Does big box office equal big quality?

[CyclopsWasRight]

I've seen it, you've seen it, we've all seen it.

A person will use the fact that a movie made alot of money at the box office to express that it's therefore a great movie.

Do you agree or disgree?

 

[DarthSkywalker]

All it shows is that a lot of people went to see a movie.

 

[Octoberist]

no. It never works because there are tons of movies that bomb that were excellent: Blade Runner, Fight Club and Citizen Kane come to mind.

Using the populous as a measurement of quality never works.

 

[The Joker]

Good god NO! Look at the Transformers movies.

 

[Octoberist]

And Grown Ups 1 and 2.

 

[MrMaooz]

No. Not at all.

 

[Senator Pleasury]

No and it has never been that way.

 

[Victarion]

No. Look at Hellboy II and Lord of the Rings. I consider HBII a higher quality fantasy film, though it never scratched LOTR's profits.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Yeah i love HBII

 

[Warhammer]

Nope, not at all. Sometimes, there is a correlation between box office and critical reception. However, it's not causality.

 

[Teelie]

The poll is 10/10 on "Nope" so I think everyone so far realizes a terrible movie can be a box office success somehow.

 

[superhero]

my dad read that Steven Spielberg said maybe in the future that if its good movie that their going t o up the tickets? then if its not that good movie their going to lower the ticket prices but if that's true how do you decide if good movie is good and bad movie is bad? people like different movies how would you know if movie does bad or good? I guess you can tell by number at the box office but lots of movies get more recognized word of mouth or on message boards

 

[terry78]

It varies because people will use the argument as it suits them. If a movie they hate makes money, the public are morons. If it bombs, the public was smart. Vice versa if it's a flick they love.

 

[Heretic]

I think that there is a certain...I guess you'd call it a skill...to make something that lots of people want to see. I work in the music biz...and people often crap on Nickelback for writing basically the same song over and over...but the fact is that they like money, so they follow a formula to write a hit song. Major labels know that if you put certain things in place, more people will enjoy it, even though they enjoyed similar things hundreds of times already. I guess movies can be the same way. There are formulas...but you can still screw it up. When you get the formula right (like Avengers), people respond...when you do it wrong (R.I.P.D.) people generally don't.

However...all that said...MOST of the very best movies that I see are straight to DVD releases. If I used the box office to decide what to watch in the past few years, I'd have never seen Upstream Color, Sound of My Voice, Another Earth, Stoker, Antiviral, Compliance, The Place Beyond the Pines, Detention and many others that I enjoyed far more than most of the crap I wasted my money on in theaters.

 

[def28]

Depends on the circumstances. It shows for something at times, while others not at all. Box Office can show just that their was a strong initial interest because of the Marketing/Franchise/Actor/Director/Effects. But anyway you break it down, taking every single persons film quality preference is an impossible thing to do. We all like different things. For all the people that think Transformers and Twilight are the worst thing ever there is an even larger audience that disagrees and keeps coming back.

 

[dude stannis]

Just because something has mass appeal, doesn't make it of quality. I'm not a fan of either Avatar or Titanic, but Blade Runner, The Thing, Fight Club and Children of Men are perfect 10/10 films in my book.

 

[Heretic]

my dad read that Steven Spielberg said maybe in the future that if its good movie that their going t o up the tickets? then if its not that good movie their going to lower the ticket prices but if that's true how do you decide if good movie is good and bad movie is bad? people like different movies how would you know if movie does bad or good? I guess you can tell by number at the box office but lots of movies get more recognized word of mouth or on message boards

Your dad kind of had it wrong, if memory serves. The point of that article was that if a movie cost 2 million, it would have a lower ticket price...but if the budget was 200 million, it would raise prices to make it an "event" movie.

I do agree that more and more films will be trying different things. You take a film on the road for one night only showings...bring key cast members...have an autograph signing...and charge a huge increase for tickets. They'll come up with extra ideas to help make the movie profitable before it ever opens wide in theaters.

 

[Schlosser85]

The success of Transformers and Adam Sandler prove the answer to this question is a resounding NO.

There are blockbusters dumber than a box of hammers and excellent indie movies that a lot of people have never heard of.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Nope. Best example I can think of is Transformers: ROTF. The other two films had problems, but they seem fixable against all that is wrong in that film. The effects look good, but when we have things like smashing through the Smithsonian into a rural airplane graveyard, huge distances traveled in a few hours, and just tons of continuity errors. Its just full of mistakes.

 

[Octoberist]

McDonald's is the biggest and most popular fast food chain in the world. But do they have the best burgers? No.

 

[terry78]

I mean like I said, if you take into account that TDK made so much money the argument kind of invalidates itself. It varies.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

McDonald's is the biggest and most popular fast food chain in the world. But do they have the best burgers? No.

Good one.

 

[:eek:]

No. If you look at the movies that's been able to make over a billion worldwide there aren't anything that I would consider a masterpiece. A few good movies, sure, but nothing really great. And there are some really bad movies also among the most successful movies

 

[def28]

McDonald's is the biggest and most popular fast food chain in the world. But do they have the best burgers? No.

Yeah, but their fries....

I mean like I said, if you take into account that TDK made so much money the argument kind of invalidates itself. It varies.

Yup. Stuff like this is impossible to judge. Too many things factor into it. Alot of the highest grossing films are actually quite good. Just cause it makes money doesn't guarantee one will like it, doesn't mean it's bad either. There are high rated films that people don't care for or find of good quality. Nothing matters but the viewers opinion.

No. If you look at the movies that's been able to make over a billion worldwide there aren't anything that I would consider a masterpiece. A few good movies, sure, but nothing really great.

This is what I mean haha...

Titanic, Avengers, Skyfall, Jurassic Park, Toy Story 3 and The Dark Knight. If those films are "nothing really great", then I personally have no idea what kind of meter people judge quality on. One even won Best Picture. Those films rightfully deserve the money based on being very high quality entertainment and filmmaking imo. They will be and remain classics in the years to come.

 

[BestGirl]

my dad read that Steven Spielberg said maybe in the future that if its good movie that their going t o up the tickets? then if its not that good movie their going to lower the ticket prices but if that's true how do you decide if good movie is good and bad movie is bad? people like different movies how would you know if movie does bad or good? I guess you can tell by number at the box office but lots of movies get more recognized word of mouth or on message boards

Rotten Tomatoes could be used as a barometer, or attendance drops after the first week. I wouldn't count on Hollywood lowering ticket prices for bad movies, though. It seems they only know how to force prices upward.