Is the theatrical release plan of Battleship changing the fromula???
sorry I meant “formula”. Sorry guys
American test audiences aren’t biting; foreign audiences are? A possibility. I remember seeing the trailer in Dubai with some friends and all the Americans groaned and the non-Americans were like, “What is THAT all about?” and the Americans had to explain to them that it’s a board game. I don’t know if Europeans have it or some other places but obviously it’s not as familiar as it is out here. Basically no amount of aliens and CG is helping US audiences forget the, heh, thin premise.
—PolarisDiB
To me it sounds like the studio thinks Battleship is already sunk.
Movie will probably pull a 2012 with bad domestic numbers but a respectable foreign gross.
Yeah,and this sort of makes sense if that’s the case, if you think you are going to do poorly in the US but better internationally, might as well go get you money first and it gives you a little extra time to tweak your marketing campaign.
Especially after the hydrogen bomb that was John Carter.
A lot of these tentpole movies get greenlit because they’ll do well overseas – not domestically (see Angels & Demons).
perhaps it is as simple as that guys. The film could just do okay here and its that sort of big dumb summer action movie that will do double that overseas. Still this is very odd. I feel that if this release pattern was for the The Dark Knight Rises or Avengers (which both could do double the coin overseas) it would be getting 100 times the exposure.
Yeah, I think attention is what they’re trying to avoid. Look at the all the attention John Carter got.
PS – In spite of it’s underwhelming performance domestically, a third Da Vinci Code is currently in development because of it’s success international (see, Americans aren’t the only stupid ones). Not sure if Hanks is attached yet but I hope it’s called Cupids and Gargoyles.
“I feel that if this release pattern was for the The Dark Knight Rises or Avengers (which both could do double the coin overseas) it would be getting 100 times the exposure.”
Both of those are marketably proven big releases that will probably have synchronized release worldwide if not a minor delay between US and foreign releases. Anyway as has already been discussed before, it’s looking like international sales are replacing the US market in general simply because we’ve got the tech and diversity to water down release successes, whereas cities like Mumbai and Dubai get auditoriums filled to capacity. Tintin targeted the European crowd but the fact is that Europe is not “foreign sales” when they talk about easy returns and gross receipts. It’s the developing countries that are unable to afford Battleship sized movies that go to see them.
^I’m pretty sure The Lost Symbol continues the same character Hanks plays, and that that is what the next movie is. Dan Brown could always skip the middleman and just write the screenplays without the book sales, but I’m pretty sure this process makes him more money. At any rate, yes, my experiences abroad has taught me that most average Joe Foreigner prefers Hollywood movies to their own nation’s cinema because survey sez, “They’re bigger and have better special effects than we can achieve.” I’ve actually informed South Koreans, Japanese, and Iranians about their internationally respected filmmakers. I also learned that there are two Park Chan-Wooks, and the more famous one is a baseball player.*
Sound familiar?
—PolarisDiB
*Though I do not believe they have the exact same name, it’s just when I mention the filmmaker they think I’m mentioning the baseball player and my pronunciation is off.
hmmmmmmmm
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/universal-battleship-piracy-rihanna-304135
If they’re going to make an argument that things are better in a real cinema, shouldn’t they do it with beautiful scenes and not just heavily CGI scenes of buildings falling down and giant mechs blowing things up?
And wait, wait. They made a movie based on the board game Battleship?! Seriously, somebody went into a studio and suggested this idea, then another person green lit the project?!
http://gawker.com/5524720/the-simpsons-turn-tic+tac+toe-into-sci+fi-melodrama
Well, I guess “stop stealing from us” turned out not to be a compelling argument against piracy, so now they’re trying “it’s better for YOU if you don’t pirate.”
“Stop stealing from us” appeals to someone’s moral center. Of course if you have no moral center, that statement wouldn’t have much of an effect.
LOL I hear you guys. Remember that one trailer that played before dvds for a while on all fox releases? You wouldn’t steal a car or a chocolate bar?
I still find it strange that Peter Berg is making this film but then again… Ridley Scott has been attached to Monopoly for a while.
Apparent Berg’s dad was a Marine and an amateur Naval historian, so that’s where it comes from. He says that the film has nothing do do with the game. I think he’s doing a Navy SEAL movie next.
“Of course if you have no moral center . . . "
Indeed.
I was also a little suprised that it’s released a month in advance here. opens tomorrow and sort of came out of nowhere for me. Actually first noticed it via a really big billboard and was sort of dumbstruck by the whole concept of a movie starring rhianna about robotic alien ships attacking earth called “BATTLESHIP”.
but to be honest, after watching the trailer I am kind of excited to see it. while not great cinema, it sort of has the same hypermodern vibe that Transformers III had. were everything is so over the top that it pays off to watch this at the cinema… something that I at least couldn’t say after watching the John Carter trailer..
judging from this trailer I expect this one to have almost 0 story…. also seems like they could easily sell this as Transformers IV: Battleship ;) guess they reused a lot of the effects (spinning robots, collapsing building)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-fkdAkUbkk&feature=relmfu
“…it pays off to watch this at the cinema…”
Indeed, and to each his own – I know what you’re saying and I’m not citing this response as criticism of your claim – but in reading that in line with everything else I could only think of putting the largest drillbit in a power drill up against the area between my eyes and squeezing the trigger…to watching any of that at a theater…
it opened to pretty damn good coin this week despite…. shockingly bad reviews! LOL Anyways just got invited to a really early screening of it tomorrow night. Review to follow
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=battleship.htm
I just got back from seeing this film early. I got invited to a screening with the Canadian Ratings Board. It was an interesting experience rating the film with an audience. We rated it PG here.
Anyways the film is pretty bad but did have its moments and sadly I think it will do decent box office internationally.
ps the product placement is pretty bad too. People are having Subways Sandwiches while explosions are going off!
thanks for the link Santino! Sadly it is sir.
peter smith
Say what you will about the film the facts are this:
its a big american summer movie that is being first released April 11 in Europe and Hong Kong which is five weeks earlier than when it hits the end of its release in America and Canada on May 18!
The only other example of where I can compare this to was the release of Tintin with it hitting europe seven weeks before it came out in America and Canada for Xmas but that made a little more sense considering it was a french property (although it was made by Dreamworks).
Sure in the past we have had a big tent pole blockbuster open a few days or maybe even a week overseas (usually in an attempt to slow down piracy) before hit USA soil but this is a whole other ballpark.
Any theories guys? This film has a budget of around 150 million.