Spiderman 3: The 500 Million Dollar Movie
Posted May 7, 2007 — in KOAR Rants
I have been trying to think of a movie that has been as overhyped as Spiderman 3 that actually turned out to be halfway decent. Er… I can’t think of anything. The last movie this hyped was Mission Impossible, which was a steaming pile. Now, I’ll admit, I was looking forward to the new Spiderman. I liked the first two and after hearing they spent over $500 million on this third one, I thought it would be a non-stop roller coaster of action and adventure. I was very wrong.
What did Sony get for their $500 million? A two and a half hour long chick flick which sets records for both most expensive movie ever made, and most man tears shed in a film. Now, Sony is well aware that they will be lucky to break even. They didn’t allow any pre-screenings, and there were no free tickets to anything. God forbid they let some theatre ushers in for free. Anyway, despite the fact that Spiderman 3 is a $500 million disappointment, they still managed to dominate the box office this weekend, grossing $151 million.
Although Spiderman 3 got asses in the seats, there’s no telling whether this film will be able to break even. They have to rely on people not telling their friends it sucked, which is harder and harder to do in this technological age. I saw it early, but by the time I got on MySpace to warn my friends against it, there were already 9 other posts saying the same thing. The level of turd burgery in this movie is so high, it seems the cast can’t even get excited about it, with some of them skipping premieres and bashing the movie in interviews. Even the ‘complimentary’ reviews aren’t THAT complimentary. Most of them reek of Sony ad money, remaining completely neutral throughout the review with a few well placed quotes that could be easily taken out of context and a rating of A+ or 5 stars or something else not reflected in the text.
Hey, all of this sounds really familiar. Maybe when the majors finally fold up, execs can find a new career in film, where its all about overblown budgets and egos, low quality products, pandering to the lowest common denominator, and blowing smoke up each others asses! See? There is a silver lining…
AJ, KOAR
Oh they will make more and more money, international money, and dvds.
Comment by A2daC — May 7, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
“where its all about overblown budgets and egos, low quality products, pandering to the lowest common denominator, and blowing smoke up each others asses!”
and the next thing you will say that someone thought of putting BINGO on a national tv show.and we know that will never happen….
Comment by larry anderson — May 7, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
The movie was good man.
Did anyone that’s bashing actually read any comics?
Spider man’s whole world revolves around girls. His aunt and MJ, and a lot of the time even gwen stacy. I’m glad this movie was made as well it was, from myself a comic book reader i liked all the corny scenes and the fact that heroes have emotion, not just action and stuff. Development of the character is the best part.
PS: 95% out there are not dogging on spider man 3 for being a chick flick, they are just all pissed b/c venom was killed off. That part did infact piss me off but i thought the rest of the movie was a knock out.
Comment by inept — May 7, 2007 @ 8:40 pm
Well, in the comics, Uncle Ben is killed by a burglar who breaks into their house, Spiderman kills Gwen Stacy by snapping her neck, Sandman ‘dies’ by getting sucked up into a vacuum and don’t get me started on Green Goblin’s story line.
And in case you forgot the comics, Venom isn’t dead. The symbiote can’t be destroyed…at least not that easily. I suspect having Venom in the movie at all was to prepare for the future films which they most likely won’t be able to land their leads for.
I don’t expect superhero movies to stay true to the comics, which is good because Spiderman is totally off. It doesn’t matter though. As a movie, it was pitched as an action flick. Every trailer and every poster highlights the big budget action and impressive graphics and special effects that we have come to expect from Spiderman. Smart on their part…if I saw a trailer for the movie and it was Spidey and Sandman sharing a moment or Peter Parker looking more like Pete Wentz, there’s no way I would have seen it. The fact of the matter is, they spent more than $250 million on production alone, and this was the best they could do. And then, to add insult to injury, they spend the same amount of money trying to convince people it’s the greatest movie ever made.
Sure, children don’t know when they’re being manipulated or pandered to, but I am not a child, and I just don’t think it was worthy of the hype… but then again, what is?
Comment by AJ-KOAR — May 7, 2007 @ 10:17 pm
totally understand where you are coming from but!!!
I know in the comics it cannot be destroyed and well killing it off would also kill the idea of carnage, lasher, and all the other symbiote creatures.
The whole gwen stacy thing, will probably still happen. With time she will probably die. They originally planned on killing her off, but felt it was to soon. I thought the action in the movie was pretty bad ass, but a comic book movie based off action alone..then people would wonder where the story was. The whole idea behind the movie was to see how Peter would be able to handle living his life and balancing spider man and his loved ones. Kinda how the first movie at the very end built it. Saying he couldnt be with MJ because he would put her in danger and it happened that way. All bs acting aside and corny comic aspects. The movie’s story was really good. Drama or not. Everything about the movie was just good. Although i do see your points.
Comment by inept — May 8, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
PS: dont forget the only death that kinda worked out to plan was the death of the goblin, he did infact kill himself with his own glider.
Comment by inept — May 8, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
best koar commentary yet.
Comment by capt wtf — May 9, 2007 @ 1:00 am
Spiderman 3 is no more of a chick flick than Spiderman 2, with as much action in it as it has, I’m surprised Spidey didn’t die. Which brings up: Why is Spiderman getting smashed into building hitting his heads on pipes and bricks, and not even so much of an ow as peter parker, SPiderman is strong but he is not invulnerable, and doesn’t have super healing powers but a somewhat enhanced skeleton. Spiderman 3 will break even because of the comedy aspect that Peter has, tobey set up a precedent of Parker during 1 & 2, and did things funny for parker in 3. I liked it because it stuck to the comic book and the 90’s animated show, although eddie brock and venom’s storyline was a little rushed.
