Quips notes 11.11.04

As an average movie fan, I sometimes wonder what the fuss is over box office returns. Word is, the numbers flaunted around proclaiming this or that movie has raked in millions on its opening weekend are pretty well based partly on speculation and partly wishful thinking, more than hard fact or carefully tallied data anyways. It's been ages, apparently, since the actual accumulated ticket sales of a film have been used exclusively in calculating its gross returns so closely after it opens, and I suspect most people already realize this. However, you still hear and read about it, as though the box office figures are actually important. Or, particularly reliable to moviegoers in deciding whether or not to go see whatever's playing at the local movie theatre.

This is feeling like a rant is coming on...

It seems as though the box office ratings fall somewhere within the larger, rather propagandist vacuum of the motion picture industry in general. The machine that tries to convince you to at least buy a ticket to the latest movie, and do it again, before buying it on video or DVD soon afterwards. Whether you actually see the movie after buying your ticket or purchasing that video is likely far less important to the machine, frankly. You've done your job as a good consumer. Now, do it again...

According to the Nielson Ratings (http://www.entdata.com/index.html), the 'USA Weekend Box-Office' - which does include Canada - ranked the following movies as the top five hits for this past weekend, out of the usual ten they list:

1. Incredibles, The (2004) $70.5M $70.5M
2. Ray (2004/I) $13.6M $39.6M
3. Grudge, The (2004/I) $12.7M $88.8M
4. Saw (2004) $11.1M $35.4M
5. Alfie (2004) $6.22M $6.22M

The figures to the immediate right of each title indicate this latest weekend's gross box office, and then the total box office accumulated during the run of each movie since they first opened in theatres. Sure, I've read that one of the reasons the opening box office figure for 'The Incredibles' is so high could possibly have to do with reports of people buying a ticket to it simply to see the first trailer for 'Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith', which isn't slated for release here in Canada until May 19, 2005, and then leaving before 'The Incredibles' even started. Fair enough.

However, seventy million dollars is still an extremely high figure. Particularly considering that it apparently takes about a year before the studios actually know that hard data regarding specific ticket sales. One would think that it's merely a matter of each theatre being connected to some kind of network, where the total number of ticket sales are immediately sped along high speed internet lines each time a screening starts, to be dumped into a central database kept deep within the heart of some Hollywood star chamber of number crunchers, for instance. Apparently not. Apparently, that seventy million dollar figure is based on speculation of ticket sales. In this case, probably taking into account that 'The Incredibles' is being shown on a large number of movie screens across a wide map. So, of course the box office could be higher. The results of which are then provided by the studios. Filtered through the media as legitimate news, in order to convince you to join the masses and buy your ticket or be left behind.

Until recently, I figured the Academy Awards were about the only hard sell that the studios would use - beyond advertising hype by various means - to get people to see this or that movie. When 'Mystic River' was suddenly re-released into theatres long after its big screen run, and yet a couple of weeks before the subsequent Oscar nominees for that year were announced, it then seemed pretty blatantly obvious that it had already been decided somewhere by somebody in the know that it was going to win something that could pique the interest of more people to go pay and see it. And, I was right. Unfortunately. It kind of confirmed a suspicion that a Best Picture win has more to do with a movie being the best at making the most money - even though 'Mystic River' didn't win Best Picture - as opposed to it representing the best of everything that makes a movie great and thoroughly enjoyable for the majority of ticket holders. The industry that makes movies and seems to be all about making money makes that decision, and awards the Oscar for Best Picture accordingly, apparently. However, if that's the case, what's that win based on? Box office numbers, likely. Numbers that seem more and more to be made up, and left unverified until long afterwards. Until the actual figure is no-longer newsworthy, or useful to the studios, or becomes deflated by fact as the true numbers come more closely into focus, I guess. Or, they simply end up as Trivial Pursuit answers and movie quiz teasers, or appear on sites such as the box office guru (http://www.boxofficeguru.com) as fairly dry statistical info that average moviegoers likely don't care about by then.

I suppose that's why I normally don't pay much attention to box office figures anyways. Normally, I've already seen and have reviewed a movie before its figures are announced, so it's a moot point to both my enjoyment (or not) of a film and my critique of it.

Thanks for checking in.