Rise of the Silver Surfer BOX OFFICE Discussion

[Agent 194]

Give him a break.... he needs the cash to buy back all those comic books Lisa Presley made him sell when they got hitched...t:

Ha...that's funny. No, I heard he's a changed man and he claims now she had nothing to do with it. He's grown beyond the need for such things and it was an adolescent part of his life he no longer really acknowledges. That's why he named his child, a girl, Kal-El.

Pay-or play. My eye.

 

[Matt312]

Too many bigger named movies came out around the same time. Transformers has already grossed 157mil to FF2 120mil. I would still like for marvel to make the third film but with no Tim Story. Make the third more serious movie. The light style humor was alright for the first but the numbers don't lie about the 2nd film.

 

[Hiruu]

Situations like these are the reasons why I have never voted on polls like this BEFORE a movie opens. I always end up looking stupid, and so it is the case here. These drops are terrible. What happened????

LOL...I was right there with you, but I think the poor performance of the film has surprised just about everybody, since the movie was getting some major press earlier in the year, and was even prominent in the summer issue of EW. I think people just looked at their options, and FF2 fell short of floating to the top of the list. Fox underestimated the environment, and had FF2 been launched later in the summer, I think it might have performed stronger.

 

[Tony Stark]

I read an article in the Chicago paper over the weekend, and it doesn't even mention Fantastic Four, that was about the drops in all movies past the opening weeks this summer. Heck, I went to see POTC: Dead Man's Chest on Labor Day weekend and the theater was still pretty full.

One movie that is doing steady business is a surprise hit, sort of like "The Wedding Crashers", is "Knocked Up" . As for Transformers, I am not surprised at the box office. It plays to that group of males who either grew up with the toys or love to play video games hours on end ... and I fall into neither group ergo have no real interest in it.



Give him a break.... he needs the cash to buy back all those comic books Lisa Presley made him sell when they got hitched...t:

Comedies generally have steady legs, unless they're completely awful like Road Trip, or rediculous spoofs like Epic Movie.

I think the reason Comedies are so steady, is you don't get the big rush to see them opening weekend. People will wait several weeks, but still make it a point to see the film, so their revenue is more spread out, than a Spider-man or Pirates of the Carribean movie.

Personally, I think Transformers will be the next in line for a 60% drop. It's happened to every film and Harry Potter is just too big of a movie. It's also getting alot better reviews than Transformers. That doesn't nessisarily translate to better revenue, but I think all and all it will probably be a better film.

I liked Transformers, but the sillyness in the movie completely ruined the serious tone setup from the opening sequence.

 

[Agent 194]

It's all a guessing game. I voted 175, because I thought it had a legit shot at the no. 1 spot for 2 weeks.

I got nervous when I started noticing at Target and Wallmart there were no FF toys in the store, like there were for Spider-man and Transformers. At Burger King the promotion was barely noticable, compared to their promotion for Spidey. Heck even comparing to the promotion they did for the first movie.

I think on some level they thought they were promoting when they did that silly Surfer coin promotion which was in reality an operation they didn't have permission to do.

There are no Surfer action figures?! That's a crime. I would have killed for one of those when I was a kid.

 

[GL's Light]

That's why he named his child, a girl, Kal-El.

No, Kal-El is his baby son, not a girl.

 

[GL's Light]

Comedies generally have steady legs, unless they're completely awful like Road Trip, or rediculous spoofs like Epic Movie.

Road Trip had great legs: it grossed 4.4X its opening.

 

[highguard]

Also look at how much TF was said to have cost. 150 million. Where in the world did Sony spend 250 million at for SM3?? Also where did WB spend 200 plus mil on SR? TF's fx looked incrediable and was way better then SM3, and Superman Returns fx looked great, on par with TF. Both SR and TF looked aboutthe same budget wise, but you also have to add that SR cast pay was cheaper then TF.

You have got to be kidding me. Nokio you really think that the FX in SR justified 265 million. Including the 2 million bullet in the eye sequence.

