Saturday (2nd Week) was better

POSTED BY: StakeTheLurk
UPDATED: Monday, October 10, 2005 20:49
VIEWED: 12346
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THELURKER

Sunday, October 9, 2005 8:49 PM

Saw it for the second time on Saturday at a 1 p.m. showing. Not a bad turnout. Probably 45 or 50 in the theater I was in. According to my Yahoo page, Serenity was third on Saturday, behind Flight Plan and History of Violence.

Theater managers...YOU HOLD!

OBIWAN

Sunday, October 9, 2005 9:23 PM

I just returned from 11:30am show at a Suburban Theater near Portland, OR. Small crowd, only about 30 in a 150 seat theater, but a WIDE mix of people. One true browncoat, some teenagers with their parents, some grandparent duos and a few of us single, educated middle aged dudes.

Power surge cut the film off right as Mal was going to show the Operative the truth. Perfect bathroom break. One guy mentioned a refund and I said, "You get one only if you can say it in Chinese." Good laugh.

The bits that I heard as people exited were positive. This thing will have legs. I am not worried.

HAWK

Sunday, October 9, 2005 9:25 PM

Something to consider:

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was something of a disappointment at the box office. You wouldn't think it, given the way that franchise permeated pop culture the world over, would you?

It was when the film came out on video that the thing really took off.

That doesn't mean you can slack off these next few weeks though.

NIKNAK

Sunday, October 9, 2005 9:32 PM

I expected a big drop-off the second weekend so an average one is OK in my book. There were lots of fans very eager to see it all going first weekend, some several times. They can't all be expected to keep going! I hope that now the initial fan rush has passed and word of mouth is good, that numbers will decline much slower in the coming weeks.

MISGUIDED BY VOICES

Sunday, October 9, 2005 9:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hawk:
Something to consider:

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was something of a disappointment at the box office. You wouldn't think it, given the way that franchise permeated pop culture the world over, would you?

It was when the film came out on video that the thing really took off.

I was making the same point to a friend - though I did some checking on boxofficemojo and there is something of a fallacy in the reported failure.

Cost - $16-17 mill, final gross in the US - $50 million.

It opened to less than Serenity ($9 mill something), but had a small drop off to second week.

Still remains the case that the video got the sequel, but it was pretty profitable from a cost basis.

"I threw up on your bed"

MICHELLE

Sunday, October 9, 2005 9:47 PM

First Austin Powers wasn't a disappointment at the box office: budget - $ 16,5 m, USA gross - $ 53,8 m.

I'm thinking about Island-effect for Serenity. The Island drops exactly the same 50+% in 2nd weekend, it's first weekend was $ 12,4 m and final gross is $ 35,8 m

In that way, Serenity can take $ 30+ m in USA only. And maybe - let's pray for that! - more in other world.

But... The Island never had such devoted fans like Serenity and such good word of mouth.

"Hell, I'm a fan of all seven... but right now, I'm gonna have to go with wrath" (c) Mal

THELONECROUTON

Sunday, October 9, 2005 10:42 PM

Hi, I'm new here, but I'll speak my piece...

There's a lot of talk about the net as to why Serenity hasn't pulled the crowds in, and how the numbers just aren't adding up to a guaranteed BDS.

What people are failing to note is that this is the only film in recent history where the fans have pretty much dictated that the writer/director has free reign to make the movie that he, and we, want.

This film wasn't written by a suit. It wasn't directed by a suit. It was made by Joss, because that's what WE wanted. And that's what we got.

And it was superb. Taut, funny, action packed, gut-wrenching, but above all excellent.

I am sick and tired of having Hollywood accountants try to dictate what I watch. The last time I could be bothered to go to a cinema was to see the director's cut of Blade Runner. There hasn't been a decent sci-fi film on general release in the last ten years that comes close to Serenity's quality and integrity.

So it cost $40 million. It'll make that back and more, but that's not the point. This film was made for US. Because of US. We've won. The accountants can continue churning out the usual dross for the peasants who don't understand any better, and don't even know that better exists, but WE HAVE WON. We got our BDM, and I tell you now, we'll get our BDS's. Why? Because we put our cash where out mouths are, and we're willing to pay for it in other ways too.

How many Browncoats are there worldwide? Call it half a million. Maybe a tad generous, but for the sake of argument... Say we each donate $50. I'll wager that's less than most of us have already spent on DVD's and cinema tickets. That's $25 million. But it's not just about the money. As Mal said, it's about love. And before you laugh, how many people cheerfully pay their electricity bills while their PC's are cranking out work units for SETI at home or Protein Folding distributed computing? Many, many millions of them. We can put more than our wallets on the line. We can put CPU cycles, talent, and time down as well as cash. The tools to make it as easy said as done are a year or two off, but no more than that. Anyone out there a hairdresser, a seamstress, a logistics manager, a payroll bod, a set designer, a CGI wizard?

