The Amazing Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man: Box Office Thread - Part 2

[Picard Sisko]

Spider-Man 3 at least had some fun moments. Once Peter gets that emo hair, the movie really goes downhill...

 

[Alt-Josh]

Spider-Man 3 at least had some fun moments. Once Peter gets that emo hair, the movie really goes downhill...

What, Peter strutting down the street creeping out all ladies in his path wasn't fun? Oh man that scene is gold.

 

[Picard Sisko]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qm0KUPeD8

"That's Gold, Jerry! Gold!"

 

[Alt-Josh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qm0KUPeD8

"That's Gold, Jerry! Gold!"

Seinfeld. Love it.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Spider-Man 3 at least had some fun moments. Once Peter gets that emo hair, the movie really goes downhill...

Once he gets his emo hair, the film got some really funny moments. Made me laugh.

 

[milesalpha]

So.. if Sony is pulling the movie from theaters, does that mean they are happy with the money that they got from the movie?

Or do they have to pay theaters to show the movie?

In a way, Sony predicted 120 million for the first week, so given normal declines, I think they have to be as satisfied as they can be. Pulling theatres is a chain/distributor decision that is about making money. There is no sense in 3 screens at a multiplex playing a movie that has a per screen average that was under 1000. This can sometimes help the movie by concentrating the audience, unfortunately this is not the case with TAS.

If I had to guess, I would say that Sony frontloaded the advertising (very common tactic) knowing that they had two good weeks to work with and that anything after that would be icing.

I should add that if there is another movie (and that's not guaranteed, whatever Sony said), I am betting it will be considerably different from the first.

 

[©KAW]

The sequel is guaranteed. If not, Marvel/Disney will be licking their chops, and I for one would rather have them starve than to get Spider-Man's movie rights. I despise the way that they make movies based on their characters.

 

[Bruce Malone]

Well you're lucky sony narrowly avoided it's bankruptcy. Apparently they would have had to sell off their rights to films like spider-man.

 

[Spiderdevil]

The Hollywood Economist states that studios take in 40% of overseas ticket sales. And from those revenues you have to deduce what they paid and/or have to pay for foreign advertising, prints, taxes, insurance, translations, dubbing, foreign trade dues, currency conversion ... Once those expenses are deducted, the studios' share is about 15% of what was reported as overseas gross.

Arent we adding on the marketing and advertising budget outside that equation to make the total budget 305M?

 

[JKKS085]

The reported marketing budget only account for how much was spent to promote the movie domestically. And then you have to add what studios will spend for foreign advertising wich is directly handled by their local branches or contractual distributors (that's why you don't get a global budget on this matter).

 

[Spiderdevil]

The sequel is guaranteed. If not, Marvel/Disney will be licking their chops, and I for one would rather have them starve than to get Spider-Man's movie rights. I despise the way that they make movies based on their characters.

 

[grieven]

Well you're lucky sony narrowly avoided it's bankruptcy. Apparently they would have had to sell off their rights to films like spider-man.

I keep hearing the word bankrupt relating to Sony on these boards. Has there been some development where they avoided bankruptcy? Do you have a link? Just curious as I'm interested in reading about it.

 

[JKKS085]

The problem with saying before expenses is that most of the "expenses" are complete crap. No movie ever makes a profit according to the studios, hence the term Hollywood accounting.

Once again it's not numbers you get from studios. The only thing you get from them are the raw B.O. numbers the WSJ publishes every monday. I mean they use box office as a marketing tool. You will never hear how much they finally get back from those numbers or how profitable their overly expensive tentpole movies actually are through the course of their theatrical run. And then even though they can get some tax cut here and there (and taxes accounts for barely 1/20th of the foreign gross anyways) they still have to pay for every other expense Epstein listed .

Think about it this way: pretty much every company that operates in multiple countries uses a tax cheat called the "Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich" that allows them to pay little to no tax. Do you think the industry that invented cheating taxes and shifting profits is just bending over backwards?

The double Irish arrangment works only to avoid/diminish corporate tax due in the US. Most countries (like France) collect their taxes (and sometimes even additional taxes) directly on the reported local grosses. And as for the US, the usually reported number of 55% of domestic grosses getting back to studios is indeed before taxes. So no matter how much they can lower their corporate tax liability, that doesn't make the system a whole lot more profitable.

Then again the other interesting number is that the box office only account for 18 to 20% of the revenue a movie generates overall. And those side revenues is pretty much how Hollywood makes money these days

 

[milesalpha]

The sequel is guaranteed. If not, Marvel/Disney will be licking their chops, and I for one would rather have them starve than to get Spider-Man's movie rights. I despise the way that they make movies based on their characters.

No sequel does not mean they are in danger of losing their rights, it means they do not forsee this version of the franchise being the cash cow they desperately need. Sony pictures is not in a stable position. Someone posted the list of Sony's "hits" and it sh0uld be obvious that, minus the orginal Spiderman movies, they haven't had a blockbuster since the 80s. With MIB3 and TAS doing only average business at best, the studio si looking at another dismal year.

 

[milesalpha]

I keep hearing the word bankrupt relating to Sony on these boards. Has there been some development where they avoided bankruptcy? Do you have a link? Just curious as I'm interested in reading about it.

