Summer movies living up to the hype?

it really does depend on what films you are talking about.
but i think the companies really oversell the fims these days, making the finished project all the more dissapointing.

Wild Wild West made so much because it COST so much. Part of look at box office numbers is looking at how much was put into marketing, and the actual creation of the movie itself. Like I've said, It is not a be-all, end-all way to judge movies, but I will always take it into account.

Example: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had unusual box office numbers -- they got higher as time went on. This indicates a very strong following, and a good all around movie, because it was not originally (I don't believe) scheduled for any sort of wide release. As a result of it's box office sucess (and therefore theatre expansion), I went to see it...three times, In fact.

Battlefield Earth cost 70 million, and it didn't make back 1/4 of it. I don't think a movie's cost has much to do with anything. Money can't buy magic. Some of the best films ever made were filmed on shoestring budgets.

Box office doesn't determine quality, I'm sorry. There are too many movies that have been overlooked, and too many Wild Wild Wests to say that films that make money are good. Pearl Harbor has made more money than my favorite films cost, combined. Wasn't Rounders a disappointment in theaters? Yet you still love it dearly.

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Dang man, do you bother to READ what I say before you debunk it? Firstly, I never said box office numbers "determine quality" -- but they are worth looking at, and can definintely tell you things about the movie. Pearl Harbor has a huge opening, but drops off immedietly. That tells me something about it.

Shrek starts off smaller (still big, though), however, it endures, and stays in the top ten for something like 8 weeks. That tells me something about Shrek.

As for cost: as I said before, when it comes to looking at the box office, you need to look at both the movie's cost, it's hype, and it's actual returns. Maybe you don't buy it, but I see these as interesting, and worth paying attention to. No one even implied that you can buy a good movie, or that all good movies do well. No one. Repeat: no one. No one. No one.

What I DID say was that it tells you things about movies, and that good movies are not usually ignored for very long, which is why Shawshank is now successful through rentals/sales. I didn't say it was the end-all be-all, but if a movie makes a crapload of money, it's unlikely to be total crap.

If a movie costs $100 million, yes, I'll be more apt to see it, because I know more was put into it. I fail to see the problem with this.

Any movie that has a trailer that intrigues you will drive you to see it, cause you think that since nothing is given away, and it has a cast of some quality in it, and a decent director it must be a good movie(A.I.) I agree with you TWT that the numbers for a movie will change once the word gets out, but that just depends on how you this happens. If you live in Arkansas, and your whole family your sister/wife go hop in the chrysler and roll down to the cimena(no i spelt it wrong on purpose) to see a movie with the top gun guy in it and you think it's the best movie cause it ranks right up there with wrastlin. Anyways, my point is although a small little town can't affect a movies gross by much a state can, Arkansas has a lot of family if ya know what I mean. So if you tell your whole family about a movie and everyone goes to see it then that movie will be making money and it probably isn't any good. It just depend on your taste in movies.

Say you like a certain type of movie, but you tend to see the movies that are doing well at the box office, and it seems like it could be a good movie, but turns out that you hate it and you tell everyone not to see it. Same thing happened with Pearl Harbor, it had its good moments, but for the majority any teenage girl loves it. The last time I checked there's a lot of teenage girls in the US, not to mention all over the world. Most don't care too much about the story as long as it has some noteable guy in it then its worth everything. Long story short, movies go by numbers and word of mouth most of the time. Either one is not something you want to base what you see on. You just gotta take a risk, and go with it.

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

Even the entire state of Arkansas can't affect a movie's gross by that much. The entire state is less than half the population of even a market like Dallas.

And, for the record, Arkansas is no different than anywhere else in this country. They may speak a little differently, but the people are not at all unlike people everywhere else.

I know, but I just thought I would use that as an example

Steve N., I'm sorry to be nit-picky, but are you really sure you want to endorse this complete relativism in the field of self-expression? Don't tell me you think GREMLINS portrays the pathos of modernity as effectively as MOULIN ROUGE!

Finally! Someone backing me up. Here's to you, Hazel .

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Well, the summer is just about over, and, VERY ironically, one of the biggest movies of the summer has been Rush Hour 2, which had very little hype when compared to movies like The Mummy Returns, Tomb Raider, A.I., etc.

dont forget about planet of the apes $$$$$$$$

I haven't. Rush Hour 2 has outgrossed it by $4 million, even though it's been out a week less. It's still trailing JP3 by $4 million or so, but it'll pass that easily.

Yeah, Rush Hour 2 has made a lot of money so far. Although, I think that Shrek has made the most money this summer.

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A movie similar the Crouching Tiger (that which deserved best picture) is that which one last year, American beauty. American Beuty was not even shown in my town (We have one of the five largest theatres in the nation) until long after its limited release. I saw it my first time in April, long after it had already won! It was released twice here, in fact. Because not enough people saw it the first time and it was bound to sell more taht much later. they could have done the same with the Usual Suspecst. Thsi movie had no box office success but has sold insane amounts of VHS and DVD. It's popularity came by word of mouth and that proves taht it's a good movie.

I think Shrek was a pre-summer movie. And yeah, it's been the largrest grosser this year, at around $255 million. The Mummy Returns is sitting in second place with around $200 million. This is domestically (United States only), of course. Shrek might have a hard time hanging on against LOTR, but I think it'll hold up just fine against Harry Potter.

Shrek is still short of last year's #1 movie, though, which was Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which finished at around $260 million -- yikes. I was hoping they'd promote Shrek a bit more to pass that mark...but it doesn't look like that'll happen. The DVD is gonna be amazing though -- it'll probably break records.