Am I being simplistic? No, I'm aiming for terse. Laconic I'll leave to Wash, back in flight school... ;)

Who needs producers, when we can produce it ourselves? A marketing team, when we are already sold? Distributors, when bittorrent is free, and we are happy to fund the bandwidth?

All we need is Joss, some technical savvy, and a little time, effort, and faith.

Like I say, I'm long through being told what to watch or listen to. I know full well what I want, I'm willing to pay for it, and I'm willing to work personally to see it to fruition.

Serenity will return, whether Universal bankrolls it or not.

Mark my words.

STAKETHELURK

Sunday, October 9, 2005 10:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
I'm thinking about Island-effect for Serenity. The Island drops exactly the same 50+% in 2nd weekend, it's first weekend was $ 12,4 m and final gross is $ 35,8 m

In that way, Serenity can take $ 30+ m in USA only. And maybe - let's pray for that! - more in other world.

But... The Island never had such devoted fans like Serenity and such good word of mouth.

The Island also cost three times as much as our BDM ($120 million), so $35.8 million total US box office is terrible for them but nearly makes back the whole budget for Serenity. I'm hoping we'll beat them, though, we've got devoted fans and a movie that's actually good. So everyone keep spreading the word, posting guerrilla marketing, recommending it to undecideds at the theater, and seeing it ourselves. We're still flying and I'd like to keep it that way.

ZAXBAT

Sunday, October 9, 2005 11:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[Sorry for my bad english, guys, I'm from Russia and had no english language practice in years]

Surely, 2nd weekend numbers is not great, but it's not so bad either. Multiplier (weekend gross divided by friday gross) is 3,33 - very good! Far more better than in 1st weekend (2,6).

BTW, Serenity was pretty good in Australian box-office in previous weekend. Again, not great, but good. Look:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/2005/39.htm

It started in 6th position, but only because of small number of theaters. Serenity's average gross was more than any other film. And just look at this:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=serenity.htm

I mean, $ 801,529 in threee weekend days and another $ 300 000 in two working days. It's very good.

On October 13th Serenity will jump into 240 russian theaters. I don't know how good or bad gross will be, but...

I has a web-site http://www.kino-govno.com (second best russian movie-site in terms of visitors) and believe me - EVERY SINGLE VISITOR knows that SERENITY IS AWESOME.

There are incredible amount of news (some days it was like "serenity, other movie, serenity, serenity, other movie, other movie, serenity etc"), all of the trailers, all of the sreeenshots, banners, Firefly review (I'll post Serenity review tomorrow - it's right about time) and so on. Our visitors are dying to see Serenity on big screen.

UIP-RUS managing director even presented me a Land of the Dead Jacket on recent press-screening - in gratitude for all our promotion :-)

So, we are doing our best (even impossible) and I hope Serenity will make some good money in Russia.

Michelle, PRIVET Y OCHEN XOROSHO! (Sorry, my Russian is pretty rusty and I don't know how to change to cyrillic nor do I remember what the transliteration standards are, but NU Y SHTO!)

Good to hear about your great work there in Russia. I believe that worldwide the movie will be a great success, due in part to the efforts of many just like yourself. I'm hoping for a sequel or a return to TV, but as someone else so eloquently put it, having accomplished what we have so far is a victory in an of itself. I am just hoping we can extend it.

Keep up the great work!

Zaxbat

Keeping the faith

(I'll bet you know what my name even means!)

VANCOUVER

Monday, October 10, 2005 12:57 AM

I'm crossing my fingers with the rest of you, and can't help thinking about The Bourne Identity as a possible parallel. It did marginal domestic box-office (relative to its budget)--around $60 million, I believe--and then became the #1 DVD/video rental for that year. They were sure in a hurry to make the sequel after that. Good reviews, good word of mouth, and, most of all, watchability DO pay off eventually, I think, at least most of the time. We are lucky to live in an era where an "eventually" exists, in the form of DVDs. If I ever saw a movie where the uninitiated fully intend to see it, because of good reviews and inherent appeal, but are probably inclined to wait for the DVD, it's Serenity.

By the way, I went to Future Shop to (belatedly) buy the DVD set of Firefly, and was told that they didn't have any in, they were all sold out, but that another store had 50 copies. Then another saleclerk came up and said that the store I was in had just got its own order of 50 copies, and they had a waiting list longer than your arm. I bought mine (why did I wait so long!?), and the clerks started the long business of calling all the customers on the list...

So that's heartening, right?

Vancouver

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