Matrix Box Ofice down 45% from Reloaded

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-11-12 07:32pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Blah, my bro wants the boxset so he doesn't fork out for the individual DVDs.

He bought the soundtrack to Revolutions the other day and from what I heard, it's great. At least Don Davis can make up for the lack of good execution in the sequels.

The soundtrack is AWESOME.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-11-12 07:32pm

Stravo wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:Blah, my bro wants the boxset so he doesn't fork out for the individual DVDs.

He bought the soundtrack to Revolutions the other day and from what I heard, it's great. At least Don Davis can make up for the lack of good execution in the sequels.
The soundtrack is AWESOME.

Woah.
[/Neo]

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-11-12 08:07pm

neoolong wrote:I saw it on Veteran's Day, and there was less than 10 people in the theater. Make of that what you will.

I went again last night.

Now, keep in mind, the multiplex had done one of the dumbest things possible. It had scheduled two screenings of Revolutions just thirty minutes apart, with the first of them being in a smaller theatre and the later one being in their biggest and grandest screen.

This kept in mind, when I went in last night with a couple of my friends, in total there were only five people in the entire theater, a room which could easily seat 200. Now granted, I didn't mind this at all, because it meant my friends and I could MST3K with virtual impunity (we were halfway across the theater from the other two, and they didn't look like they were really there to watch the movie anyway), but I can't help but wonder how sensible that was from a business point of view.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-12 08:39pm

You were too referring to it.

Really. So how was your psychic journey into my mind, then?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-12 08:41pm

Uraniun235 wrote:Now granted, I didn't mind this at all, because it meant my friends and I could MST3K with virtual impunity (we were halfway across the theater from the other two, and they didn't look like they were really there to watch the movie anyway), but I can't help but wonder how sensible that was from a business point of view.

Note: It's called "riffing" or "MSTing."

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-11-12 09:25pm

Darth Wong wrote:So what are they going to call the new box set? The Matrix Re-Exploited? Matrix Fans Re-Duped? Matrix Regurgitated?

The Matrix, we're so damn greedy that we're screwing over the people that are willing to buy this all the while laughing on our way to the bank, box set.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-11-12 09:46pm

zombie84 wrote:yeah but none of those have ever been seen inside the same film. Every work of fiction borrows from previous works. Hell, Star Wars is just a remake of Hidden Fortress--its the combined influences and new presentation that makes it unique. In that respect, while all the individual elements that make up the Matrix films have been seen before in some form of media, the combined influence of them on the film creates a wholy unique tale.

You've never seen The Hidden Fortress, have you?

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-11-12 10:18pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:
zombie84 wrote:yeah but none of those have ever been seen inside the same film. Every work of fiction borrows from previous works. Hell, Star Wars is just a remake of Hidden Fortress--its the combined influences and new presentation that makes it unique. In that respect, while all the individual elements that make up the Matrix films have been seen before in some form of media, the combined influence of them on the film creates a wholy unique tale.
You've never seen The Hidden Fortress, have you?

Yes. I am a huge Kurosawa fan. Have you seen it?

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-11-12 10:22pm

Durran Korr wrote:
You were too referring to it.
Really. So how was your psychic journey into my mind, then?

Weird and scary and full of flying monkeys.

It just seemed like you were including plotline elements in your list of grievances.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-11-13 01:25am

Wathching Revolutions makes me want to go watch Dark City right fucking now to get it out of my system.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-11-13 12:14pm

UPDATE

'Matrix Revolutions' sets all-time record
Film squeaks by 'Two Towers' for five-day take
Thursday, November 13, 2003 Posted: 10:00 AM EST (1500 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Neo is indeed mightier at the box office than Frodo.

In a game of revision and counter-revision, the title holder for the biggest worldwide opening in history -- which has passed during the past few days from "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" to "The Matrix Revolutions" and then back to "Two Towers" -- is once again in the "Matrix" camp.

