Apr. 17th Tracking

Its probably number one for me too, but it wasn't Colin's fault. I blame Oliver Stone, and whoever wrote the script. And I don't hate them, just the movie.

Ok, so I don't hate him, I just misliked him for a very long time...but I thought he was good in Pride and Glory.

Wow we are way off topic on this thread now (my bad!)...does anyone have any updated estimates for this weekend? Any word from Mase yet?

mfrendo wrote:I guess it was six-million...my bad...but yeah, I think that was his name...

That was his name. Col. Steve Austin, played by Lee Majors. Great show from my childhood. Imagine a bunch of boys running in slow motion going "dunnanananana"...

mfrendo wrote:I believe Steve Austin is the Million Dollar Man...

And with most cineplex movies, the ending is given easy to guess without the trailer. For instance, Transformers 2...Bad robot comes in, good robots fight him, one good robot dies (probably whatever one they portrayed as "ethnic", so the closet racists, possibly including Michael Bay, won't care too much) humans in the struggle (who will be going through small overdramtic bullshit of their own, probably relationship based) almost die from bad robot and good robots save them in the end. And the Transformers trailer I saw before Observe and Report was so fucking bad that, while I was planning to at least check it out before, I no longer want to at all.

Well yeah the TF2 teaser that's been playing since F13 is pretty terrible now, the full trailer doesn't come out until Wolverine.

I thought it was Stone Cold at first, but that picture looked nothing like him. But yeah, he's the Six Million Dollar Man, I remember Steve Carell mentioning his action figure in The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Does any notice that we almost always end up discussing the next week's movies in this weeks tracking thread? This week, it's been about The Soloist. Last week, it was about Crank 2. April 3rd thread, I think it was about Observe & Report. Weird.

We all obviously have ADD...

Geez, the way I see it is this: watching an overly-informative trailer is like skimming over the cliffnotes before reading Crime & Punishment.. Not every story with unexpected turns is necessarily a M. Night Shamalamadingdong production.. Most great stories are, at times, unpredictable.. One enjoyable part of reading is having the story unfold in front of you.. The first time I read Dune, I had NO idea what was going to happen.. I had never seen Lynch's adaptation, and this was waaaay before the Sci-Fi miniseries.. That novel blew me away.. It had a major impact on me.. And, honestly, I think that impact would've been mitigated (at least somewhat) if some asshole walked in the room when I was on page 3 and summarized the rest of the book for me.. It wouldn't completely "ruin" the experience of reading the novel, but it would've been a very different experience.. And not for the better..

Anyway, I see movies the same way.. That very *first* viewing of a good film can be a special (and memorable!!) experience.. But if you already know all the turns that the plot is going to take, there's simply less to potentially experience.. The example I've used in the last couple of years is A History of Violence.. Great movie, but the trailer was essentially a recap of the first 3/4 of the story.. In the theater, I honestly felt a little cheated--there would've been some great little surprises in that movie otherwise..

Of course, now that I've seen the movie many times, it doesn't matter. I can appreciate the movie for what it is.. But it's kind of like I never got to have that special first viewing to myself.. The trailer took that away from me.. And don't tell me there isn't something special about watching a movie for the very first time..

Maybe the internet has bred a generation of people that are just accustomed to being "spoiled".. maybe there's kids out there that honestly don't know what it's like to experience a new piece of art from a completely fresh perspective..

I try and shy away from watching trailers multiple times so I can forget what I just saw and watch the movie with fresh eyes. Plus the more and more I see a trailer, the more the movie looks duller and duller. For e.g. I've only seen Wolerine trailer once and I'm sold, I want everything else to be a first time experience for me.

Nothing from Mase yet? WTF?

I completely agree with that packJ.

And you are right NSpan, but to say that a trailer can ruin an entire movie is ridiculous. It just can't give you enough information on how it gets to where it is going in the time frame it is allowed.