Comeon, you have the plane sequence and the island rising and flying through the streets, beyond that there was not much else.

They did not even show the ten million cut scene of the Krypton visit.

FF2 FX was much better than SR. From what I am hearing of Transformers their FX are much better than FF2.

However it is just my opionion.

Has anyone else here who has seen TF and SR and FF2 an opinion?

How would you rank the three of them?

 

[Tony Stark]

I think on some level they thought they were promoting when they did that silly Surfer coin promotion which was in reality an operation they didn't have permission to do.

There are no Surfer action figures?! That's a crime. I would have killed for one of those when I was a kid.

What I mean by the Lack of Toys, when Spider-man came out in Wall Mart, Target and Toys R' Us, they had huge sections devoted to the movie merchandise.

For RoTSS, the toys were only located in a small section, nothing to draw your attention. The figures were mostly rehashes of the figures from the first film. The Doom Figure is even in his FF1 garb (and he looks awful for that even)

There is a Silver Surfer figure, but I'm almost 100% positive it's a rehash of a Silver Surfer figure from Marvel legends or something. Because his surfboard has the stripes down the center like in the comics, and the front end is rounded in the front like the comics, instead of tapered like the movies.

All in all a very cheap shoddy second rate effort from Hasbro.

 

[Tony Stark]

Road Trip had great legs: it grossed 4.4X its opening.

You're right, I was thinking of that other horrible Tom Green movie Freddy got Fingered.

Road Trip may have had good legs, but it still sucked.

 

[GL's Light]

You're right, I was thinking of that other horrible Tom Green movie Freddy got Fingered.

Road Trip may have had good legs, but it still sucked.

I liked Road Trip. Freddy Got Fingered, on the other hand, was awful.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

You have got to be kidding me. Nokio you really think that the FX in SR justified 265 million. Including the 2 million bullet in the eye sequence.

Comeon, you have the plane sequence and the island rising and flying through the streets, beyond that there was not much else.

They did not even show the ten million cut scene of the Krypton visit.

FF2 FX was much better than SR. From what I am hearing of Transformers their FX are much better than FF2.

However it is just my opionion.

Has anyone else here who has seen TF and SR and FF2 an opinion?

How would you rank the three of them?

Reed's horrible strectching SFX puts FF2 third immediately. That was just lazy. SFX gettng worse in a sequel? WTF?

But the budgets are different and the effects houses are too. ILM vs Weta vs Sony. Sony sucks compared to the other two so the fact that SR looks as good as it does is a great thing. SS looks great and so does Optimus but that's what I expect from those two.

 

[Tony Stark]

You have got to be kidding me. Nokio you really think that the FX in SR justified 265 million. Including the 2 million bullet in the eye sequence.

Comeon, you have the plane sequence and the island rising and flying through the streets, beyond that there was not much else.

They did not even show the ten million cut scene of the Krypton visit.

FF2 FX was much better than SR. From what I am hearing of Transformers their FX are much better than FF2.

Totally agree with you there. The FX in SR were extremely subpar. The only thing I liked in that movie was the opening credits where you get the updated version of the Donner credits.

The flying effects were horrible, and incredibly boring, along with the most rediculous scene in movie history, with the infamous "Kryptonite Mountain".

 

[terry78]

I want to see Superman pick up something tangible, not just an island of rocks...that looks too...blah. Have him lift an entire skyscraper, something we see every day. Even the Daily Planet globe was too small.

 

[GL's Light]

I think the FX in SR were very good. There was just one shot near the end where Superman flies by the camera where the CGI was too obvious. Other than that, the FX were impressive.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

I think the FX in SR were very good. There was just one shot near the end where Superman flies by the camera where the CGI was too obvious. Other than that, the FX were impressive.

Yeah, I groaned in the theater at that. It was a simple shot. I later found out that Singer wanted Superman to smile so he had a digital double made to replace Routh because it was so late in post production.

 

[Bishop2]

I think the FX in SR were very good. There was just one shot near the end where Superman flies by the camera where the CGI was too obvious. Other than that, the FX were impressive.

