The Sweeney Todd Box Office Tracking thread- Page 6

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:27am

Curious about the screeners...

I'm in a union that gets them, the WGA, and this year we received a record number, over 12 I think, even for non-nominatable stuff like DAN IN REAL LIFE. But also the big ones, all the A-list films and esoteric fare. Yet we didn't get DREAMGRLS last year, or SWEENEY this year. (Or BROKEBACK the year before--I believe they must've assumed the beloved McMurtry a shoo-in among his peers.) I never understand how they make these decisions about which union members are to be wooed. For what it's worth, I certainly plan on voting for Logan in the adaptation category.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:40am

At the risk of being cynical, everytime a 'Chicago' or a 'Dreamgirls' or a 'Sweeney' opens, there are cries that it's the rebirth of the movie musical. I don't think so. They're expensive to produce, and believe it or not, they are many people who don't like musicals, and stay away from them. I'm not even sure that they do that well abroad. Each musical is its own thing. Unlike many musicals that are light and fun and bouncy, 'Sweeney' is dark and gory & features throat-slitting and cannibalism - not exactly a family film for the kiddies.
That 'Sweeney' got greenlit at all is a minor miracle.

And tho' Depp means money in a 'Pirates' movie, he isn't always box office. Anyone see 'The Libertine'? Or 'Secret Window,' which co-starred Len Cariou? Depp and Burton took a big risk in making 'Sweeney,' and so did DreamWorks and Warner's. My hat's off to them for having the guts.

If there's a blockbuster in the offing, I'd put my money on 'High School Musical 3,' which will have a built-in audience of kiddies, plus happy tunes and lively dancing - the kind of things most folks associate with a movie musical.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:40am

I thought somebody said they had gotten a Sweeney screener this year!

I don't know of anyone who has one yet, either.

I haven't asked in the past several days, but these are Oscar voters.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:44am

SWEENEY screeners were mailed on Saturday.

Actually, Wayman, comparatively, I'd say there HAS been a rebirth of movie musicals! Now it will probably never been what it was in the 40s or 50s but we're averaging 2-3 live action movie musicals a year at the moment which is about a 300 percent increase to ten years ago!

I think the more mainstream movie musicals become, the less resistance there will be to them actually.

Updated On: 12/28/07 at 11:44 AM

[aeb]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:51am

Sweeney is premiering in Japan January 7 and in London January 10. I imagine it will be gobbled up in both of those markets like caviar (Johnny Depp is a rock star in Japan).

Attend the tale: this movie is not tanking, stateside or overseas. :)
Updated On: 12/28/07 at 11:51 AM

[phantom8019]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:54am

Wayman_Wong,

Yes, rebirth is the wrong word, as it implies things will be as they were before. No, they will never be like they were in the '40s and '50s. But you cannot deny that the past 5 years have seen a remarkable amount of movie musicals, when compared with the '80s and '90s. Personally, I think 2-3 musicals a year is enough for me. You are right, the public does not scream for them, but they are willing to accept them to a point. I just would like 2 to 3 good ones to be made each year. Even that is a lot more than we had when I was growing up.
And yes, Sweeney Todd was a huge risk. I salute them for it as well.

[zooxanthellae]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 11:54am

I think the thing to remember is that its only offered in so few theatres at so few times... Everytime I've gone to see it it has been a full theatre, and whenever someone I know goes to see it they say it has been full each time as well...
I'm sure if it was open in more theatres it'd be doing more business... I wouldn't count Sweeney out just yet though... as it seems, at least to me, that its popularity is only growing.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 12:37pm

"SWEENEY screeners were mailed on Saturday."


Well, I hope that's not too late, MB. They really should have been in the voters' hands before the Christmas break. At this point I'll bet around half the people who get one will watch it before their ballots are filled out and due back on the 12th. Most people try to mail theirs in a week early, to make sure they get there in time.

That's a very small window of opportunity for a lot of last-minute films to consider.

We can hope for the best, but this kind of wait-until-the-last-minute strategy needs to be abandoned now... especially since the awards have been pushed up a month for a few years already. Time to wake up and adjust!

