Disney clearly feeling good about Avengers movie…

Or so I can only assume from the fact that they are getting it out there on multiple fronts well before its official release on May 4th.

The Avengers is getting a ‘premiere’ showing in Los Angeles on April 11, for instance. It’s closing New York’s Tribeca film fest on April 28th, for another. And then, in a thing I’ve never seen (or at least noticed) before, they are hosting free showings of the film via Facebook in various large cities on April 14th, quite a ways before its wide release.

*Clearly* they are doing this because they are expecting great Internet buzz, hoping to build up a feverish state of anticipation among ticket buyers before its official release. This can only mean they think it’s a slam dunk fan-pleaser. It’s the opposite of the old “no advance screenings for critics” ploy that inevitable heralds some cinematic turkey.

The bad news for Disney, of course, is that even if the movie makes a ton of profit, quite a bit of it will only offset the $200 million write-off on the disastrous John Carter. But that’s the studio’s headache. For myself, I’m very pleased to see that they are this confident in the film’s chances. Fingers crossed.

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Ericb

Either that or they are so desperate after the John Carter disaster that they feel like they have to push the movie hard whether they think it’s good or not.
Ken_Begg

Nah, don’t think so. Comic book nerds are notoriously nitpicky. If they wanted to push the movie hard but didn’t have complete faith in it, the last thing they would do is let thousands of uber-nerds look at it three weeks before it hits theaters. They would just jack up the TV advertising budget.
Tork

I hope it does well just based on how ambitious the whole project has been. The thing could have fallen apart two or three movies in.
Fisheyenomiko

This reminds me; I still need to watch Thor and Captain America.
zombiewhacker

I liked Thor but Captain America left me cold.
Petoht

John Carter’s not a 200 million dollar write-off. While it only pulled in $67M in the states, its world-wide gross was $188M, making a total, pre-DVD take of $255 million.

Now, that’s not a profit when you factor in advertising, but it’s not nearly the soaking that it seemed. This isn’t a studio-breaking flop.
Rock Baker

I imagine they’ll make back a lot of their money on DVD sales…. provided they don’t muff that too.
zombiewhacker

Nope, sorry. Always remember the box office rule of thumb: studios only take in half of the theatrical gross. The other half goes to the exhibitors (e.g., the theaters).

So even though John Carter has grossed over $250 million worldwide so far, the studio has only seen $125 million of that. Given the film’s $250 million budget, that means the film stand to lose probably around $100 million by the time film leaves theaters.

And don’t count on DVD sales to save the studio’s butt. The worldwide recession has killed DVD sales bigtime. Only big ticket items, like the Harry Potter and Twilight movies, stand to see much of a return from DVD sales these days.
Petoht

But the studios and theaters operate on a sliding scale where the vast majority goes to the studio at first and then it slowly shifts to the theaters. Considering the mayfly-like lifespan of John Carter in theaters, I would be shocked if Disney only got 50% of that gross.
Marsden

I heard a lot about the current Disney leadership wanted John Carter to fail because it was a left over project from previous leadership and “blame your predecessor” is a cherished tradition for executives. I didn’t see it but I’d like too. Avengers I do want to go see, but I’ll probably go to the early matinee, so I hope I’m not dooming the movie I want to do good with my stingyness.
Just to clarify, the regular matinee price is $5.75, I actually don’t know the evening price, but the first matinee of the day is $3.75, so if you don’t mind going to the movie at 11:30 am, it’s quite a savings.
zombiewhacker

The fact that John Carter cost $250M and grossed $250M means the theaters would have to have agreed to a sliding scale where the studio got 100% of the gross in the first few weeks just for the film to break even. I guarantee you that didn’t happen.

Plus don’t forget that budget numbers don’t normally including advertising and distribution. That’s an extra, I don’t know, maybe $25M-$50 million right there minimum.
aussiesmurf75

I’m stoked about the fact that Avengers comes out a week early in Australia. I’ll be seeing it on around April 28 with the wife during a weekend away, and will send in a brief review.