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Top 10 Reasons Why LOTR Will Make At Least
$400 Million |
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E. Charl Hattingh,
columnist for LMI and BOFC |
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The time has arrived. The mighty Lord Of The Rings
saga is premiering in theaters on Wednesday, December
the 19th. While there are no long lines formed months
in advance, as was the case with Phantom Menace, the
feeling is that this first chapter in the fight
between good and evil has the same kind of
anticipation that has been building ever since New
Line and Peter Jackson signed the deal to make the
entire trilogy all at once, and then release them in
three consecutive years. How does any movie company,
especially a smaller company like New Line, take such
a huge risk and green-light a trilogy for $300 million
all at once?
The pressure on New Line to deliver all depends on
this first movie, The Fellowship Of The Ring. If this
film bombs at the box office (I'm sorry, I had to stop
and chuckle at that ridiculous statement), the whole
company will fall apart. But if it succeeds (which,
of course, it will), you are going to see many smiling
faces around Hollywood, and more importantly, on the
faces of fans all over the world...For the next three
years. |
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What
To Look Forward To... |
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Lord Of The Rings
Dec. 19
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The Majestic
Dec. 21
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Ali
Dec. 25
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So, how much will LOTR make in it's entire theater
run? Will it make more than Harry Potter? Or will it
literally give Phantom Menace or Star Wars a run for
it's money? Will it sink Titanic?
Well, time will tell...As well as my top 10 list of
why Lord Of The Rings will make, at the very least,
$400 million in domestic box office. So here it is:
10. The Generations Of Fans:
Unlike Harry Potter, LOTR has had legions of fans
for decades. You are actually going to see
older people going to this film, not
just the teenagers that thinks it looks cool in
the previews.
09. The Teenagers That Thinks It Looks Cool
In The Previews: If today's young
people read books, it probably has a wizard
named Harry on the front cover.
They probably know nothing of the wizard named
Gandalf. But those previews
sure look cool. And it's something they can go
see with their dad, and maybe
even with grand dad. I apologize to hardcore
fans, but I have not actually read
the books. I'm not a teenager, but I still
think the previews look cool. You must
be thinking that I'm in from one hell of a
treat. I'm kinda glad that I haven't read
them, because now I can see it all unfold on
the big screen.
08. The Competition: The only
real competition is already dropping in the top ten.
It's clear sailing for the next few months.
There is one certain movie that
benefited greatly from it's late December
release. That just happens to be the
number one movie of all time, Titanic. Thanks
to no competition, Titanic
made $20 million or more for ten straight
weeks, on it's way to grossing $600
million domestically and $1.2 billion
overseas. And no one thought a movie
could make so much money unless it was released
over the summer.
07. The Reviews: In case you
haven't noticed, the reviews are outstanding, to put
it
lightly. David Hunter from the Hollywood
Reporter says: "So well made and
well cast that one can have no reservations
about the rest of Jackson's
monumental creation." Stephanie Zacharek from
Salon.com adds: "It would be
an insult to say the picture merely lives up to
its hype..." Laura Clifford of
Reeling Reviews says: "Jackson's films are
sure to take the 'Star Wars' mantle
as beloved mythic epic for a new generation."
Lisa Scwarzbaum from
Entertainment Weekly says: "Thrilling--A great
picture, a triumphant picture, a
joyfully conceived work of cinema." And that's
to name a few. Others have
called it the best movie of the year, including
Peter Travers from Rolling Stone. I
don't always agree with critics, but when so
many adore a movie, you can't help
but get excited.
06. The Multiple Screenings: As
is the case with any big movie, there are sure
to be people that will see the movie several
times. I've actually heard that the
reason that Titanic made so much money, is that
the same ten women saw the
movie ten million times each ("No LEO!!!
Followed by sobbing out loud). Okay,
I'm joking, but repeat viewers are going to be
plentiful. I'm sure we're going to
hear about the people that saw LOTR ten
times...In the first weekend!
05. The "Event" Factor:
"Everyone's talking about it, so I have to see what
all the
commotion is about!" This is an "Event
Picture." I was foolish enough to fall for
the "Event" factor with Harry Potter (I'm sorry
Potter fans, I didn't like it). But,
there are going to be people that feels it's
their duty as a human to go see this
movie. That's just a fact.
04. Word Of Mouth: The word of
mouth has actually already started. That's why
the opening five days will be huge. But the
true test of the greatness of a
movie is in the weeks following the premier
weekend. Titanic is an excellent
example of word of mouth. It opened with about
$30 million, and, as I stated
above, never fell below $20 million in it's
first ten weeks. And that was all thanks
to word of mouth. At first people thought that
it would bomb because of its
lenghty shooting schedule and going way
over-budget. But when the first people
saw how good it actually was, word spread
quickly. And when the people over
the second weekend saw how good it was, the word
spread more widely, and so
on. Although I don't expect LOTR to stay above
$20 million for ten weeks, it
should receive great word of mouth.
03. The Story: Everyone loves a
great good versus evil adventure. Throw in a love
story and even the girlfriends and spouses of
all the guys will want to see it.
There is a reason that the books are so
revered. It is a story that makes the
imagination run wild. And if the people that
have already seen it are any
indication, the movie follows the book very
well. One critic even said that the
movie brings out everything he imagined and
more.
02. The "Escape From Reality" Factor:
Attendance at movies have seen a major
boost as of late, unfortunately caused by the
horrible events of September 11th.
Not that the movies were not worthy of seeing,
but movies have constantly
opened higher than expected over the past two
months. People want to escape
from reality, and what better way than to escape
to Middle-earth.
01. Duh! It's Lord Of The Rings!!! |
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