Many screeners are going out the week of Thanksgiving now to take advantage of that long weekend with everyone taking a break.

[aeb]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:00pm

No kidding. You'd think after Sweeney lost out on the SAG nominations the Oscar screeners would have been going out via overnight mail that same day. Maybe they had concerns about pirated versions with the film coming out Dec. 21, or maybe they thought the film was so good and Depp's performance was so good it would stand on its own come Oscar time, but I'm still worried.

I do think it's gotten such incredible reviews and so much great buzz that most Oscar voters probably would take the time to see it, just because it really is considered a major contender, but I'm sure they're all swamped with stacks of DVDs...

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:22pm

I believe 'Sweeney' lost out on the SAG nominations for the reasons that GoldDerby.com has already detailed: The SAG nominators didn't get the screeners in time, and 'Sweeney' opened so late that various nominators didn't even see the film. That's a shame because the SAG voters LOVE Johnny Depp. They actually voted him Best Actor for the first 'Pirates' movie OVER Sean Penn for 'Mystic River.' If Depp had been nominated for a SAG, I really think he would've won. And it would've given him some momentum (with a possible Globe win) to the Oscars.

This writers' strike is really hurting 'Sweeney' (and the other Christmas releases). Depp and Burton could've been plugging the film on Letterman or Leno. And if there's a picket line at the Globes, I doubt actors will cross it. I heard that the Globes might just cancel the NBC telecast (killing valuable airtime for 'Sweeney'), but go ahead with the dinner. And now comes word that the writers might try to blockade the thing, so who knows if the dinner is on? It's bad news for 'Sweeney.'
GoldDerby: SAG shockeroos - Early campaigning paid off

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:33pm

The Academy voters have received screeners prior to a film's release in the past, too.

I work in home entertainment, and I see "new release" projects that I work on anywhere from 2 to 5 months before they actually are released in the movie theatres. Big ticket films, too. Often, they aren't "finished" but that doesn't matter to people in the business (unless you're judging a technical category, in which case a final master is usually essential).

I remember the year Disney sent out Beauty and the Beast screeners to the Academy. Completely unfinished. Some of it was static pencil drawings! And it got a Best Picture nomination. The first and only for an animated film.

So, the "but it isn't finished" excuse doesn't work, as far as getting these out to voting members in time for them to watch it and truly consider it for the major awards.

Updated On: 12/28/07 at 01:33 PM

[aeb]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:39pm

Just to clarify, that's what I meant about SAGs...that I think the movie lost out on noms just because most members hadn't had a chance to see it yet, not that it was snubbed, not by any stretch of the imagination. I just can't imagine that phenomenal performance not being nommed if enough eyeballs had seen it to vote a majority.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:40pm

Or perhaps it will help that SWEENEY is probably the last screener to arrive before the ballots (which should be arriving in most AMPAS voter's mailboxes today). Like I said eariler, I think voters really do wade through and watch the movies with the most buzz first. Being the last screener to arrive might be a problem for a movie like, say 3:10 TO YUMA, but I'm not sure it will make a huge difference for SWEENEY which already on the short list of eight or nine movies for a Best Picture nomination

And as I understand it, NO screeners of SWEENEY were sent to the SAG nominating committee, and their ballots were due before the film even opened, so most of the SAG members had no chance to even see it. That's a pretty different situation...

It was ATONEMENT that sent out screeners to SAG late and lost big.

If SWEENEY doesn't get a Best Picture nomination, I'm pretty confident it won't be because not enough people didn't see it, it will again be because not enough people loved it enough to pick it as their favorite of the year. People seem to be much more infatuated with NO COUNTRY, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, INTO THE WILD etc.. Updated On: 12/28/07 at 01:40 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:45pm

Well, I hope you're right, MB. They do grab at the "shiny" titles first, in my experience.

Here's hoping there are enough voters with the time on their hands over New Years and the following week!

You can figure that most will be mailing their ballots back for counting around the 7th or 8th, just to be safe.

EDIT: And SOONER than that, if they don't live locally.