Geez, while I understand the point you are trying to make, for me trailers are intended not to tell you what happens in the movie...they are meant to make you want to see the movie. Big difference. A trailer can do both and still not ruin the movie experience for you. I personally feel that a lot of movie trailers today don't want you to pay to come see the movie at all, as they play less like informative teasers and more like ESPN highlights reels. Giving away all the best parts, and basically walking you through the movie's key plotpoints. My beef with The Soloist trailer, because that's the one that started the conversation, is not that it is too feel good. I love a good heartwarming tale of triumph over adversity just as much as anyone and I'm sure the movie will be great with excellent direction and performances, but I got all that from the trailer, including every major plot point and even two decent character arcs that I want to see in the theatres AFTER I pay. Why would I go pay to see a movie whose most important parts were all just showed to me in the preview? The rest of it might be good, but I would feel ripped off if I got exactly what I just saw only extended to 2 hours to take up time.

Obviously, this is just a matter of opinion as you and I are not exactly kindred spirits when it comes to movie tastes. I like to go to the movies not to see a movie, but to have an experience. I don't walk out of a movie talking about whether it was good or bad and discussing which parts I liked or didn't. I walk out of a movie discussing a film's intention and talking about its individual components and how they achieved or didn't acheive their intended purpose in relation to the context and content of the film. And both of those types of people exist; people who watch movies to be entertained like yourself, and people like me who watch movies to be moved, enlightened, or touched in a certain way that would make Nora Roberts uncomfortable. But when you have movies like The Soloist that CAN appeal to both of those types of people, the trailer SHOULD appeal to both types of people. Not one or the other. And there are ways to do that, but unfortunately it seems most trailer editors are scared people will not come if they don't know exactly what they'll be getting ahead of time...so we get overly-revealing or overly-misleading trailers as a result. Basically, I think the trailer can be just as much of an artform as the movie itself. Case in point, the newest Star Trek trailer, IMO, does a wonderful job at letting you know exactly what you're in store for while at the same time leaving enough to the imagination to get the audience really excited to go see it. Again, that's just me...

I think 17 again will take the weekend and you know...tracking.

I like to see movies for both reasons. I'll say how good or bad something is, or "Why did they do it this way", or "There's no way that could have happened" (like when Scorsese takes "liberties" with history), or "I figured it out during this part of the film".

You probably would have liked a history class that I was a part of. It was something like The History of American Thought or something like that.

I took a really awesome class in college (my very, very short tenure) called Film in American History in which we went through every major period in American history of the 20th century and watched a movie that was not only about the period but made during it. And the films we watched were movies strictly that were not only huge box-office successes at the time, but also very critically acclaimed and are to this day considered among the greatest movies ever made. That class and those movies really helped me to define what I want to do as a filmmaker. Because I personally don't think that a movie has to be either entertaining or meaningful. Those movies which included All Quiet on the Western Front, The Grapes of Wrath, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, and The Graduate, are perfect examples of movies that can appeal to both types of people...real classics.

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/obsessed/trailer

this is a perfect example of what we're talking about... this one doesn't particularly bother me because i have no intention of seeing the movie anyway--but, even if i did, what would be the point? could there possibly be much more to see beyond what's in this trailer? if somebody goes to see Obsessed, compare it to this.. lemme know if i'm wrong about it

(it should be noted that this is not the only trailer for Obsessed being shown.. the others i've seen by now might help fill in a couple gaps by showing a few different scenes).. that's another point to bring up--are the same people working on the multiple variations of trailers released for each movie? considering how often movie trailers are shown, i imagine plenty of movies can be cobbled together subconsciously just by having seen more than one trailer for the same feature.. in other words, even if one particular trailer isn't showing "too much," the combination of a few might literally tell you the whole story..

Exactly. It plays out exactly like Fatal Attraction did. That tussle between Ali and Beyonce is almost assuredly at the end of the picture.

The most egregious recent example was in the final few seconds of the trailer for Last House on the Left, which showed Tony Goldwyn standing over the paralyzed body of the bad guy, and about to stick his head into the microwave. Didn't see this film either, but I'm betting that was right at the end.

As was the "cities being wiped out" scene in Knowing.

As was the rooftop confrontation between Clive Owen and the bad guy in The International.

