To start, let's present some facts:
The Expendables made $34,825,135 in its opening weekend. So far it has a total gross of slightly less than $100,000,000. The opening weekend number may not seem extremely high at first, and to be completely honest it isn't. Especially when compared to the top opening weekend of all time, which belongs to The Dark Knight, bringing in a whopping $158,411,483. Of course, to compare this movie to such colossal a giant is extremely unfair. So, let's look at a few similar titles:
The Bourne Ultimatum $69,283,690
The Bourne Supremacy $52,521,865
I, Robot $52,179,887
Bad Boys II $46,522,560
Mission: Impossible $45,436,830
Terminator Salvation $42,558,390
All of these figures presented are just from the opening weekends. These are all pretty high as well, so it can be said that The Expendables had a pretty average opening weekend.
But let's be honest, 35 million dollars is still a lot of fucking money.
So why exactly does Hollywood expect people to go see action movies, regardless of the plot (or lack thereof) and sometimes overbearing amount of explosions?
The complicated answer:
RottenTomatoes gives The Expendables a 40% rating, or two stars. Yet, this hasn't stopped the movie from making $100,000,000. There have been a slew of negative reviews stating that the movie is just "too much action" and "not enough plot," etc.
However, audiences are completely willing to watch some movies and just let their mind stop working for two hours. It is very easy to walk into a movie theater, forget the outside world, and just let everything in that movie take you to another realm. It is completely safe to say that the "action movie" is a tried-and-true formula, especially in the American markets. I mean, let's face it: people like to see shit getting blown up.
The Simple Answer:
Hollywood expects you to go see these movies because they know you will, and so do you.
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I will be taking the next two days off for mental health reasons, so my daily posting will be postponed until The Monday post (which normally goes up sometime Sunday night.)
I will still be reading the comments, and remember I am always looking for suggestions for Free Topic Friday!
Showing my DAILY support and I REALLY need yours aswell!!
ReplyDeleteLove this!
ReplyDeleteThey watch this for the big Hollywood actors kicking people's ass.
ReplyDeletenice post!
ReplyDeletei love it ;)
supportin & following you ;):D
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holy moly!
ReplyDeleteSupportin!
ReplyDeleteFollow me bros.
Would watch it just for Jet Li and that guy from the transporter.
ReplyDeleteWoah, that's a lot of money for a little below average movie.
ReplyDeletenice facts!
ReplyDeleteThat about sums it up. I never really liked action movies in the first place, well newer ones I mean. But I think we also have to consider other reasons why the amount these movies are making are so low, aside from being terrible. I remember when Dark Knight came out of one of my teachers and I were talking about how it could have had a revenue that would exceed Titanic (Until Avatar came out, piece of shit Pocahontas rip off)if we didn't pirate it like everything else. That is the big killer of movie entertainment.
ReplyDeleteWoo wall of text!
@LoneIslander
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting and completely valid point. Piracy does play a huge role in the money movies end up making. But, top three Gross Revenues (domestic):
Avatar $759,844,861
Titanic $600,788,188
Dark Knight $533,345,358
These movies hold the top 3 spots for all time highest grossing movies. But, if we take your point of piracy into consideration, it can explain part of earnings, but not without numerous other factors involved.
Titanic was released in 1997. There WAS still piracy, but obviously not as common as today. Dark Knight and Avatar were released in 2008 and 2009 respectively. If we think about piracy working on an upward trend (that is, as time moves forward, piracy increases due to ease of access) Avatar should theoretically have been pirated more than Dark Knight, and therefore should have had a larger impact on its sales.
Then again, this line of thinking isn't necessarily true either. The audience itself must be taken into account. While Avatar had a wide spread audience, simply because it was classified less by genre and more for its visual presentation, Dark Knight can be seen as more targeted toward the comic book/superhero fans. Let's be honest, in THIS group, we can expect to find many more computer savvy people than in the broad group that Avatar would hit. (Or at least a more dense population of them.)
I suppose there is no way to prove the impact of piracy either way. All I know is that I saw Dark Knight in the theater three times, and not because I was trying to help its gross.
never saw the expendables. i need to
ReplyDeletewell said
ReplyDeletefor this shit to even scratch those titles is ludacris. love Mr.Lantel =D
ReplyDeleteExpendables has such star power that it doesn't even need a proper plot.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Avatar did amazing.
ReplyDeletejust showing my daily support show some love back :)
ReplyDeleteDee xx
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