"Mamma Mia" opens with "stunning" B.O. numbers- Page 3

[ggersten]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 11:32am

It makes sense to open Mamma Mia opposite TDK. Dad/Sons go to TDK while Mom/Daughters go to Mamma Mia. Or, the dates go, but TDK is sold out, so they go to Mamma Mia. Mumbledy years ago, Disney opened "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" opposite, I think it was Tim Burton's Batman picture - and had a much larger opening than expected, precisely because they got the overflow. I'm sure some said "Why open against Batman" but Disney knew what it was doing, and I think Universal knows too. It's going to be a big weekend at the cineplex, and they hope to pick up extra dollars that way.

[Eagleman]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 11:51am

"I stand by my belief that "Mamma Mia" will do quite well overseas and might even come close or even exceed what "Dark Knight"... .

They don't get a simple fact: ABBA has trampled on critics for more than 30 years
for reasons not even Benny Anderson can fathom.

And the critics and people who find the group trite or inconsequential are still doing it.

They're dismissing the potential clout of "Mamma Mia" just as they steamrolled the musical.

"Light in the Piazza" ran for how long?

The merit of a work is not the final arbiter on how the masses respond to it. And critics certainly aren't or LIP would still be running at Lincoln Center and Mamma Mia would have closed at intermission.

Insofar as people "studying this"--there's something to be said for that but in the 60's NO ONE saw the cultural impact coming that "Lawrence of Arabia" had.

It affected the fashion industry as well as the music industry. And "Dr. No"?
That was a "...tedious, third-rate 'cloak and dragger' that had little going for it than Ursula Andresse's titillating entrance in the movie and a simple title that would make it easy for theatergoers to remember when they were asked what movies ranked among the year's worst."

Of course, it did have Sean Connery but he was considered "an actor of unsurpassed
mediocrity."

Albert "Cubby"' Broccali, however, noticed a curious thing as he watched audiences:
They weren't leaving their seats. Despite lukewarm reviews, he thought James Bond
might have legs.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 12:05pm

I guess I shouldn't have said "HERE COMES BATMAN!" At the beginning of the thread

[Fosse76]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 12:20pm

"Anywho...let's not forget MAMMA MIA is the first musical to ever gross a billion dollars worldwide."

No it's not. That distinction goes to either Les Miserables or The Phantom of the Opera (the latter which has earned over $3.3 billion as of two summers ago).

[Eagleman]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 12:31pm

"Future film student":

I may be wrong but I'm guessing you aren't old enough to have sat in theaters to watch movies premier like "West Side Story", "Guess who's coming to Dinner" or "Chinatown".

That's a reasonably kind way of suggesting that you haven't experienced first-hand the surprising popularity of movies and on the other hand greatly anticipated films that did not live up to expectations.

No one knows how the blade will fall.

Movie audiences are even more fickle than theatergoers.

You don't seem willing to acknowledge that there are variables in the equations that will not be known until a movie has been running for two or three weeks.

The rubber meets the road when the people speak and "The Dark Knight" is not without its liabilities. For one thing it has an incredible amount of violence in it that
will not sit well with the "soccer mom" crowd. Then, too, higher gas prices mean more families will be staying home and than means more movies and the people that would have been heading for Knottsberry Farm or Six Flags are not going to drag kids into a violent movie that for 75 minutes sounds like Kierkergaard
was called in to doctor the script.

At times this movie treads periously close to crossing the PG-13 line in terms of violence. That will not be ignored by a body of filmgoers whose size would astound you.

I have clients in the entertainment industry and they know this is going to be a horse race.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 12:36pm

What's the big deal? I am sure, whatever its merits, it will do well abroad. Why do we care?

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 12:37pm

I respectfully disagree, eagleman. I want Mamma Mia! to succeed as much as anyone on this board, but this will be nowhere near a horse race, especially not in the first two weekends.

then only way this will become a horse race is if Mamma Mia! catches enough fire to fuel it's way through the next two months to catching up with TDK's monumental gross that it will surely be recieving.

TDK has hype around it that I can't remember when I saw last. it's lightning in a bottle, and Mamma Mia does not have that.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 12:39pm

Why.

Do.

You.


CARE?????