Updated On: 12/28/07 at 01:45 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 1:53pm

Well, the people who return their ballots immediately are the ones who are absolutely sure of their choices - whether they've seen all the movies or not! Passion and arrogance aren't easily swayed, and the Academy is filled with plenty of both :)

The thing that will most hurt SWEENEY in terms of AMPAS voters, is if the box office over the next couple of weeks is perceived to be a "failure." Now mind you, SWEENEY will probably still gross more than a lot of the eventual Best Picture nominees (ATONEMENT, NO COUNTRY) but nothing so turns off a voter as a movie that is considered a box office flop, not matter how great the reviews are.


Updated On: 12/28/07 at 01:53 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 2:02pm

I'm not sure if "first come, first counted" actually happens. They don't start counting in advance of the cut-off deadline. That I do know.

The different-colored envelopes all have an ID number printed on them that corresponds to the voter. They first mark down that the person has voted. Then, once they open the envelopes and sort the different ballots by category (they're all on colored paper for easy identification as to category), there is no identifying mark to tell whose ballot they're counting or in what order it was received.

I think a lot of that would be by chance. But nothing is counted in advance, other than marking down whose ballot has been received. We can only speculate that there is some chronology to the stack that's being counted.

Updated On: 12/28/07 at 02:02 PM

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 2:13pm

Michael Bennett, thanks for refreshing my memory. You're right. I read that 'Sweeney' did NOT send screeners to the SAG nominators, and neither did 'Charlie Wilson's War' nor 'Enchanted.' And seemingly they paid a price, since they all got skunked by the SAG nominations. (By comparison, they all did well at the Golden Globe nominations.)

[bk]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 6:27pm

"Sweeney is premiering in Japan January 7 and in London January 10. I imagine it will be gobbled up in both of those markets like caviar (Johnny Depp is a rock star in Japan).

Attend the tale: this movie is not tanking, stateside or overseas. :) "

As I said, it was lovely of you to join two days ago to make all these pronouncements, and with such assurance! If you're not working for Dreamworks, you should be. Know when a studio thinks their film is not performing as it should be? When the completely revamp their print ads for the second week. Which is exactly what's happened with Sweeney, and if you think they were hiding the fact that it's a musical before, wait until you see the new ads - and the ad line "THE PASSION OF SWEENEY TODD" is one of the worst I've ever seen. It features a shot of Depp that makes him look more like Wyatt Earp than Sweeney Todd, and has a very silly-looking but Burtonesque border around the whole thing - and funny, not a quote about it being a musical, not a mention of Mr. Sondheim save for the teeny-tiny credit block.

And it actually lost one of its two Arclight screens this week - if it were doing the stellar box-office that you seem to think it is, I don't believe that would be the case. Someday, someone's going to do a really nice expose on theater and film studios' marketing departments and the people they pay to go on websites to get the buzz going. It will make fascinating reading.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing Sweeney at the DGA tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to finally getting a look at it.
Updated On: 1/13/08 at 06:27 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 6:33pm

bk---Have you noticed the radio spots have changed drastically too---but in the opposite direction?

Depp is singing all through them now! (bits of No Place Like London, Little Priest, Epiphany and the Finale, all within a 30-second spot)

They're definitely trying new approaches, after the opening week.

Updated On: 12/28/07 at 06:33 PM

[bk]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 7:22pm

I haven't listened to the radio in about twenty years, so I haven't heard them. If those ads ARE musical, it does sound like they're trying to figure out SOME group to reach. Theater fanatics won't help them - not enough of 'em, I'm afraid.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 7:31pm

aww sorry if i sound really harsh towards it but i am a film nut so follow these things religiously lol

For the person who said Sweeney will do well in the UK as we know the story etc with it, well im in the UK and very few people are talking about this film.On top of that we always have Sweeney Todd made for TV 2 parters every bloody year (the last been last year) and the subject has gotten stale.

I think its UK box office will be respectable as we have a HUGE love for Burton here (hes like a god lol) but i would say 3 million pounds ($6 million).

