Box Office: Hungry For a Potter/Twilight Replacement
Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 2:13PM Audiences were ridiculously eager to collectively devour their new multi-year franchise, giving Hunger Games with no bankable stars and only books to sell it, a gargantuan opening weekend... right up there with Batman and Spider-Man with nary a superpower in sight... unless you count archery skills. I guess Hawkeye would. You'd think people were actually reading (gasp) given the enormous success of these bestseller-to-movie transfers for about a decade now. Sadly the numbers do not bear this out with one famous study claiming that 27% of adults in the US don't even read one book a year.
As I walked into my consulting job Friday I overheard two women talking, and the conversation might have been scripted for an informercial specifically designed to sell tickets...
Younger Woman: What is this Hunger Games? Everyone is talking about it!
Slightly Older Woman: It's going to kick Twilight's ass. Do you want to know the premise?
I knew it would be big but I didn't know it'd be colossal.
TOP TEN (Estimates)
01 THE HUNGER GAMES $155 new in wide release
02 21 JUMP STREET $21.3 (cum. $71) [Reviewed]
03 THE LORAX $13.1 (cum. $177.3)
04 JOHN CARTER $5 (cum. $62.3) [Review, Kitsch Beefcake, Dr Seuss's John Carter]
05 ACT OF VALOR $2 (cum. $65.9)
06 PROJECT X $1.9 (cum. $51.7)
07 A THOUSAND WORDS $1.9 (cum. $14.9)
08 OCTOBER BABY $1.7 new in limited release
09 SAFE HOUSE $1.4 (cum. $122.6)
10 JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND $1.3 (cum. $97.1)
How early did you have to show up to get a good seat? We arrived 30 minutes early and that was just barely enough time to get two seats together... on the side. My preference is middle middle but whose isn't? They always fill up first.
Hunger Games, books, box office, moviegoing
Reader Comments (16)
Me and my sister arrived an hour and a half early to the midnight premiere on Thursday night, only intending on picking up the tickets I bought online, and then coming back later. However the line to get in was already around the block, so we had no choice but to stand in the cold the whole time. This being my first experience (and probably my last) with attending a midnight premiere for this big of a movie, I found it all a bit surreal. So many screaming 12 year olds. The whole Time I kept thinking, why aren't they in bed?!
The really small theater, in a really small town was smart enough to show the movie in six theater rooms, so we ended up getting fairly decent seats.
I had to wait in line nearly two hours to see it. Got a decent seat given the packed theater but it was still uncomfortable. Then again, when I go to the movies on my own I usually like sitting in the last row with an isle seat. I saw this with friends, however, so I ended up sitting in the middle of the last row. As for the film itself, I enjoyed it but felt the camera work and uneven pacing held it back.
Saw it 8:45 pm on Thursday - so not a midnight showing (more like 3:45 pm NY time) Got in, got my pre assigned seat and enjoyed the hell out of the next 2 plus hours.
Thank god for pre-assigned seats. Some people hate them, nut I just find it so civilized. What's with people and stupid lines?
Well, I was off on Friday and I went to see a 1:30 p.m. showing. Not packed at all. Only about 30 people in attendance. Lucky me.
Whenever this sort of franchise comes along I find myself running in the opposite direction.
I got to the cineplex about an hour and fifteen before the screening and there was no line. waited to see if I could spot someone I knew, but that did not happen and still no line formed. About 45 minutes until the screening I get my popcorn and drink so I could stay awake and got into my theater to find that it was packed. Still got a decent seat (middle and to the left a bit), but not my preferred choice (very back and middle).
I had a very interesting reaction to the film. Fast paced, decently executed, but I kept thinking how interesting it would have been if Kubrick would have done it. (Why Kubrick? I don't know. Dystopia + costumes from Barry Lyndon I guess).
I also found myself desiring more carnage, a la Battle Royale as it's often compared. But then I felt piss-poor, understanding that my insatiable desire for bloodshed made me no better than Tucci and the rest of that god-awful society.
What does that say about me?
I always thought that assigned seating at movies was silly and unnecessary until a theater near me opened with it, and now I can't live without it. But am I the only one who didn't know the books were so popular? I had only heard about them last year when I was reading the casting announcements :(
I thought the film was fine, but yes-it needed more teeth-the Kubrick suggestion is brilliant. Making it PG-13 probably landed it an extra $100 million this weekend, but it made this fan underwhelmed.
Nathaniel, A Separation passed six million this weekend. Rejoice in small mercies!
Got tickets for 11:15 am (first show on that screen) on Saturday. The theater was only half-full with no late arrivals (thank the Maker). As the trailers started I turned and told the missus, "Ignore the pundits...this movie will do no better than an $87 million weekend." Then we got out and the line for the next showing on that screen wound out of sight 100 yards down the corridor. So much for my single-data-point box office prognosticating skills.
I read the book. For anyone who has not done so, there is plenty there that did not make it to the screen, so it would be very much worth your while. Still, a solid motion picture that satisfies the thinking audience as well as the action and (to a lesser extent) the romance crowds.
"My preference is middle middle but whose isn't?"
Mine isn't, mine isn't! :) I much prefer the side, where it's more likely to have an extra seat next to you for your stuff and less likely that someone's head is blocking your view. It has been difficult sometimes to convince my friends that side beats middle, though.
you all know it plays on other days than opening, right?
(not that i'll be seeing it - what a disgusting premise)
Saw it 9 PM on Friday and got there half an hour early. SO glad we did! Got a decent seat in the middle on the aisle, which was good as it allowed us to get out much quicker than if we sat dead center, where I prefer to sit. Theater was crowded but not full, and the audience was really with the movie but respectful of everyone else - no inappropriate talking/applause/texting/phone ringing until the movie was over.
Also got pre-assigned seats, yet we still ended up in the 3rd row. That's fine when it's a small drama like "Martha Marcy May Marlene," but for an action movie like this it gave me quite the headache. I have to see again to really enjoy it.