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 1:05pm

maybe because this is a broadway board and a movie based on a broadway musical is coming out in a few days?


call me crazy.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 1:23pm

Really. The box office is that important to folks?


Does everyone here have a percentage of the profits?

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 7/15/08 at 1:38pm

https://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080715/film_nm/britain_boxoffice_dc

Interesting

[Eagleman]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 5:47pm

Why.

Do.

You.

Care????

I find it just as mystifying that you would ask that question two times, each time in a more irritated way then the time before.

Why

do

you

care

so

much

that

others

care?

[fanpires]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 6:46pm

I wish Batman would do horribly bad, and for once a musical top the Box office list.

Too much to ask, I guess.

Posted: 7/18/08 at 7:00pm

THE DARK KNIGHT has been KILLING the Mamma Mia sondtrack on the itunes chart all week.


i saw both films today and they cannot be compared.

mamma mia turned out to be fluff tart and just 'ok'

the Dark Knight is a well edited, crafted, WRITTEN film that is beautifully acted by a compelling ensemble cast with enough action, drama, romance, adventure, comedy and a haunting monologue about loneliness by Heath Ledger.

it was the most chilling theater experience in years.


i saw The Dark Knight at 11am to a sold out mixed crowd.

I saw Mamma Mia at 4pm to a 1/2 full house made up of old ladies hard of hearing and 3 of their husbands who snored all the way through.


Mamma Mia's saving grace is Meryl Streep.
But other than that...Mr. Brosnan should never open his mouth again...and the editor and director of photography of this film should be shot for how many times the picture wasn't clear, or blurred or out of sync with their mouths.

[Eagleman]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 7:31pm

I'm curious: how could you tell the women were hard of hearing?

I'm also curious: what do you do that you have enough free time on the day to go to one movie late in the morning and another late in the afternoon.

Are you an Ear-nose-throat specialist whose office is closed on Fridays?

My apologies. I see now: you're a "leading actor" who believes in capital punishment
for those who create pieces who do not meet your expectations.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 8:16pm

Mamma Mia is not a Broadway musical. It's a West End "entertainment".

[JP2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 8:21pm

"What do you think of Goku's blue Gi?"

Haha..


TDK made $18 million for it's midnight showings ALONE.

[fanpires]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 8:27pm

for all i care, batman can stick it.

[Copeman63]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 8:53pm

They both have Spandex.

And atleast Meryl stayed awake.

[JP2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 9:41pm

"I wish Batman would do horribly bad, and for once a musical top the Box office list.

Too much to ask, I guess."

Why would you want a bad movie to prevail over a good one?

[fanpires]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 9:45pm

It's your opinion that MM! is bad. There's a lot of people who have liked it. Don't be judgemental.

[JP2]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 10:28pm

I don't mean to be. I'll be seeing it Sunday and will most likely enjoy it.

I'm just saying that if a musical ever comes out on top I'd want it to be one that deserves it.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 11:46am

Looks like it could possibly top Hairspray's opening weekend.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2008-07-18&p=.htm

Posted: 7/19/08 at 12:29pm

Usually, when old ladies have to shout and yell throughout the whole movie when they are speaking to the person sitting next to them,...they are hard of hearing. or simple gestures like,..'What did she say?'....is a clue.

My life and what I do in my spare business is not of yours. I am in the entertainment field ..many facets of it,...and if I feel like attending 2 films on a friday morning because of my schedule, I rightfully can.

The Dark Knight made $66 million as opposed to Mamma Mia's $9 million on Friday alone. That is a pummeling. and in no way these two films should've even been put in the same category. or used in the same thread.

One is a masterful film..the other is ridiculous fluff and cheese.

case closed. look at the stats.

[Eagleman]

Posted: 7/19/08 at 4:52pm

"Case closed" generally means "mind closed".

I thought you said you went to a packed theater in the morning for "The Dark Knight" and a half-full theater at 4:00 p.m. for "Mamma Mia"? Now you went to both in the morning?

I'm just guessing but I think there's a good deal of hyperbole in your description of the hearing impaired seniors.

For what it's worth I know there is a universal gesture for choking but I'm not aware of one for "What did she say?".

Or could you read the lips of these people in the dark?