The film here in the UK is not going to get a huge blanket release like most big films.A lot of the smaller cinemas are not carrying the film.

The US Gross for sweeney is disappointing and whilst i would have loved for it to do well (i love the show) the simple fact is that it isn't going to.

The film is now on $18,719,236 and its dropped another 15 percent from weds to thurs and sadly the film has fallen to number 9 in the Box Office meaning the chances are it will be out of the top 10 next week.

Once a film falls out of the top 10 film chains will stop showing it as they are so many other films ahead of it.

For a film to fall from number 5 to number 9 in under a week is not a good sign.

And as for the people saying "the awards haven't happened yet" well the film will not be showing when that happens so it makes no difference to its Theatrical Box Office.If it does pick up some major awards like Oscars (which i don't see happening but thats just my opinion) then its DVD release will do well.

Im not trying to be doom and gloom just practical, and i know we all want it to do well but the simple fact is that its flopped.At least it got some stunning reviews which means like Burton's other unsung classic Ed Wood it will be remembered for many years to come and gain a classic status.

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 8:07pm

I know little about voting procedures or box office specifics. However, as a movie goer, I noticed that Sweeney has very few showings at my local theatre. The predicted hits had showings on the hour, but there are a total of 5 or 6 showings at my 30 theatre multiplex. And the times that are provided aren't exactly prime showings.

I also heard that it isn't quite in wide release yet, and I think that is a mistake. I get so tired of studios providing a release date and then making it difficult to see the movie. For example, I drove about 30 minutes today to see Atonement. I would have much rather gone to my local theatre, but it isn't in wide release. The same went for Across the Universe. Had I not really wanted to see the film, I would have said "forget it" after waiting two weeks past the release date. I don't understand what the studios gain by frustrating the viewers.

The fact is, this movie is what it is. I quite enjoy it, but this is not going to be the rebirth of the movie musical or the downfall. I mean, what other musicals are about a serial killer who has his vicitms baked into meat pies? What other musical will have a great amount of blood (except maybe Les Mis or some other type of wartime musical)? I mean the combination is insane, and I agree that it is a miracle that it was made in the first place!

Granted, as a work of art, I feel it should be recognized, but it isn't the fault of any of the actors or directors if the studios can't get their act together. And that's just sad considering the amount of money and staff at the studio. It's their own loss, not the fans who already have the movie and hopefully a two-disc DVD set on the way.

Personally, and rather selfishly, I'm hoping it makes it to DVD rather soon! Like a friend once said about the Rent movie, it isn't like there is going to be a sequel

[zooxanthellae]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 8:10pm

But Sweeney could pick up this weekend, especially now that Christmas is over... a lot of people might not have gone to see it yet because of the family hustle and bustle of the holidays and would rather go see more "friendly" movies with their families at this time. Now that its over and many people have seen the "family" movies they may go to something like Sweeney Todd.


yes, I find the showing times to be quite an issue around me also, as Hermione pointed out... its showing at horrible times while everything else is on the hour even sometimes shorter... I really don't understand why it didn't open wider initially...
Updated On: 12/28/07 at 08:10 PM

[phantom8019]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 8:20pm

"but the simple fact is that its flopped"

Just curious... who agrees with that statement? And who thinks it is too early to make this conclusion?

Thursday's gross, per theatre, still beat PS I Love You, The Waterhorse, Alien vs Predator, and Charlie Wilson's War. And per theatre, it was not far from I Am Legend.

I am not saying it's a hit. Maybe it is underperforming. But a flop?

And PS--to those who think Sweeney can't make 50 million domestic... how did Phantom do it then? That movie had dreadful reviews and no stars. By January 2, 2004 it had only made 16 million. It was pulled from most theatres by the end of February but by then was close to 50 million.
Updated On: 12/28/07 at 08:20 PM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/28/07 at 8:21pm

I think it will make a bit of money this weekend but not much.

As ive said before a film makes the most money during its opening week, sweeney will probably add another 10 million MAX to its total in the states

People are going to go and watch rubbish like Alien VS predator 2 etc.