They are appearing together in Chekov's Uncle Vanya, coming out this fall.

harry potter or transformers is number 1...

Super 8 barely makes 200 mil or i wont be surprised it doesnt make 100 mil (i love the trailers and all but i just think the audience will not see superstars in the list of cast so they will avoid)

thor or captain america ... one will make daredevil money and thats Thor... Captain makes iron man 1

Pirates is done and will make only $200 and not as good as the previous movies..

Hangover 2 will suck ... which sucks because the 1st was epic.

Green Lantern wont make $100 mil

Sorry, dude.

Having worked on both Madagascar and Madagascar 2, I can say Mad 2 (more than 200 million domestic) made more than Mad 1 (190 million domestic).

Since when was grossing over 200 million and surpassing the original a "failure"?

qft

2nd one also cost 75 million more to make.

I think if Super 8 captures the imagination the way it's positioning itself to (early-Spielberg) then it could be a big hit even without marquee names. Aren't there more sequels this summer than any in the past? Something fresh and original in a sea of familiarity may catch on. Depp wasn't the huge star when PotC came out and that made over $300m despite most everyone scoffing at the very idea of making the movie. Avatar had no one big and that made a little money, too.

Granted, Super 8 doesn't seem to have the marketing behind it yet that PotC and Avatar had, so there's that, but I still think it could be a good size hit - assuming it's any good.

By the time it comes out, won't Super 8 be like the third "Alien Invasion" movie of the year? Not exactly "fresh and original".

You could argue that being the guy that did Titanic and other films is pretty big in itself..but I don't think people know his name to the extent Speilberg yet. More like when they advertise him as " The Director of Titantic etc etc...." that's when they know him.

I was going to mention Avatar as a hugely succesful movie without any names, but Cameron is a huge name in my opinion. His last movie was the biggest movie of all time and a lot of people knew that he'd been working on Avatar for a very long time. I honestly don't know who has more name recognition at this point--Spielberg or Cameron. The easy answer would be Spielberg, but Cameron has the 2 highest grossing movies of all time. He also has Aliens which is the sequel to a highly successful and well received movie that many people regard to be just as good, if not better than the orginal and he also has Terminator which is one of the more iconic franchises around.

But how bout Titanic? Before Titanic, Cameron just just known as a guy that made action movies, although he did do Terminator and Aliens. Titanic had no "bankable" stars. Titanic made Leo huge and Kate Winslet was pretty much an unknown.

That was a movie that was over 3 hours long, had a no-name cast with an "action" oriented director than somehow became the biggest movie in history.

if you are comparing to the prediction of Super 8's success, well the difference is one topic was about Titanic and not a fictional story

The star of Titanic was, well, the boat. And most people had heard of it.

Not too many potential summer blockbusters are fresh and original these days. But I'd say, relatively speaking, that Super 8 is as close as you can get since there doesn't seem to be another movie this summer with a similar story, look, or tone - based on the preview. It's also not a remake or sequel or based on a graphic novel or tv show or video game.

I think a lot of people in this thread are actually under-estimating the power of Pottermania. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan but I generally only see each of the films one or two times in the theater max. However, with this being the final installment to the series, there's no way I won't be seeing this as many times as humanely possible. After the film leaves theaters I may never have a chance to see a Harry Potter film on the big screen again. I expect a lot of fans to feel this way and I think people will re-watch it in droves if it's the successful conclusion that I know in my heart it can be. If the film is as good as it should be fans will want to make it one for the record books. I could see it doing better than the new Transformers film. At least... I sincerely hope so.

Enough with the Pirates movies, already.

Super 8's trailer is certainly fresh vs the other stuff coming out. I'm thinking the buzz from it will build up enough to where it opens huge. If word of mouth is good, I think it can be a huge hit. Obviously the franchises have their fans already, but if regular folk who don't go to the theaters often pick one film this Summer, I'm guessing Super 8 might be their choice. I just think it'll play better with all demographics. And "From Steven Spielberg" attached to the trailers certainly doesn't hurt the marketing.

I think a lot of people are burnt out on super heroes and sequels and may opt for this instead. Inception wasn't a franchise and it did decent. Obviously this film lacks Leo's name and Nolan coming off a $1 billion film, but it does have the creator of Lost and director of Star Trek to help sell it, in addition to S.S.

