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Nonsense. It was never going to underperform in week 1. I said that on the 16th, as did others, and I stand by it.
It's nice but disingenuous to set low expectations and exceed them. That is not realistic when following the most successful Bond film ever. Set low expectations for week 2 and 3 if you want (that's where problems can happen) but not week 1.
Yes, but I'd modify that as in the bold above. That is when we know we are on our way to taking out SF for sure, which we will know two weekends from now. There are other ways to get there (China etc.) but this one above guarantees it readily.
Am I correct in assuming that people are saying SP will be the new biggest box office gross ever in the UK? Is that the call? If so, that is phenomenal news, because no other film in a franchise has supplanted its predecessor at the top of the box office heap.
I wasn't talking box office, because AVATAR at 2.7 billion isn't the most loved movie ever.
Skyfall without the 50th Anniversary hype would have stopped at 750 or maybe 800 million, that I am 100% certain.
I have never seen more division between Bond-fans than with Skyfall.
Spectre on the other hand seems to get a lot of love from all sides, at least that's what I'm experiencing in my surroundings.
JW and FF7 prove that conclusively this year imho, as does that PoS 50 Shades.
Not sure why JW was such a surprise. When I saw the first proper trailer I was immediately sure this will break records.
It's Dino's! which every kid is a fan of.
Furthermore with the two original JPs being 20 years old on average the right amount of time has passed for a "reboot", all those fans of those two movies would go and watch JW out of nostalgia and many of them have kids that wanted to see JW as well.
A win-win situation.
FF7 was a sure hit as well if, sadly, for more macabre reasons. Without Walker's untimely death FF7 would have been the most successful FF film anyway but nowhere near the 1.5 billion.
The same happened with The Dark Knight in my opinion.
50 Shades on the other hand is insane. But then sex sells. Just remember or look up Basic Instinct.
Back then I went to see it only to see those sex scenes :)) and who wasn't. The movie itself certainly didn't deserve the hype and success. It's downright awful as is 50 Shades.
True on JW & FF7. I was kidding. They were sure fire hits, but I'm truly surprised at how big they were. I thought Avengers would trounce them, but that wasn't such a good movie really imho. JW was actually the most entertaining of the lot, again imho.
50 Shades I can't understand at all. Basic Instinct was an incredible film with an in her prime Sharon Stone. 50 on the other hand......I don't know what to say really.
TDK started off strong due to Ledger's death no doubt, but it truly was a masterpiece. I think, like SF, it just hit a nerve because it had an emotional thematic undercurrent that really caught people......I know I felt it.
Actually I was jumping for joy by the end of 2012, after QOS I feared its successor would even be less successful.
I just don't believe that SF had this kind of success because of the movie alone but because of all the outside factors.
Even if am disappointed by a movie as has happened with TWINE for example I still am very happy if it makes a lot of money!
It's just your opinion that Skyfall would have come in at 60% of its total gross product if it was not an anniversary film. Unless you conduct your own scientific study or link to one, there is no way to validate your opinion.
And once again, you just simply don't know enough people to make such a gross generalization. "Division between Bond-fans." On a forum that averages a couple hundred users online per day? In the network of the hundreds of people you know? There is division between the users on this site and the hundreds of people I know on Goldfinger. The hilarious part is that both films average in the top 6-7 among the big online communities. But let's just call them average or divided film based on casual observation.
I think what is more disturbing here isn't the fact that we are having this conversation, but that people actually think an argument like taking a small sample of a MASSIVE population of fans in a biased methodology and thinking it is logical to extrapolate those findings to the population at large is ridiculous. Even if we ignored the fact that you don't solicit the opinions of people at random and maintained the sample size we are talking about here, the margin of error would be so large the statement would look weak unless you assessed an equally weak degree of confidence to it.
And of those people who, "didn't like it," how many of them went to the theater for multiple screenings? How many of them bought the physical or digital copy of the movie? The things people spend their money on talk in a more objective way than what their word will tell you.
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a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors.
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I agree, one needs proper statistical samples and rigorous methodology prior to arriving at conclusions, but then who really does that?
It's fun to have a hunch and be correct, but we must realize that it's always just a hunch anyway. Guesswork. We're all just guessing at the end of the day.
It's important for everyone to be aware of it. All of the things I and many others complain about are strictly in the first person, singular opinion. It gets messy when you start to draw upon the opinions of others to form (unreasonable) conclusions.
There is another psychological factor involved in opinion gathering of this kind, we favor interaction and association of similar people. Not only then will people look to reinforce their beliefs by pointing out like-minded ideas, but the very people around them will be more likely to express similar views.
The reason why I'm making a big deal out of it is because I don't like when people say the way everyone feels (as if I am included in it also) based on substantially lacking observations. The moral of the story, please just say you and the people you know feel a certain way.
Notice even I called my Skyfall-Goldfinger parallel a hypothesis. I openly admit that it may not be accurate.
I learnt a lot about this when reading "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. Great book, but perhaps a tough read for some. Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein's "Nudge" is probably an easier read on the same thing.
It's fascinating stuff. Our mind can fool us if we let it.
Especially interesting to see when politicians are guilty of this (especially in the US) when justifying opinions and self serving policy decisions. Their biases are quite evident if one looks critically, but the media almost never ask the right questions.
