Dredd - Box Office

[radiator]

Fair play to AICN, I see that Harry Knowles is urging his twitter followers to go see Dredd as well.

[painbros22]

I wonder how much LGF paid for Harry's new hot spa, everyone else got a Hunger Games DVD ( DVD not Blu Ray ) and assorted PG13 "horror" movies, seeing now where that 27 million marketing budget went.

[PsychoGoatee]

Harry gave a pretty cool review of the movie too, so it's a cause he's happy to help as well I'd imagine. Plus he was raised on the progs too.

[CYCLOPZ]

Nice to see aintitcoolnews flying the flag:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/58560

Reading some of the comments on the Aint It Cool Board is highly depressing. The reason this generation of film goers can take a cynical excuse of a non film such as House on The End of The Street over Dredd just speaks volumes. There's a reason Franchises with no teeth,which in my opinion are 100 times more irresponsible in their depiction of violence, such as Hunger Games and Twilight are so popular. It's because much of the younger audience are not capable of recognising the nuances under the surface of a property such as Dredd.

Over the last decade I think since the success of Titanic big film studios have wrongly only marketed heavily to that tween - teen - 'young adult' audience chasing the big Billions and in the process have alienated a lot of the rest of us. The result is for the most part other demographics are less likely to be regular cinema goers and are more inclined to buy dvd's or stream over the internet.  Tastes of the actual casual cinema going audience aren't exactly the same as they might have been before.

This could just be me whining over people not getting the thing that I'm into, but I do think it is a genuine problem in cinema today. I think Dredd 3D has sparked an interest in the comic and I think the film may be a slow burner which in a few years time, much like The Thing or Bladerunner, will have a huge army of fans who will not believe or even care about how much the film grossed at the box office.

[MattJW]

Direct quote from ICv2 :
"There is no way to sugarcoat the implications of Dredd 3D's debut, which tallied just $6.3 million from 2,506 theaters for a meager average of $2,514 per venue. Sly Stallone's much maligned 1995 Judge Dredd earned only $35.7 million during its entire run, a total that Dredd 3D will be hard pressed to match in spite of much higher 3D-aided ticket prices. In spite of solid critical notices (77% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and a so-so "B" CinemaScore, the new Dredd film has so far done nothing to dispel the notion that Judge Dredd will always be "cult" property in the U.S. with a devoted but limited group of fans who "get" the property's delicious black humor. Perhaps it's too much to expect a country that has elevated Dirty Harry to the status of an iconic hero to show much enthusiasm for a property that is basically a hilarious "reductio ad absurdum" satire of the antics of eponymous hero of Don Siegel's 1971 film. It would be hard to fault Lionsgate, which did run a pretty aggressive TV marketing campaign for the film, including ads on sports cable networks aimed at broadening the audience. If Dredd 3D can show some legs over the next few weeks, perhaps it can reverse the perception that the property has earned, but it is hard to see the film's opening as anything but a disappointment that will provide more ammunition for those who contend that Comic-Con exposure (where Dredd was screened to adoring fans) is overrated."

That seems pretty supportive of Lionsgate's promotion.

[painbros22]

God, will someone high up in 2000ad please hit the IMDB board and say something to shut Scojo up, even if you never post there make it your one and only post, the guy is even ignore proof cause he just makes another ID, his current ID has Sci_Fi_IS_For_nerds. never seen a more demeted person in my life who claims to be a 2000ad fan, beyond demented, creepy Ted Bundy delusions. Been on the net since Time Berners Lee turned it on, still Scojo is by far the worst out there.

And if anyone can dig up his failed scripts please PM them to me, i ran out of Douglas Adams to read and need a damn good laugh.

:rant over: Back on topic.

[JOE SOAP]

That would be called bullying.

[painbros22]

Yeah kinda know that, just having a wee rant, i know he shouldn't but he just winds me up so much, trolls normally don't do that with me, but this guy oh god, still would like to see his scripts though at some point, i really into profiling nutcases, little hobby of mine. anyway bed time.

[MR. ELIMINATOR]

Dredd has gone up to number 6 on IMDb's movie meter, a good sign perhaps? Up 11 since it's opening in the US. Think it was down at 36 or something for UK release.

[painbros22]

Wow NR 6, that is an awesome sign, Prometheus is Nr 1, great news.

[Beaky Smoochies]

Without wanting to come across as a Monday morning quarter-back, would it have been a better decision to have released Dredd in February this year as was originally planned?  There was considerably less competition that month, plus the big CBM titles had yet to be released, and (this is just my own personal opinion here) had they NOT made the movie in 3-D, which is little more than a gimmick and an excuse for higher ticket prices;
1) the budget would have been an even $40m, giving them more leeway in breaking even and even turning a profit in short order,
2) without the post-production rendering process for a 3-D release like Dredd, they could absolutely have finished the film in time to make that February release,
3) and audiences who were clearly reluctant to stump up four or five bucks more for a 3-D film that wasn't a big and familiar tentpole release just might have been convinced to have went for Dredd had it been a normal wide 2-D release with cheaper standard ticket prices.

Dredd is clearly one of the strongest CBM adaptations of recent years, and I'm convinced it will endure as a cult classic on DVD/Blu-Ray/telly repeats, but I really feel for those involved in it's making that their efforts should have been better rewarded, and wonder if some of the above mentioned details had been different, would it have changed the ultimate outcome?  It has yet to finish it's theatrical run, and will undoubtedly do strong and steady business on home release formats - even the 1995 debacle did well on that front - but enough to justify a sequel (?), probably not in all likelihood, and that's a pity, a still-modest $50m budget (minus the stereoscopic imaging) would have been enough for that pro-democracy terrorists/Cursed Earth idea that Alex Garland had mentioned, and although it might still happen in a few years (ya never know!), I believe it's more unlikely than likely at this point, alas...

Sorry for the long post, wanted to make sure I said everything I wanted to say here, but short of any major new developments in the short-term future, I believe this little odyssey is drawing to a close, it's been some 22 months getting to this point, and although I would have wished for a better outcome - commercial not creative, the film rocks, ROCKS I tells ya - I'd like to thank Alex Garland and all at DNA Films for actually making the herculean effort in getting a new Judge Dredd  film made, much less one so darn good, your efforts are, have been, and will be appreciated, and although I still live in (slim) hope you'll get another bite at Mega-City One onscreen sometime, nonetheless the version you did successfully bring to the big screen was everything I hoped it would be... and then some!  Thanks again, cheers everyone here, I really am done now, anything else before I go (?)...




... court's adjourned.

[JOE SOAP]

The film wasn't finished in February and marketing hadn't even started.

[JOE SOAP]

The 3D pitch was one of the main selling-points that got the film funded. No 3D, no film.

[karl]

As far as I can tell, there were only two images used in the promotion of the movie. The silouette and the one of Dredd standing on the building. That's just lazy on LG part...

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I've seen at least two other official posters!