I must say, your last sentence is precisely why my wife and I groan whenever we see the trailer. The raccoon is just silly. And, of course, from what I’ve seen in the trailers, he’s gotta be the smartass of the group. :rolleyes:
The walking, talking trees from Lord of the Rings.
I believe they’re called Groots now.
Very true - but IIRC (and I could certainly be nutty on this one), the “international” trailers that I’ve seen have played up the action a lot more. I’d be curious to see some of the foreign language marketing, but I bet that’s how they’re playing it there, too.
Chris Pratt is not a big movie star. He’s going to be, but he isn’t yet
And of course, this movie is the reason he’s going to be a big star, so he really can’t be a draw yet.
Coming this summer… From the producers of Guardians of the Galaxy, and the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, starring Guardians of the Galaxy’s Chris Pratt and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Zoe Saldana, we bring you… Guardians of the Galaxy
As an aside, it seems like being named “Chris” really improves one’s prospects for starring in a Marvel movie.
Marvel has been extremely clever with positioning its movies. Captain America added WWII nostalgia to the comics genre. Winter Soldier picked up spy action with the comics genre. They’re tacking on some genre crossover appeal to each (Thor had its romance/bromance angle).
Guardians of the Galaxy is targeted dead-on at picking up the Rudd/Rogen/Segel (/Cooper/Reilly) audience. I think there is probably a large overlap between those fans and comicbook movie fans, but I think it is a smart move that is going to pay off. (although, not at a $120mil opening payoff.)
To be fair, Zoe Saldana has a couple of huge credits, in Avatar and the Star Trek reboots.
Chris Pratt also carried a huge blockbuster movie just a few months ago. It’s just that you don’t see his face on the poster and think “Hey! It’s Emmett from Lego Movie!”
Sounds fun, but could be another Green Lantern.Can Fanboys alone make it a blockbuster?
Green Lantern reviews were awful – reviews for Guardians so far are stellar.
I’m sure it’ll do fine, but I’m wondering…
I’m going to a press/promo screening tonight and was talking about it with a bunch of coworkers. All of them pretty much said “meh” to the thought of seeing it. None of them knew anything about the universe, most thought a wisecracking raccoon seemed stupid, and just generally weren’t excited.
These are people who have been all over other summer blockbusters when they find out I’m going to a screening. So, have no idea how representative they are, but I’m not getting an “oh my god I’ve got to see it” vibe from the casual crowd. That said, friends who saw it at a Disney event over the weekend all loved it so maybe it’ll have legs even if it opens a bit weak.
I can’t see this opening for over $70M. And it could easily fall well under that.
I’m getting a Snakes on a Plane vibe here. A huger amount of interest from a very small segment of the audience. And more talk than action type stuff going on.
The GotG stuff just isn’t anywhere near as well known as other comic book characters. Not by a wide margin.
Add in the August release date which suggests the studio isn’t that excited about it and I’m predicting $45M just to be contrary.
Chris Pratt? C’mon. That’s no Robert Downey, Jr.
Robert Downey Jr. was seen as a questionable choice at best for Iron Man. At that point he was doing supporting roles in indie flicks for the most part. Iron Man MADE him a bankable movie star again.
GOTG doesn’t need to be well-known. It’s been promoted heavily as “FROM THE STUDIO THAT BROUGHT YOU <LIST OF SEVERAL TOP GROSSING MOVIES>”
Reviews have been good, there’s strong buzz around it, and it has strong cast. 120 million? Okay maybe not… but “Snakes on a Plane?” Really?
Yeah, it will be a good opening and not just because of fanboys. My wife is eager to see it, and we hardly ever want to see the same movies. But she has liked all of the Marvel studio movies she has seen (especially the Thor and Captain America movies), and she loves Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation and Lego Movie. If there are enough people like her in the audience it will do as well as those movies - so I can see $75-80M, especially considering the good reviews it’s getting.
I think GotG is going to open modestly ($45-50M) but will have sustained success that will lift it’s numbers up very very high. Trying to think of a movie that didn’t start super huge but sustained for a long long time as word of mouth spread. Can’t think of it right now.
The only thing that could honk up this plan is TMNT. Doesn’t that open next week too?
Boxoffice.com is predicting $70m opening, $210 total (US)
GotG opens this week. Don’t know about TMNT - I wouldn’t go to see that one if it were mandated by law.
The film with the longest “legs” that I can recall is Titanic, a movie that was #1 for 15 weeks and who had weekly box office totals like the following:
Week 1: $53m
2: $71m
3: $45m
4: $37m
5: $42m
6: $32m
7: $32m
8: $29m
9: $38m
10: $26m
That week 9 jump is amazing, but explainable… remember that Titanic was the biggest date movie of the decade and week 9 fell on Valentine’s Day.
I think it’ll do well because of the buzz, but the no-names are gonna hurt it. Maybe a $50-60m weekend?
I think it will open fairly strong. It has two things going for it. People trust Marvel, and it’s a new Sci-fi property. I think people are getting sick of the same two franchises[sup]*[/sup] being trotted out every couple of years.
Galaxy Quest is the first one that springs to mind.
- Really? I spelt that correctly?