Thoughts on recent box office press
July 16th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
I have to say I’m quite pleased by the huge box office success of the fifth Harry Potter movie over the last week. Because I’m a fan of the franchise? True, but that’s not why. It’s because at last I can stop getting copies of Variety spouting about the success of Transformers. Have I mentioned how much Transformers pissed me off? I think I must have, somewhere… See, this is what I’m talking about, people! It’s spectacle and special effects WITH story. Ahhh… Much better.
I can’t help thinking that part of why Phoenix is off to such a great start is that the film isn’t insanely long, like the others. The creative team decided to keep it short, even if that means straying from the book. While I’m sad that this means no quidditch for Ron, there’s a certain reality to the need for cuts when adapting a 900-page book.
I’m also glad that this summer, full of third installments though it may be (Spidey, Shrek, Priates, Bourne…) has at least seen a very healthy box office after slumps in recent years. I grew extremely weary of article after article speculating about what possibly be causing the downturn in receipts. Was it the worsening box office experience? (probably) Was it the the number of commercials playing before each showing? (probably) Was it the increasing cost of tickets compared to ever more compelling home entertainment options? (probably) Was it the suffering quality of movies? (definitely) But the reason no one discussed, in my mind, was the Occam’s razor: regular cyclic patterns in an industry. You can’t expect every single year to be better than the last forever and ever.
Another promising note from the weekend was the fact that Captivity opened outside of the top ten, with a total gross of $1.4 M. Perhaps that, combined with dismal gross for Hostel II, will send the message to the film industry that the movie going public has voted no thanks on the torture porn.
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