I personally felt all the effects were fantastic in that movie. I didn't like the movie because of weak writing, but it looked pretty throughout. Definitely could've used more than 2 action sequences though. Most of the film was "Superman lifts something heavy, then pines for Lois and stalks her creepily."

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway.

 

[Tony Stark]

My problem with the effects were there was nothing that was grounbreaking compared to what they had done in the Donner movies. To be honest, eventhough the techniques are dated, the effects in the Donner movie are more impressive, especially when you consider what they had to work with.

The shot of Superman flying up to save Lois who'se dangling from the disabled helicopter is one of the greatest action sequences in cinema. There are absolutely no moments like that in Superman Returns.

 

[Tony Stark]

I personally felt all the effects were fantastic in that movie. I didn't like the movie because of weak writing, but it looked pretty throughout. Definitely could've used more than 2 action sequences though. Most of the film was "Superman lifts something heavy, then pines for Lois and stalks her creepily."

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway.

I agree with the weak writing. Again as I said above, it's not so much that the effects were bad, it's that they weren't ground breaking. Compare any scene in that film to Spider-man fighting Doc Ock on the train. There's no comparison.

 

[Agent 194]

I still like my line about the Metrosexual of Metropolis.

What a boring movie. Not my version of Superman. And yes picking up the mountain of Kryptonite was very stupid. How could he pick up a mountain if a rock on a chain takes him down?

 

[Agent 194]

What I mean by the Lack of Toys, when Spider-man came out in Wall Mart, Target and Toys R' Us, they had huge sections devoted to the movie merchandise.

For RoTSS, the toys were only located in a small section, nothing to draw your attention. The figures were mostly rehashes of the figures from the first film. The Doom Figure is even in his FF1 garb (and he looks awful for that even)

There is a Silver Surfer figure, but I'm almost 100% positive it's a rehash of a Silver Surfer figure from Marvel legends or something. Because his surfboard has the stripes down the center like in the comics, and the front end is rounded in the front like the comics, instead of tapered like the movies.

All in all a very cheap shoddy second rate effort from Hasbro.

That's dissapointing to hear. I really wonder what the Mego people from my childhood would do to a Surfer doll if they were still running.

 

[highguard]

about the general feedback on SR: Yeah that is what I was thinking too, however I thought that the airplane sequence was breathtaking, everything else was run of the mill. Lifting the island and all that was equivalent to Ben lifting the London eye, same principal type of photography.

In FF2 you have the chase scene with Johnny and the SS which was phenomenal. Added to that the FX for FF has to be much more involved than Superman. It is not just Johnny Flying but his flame effects has to respond to air drag and be adequately reflected on shiny surfaces.

You have FX shots in FF2 for 6, count them six different characters.

The action in SR does not even come close to the action in FF2 IMHO of course but that is just me.

I thought SR was ok but to me outside of the plane sequence i can't see where they spent 265 million dollars, really. That is literally 2 of George Lucas' movies.

Having said all of that there was nothing in SR that looked fake that I can recall.

In FF2 however, the stretching effects of Reed still need a lot of work.

 

[Mercurius]

Having said all of that there was nothing in SR that looked fake that I can recall.

Excepting Routh as Superman. t:

 

[Agent 194]

Yeah, I've got a good line about that..............never mind.

 

[GL's Light]

I thought SR was ok but to me outside of the plane sequence i can't see where they spent 265 million dollars, really. That is literally 2 of George Lucas' movies.

About $ 50-60 mil of that is from the failed previous efforts. That money isn't on the screen in SR simply because Singer didn't get to spend it. It was spent years before. You can't really make a direct comparison to George Lucas's prequel budgets, nor to Peter Jackson's LOTR and King Kong budgets, since Lucas and Jackson own ILM and Weta respectively and therefore are able to get far more FX work done at lower costs than other filmmakers. Having said that, Singer should have have got more out of his budget in terms of action set pieces, even though what he did get looked very good.