People outside the Hollywood mainstream were the ones making the films that were most compelling. It might be an indication of the growing divide in this business. The big studios are more and more focused on making money and making what sells. |
Right now studios are just happy to break even at the box office. |
Something that's made $50 million could go on to do $100 million now. |
Studios are learning that they can tap into their film libraries and reap some pretty strong profits. The DVD is where studios can have more consistent success with older audiences since there is the nostalgia factor. |
The big franchises are always going to sell. There's a level of excitement around them that sells. |
The performance so far has been well above expectations. |
The public excitement just isn't there. 'Just Like Heaven' had a good opening, but not a Reese Witherspoon-sized opening. |
The remakes that do well shoot for audiences that might not have ever seen the original. The title isn't enough to get people, especially young people, into theaters. |
There's a tremendous financial upside to winning a Golden Globe. The amount of excitement that it creates and the amount of extra attention your film gets is priceless. |
These are bold films in the sense they are tackling subject matter that's daring. This year there is tremendous upside for these films because there is a huge audience ahead of them. They reached only a fraction of the total audience. |
They probably wouldn't have done as well as they did. Controversy simply brought in so much extra business. |
This helps save them from times when they have a drought at the box office. |
This summer should beat last summer. The lineup is better. Studios are returning to their bread and butter, which are sequels. Last summer there were a lot of remakes that didn't excite audiences. |
This year a lot of the winning films have subject matter that isn't necessarily mainstream. It's daring studios and filmmakers to make these films. |
Though industry people thought it was a bad sign, ... the public simply got more excited, and it became the biggest movie of all time. |