Comment by Dexter — May 9, 2007 @ 9:11 am
I just heard over $350 million grossed internationally the first weekend of release.
I get the feeling they will have no problem not only breaking even, but walking away with at least $100 million in profit with DVD sales and what not when all is said and done. Not to mention all the merchanidising, tie-ins, etc.
Good movie.
Comment by List OfDemands — May 9, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
…$382 million to be exact.
Comment by List OfDemands — May 9, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Hinder sells millions of records…that doesn’t make them good.
hahaha
I am sure they will break even and probably turn a little profit. The real question is though, could they have made that much money without spending so much on promotion? Like without spending $250 million would anyone have known it was in theatres or cared? Or is the Spiderman franchise established enough and its fans rabid enough to see it in droves the way they have since its release?
Comment by AJ-KOAR — May 9, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
What is good is up to personal opinion in the mediums of music and movies, and can be debated to the end of times whether or not Hinder or Spiderman are good or bad or in between. Beauty of art in it’s many mediums, and with someone with as much of a background in music as you have, one would assume you would appreciate the subjectivity of such things. Guess people with extensive knowledge of a certain subject either realize the humility of it, or the dillusion of a personal opinion as fact side of it.
I think it goes without saying that it is an established franchise that is making more and more money with each sequential release.
Anything in todays ADD society needs an extensive promotions budget to let them know it’s coming out, just less and less convincing to get them to the theater to see it as long as they continue to deliver what the end user deems a worthy product. No one is going to know the new Linkin Park album is coming up if WBR just quietly slipped it on an internal memo listing upcoming releases.
Comment by List OfDemands — May 9, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
Either way, good read, regardless if we don’t see eye to eye on whether it was a decent movie
Comment by List OfDemands — May 9, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
I agree things should be promoted…even Spiderman. But 250 million? Hmmmmm…that seems excessive. An established franchise like Spiderman doesn’t need to go to such lengths to create a buzz for the new release.
Thanks for the tip on promoting releases. I always thought internal memos were the BEST way to inform the public of things… you’ve changed my world.
I think you missed my point with the Hinder comment. I wasn’t saying Hinder sucks. I was saying the number of records they sell is not necessarily indicative of how good they are, since its certainly up for debate. Lots of people going to see Spiderman is what is expected. They spent all that money to MAKE SURE it happened. It doesn’t mean the movie is great, it means their marketing was effective. Do you see the difference?
I don’t know who you are or what you do for a living, but I think anyone who receives demos can back me up on this: elaborate press kit = shitty band. You over-promote when you don’t have the quality content to back it up. You don’t have to go to such lengths to convince someone that something is great if it actually is. I thought that Spiderman would have been the exception to that rule, but it simply wasn’t.
Maybe its been so long since a great movie was released, people have forgotten what its supposed to be like.
Comment by AJ-KOAR — May 9, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
“What is good is up to personal opinion in the mediums of music and movies”
– wrong. by this logic, “Dude Wheres My Car” could be called a good movie. this movie plods along with nowhere particular to go. the scene in the Jazz club where peter parker dances? what the hell were the film makers thinking. and the 2 or 3 fade outs at the end before the film FINALLY ends … again, just dumb.
this film is fun to look at but not fun to watch.
Comment by Chris — May 9, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
28 Weeks Later
I just saw it and it’s fucking awesome.
Unlike Spiderman, it actually delivers more than promised. It’s intense from beginning to end and there are even some man tears, but there is NO WAY anyone could consider it a chick flick.
If Spiderman didn’t satisfy your need for action, real story line, perfect pacing and good direction, go see 28 Weeks Later. I love leaving the theatre with my heart still racing.
Imagine…all of that without breaking the bank or some douchenozzle movie studio shoving it down my throat.
Comment by AJ-KOAR — May 10, 2007 @ 12:03 am
yeah, ive heard good things about it. i wanna see it. i havent seen 28 Days Later yet … do you need to see it first?
Comment by Chris — May 10, 2007 @ 8:42 am
Nah…you’ll get whats going on.
Comment by AJ-KOAR — May 10, 2007 @ 11:41 am
I guess I live under a rock or something ’cause without the media talking about how much money Spidey made this past weekend and this post on KOAR, I wouldn’t have even known the movie was out!! I know…get a life right?? Anyway…saw it last night. I thought it was ok…the last 45 minutes or so was great. I’m not a comic book guy, so I’m watching for pure entertainment value and it just seemed like it took forever to go anywhere. I understand developing the story and all, but as a friend of mine said…”I was counting ceiling tiles” for the first hour! I thought PP’s 10 minute disco walk through the city was kinda wasted space. I think we all had the message that he was thinking pretty highly of himself at that point. That was just uncomfortable to watch. I thought it was pretty good overall, just wish it got where it was going a little faster. I’m glad I saw it once, but my first comment after walking out was “They’re not aiming for repeat customers on that one.” Was it worth half a billion dollars?? I guess that will be decided when all the receipts are in…
Comment by Jason — May 11, 2007 @ 8:34 am
so uh, I just read that it’s grossed over $628 mil so far. thoughts?
Comment by cheesuscrust — May 15, 2007 @ 12:10 am
Total US Gross $240,236,828
International Gross $386,400,000
Worldwide Gross $626,636,828
US numbers:
Week 1 $151,116,516
Week 2 $58,166,256
I stand by my statements. This isn’t a ‘repeat customer’ movie. Just like we’re seeing in music- it’s all about the fast cash. They make movies to make money, not because they actually care about movies, which is identical to major labels and music.
They’ll make their money. It will do what it was supposed to do.
baaaaaaaaah, baaaaaaaaaah
Comment by AJ-KOAR — May 15, 2007 @ 9:07 am