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Star Wars Pulls In $1 Billion At Record Speed (reuters.com)
New submitter henrydan798 writes to note that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has set a new record for ticket sales, becoming the fastest movie ever to earn a billion dollars at the till. As the L.A. Times reports, The latest installment in the "Star Wars" franchise grossed an estimated $153.5 million in the U.S. and Canada in its second weekend, beating the lower end of analyst expectations of $140 million. This drives the J.J. Abrams-directed picture to a to-date domestic gross of $544.5 million.
"The Force Awakens," which cost an estimated $200 million to produce, debuted last weekend to record domestic ticket sales of $248 million. It also grossed $281 million overseas for a global total of $529 million, topping the previous worldwide debut benchmark set in June by "Jurassic World" ($525 million). This week, with an international estimated gross of $546 million to date, the film became the fastest to surpass $1 billion globally.
Were any of those dollars yours? If so, do you think they were well spent?
Don't bother.
It's not a bad film., but it's mediocre at best.
JJ Abrams box ticking plus some awful writing. It's just... meh... the writing is lazy and sloppy. It's like a bunch of old Star Wars scenes stitched together loosely with a half-assed framing story, a Mary Sue lead and some disposable sidekicks. And no, zealots, neither Luke nor Anakin were Mary Sues.
The story in the prequels was actually better - even if they were a trainwreck due to bad acting and George Lucas's tin ear for dialog. The new film is, at least, not risible... that's the most you can say for it.
No doubt the film was popular. How to get all those people in and out a a record pace? Squeeze the theaters by requiring them to show the film on the largest screens for a long period of time, pushing out any other movies. The Hateful Eight was to be shown in a special 70mm roadshow presentation. The problem though was that it could only be shown on smaller secondary screens. Disney required their new movie to show on the largest ones, or else not show the movie at all, on any screen.
So while their film is popular, it's not just the marketing hype that got it the numbers. A bit of strong arm tactics to push aside other movies seems to have contributed.
It was well written and subtle, with good character development and pacing. The action wasn't boring like a Bay film and I felt it was true to the best of the franchise.
The only odd bits were a couple of lines that felt out of place because they used modern phrasing, and somehow I expected nothing to have changed in 30 years.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I realize that exercise isn't a priority for most geeks
And having served as a Marine Corps Officer, I think I'm more familiar with physical exertion than most geeks. You emphasized the distance ran, I would emphasize getting shot, and from a noticeably high-powered weapon at that. If you shot me in the side with a Dragunov rifle (which fires the same 7.62x54mm rounds as the PKM light machine gun) and told me to run the Marine Corps obstacle course ( less than 100m), and THEN fight another Marine....I'd almost certainly lose, regardless of the melee skills of my opponent.
But Ren didn't lose, he won. The entire argument of "Ep7 sucks because the Dark Jedi lost a saber fight with a Stormtrooper" is moot...because it's factually incorrect.
Not trying to sound like Jay Sherman, but if we keep going to bad movies, they will keep making them... I read all the reviews first, and went confident I was going to see an entertaining movie. I do not go to see a movie called 'Star Wars' hoping to it to be a philosophical experience, but man, it sucked big time... My main complaints: 1.) It is almost identical to the first movie. Desert planet? Check. Young, force-sensitive user that's unware of it? Check. Stranded, cute robot with a secret message to deliver? Check. Escape from said planet trying to deliver message? Check. Han Solo and Chewbacca conning the wrong guys? Check. 2.) The bad guys suck. In the first movie, Darth Vader intimidates. He is strong, powerful, and no one messes with him. Kylo Ren? A weak crybaby that is hit SEVERAL TIMES by a stormtrooper that never held a lightsaber before!!! And he is prone to tantrums. Even worse, when he removes his helmet, he looks like an idiot. I have the perfect Sith name for him: Darth Dumbo. You're welcome, Disney! 3.) The Emperor is replaced by Gollum. Enough said. 4.) Can someone explain to me why the zero-calories version of the Empire bother building a planet-sized weapon, and have thousands of armed soldiers, if they are going to leave the most vulnerable part of their humongous weapon completely unattended? Not a single guard? Han Solo & Co. just waltz in, plant bombs and there it goes! These guys are the galactic equivalent of the Dodo. I was 8 when I watched the first movie. I should have know better than to go to this kind of movie at my current age.
Is it a movie to be seen on theaters? Absolutely.
Now, is it a good movie? So... no. Not by a long stretch, i might add. Looks great, Harrison Ford is fantastic and it is loaded with iconic scenes... but man, the script is a poor rehash of EP IV, and ridden with glaring plot holes as well.