After adding in some late-arriving international grosses, Warner Bros. is now claiming victory for "The Matrix Revolutions," which amassed $202.8 million in its first five days since opening last Wednesday. That puts it slightly ahead of New Line's "Towers," which racked up $201.9 million in its first five days late last year.

The contest over bragging rights began Sunday when Warners estimated the five-day opening of "Revolutions" at $204 million. The studio issued a news release dated Monday that hailed the film as "the biggest consecutive five-day opening in motion picture history."

At the time, New Line's last-reported tally on "Towers" stood at $201.4 million.

Advantage: Warners.

But later Monday, Warners revised its number down slightly -- to $201.4 million.

That would have put Warners in a dead heat with New Line, except that since New Line last reported its $201.4 million figure in May, it revised the "Towers" number, raising it to $201.9 million, which put "Towers" $500,000 ahead of "Revolutions."

Advantage: New Line.

On Wednesday, however, as a few more international dollars trickled in, Warners revised its "Revolutions" take up to $202.8 million, slightly above the revised New Line number on "Towers."

Current winner: Warners.

Overall winner: Time Warner, which owns both studios. (It's also the parent company of CNN.)

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" held the previous record for worldwide opening.
"We've never released this broadly before and in this many countries, so it's been an incredible challenge coming up with an accurate box office count for this many territories," said Veronica Kwan-Rubinek, president of Warner Bros. Pictures International Theatrical Distribution.

"When we released in 107 markets, we were in many territories that we don't traditionally track daily box office figures."

"Revolutions" went out in a record 94 countries, 107 markets and with more than 10,000 prints internationally in an unprecedented day-and-date, hour-to-hour release November 5.

Kwan-Rubinek also noted that various countries were on holiday Monday, which delayed getting accurate numbers, and she also said that smaller countries usually take extra time to tally.

The newly revised international box office for "Revolutions" is $119 million, up slightly from the $117.6 million reported by the distributor Monday. In either case, in terms of its international grosses, "Revolutions" easily topped the first five days of "Two Towers" in the international marketplace, which brought in $99.8 million.

"Revolutions" earned a relatively disappointing $83.8 million in its first five days of release in North America, compared with about $102 million for "Two Towers."

In its first seven days, "Revolutions" has amassed a worldwide gross of $232.2 million, with $93.6 million coming from the domestic side and $138.6 million from international receipts. Traditionally, the international side of the "Matrix" series has outperformed the domestic side, and the third film in the series looks to continue that pattern.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-11-13 12:27pm

TTT was not as good as FOTR, but for Revolutions to beat it at the box office merely proves various longstanding claims about the idiocy of viewers.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-11-13 12:29pm

I'm hoping RotK will be the real bread winner for the LotR franchise, I keep FotR and TTT apart since I like them for different reasons but can't choose one over the other.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-11-13 12:32pm

Historically sequels have always done less business than the original, in terms of raw numbers ESB made less than ANH and ROTJ, ANH making the highest numbers. Godfather, Jaws, Indiana Jones, etc. So there is no surprise that TTT woudl make less business than FOTR, but we also don't know how many screens Revolutions opened as compared to TTT. Generally the more screens available the bigger your take will be initially.

The key numbers are not these opening numbers. It's the coming weekend numbers where we see the drop off.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-11-13 12:34pm

Darth Wong wrote:TTT was not as good as FOTR, but for Revolutions to beat it at the box office merely proves various longstanding claims about the idiocy of viewers.

No, it only proves that Revolutions cast a bigger net than TTT did. I mean, they launch an unprecedented simultaneous release in 94 countries and manage to barely beat out TTT. That's not too impressive. It would have been rather amusing had they gone through all the trouble of such a huge autumn release and come up miserably short, but when the net is that huge, well, you're bound to catch a lot.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » 2003-11-13 12:47pm

Darth Wong wrote:TTT was not as good as FOTR, but for Revolutions to beat it at the box office merely proves various longstanding claims about the idiocy of viewers.

