-8

The first numbers are in!

Posted by norbert_numberguy 12 years, 6 months ago to Movies
37 comments | Share | Flag

First estimate of Friday take, at BoxOfficeMojo: $692,000. That compares to $674,000 for the first day of Part 1, or a 3% increase over last time around.

It's impossible to tell from just one day and just one number, but if 3% is the general trend, then the total theatrical take for Part II will be $4.76 million (3% over $4.63 million), leaving the $16 million production about $11 million in the whole, with two thirds of the budget unrecovered. I would be surprised if the numbers were that bad, but they just may be, and we have to be ready for that.

The only notable high point of the Part 1 release is that it had a relatively high take per screen ($2254 on the first day), and that was used as an argument for adding more screens to the release. This time around it's much lower, $684 per screen, maybe just enough to get it into the top ten by the skin of its teeth for the first week, but a very weak position to start from.

So it's time to start thinking about what it means if this one does as badly as the last one did, or only 3% better than the first one did. Part 1 earned about a million in DVD/BluRay sales (about $3 million in sales, with an industry rule-of-thumb 30% of MSRP going to the studio) and probably not much more in home rentals. Assuming comparable numbers means Part II also ends up deep in the red.

The first movie was funded out of pocket by John Aglialoro. This time around, Aglialoro and Harmon were unable to raise all the money they wanted for Part II (he wanted to raise $25 million in a private debt sale but could only find $16 million) and if these numbers hold, raising money the same way for Part III gets just much, much harder. That is, Aglialoro was willing to gamble, but when you've had two episodes of a trilogy go down in flames, investing in the third is no longer a gamble but a pretty certain loss.

Of course its possible that the film will start doing better. But the reviews have been cataclysmic (currently 0% at Rotten Tomatoes, something I don't think I've ever seen before) and the opportunities for growth just don't seem to be there.


All Comments

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  • Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    All that sound and fury, yet you and I both know the movie is dying on the vine. I know you'd rather change the subject to my heretical heresies, or your lies that I'm some guy named Kerry you apparently have a past with, but in the meantime, remember that the entire purpose of this site was to promote a movie that right now is fighting for a slot in the chart for 200 worst wide openings of the last twenty years.

    Numbers are numbers. Denial is denial. And your displacement is displacement.
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  • Posted by WesleyMooch 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm trying my damnedest to vote your tripe up, so's folks can more readily see how specious and weak your reasoning. Your quantity is hard to keep up with, though. Do you think you could raise your attention span above nit level and string several thoughts together? I'd love to demolish them one by one. Thanks, numbie.
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  • Posted by overmanwarrior 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That doesn't make any sense. You've been given plenty of logic, yet have moved forward with a restless diatribe anyway.
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  • Posted by WesleyMooch 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yawn...
    JGISD
    Edgar
    JGISSD
    norbert_numbnuts
    painfully obviously the same dumb cluck with the same speech pattern/behavior
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  • Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So you've changed your story.

    More of that intellectual integrity Objectivists pat themselves on the back about.
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  • Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I've made my argument and backed it with facts. Isn't it funny how defensive Rand's acolytes can be when you ask them to - what's the phrase - check their premise? That's apparently too hard for them; downrating comments is less work and doesn't require any actual thought.

    If you'd prefer to life in the land of Objectivism Is Magic, and believe that flying unicorns are going to make Part II anything other than the bomb the numbers are indicating, then who I am I to say you're misguided?
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  • Posted by overmanwarrior 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That is because Toohey was an invented character designed to represent the element that advanced collectivist thought back in when The Fountainhead was written, and it still holds true today. It's not a conspiracy, it is an observation of reality.
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  • Posted by overmanwarrior 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    When I first saw your post I thought you were being constructive. After reading your intentions here, I see what you're after. Regardless of your opinion the fact remains that right now at the bookstores Rand has a display with all her books displayed proudly fifty to seventy years after they were written. I'd have to look hard in a book store to find 'Gone with the Wind', or even Huck Finn, but Ayn Rand is easy to find, and that number is increasing. The purpose of this movie is to continue marketing her ideas to a new audiance, and that will continue. A culture of fools doesn't change over night, it takes a while. But you can bet that it will change, and the opinions will change as the culture shifts more from collectivism, which it is today, to one of self-reliance, which will occure.
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  • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    All the reviews except one start by saying anything wih Rands ideas necessarily is not good then say little specifics about the movie.
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  • -3
    Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yet that does not prevent Rand's acolytes from seeing Toohey-like conspiracies whenever Rand is criticized. That's one of the characteristics of the Rand defense crouch, and you can see it all over the comments on the review sites.
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  • -4
    Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Once again, you're bringing your preconceptions to the reviews. Here is a hint you might find helpful. A review that talks about the movie and then talks about Rand is still a review about the movie even if it has also talked about Rand. You apparently believe otherwise.
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  • Posted by WesleyMooch 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The Tooheys of the world don't have the initiative to organize, but gravitate to one another passively, like black holes, but less consciously.
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  • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I've read all the reviews and only one talked specifically about the movie. The others talked generally about Rand.
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  • -5
    Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The reality is, outside of a very small circle, Ayn Rand's novels simply aren't very well regarded, and there are some excellent reasons for agreeing with that assessment.

    It is a standard defense of Rand that her critics don't know what they're talking about. But it is also quite possible that they actually do, and that it was Rand who was in over her depth. Getting consistently bad reviews may be a sign of a conspiracy of Tooheys, but it may also be a sign that you're just not a very good novelist after all, no matter what your metastasized ego tells you.
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  • -4
    Posted by 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Most movies - with the exception of a handful of blockbusters that hang on month after month -- make most of their money in the first two weeks. That's especially true of small independent movies. A movie that isn't making blockbuster numbers isn't going to hang on long in the theaters, especially when they start crowding up around the holidays.
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  • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Few critics have reviewed the movie and the ones that did didn't address the actual movie, but their preconceptions of Rand.
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  • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Opinions don't mean anything if they aren't backed up by reality.

    Sales wise, the book has done well.

    Entertainment wise, the book is captivating to read.

    Craft wise, the book is meticulously crafted.

    The political and philosophical implications of a book are secondary.
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