Pottermaina has always topped out just under $300 mil. As I mentioned, 3D pricing and this being the last one will push it over that total. But this franchise has the same core of fans. None of the films have really jumped in totals over the years. Transformers 1 made $319 mil, but part 2 jumped to $402 mil. Potter's grosses have been consistent, and impressive. I just don't see a big jump even for this film.

Doesn't Potter also usually do better in the Fall/Winter? Lots more competition this Summer with films in similar genres. It opens on July 15. It'll be dealing with Transformers leftovers, and then Captain America opens a week later. Cowboys and Aliens opens 2 weeks later.

I did a little research and found that actually very few US theatrical movies have been about the Titanic.

Really there's only been 2--A Night to Remember and Titanic. There was a tv movie in 1996. Raise the Titanic in 1980 which wasn't even really about the Titanic. S.O.S. Titanic in 1979 which only played in European theaters and on American tv and that's it since A Night to Remember in 1958.

I don't know...I guess I thought there were more movies made about the Titanic, but I think that's definitely part of the reason it was so popular. It was the first "real" Titanic movie in 40 years.

Return of the King got a bump. Actually each Lord of the Rings movie grossed more than the previous one.

It's possible that there are people that haven't watched any of the Potter movies, but will now go just because it's the last one, or maybe they didn't watch any of them but now that the final one is coming out they went back and rewatched the earlier ones and will now go see the final movie.

I predict it'll be the highest grossing entry in the franchise, but probably not by a huge amount which will ultimately mean that fewer people actually see it than the first one which did almost $450 million adjusted for inflation. Like I said, my guess it'll bring in more than $317 million, which was the first one's total, but probably won't go TOO much higher than that.

Am I the only one that just isn't sold on "Super 8"?

I'm not either. A lot of people on this board think Abrams is god. Cloverfield was horrible. I'll wait for reviews before I get suckered into another movie like that.

Of the superhero movies-
after all is said and done,
Green Lantern will be #1
Thor will be #2
Captain America will squeak past X-Men: First Class, but X-M:FC will be prove to be a big winner for Fox on DVD/Bd.

Thor won't burn the doors down initially, but it will show some surprising legs.
Green Lantern is something that hasn't been seen before and it will do well with a younger audience (kids) as well as older (middle aged and older) comic book nerds-in addition to general audiences looking for a breezy summer movie.
Captain America is going to have a bit of a slog- 1) it's a period movie for the most part 2) it looks to be the most serious (as in "full of epic pondering poses") of the comic book movies (apart from X-Men), and 3) it comes at the end of the summer cycle of these. Going by this forum it has a ready made audience that can't wait to righteously adore it, and I'm sure it will be a good, watchable movie- but it doesn't have enough character to transcend the genre after three other good films that are more unique (or in the case of X-M:FC, look to at least have compelling lead characters with juicy, dramatic conflicts.) The conflicts in CA look to be of the mostly rote, comic book variety that Spider-man and Hulk have already mined- Average guy gets super-powered through science and goes after another super-powered villain who got a similar science boosted upgrade, but is all evil.
Also the WWII setting stacks the sympathy too much. A conflicted Nazi superhero would be interesting.
A true blue American giving a smack down to evil Nazi's? It's a fait acompli. It was fresh to see Nazi's back in 1981 in a pop adventure movie. 30 years later, not so much.

Jmo.

of the others,
Harry Potter will be strong, probably #1 I suppose. POTC will vie with Transformers 3 for the role of Ghostbusters 2 of the summer (the sequel everyone pegs to be HUGE, but ultimately lacks charm and novelty and only does modest business while audiences gravitate to something they haven't seen before).

Cowboys and Aliens? Daniel Craig will pull people in (moreso than HF), but ultimately the movie will be an also ran.

Don't know about Super 8, but I think it's a safe bet this will be the biggest box office summer ever.

This just in... Super 8 is actually a story about aliens on The Titanic. This is going to be huge!

Super 8 isn't going to be the big smash some predict. It'll do well, but this is summer and things get buried fast.

I really don't care about JJ Abrams or sci-fi in general but this one has me intrigued.

I bet I enjoy it way more than all the superhero bullshit we'll be fed this summer.

The only movies I'm anticipating are Cowboys and Aliens, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and Harry Potter: DH Part 2 (although I think every Potter movie by Yates has been underwhelming).

Super 8 and Cowboys and Aliens are the wildcards. Both could flop massively, both could break 250 mil.