General Discussion

It hasn't got much news attention, but if you are looking at worldwide grosses, The Amazing Spider-man and Ice Age: Continental Drift have already outgrossed The Hunger Games. The Spider-man reboot has $696 million, the fourth Ice Age film has $801 million, and The Hunger Games has $684 million. The Amazing Spider-man still hasn't made as much as any of the original trilogy--even before adjusting for inflation--but it is still interesting to note seeing as The Hunger Games got way more hype. Same with Ice Age 4: Can you believe it has already out-grossed more than half of Pixar and Dreamworks movies?

In the US, The Hunger Games is still the champ. Ice Age hasn't even cracked the top ten.

The Hunger Games was a surprise considering how big of a hit it was, especially in North America. People expected it to do well but not the huge numbers it ended up making. Plus it wasn't a sequel so people's expectations for success weren't as high, again those people were wrong. The numbers The Hunger Games made reflect more of what the box office intake was ten years ago, 2/3 North America, 1/3 International. For The Amazing Spider-Man and Ice Age: Continental Drift, it's the opposite, 2/3 international, 1/3 NA.

I think Spider-Man has done better than I thought it would, especially with the buzz coming in, and it just continues to amaze/baffle me how well Ice Age does in the international market. From what I've heard, Fox hires a region's most popular comedians to voice all the characters, so the most popular French comedians do the French version in France, same for Germany, and Japan, etc.. It's a rather clever plan.

Overall, I think most of the box office attention went to The Avengers this year. It's the biggest movie of the year and comparing those numbers to Spider-Man's, it's no contest.

Foreign Markets are a thing. I should start a thread about how amazing it is that some foreign movies use these things called subtitles that you have to read while you watch a movie instead of replacing the dialogue with English speaking voice actors. It would blow your mind!!!

@RockinKemosabe said:

The Hunger Games was a surprise considering how big of a hit it was, especially in North America. People expected it to do well but not the huge numbers it ended up making. Plus it wasn't a sequel so people's expectations for success weren't as high, again those people were wrong. The numbers The Hunger Games made reflect more of what the box office intake was ten years ago, 2/3 North America, 1/3 International. For The Amazing Spider-Man and Ice Age: Continental Drift, it's the opposite, 2/3 international, 1/3 NA.

I think Spider-Man has done better than I thought it would, especially with the buzz coming in, and it just continues to amaze/baffle me how well Ice Age does in the international market. From what I've heard, Fox hires a region's most popular comedians to voice all the characters, so the most popular French comedians do the French version in France, same for Germany, and Japan, etc.. It's a rather clever plan.

Overall, I think most of the box office attention went to The Avengers this year. It's the biggest movie of the year and comparing those numbers to Spider-Man's, it's no contest.

i did not know they spent extra in each country for famous voice actors. Does that count in the production budget?

@VioletEyedDragon said:

@RockinKemosabe said:

The Hunger Games was a surprise considering how big of a hit it was, especially in North America. People expected it to do well but not the huge numbers it ended up making. Plus it wasn't a sequel so people's expectations for success weren't as high, again those people were wrong. The numbers The Hunger Games made reflect more of what the box office intake was ten years ago, 2/3 North America, 1/3 International. For The Amazing Spider-Man and Ice Age: Continental Drift, it's the opposite, 2/3 international, 1/3 NA.

I think Spider-Man has done better than I thought it would, especially with the buzz coming in, and it just continues to amaze/baffle me how well Ice Age does in the international market. From what I've heard, Fox hires a region's most popular comedians to voice all the characters, so the most popular French comedians do the French version in France, same for Germany, and Japan, etc.. It's a rather clever plan.

Overall, I think most of the box office attention went to The Avengers this year. It's the biggest movie of the year and comparing those numbers to Spider-Man's, it's no contest.

i did not know they spent extra in each country for famous voice actors. Does that count in the production budget?

I don't think it counts in the production budget, I think it falls into some other category for international distribution. But even if they spend $50 million in getting these comedians, they get three times that in return. I'm surprised more movies don't do that, especially for animated films.

@RockinKemosabe: yeah it sounds like a smart idea from a marketing stand-point. I am sort of against it in principle because it means you are watching a different movie--the voice acting is really important. I remember watching the Spanish version of Toy Story and it wasn't nearly as good. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen bring so much to those characters and, in addition, the dialogue is less well written since they need to match it up to the lips.

@VioletEyedDragon said:

@RockinKemosabe: yeah it sounds like a smart idea from a marketing stand-point. I am sort of against it in principle because it means you are watching a different movie--the voice acting is really important. I remember watching the Spanish version of Toy Story and it wasn't nearly as good. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen bring so much to those characters and, in addition, the dialogue is less well written since they need to match it up to the lips.

And you're absolutely correct in saying that because the creation of the dialogue, characters and the scenes that are in the movie are shaped by the English language. And the same can be said for all the people who play Japanese video games or watch anime hate the dubbed versions and prefer Japanese voice acting with English subtitles. But for a children's movie like Ice Age I can understand them going for these regional famous comedians instead of subtitles, plus I can imagine there are people in other countries that speak different languages that probably hate reading movies with subtitles. That can't possibly be a trait that is prevalent in North America.

And we're having an intelligent and thoughtful conversation about movies. I love it. Screw IMDB forums, Screened is where the real discussion is happening.

@RockinKemosabe: I agree. Screened does have the best movie discussion forums.

I enjoyed Hunger Games a lot more than Spider-Man but it's only barely getting beaten and it seems like it was a global hit so I'm good. I thought Spider-Man was unnecessary (although what film is really "unnecessary") but I liked it a lot more than the first Toby McGuire film so I think it's on it's way to being the better trilogy for me. I'm glad it was a hit too.