It also demonstrates the b.o. disadvantage a 175-minute movie has compared to a 109-minute movie. Also, this is just the 5-day performance; the poor word-of-mouth for Revolutions will probably lead it to a lower final take.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » 2003-11-13 12:51pm

Forgot to mention that as Revolutions was released 11 months later it loses to TTT in terms of inflation-adjusted gross (almost a year of inflation adds $4 million or so to TTT's 5-day take in today's $)

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2003-11-13 02:49pm

Darth Wong wrote:TTT was not as good as FOTR, but for Revolutions to beat it at the box office merely proves various longstanding claims about the idiocy of viewers.

I think there are several factors at work here. First off TTT had all the hype from how wonderful FOTR was that led it to the stratosphere it hit. Conversely Revolutions had the disappointment of Rloaded to combat. That said Revolutions had such a wide net that they snared all the people who wanted some closure for the dumbfounded head scratching they were left with after watching Reloaded. The only reason i watched was to see whether I would get any payoff from the endless psycho-babble...and I didn't. WarnerBros realized that they had no payoff coming and that wordof mouth would kill the movie obviously decided to snare as many people looking for the payoff as they could before everyone realized the movie stinks.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-11-13 04:16pm

On the other hand, I probably would have gone to see Revolutions even if everyone had told me it sucked ass, if only to see just how they ended the trilogy.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-11-13 09:01pm

zombie84 wrote:
Drooling Iguana wrote:
zombie84 wrote:yeah but none of those have ever been seen inside the same film. Every work of fiction borrows from previous works. Hell, Star Wars is just a remake of Hidden Fortress--its the combined influences and new presentation that makes it unique. In that respect, while all the individual elements that make up the Matrix films have been seen before in some form of media, the combined influence of them on the film creates a wholy unique tale.
You've never seen The Hidden Fortress, have you?
Yes. I am a huge Kurosawa fan. Have you seen it?

Yes, and although I saw that it was the inspiration for a couple of elements in Star Wars (thr droids, mostly, even though they bore little resemblance to their THF counterparts) the storyline was completely different. I don't recall the plot of any of the Star Wars movies revolving around the droids' get-rich-quick schemes.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-16 03:57pm

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pa ... utions.htm

Update...looks like the drop has been massive so far. Compare that to Elf, where the drop is less than 13 percent.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-11-16 04:55pm

Durran Korr wrote:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pa ... utions.htm

Update...looks like the drop has been massive so far. Compare that to Elf, where the drop is less than 13 percent.

It's not even going to turn a profit! It needs $450 million to defer costs and even make it to an accounting profit. That must be a horrific disappointment for Warner Brothers.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-16 05:42pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
Durran Korr wrote:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pa ... utions.htm

Update...looks like the drop has been massive so far. Compare that to Elf, where the drop is less than 13 percent.
It's not even going to turn a profit! It needs $450 million to defer costs and even make it to an accounting profit. That must be a horrific disappointment for Warner Brothers.

450 million? Are you sure? How much did this film cost?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-11-16 05:45pm

Durran Korr wrote:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pa ... utions.htm

Update...looks like the drop has been massive so far. Compare that to Elf, where the drop is less than 13 percent.

Just as I predicted, a drop of Hulk like proportions, although I think the Hulk set the record at a flat 70% while Revolutions is around 66%

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-11-16 05:50pm

The Dude wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:TTT was not as good as FOTR, but for Revolutions to beat it at the box office merely proves various longstanding claims about the idiocy of viewers.
It also demonstrates the b.o. disadvantage a 175-minute movie has compared to a 109-minute movie. Also, this is just the 5-day performance; the poor word-of-mouth for Revolutions will probably lead it to a lower final take.

Revolutions was about 2h 20m, while Two Towers was something like 3 hours. Neither of those films was under 2 hours long, so where does the 109 minutes come from? Did you mean 209?