with an open mind