Blimey!............that was heavy stuff @Mansfield...............i had to go to a dictionary to look up what 'heuristic' meant! :))
Good stuff, I have not read those. The only place I learned this is through psych and statistical courses required for my degree. The first book title is interesting because reading about these natural happenings does give pause to the first thought we have in countless situations.
I feel the need to say, I think box office numbers don't tell the whole story. The only reason I am using them to illustrate a counterpoint to the original statement is because it is the only fair statistical measure with which for us to place any value. This is not an ideal discussion or argument to have, but such as the original statement.
Of course it's my opinion that SF wouldn't have the one billion dollar BO without the Anniversary. I never said otherwise.
When I'm talking about SF dividing people, then it's because what I'm experiencing in my surroundings or on such forums. Opinions are formed with what we read, hear and experience in reality.
"I have never seen more division between Bond-fans than with Skyfall." My words in the OP. I don't claim it's generally so.
Not referring to you, but sometimes people get too touchy when something they love gets criticised, I'm no exception.
By the way, I went to see SF 3 times at the cinema.
I own it:
- on Blu-ray (the initial standard release)
- on Blu-ray Steelbook (the initial release)
- on Blu-ray (the new release with the different cover-art)
- in the new James Bond Collection on Blu-ray
- as download purchased on iTunes
- on Blu-ray the newly released Steelbook
- in the Daniel Craig Collection Steelbook
the Digital Copy of it (one of them) I gave away for free :)
It's just an unfair discussion to have when opinions are taken to make a statement about something that cannot be quantified. If a discussion is qualitative, the narrative should play out as such. No doubt we will all get a chance to have this conversation when everyone has the opportunity to see Spectre.
Edit: I realize I was the one who first made the transition to a quantitative measure, only to support my assertion that the public already brought about the unity of fans. The support that everyone gave Skyfall at the box office is suggestive of unity. If the fans at large did not view it favorably, it likely would have felt the consequences in their bottom dollar. Die Another Day was an anniversary title and it didn't come close to Skyfall's numbers. There has to be a significant difference in the cause for both results. In other words, the product had to resonate on some level with the consumer public to elevate it above estimation.
573 more IMAX screens :-). Can't wait to see a final theater count number for "SPECTRE" in the US.
2.7 billion? Geez... For some reason I've never even been tempted to check it out.
I'd have needed to be paid for my time to go see those... :P
Me too. Not just about movies, but other stuff, too. Different opinions can generate fascinating discussions... in theory anyway. A discussion can very quickly stop being a discussion about a movie (or whatever else) and become something else. One either gets called an idiot (for not agreeing) or gets ignored instead of getting intelligent feedback.
@bondjames, thanks for the book recommendations, I'll check if my library has them. Interesting stuff.
Actually, I think "Star Wars 7" is really aiming at that record.
And then, let's say "SPECTRE" brings in a great $1.2 Billion, "Hunger Games 4" brings in $1.0 Billion (barely) and "Star Wars 7" goes well past the $2.5 Billion....then you have this top 10 list:
01. $2,600.0: "Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens"
02. $1,665.8: "Jurassic World"
03. $1,514.8: "Furious 7"
04. $1,402.8: "Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron"
05. $1,200.0: "James Bond 24: SPECTRE"
06. $1,154.4: "Minions"
07. $1,000.0: "The Hunger Games 4: Mockingjay Prt 2"
08. $0,950.0: "The Good Dinosaur"
09. $0.842.5: "Inside Out"
10. $0.682.1: "Mission: Impossible 5 - Rogie Nation"
$ 10,858 BILLION ≈ $11,000 Billion
Now compare it with the top 10 box office figures of 2014:
01. $1,104.0: "Transformers: Age Of Extinction"
02. $0,956.0: "The Hobbit 3: The Battle Of The Five Armies"
03. $0,774.2: "Guardians Of The Galaxy"
04. $0,758.4: "Maleficent"
05. $0,755.4: "The Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay Prt 1"
06. $0,748.1: "X-Men: Days Of Future Past"
07. $0,714.8: "Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier"
08. $0,709.0: "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"
09. $0,708.8: "Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes"
10. $0,675.0: "Interstellar"
$ 07,904 BILLION ≈ $ 08,000 Billion
Conclusion (as mentioned in the topic title): As I already stated in 2013, 2015 would be an insane box office year. And insane it is :-).
SPECTRE sets new British box office record in first week. =D>
( apologies if this has already been posted)
You should do the chart for the Top 20 movies, then the picture looks a bit different :)
Also if you omit SW the picture changes drastically.
But it's entirely possible 2015 will be better than 2014, we'll see.
When in 2014 the total BO was divided more evenly on many movies, in 2015 the gap between the most successful and the rest is much bigger. So if you look only to the top it seems 2015 is insane.
Mind you the next 2 weekends, where Bond opens up in most of the world, the grosses are going to be HUGE!
Now if MI-5 had opened at the same day as Spectre...
Re-watching the trailers, I think there is another aspect that will help Spectre to be as successful as Skyfall.
Spectre feels like an direct sequel to Skyfall. That will attract many casual movie goers that have seen Skyfall but might not necessarily watch every Bond movie at the cinema.