Hokeyboy

I really think AUSTRALIA is gonna tank hard. Nicole Kidman is *NOT* a box office draw by any stretch of the imagination (Bewitched? Stepford Wives? Golden Compass? Invasion? Birth? No...) and Jackman has not proved to be any kind of box-office draw whatsoever UNLESS he's got adamantium claws popping out of his hands (regardless of the quality of his acting and the projects he takes on -- The Prestige and The Fountain are two of my favorite projects of his).

Plus the advanced word is decidedly mediocre.

And Baz Luhrman sucks.



OK that last part was purely opinion.




Or was it?

Brack

Is Australia making the rounds with tv commercials? I haven't seen one. Baz Luhrman is 3 for 3 directing, so I have not reason to think it won't be good.

Deftones

yeah, i've seen many, many Australia commercials.

Brack

<--- out of the loop.

RichC2

Naw, you're not. I've seen all of 1 advertisement for it, and that was tonight. It was a 15 second ad that said very little of what the movie was about.

Having read some reviews, I'm more interested than I would be if it were a straight historical epic. Apparently it carries Baz's quirkiness which may work in the context of a historic drama... I know thus far a few of those touches have partially redeemed his otherwise unwatchable movies (Romeo, Moulin Rouge, never saw Strictly Ballroom). Then again, some of those touches are what made those two unwatchable.. we'll see.

mikelowry

What's the big deal with Twilight? A surprise hit I should say.

RichC2

An extremely popular novel amongst housewives and teenage girls being a huge hit in theaters isn't exactly a surprise to most of us. Though from a strictly cinematic viewpoint I could see it blindsiding some folks.

fumanstan

I've seen a handful of Australia commercials, and I still don't know what it's about.

PopcornTreeCt

I'll be seeing Australia opening day or on Thanksgiving. I don't think it will be a big box office movie but it looks great.

Panda Phil

Basically it's Sex in the City for high school girls.

CharlieK

Will a female be dragging you to it?

Mercury&Solace

Co-sign. Nobody I talked to does either.

Looks like they are trying to pass this off as some reject Pearl Harbor/Titanic/English Patient/In Love And War(gag) type movie.

The action scenes, outfit, the hat, gun, riding horses, carrying a whip, dude looks like Indiana Jones. At least thats the marketing they are doing for all the "guy" channels I watch that have been showing previews for this movie.

RichC2

Apparently Twilight is set for $72m for the weekend, I don't think that will hold up in the finals but we'll see.

The movie dropped 40% to $22m on Saturday.

$35.7m Friday + Midnights
$22m Saturday

leaves a $14.3m Sunday expected. In an earlier post where I doubted it hitting $70m, well, I just flat out forgot how to count. (I was anticipating $20m Saturday and a $14m Sunday which is still $70m, haha).

Rypro 525

wow, thats a huge drop. So as expected, it was entirly front loaded. Could it have done 100 mil if it kept up with opening day numbers.

NoirFan

Junior High actually.

chris_sc77

Box office mojo has it like this:
1. Twilight= $70,553,000
2. Quantum of Solace= $27,400,000 (59.4% drop from last weekend for a total cum. of $109,483,000
3. Bolt= $27,000,000

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend...wknd=47&p=.htm

Jericho

Except the opening day numbers were inflated by late Thursday (or early Friday) showings. If you took what a normal Friday take would be (say $27-28 million or so), the numbers make more sense.

PopcornTreeCt

No..

Supermallet

$70 for an awful film that couldn't have cost more than $70 mil with marketing costs is a good deal for Summit. Based on what I've been hearing from audiences, though, I don't think a sequel will do all that well. Most people seem disappointed, and the day to day drop is already reflecting that.

It's sad to see Bolt couldn't quite reach $30 million. I was hoping for a stronger showing. Disney's really had a weak year, between this, the underperforming High School Musical, and Prince Caspian.

chris_sc77

I could say the exact same thing about Quantum of Solace.

Zee

If they triple the budget and hire a new director, New Moon could be a hit as well. The sequel has a lot less romance/cheese and more action...if a trailer for NM comes out and the special effects look great, fans will probably be reenergized about the series and male moviegoers may be more interested as well. The difference between the first and third Harry Potter movies is astounding...if they're smart, the folks at Summit will make similar changes.

Supermallet

I didn't look at the hard numbers, but I don't think Bond dropped so sharply on Saturday as Twilight has. Also Bond has already made a ton of money in the foreign markets and it's one of those franchises that will never, ever go away. This is the first movie in a new franchise by a new studio. Very different scenarios.

chris_sc77

^OK true true. But i just feel QOS disappointed at least as many fans (f not more so) of the series than Twilight did to its fans.

Supermallet

Possibly, but you know all those fans will be back for the next Craig outing regardless of what they thought about QoS. A bad entry in the Bond franchise at this point (and I actually liked, but didn't love QoS) is not going to derail the series. Hell, several bad entries won't derail it, if the box office of Die Another Day proves anything. Twilight is not in such a secure position.

PopcornTreeCt

Has there been a series other than Lord of the Rings that didn't disappoint its fans? Were the fans really happy with the first Harry Potter film?