US 2nd Weekend Better Than Expected!

POSTED BY: StakeTheLurk
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 20:08
VIEWED: 10949
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ELLIE

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 11:28 AM

I was quite relieved to see the new numbers, while not terribly much higher than the estimates, at least they pushed over $5mil and we beat 'Into the Blue', coming out with a decent worldwide finish following it's initial release.

I can only hope that we'll all keep pushing through and keep converting others. But I imagine when the DVD's hit the shelves, it should take care of the large bulk of the mileage as far as sales go.

For my part, I've just been telling as many people as I can how wonderful a movie it is, and that it's brilliant storytelling and excellent sci-fi to boot. I had talked it up to a couple of friends of mine who, unknown to me, went out and caught the movie last weekend and came back to tell me how much they liked it and that they had heard the buzz about the cancelled TV show that spawned it and were curious. When I told them they could borrow my Firefly set they were thrilled. They've now watched about half and love it! My brother too has now seen the movie and might like to go back and see the series on DVD.

I think for newbies to the 'verse, having them watch the movie and then offering the DVDs seems to work really well, at least in my experience!

Sherie @-)---
The Nathan Fillion Archives:
http://www.apocalypse-monthly.com/nathan/

XEROGRAVITY

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 12:55 PM

Only time will tell. Serenity will have to spread via word of mouth ~ viral marketing. That was the main thrust of the studio's marketing plan anyhow.

I think the biggest obstacle to success at the box office is moviegoer apathy. Hollywood has been producing zero quality SciFi for an eternity. End result: low expectations. Trailers and teasers don't carry as much impact as they once did. Surgically patching together a couple minutes of deceptively alluring snippets of an otherwise crappy film has been turned into an artform. The entertainment industry has proven wrong the old axiom ~ you can't polish a turd. I've gone to see plenty of movies on the strength of the trailer, only to come away feeling bamboozled.

If we fans don't get the word out, the movie will invariably flop (or break even at best). I'd hoped otherwise, but alas, it's not looking too good.

XG

No such thing as gravity. The "Earth-that-was" just sucks.

EARLY

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 1:04 PM

There is actually a lot of good news. Beating History of Violence again was big. Its gotten good reviews and a lot of buzz, plus it has big stars. Two for the Money has gotten crappy reviews from critics and movie-watchers alike and I don't expect it to stay high very long. In Her Shoes is doing pretty well, but will exhaust the date movie crowd before too long. Flightplan can't stay high too much longer nor do I think can Corps Bride. I think Serenity will see a big jump over already released movies coming this weekend, and be behind mainly the new releases and a few old ones like Wallace. Domino and Elizabethtown will probably do well, and the Fog should open pretty well, but I don't know if it has sustaining power (though it might be really good, who knows). Anyway the future looks pretty good.

Also worldwide we're hanging on at over $10 million a week. Thats pretty good.

OCELOTWREAK

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 5:36 PM

Bermuda... Still... Waiting...

If it doesn't get here soon, we Browncoats are going to charter a jet to NY or Atlanta just so we can see the BDM!

*sigh*
-ocelot.

"I figure you're here 'cause you need some whacko who's willing to stick his finger in the fan. So who are we helping?" - Keith Szarabajka

RACEFANZ

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 5:37 PM

This site is the best for general movie finanical, etc. information. The BDM still hasnt broke even.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=serenity.htm

VANCOUVER

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 5:42 PM

I agree that there's more good than bad--though I understand the urgency and anxiety that leads to reading the glass as half-empty. As an itinerant Firefly fan who simply didn't know about all these websites and the Browncoats and etc until a couple of days ago, I am still amazed that you guys got a movie made. So from my standpoint, that's great to start with.

(Thank you all for that, by the way. I'm now one of you, and out there selling as hard as I can, but until I found these sites, I hadn't contributed anything but psychic waves and some movie-ticket money.)

It is good to see the adjusted Yahoo Movie News list, with Serenity at #8 instead of #9. A History of Violence is such a bad movie, I have to think that word of mouth is going to chop its lil' legs off. But we have to remember that word of mouth, although very effective, is a slow-grinding mill. The process, as you all have certainly experienced yourselves when told about a good movie that you don't know anything about, is you go, "Oh, cool: yeah, I'll go see that, then." But WHEN do you see it? You see it when your own items have been crossed off your own list, or when you see mention of it in the paper or whatever and feel in a movie-going mood...And maybe you miss it altogether, because it's dropped out of the theatres by then--and that's what turns movies into huge DVD-sellers.

My point, inasmuch as I have one, is that I think the key right now is to keep Serenity in theatres as long as possible. I personally have several referred acquaintances in the hopper--not meaning to sound like a serial killer, but you know what I mean--and they WILL see it, on my advice, but only if it's still there when they get around to it. I took my non-initiate sister, who liked it and may in turn take her non-initiate friend (who is already inclined that way, despite not knowing anything about it, because her favourite movie reviewer has only given his top rating to two movies this year, and one of them was Serenity), and tonight I take another non-initiate friend, whom I hooked by showing Shindig from the DVD set. The thing about taking neophytes is that they tell other people who also don't know about it; it is mathematically much more effective to get three newbies to go than take 5 fellow fans, or go 15 times yourself, right? At the very least, we'll be setting it up for huge DVD sales.

One question and one suggestion:

Question: Does anyone know where Mary Parent, the outgoing Universal VP and self-proclaimed "Whedon-stalker" who basically got this movie made, is going? And who is taking her place, and what that person's background is?

Suggestion: I daresay you've already thought of this, but I didn't see it on the "guerilla marketing" list. An easy technique is to keep Serenity on the list of Web Favorites on a big, popular, generic-type site like Yahoo Movies, and to keep one actor from the movie on the list of Most Searched Actors, on ditto. If John and Jane Q. Public are anything like me--which they probably mostly are, besides being more than one person--they'll be spending some time noodling around on those lists, and get curious when they see a name they don't know. Summer Glau was on the list, as you all probably already know, during Serenity's opening week, and I'm sure all sorts of people were drawn to the Serenity link from that. (A decent bio would help, but oh well. Now everybody knows that she was a "premier ballerina", which there aint no sich thing...)

In years of checking box office figures weekly, this is one of maybe three times I've EVER seen the Yahoo list change when the actuals came in. That's you guys, making that difference. Well, all of us. It's really a feat, no matter what happens in the end.

Vancouver

TUNABELLY

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 8:08 PM

i agree. Universal has given the show a kick start. i've seen the ads all over the place and i never watch tv. most of my friends have seen the ad and they've all come back to ask me if that was the show i've raving about. there's no doubt that Unviversal's ads are generating interest.

Mal: "We've done the impossible and that makes us mighty."

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