Sony was hit hard by the recession and has an enormous debt load. They have some dead weight divisions that are underperforming and pulling the company down. Sony Pictures and its gaming division are the two worst performers in the company. Articles on a possible Sony bankruptcy started in 2009 and have intensified each year. There is a very strong chance they will sell off Sony Pictures (Columbia) in an attempt to restructure. Here's a couple of articles that give a little info. In the Huffington Post article, Sony Pictures is rated the most likely brand to disappear this year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...2_n_881911.html#s296070&title=1_Sony_Pictures

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-sony-idUSBRE83907220120412

 

[Jexx]

I don't want the sequel to be drastically different...

I loved this film. Damn..

 

[spider-neil]

If Sony want to blame someone they can blame Avi Arad.
After the finacial and critical success of SM2 the general audience were going to watch SM3 regardless they didn't need to shoehorn Venom into the movie, forcing the character on a director who at best didn't get the character and at worst flat out hated him. Left alone Raimi more than likely would have made a good movie with resorting to plot conviences to get the characters from A to B.

The franchise would have been on more solid ground with no bad after taste from SM3 and the new movie could have opened with the fan favorite Venom in a dark and gritty world which better suits the character than the lightheared fluff of the Raimi world.

Anyway, I think this is panic over nothing, I think the general audience didn't bothered with the movie because it was a retelling of the origin rather than them going cool on the character of Spidey. I predict the general audience being more willing to take a chance on the movie on DVD/Blu ray and in turn turning out in numbers for the sequel because ASM2 will be covering completely new ground with characters established from the new movie.
I think the numbers for BB is a clear indicator of a poor movie killing interest in a reboot and then after watching the movie on DVD people coming out in numbers for the sequel.

If people don't come out in numbers for the sequel of ASM then the Spidey franchise is truly in trouble and Sony cash in on the character rather than invest in another movie.

 

[Spiderdevil]

Whatever happens,I think Spider man will be the last name they will sell

I hope the rights never go back to marvel

 

[spider-neil]

I don't want the sequel to be drastically different...

I loved this film. Damn..

I want the tone and look to be similar but I am expecting different pacing (faster) seeing as the hero and supporting cast has been established.

For example - Mysterio
* Movie opens with Spidey robbing a bank (action scene)
* JJJ put pressure on the police to hunt spidey down (Bugle introduction)
* Police verses Spidey (major action scene)
* Enter Mysterio (at the Bugle) who offers to take down Spidey
* Spidey vs Mysterio (round 1)
* Spidey has his arse handed to him and does some soul searching as to why he does this when EVERYONE hates him
* City refuses to pay Mysterio's fee
* Mysterio hypnotises the entire city to extract revenge
* City vs Spidey
* Major final Spidey v Mysterio fight

The pacing of that would be much faster and you would have the character moments of Peter's search for his parents.
Also from a marketing point of view you could have lots of action in the trailer and not need to resort to showing clips from the climax.

 

[Spiderdevil]

If people don't come out in numbers for the sequel of ASM then the Spidey franchise is truly in trouble and Sony cash in on the character rather than invest in another movie.

That will never be the case,Through Spider man Sony has earned 3.8 Billion plus from an 900M investment from the box office alone

Selling its rights will be the last thing they do

 

[milesalpha]

If Sony want to blame someone they can blame Avi Arad.
After the finacial and critical success of SM2 the general audience were going to watch SM3 regardless they didn't need to shoehorn Venom into the movie, forcing the character on a director who at best didn't get the character and at worst flat out hated him. Left alone Raimi more than likely would have made a good movie with resorting to plot conviences to get the characters from A to B.

The franchise would have been on more solid ground with no bad after taste from SM3 and the new movie could have opened with the fan favorite Venom in a dark and gritty world which better suits the character than the lightheared fluff of the Raimi world.

Anyway, I think this is panic over nothing, I think the general audience didn't bothered with the movie because it was a retelling of the origin rather than them going cool on the character of Spidey. I predict the general audience being more willing to take a chance on the movie on DVD/Blu ray and in turn turning out in numbers for the sequel because ASM2 will be covering completely new ground with characters established from the new movie.
I think the numbers for BB is a clear indicator of a poor movie killing interest in a reboot and then after watching the movie on DVD people coming out in numbers for the sequel.

If people don't come out in numbers for the sequel of ASM then the Spidey franchise is truly in trouble and Sony cash in on the character rather than invest in another movie.

One of the problems I see with your argument is that there is just no hope for TAS to reach the same kind of DVD penetration that Batman Begins did. It is simply not possible.

 

[Jexx]

The problem with making the pacing faster is that people have been complaining that the pacing of TASM was too fast.

 

[Jexx]

One of the problems I see with your argument is that there is just no hope for TAS to reach the same kind of DVD penetration that Batman Begins did. It is simply not possible.

How is it not possible?

 

[milesalpha]

Whatever happens,I think Spider man will be the last name they will sell

I hope the rights never go back to marvel

Selling Spiderman is not an option, they would sell the division as a whole (which would have a few media giants drooling for it) for the value of its catalog. But the first thing a purchasing studio would do would be to sit down and review all current projects. Anything in production is likely safe, anything in pre-production would be hanging by a thread.

 

[Webhead38]

I think the rights will eventually go back to Marvel. Sony is not in a financial position to put big money behind the sequel since the reboot has garnered average income for their investment. With regards to the lifetime gross, Sony gave away their cash cow with Raimi and Maqiure. Say what you will about Spider-man 3, but it made more than the first two worldwide. So the demand was still there for the director and cast. All they needed was a better story and the franchise would have continued raking in the money. Most people were not ready for a recast of the film and the results speak for themselves.