Knowing this ahead of time didn't make me want to see the film any less, but I almost found myself subconsciously checking my watch to figure out how long it would be before they showed "that scene".

That being said, I loved the Star Trek trailers. It really didn't give much away and it was balls-out exciting. Actually, most of the summer blockbuster trailers have been pretty good about not revealing too much of the plot, with the exceptions of Museum 2, Pelham and Funny People.

The Funny People trailer is amazing maybe it gives a little too much away but i am still amped to see it. I do know what your talking about the trailers though when they give much away it it a little bit annoying. I havent seen Quarantine but you can tell from the trailer the part where the main character is being dragged away is the final scene of the movie. There is a millon other examples. Hollywood has a habit of doing that.

IPKI$$ wrote:I like to go to the movies not to see a movie, but to have an experience. I don't walk out of a movie talking about whether it was good or bad and discussing which parts I liked or didn't. I walk out of a movie discussing a film's intention and talking about its individual components and how they achieved or didn't acheive their intended purpose in relation to the context and content of the film.

This statement is the exact point I was actually trying to make. there is no way you can do that based on a 2 minute trailer. You don't get the individual components from a mere summary.

But what I was trying to say is that if I've already pretty much gotten to see everything that I would want to go see the movie for after seeing the trailer, that experience has been cheapened and will effect me less than having less knowledge and just a basic introduction to the film beforehand.

Any news yet? DHD just has one line saying "Tweens take Zac Efron to #1 Friday while Serious 'State of Play' snags #2"..

Her numbers are
17 Again 10M
State of Play 4.6M
Nothing on Crank and the rest had very bad drops.

DHD Update (full editorial here):

1. 17 Again opened to $10 million Friday from 3,255 theaters for No. 1 and a possible $28M weekend.

2. State Of Play debuted to #2 but with only $4.6 million from 2,803 venues for probably an underperforming $14M weekend.

3. In 3rd place, Disney's Hannah Montana, The Movie dropped a whopping -77% from its Good Friday opening for $4 million and what should be a $12M weekend and cume of $55.5M.

4. Universal's overperforming Fast & Furious with the original cast was No. 4 and earned $3.6 million for a projected $11M weekend and new cume of $134.7M.

5. Coming in #5 was DreamWorks Animation/ Paramount's Monsters v Aliens with $3 million Friday for another $10M weekend and new cume of $159.5M.

6. Lionsgate's latest Jason Statham actioner Crank 2: High Voltage to open a weak #6 with #2.4 million Friday for probably just a $7M weekend.

7. Warner Bros' R-rated mall cop comedy (and I use that term loosely because of the offensive date rape scene) Observe & Report is officially and mercifully dead with $1.3 million Friday (-71% from a week ago) with what should only be a $4M weekend and paltry $18.6M cume.

Nothing listed for Knowing or I Love You, Man, but with the small drops they've been having, I wouldn't be surprised if they're around Observe and Report's weekend amount, unless all of a sudden they both have huge drops because of all of the new movies released this weekend.

Not too good for pretty much everything except 17 Again. I honestly think 17 will have a huge Sat bump as well, so i'm hoping it will end up with a great OW, and since nothing of the sort is opening for a while, i'm hoping the legs will be good too.

Boxofficemojo Friday Estimates

17 Again 9.465M
State of Play 4.57M
Hannah Montana 4.02M
Fast and Furious 3.84M
Monster vs. Aliens 3.575M
Crank 2 2.65M
Observe & Report 1.425M
The Haunting of Conneticutt 1.115M
Knowing 1.105M
I Love You, Man 1.07M

I guess State of Play had timing on its side, there's been nothing for adults in awhile. Not surprised at Hannah Montana dropping 77%, or even at Observe & Report's massive drop.

Damn, Crank 2 will only have a $7 mill OW, ouch. Everyone keeps saying Statham is the new action hero, but he hasn't had a hit in a looong time. So much for Crank 3: Diabetes...

MvA took a hit. 17Again did pretty much as expected, and terrible for Crank.