Horton Wins at Box Office, But Movie Experience Continues Downward
It is getting worse. Last weekend, I went to Horton Hears a Who. Opening weekend. Rainy Sunday. And the theater for a 4pm showing was not full in a popular place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which is pretty much saturated with young kids. Mass Billboards, Mass TV focused kid TV blitz. Even my 9 year old is online and says he saw nothing. Before the movie started – it was a LONG 20 minutes or so, I do not think I heard a single laugh from the kids. A few from the parents. The ads were directed at the parents. The kids experience was… non existent unless parents bought the popcorn etc.
Maybe go for kid humor and get the experience up? What about extensions of what the kids like and love.The movie had the largest opening weekend this year at $45m on almost 4,000 screens at an average of $11,384 per screen. Wide opening – huge weekend. Ridiculously underwhelming experience. With nothing else on offer, and expectations peaked by buzz fed by billboards and kids – you go to the movies. You shell out almost $60 for tickets and $25 for snacks for 2 adults & 3 kids. You seldom hear complaints except the growing voice of those who stop showing up and keep driving box offices down. When is the business going to learn that it a movie could be interactive and experience for the kids.
What about a fun dance/exercise session with catchy tunes and favorite characters from other movies getting the kids out of their seats and moving, interacting with the screen?
Or play some game along similar lines. Just 5 minutes. You will have the kids and the parents talking up the experience. Have Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft sponsor the games (Great PR for the Wii, PSP or the XBOX. Or something via sms or pda or cell phone via the web. By the time the movie started, every seat was not full for a 4 pm screening. Close to, but not full. A rainy winter afternoon. I expect that this weekend the movie will do fine. My gut said on Sunday while I was in the theater and being underwhelmed by the movie (as was my wife and apparently the handful of parents that left mid-movie with their kids) that the drop-off would be significant and in the 50% range. But that was before they hit $45 million. With an estimated budget of $85 million and who knows, and who knows how much on marketing but lets guess 50% more, it will be interesting to see what the drop off is. My 9 and 6 year-olds are not clamoring or evening asking to see it again. Or wanting the DVD. Neither do their parents. That was not the case with many of the animated movies that are #’s 1-13 ahead of Horton on the best animated opening weekends.
I am interested to see what happens this weekend.
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