As the discussions in the Yahoo thread showed, and the way critical venom has been matched by box office acclaim, ROTF is quite a different beast from your summer blockbuster. Never before has a film met with critical revulsion and commercial success in such equal measures.

ROTF has been called the epitome of a summer tentpole: loud, awful and helplessly popular. This is quite true to an extent - ROTF ranks in the top 5 by most BO measurements so far. And it alone has met with such critical ridicule (some of which inspired by this very success, I suspect). If critics are to be believed, ROTF marks the height and perhaps end of the Summer Blockbuster, exhausting the genre and wringing every single penny in the process.

From a purely film making perspective (set aside your love for TF for the moment), would you think that ROTF and the reactions it has inspired is indeed a watershed in Hollywood? Or is it just a summer tentpole that has somehow managed to incur the ire of just about every reviewer in town - whilst packing cinemas to the brim?

 

I believe it's a combination of both. In addition, it helps to solidify the disconnect between the Hollywood 'elite' and the general movie going populace.

 

I read an article not too long ago that studios are investing less into dramas and more into movies like ROTF because audiences don't want movies like the recent drama with Jamie Foxx and RDJ (can't remember its name). They want popcorn flicks that they can forget about their troubles in the real world while watching. So far, Ebert has been the only reviewer I've read that even said that this is the end of the summer blockbuster.

Personally, I think this is all blown out of proporation and we'll forget all about it by the end of the month. And also, just because we give such a shit about it, doesn't mean anyone else gives such a shit about it.

 

I certainly wouldn't view it as the 'end of the summer blockbuster.' I don't know many people who've gone to see the film or plan to (and it's a large number) who've read much of the reviews, or give a crap about them (before or after seeing the film). Someone at work saw it yesterday and couldn't stop talking about it throughout the day; she said it made her and the people she saw it with feel like little kids again and she kept texting them about it throughout the day and asking me questions about stuff. The funny thing is, despite the piss poor reviews of the film from critics, the only negativity I've seen pointed at the film have come from 1. the aforementioned critics, and 2. Transformer fans who have some issue with the film or the movieverse in general. No one mentions plot holes you could drive Prime through or lack of character development or anything else negative. Maybe it is the current environment we live in and people are looking for a distraction more than usual, but people really like it. All that doesn't feel like an ominous sign of the summer blockbuster about to peak or plateau before tumbling down.

If anything, if one wants to try and label something a watershed moment this early, it feels like a watershed moment for the franchise (even moreso than the success of the first film) as a franchise that can generate and maintain more mainstream popularity than it may have before when it was limited to cartoons and toys only.

 

I think film reviewers have finally shown how irrelevant they are, actually. Why are these people useful again?

 

I'm curious to see how big the drop off is going to be this coming weekend.

 

I'm curious to see how small the drop off is this weekend.

 

A watershed moment but not as the end of the summer blockbuster.

I think this could be the moment you point to when you wonder when did movies become McDonalds. Instead of innovative, smart, creative, or original it just give Hollywood more reason to make generic films aimed at the least common denominator. So just like your bland generic hamburger at McDonalds that people can't get enough of you'll end up with a lot of bland generic films that Americans also can't enough of.

Millions and millions pumped into the summer movie this year and yet the only film that seemed to have any character, plot, wit, or emotion was the cartoon Up.

 

snap

it'll be a fair drop off though, 200 million is a pretty huge number. but even a 50% drop is still 100 million.

 

This is hilarious, people are acting like this is the worst reveiwed movie that has made this kind of money domestically.

Spiderman 3- $336 Million
Hancock- $227 Million
Pearl Harbor- $200 Million
Planet of the Apes - $180 Million

Hell, I am not even including the Star Wars prequels that got such horrid reveiws.

People act like this is the first time a summer blockbuster got bad reviews. LOL

 

well....according to rottentomatoes.com, it is worse than those movies. Also, the Star Wars prequels are all "Fresh" on RT.

 

This.

Other summer films with such bad reviews are Speed 2, Batman & Robin - Yes, we're in that territory - and they all tanked. ROTF is indeed breaking the mould.

 

All of those movies have made considerably less (except Spiderman 3) than ROTF will rake in and most of them were reviewed more favourably. The lowest reviewed of the bunch; Pearl Harbor still has better reviews than ROTF. I suppose Hollywood types don't like the fact that their reviews don't carry alot of weight with the movie-going public.

 

I'm curious to see what the dropoff is considering I was in a packed theater when I saw it again last night. The few people around me that I could overhear were raving about it when it was over. The movie should also benefit from it being a holiday weekend.

 

While both of your examples are horrid movies imo Speed 2 made 164 Million with a $110 Million budget and Batman & Robin made $240 million on a $140 Million budget. Not huge profits but hardly movies that tanked.

I think it is more a clear indication that moviegoers do not put ANY stock in what critics say and word of mouth is what is helping TF2. That if anything is what is breaking the mold.

The second weekend usually is a good indicator of how good word of mouth is doing and from what I have witnessed word of mouth is positive.

 

X3 made the most money in the X-Men franchise.

 

Iti is definately not a good film from a critics point of view, but the reviews are getting are just too harsh, like they want to hate the film. Twilight was far worse in almost everything (acting, special effects, character development, some dialog, etc) and yet it got bettter reviews.

 

But does Box Office moolah really mean anything? What do you think, Tom Kenny, Voice of Skids?

YouTube - The Value of Human Worth / Value Magazine

 

Not breaking the mold just being the shining example of where the mold has been going for some time. Bad movies make money so Hollywood just stopped caring if films are good or not any more. As long as we will line up for a ticket to anything why put any real effort into it?

 

Wrong. I've seen the financial models for the Marvel films. X3 had twice the budget of X1 and X2 but its gross wasn't twice more.