Sunday, July 25, 2004
Summer Movie Roundup
Variety's Peter Bart offers an informative look at the summer's boxoffice winners and losers today. The most intriguing sentence was this one;
"And, yes, the Internet geeks weren't genuflecting either over 'I, Robot' or 'Catwoman' (negative geek-buzz always makes the studios nervous), but the Will Smith movie at least opened big-time at $52.2 million."
By "Internet geek," I assume Bart means bloggers who write about movies. He finishes the article by mentioning "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" as the summer's two real success stories. Coincidentally, both these films had generated a susbstantial blogosphere buzz in the months before they opened. Does it surprise anyone "The Terminal" or "Sleepover" failed to inspre that kind of energy?
The role of bloggers in determining which movies make it big is going to grow and I expect Hollywood will sooner or later have to take note. It's no coincedence the both POTC and F9/11 were the big spring/summer hits. These movies deal with big questions; ones on which people hold definite opinions. Thus, they appeal to bloggers who love discussing meaty topics.
If Hollywood does come to realize the importance of appealing to the blogosphere, maybe we'll see more serious work and a little less "Starsky & Hutch."
"And, yes, the Internet geeks weren't genuflecting either over 'I, Robot' or 'Catwoman' (negative geek-buzz always makes the studios nervous), but the Will Smith movie at least opened big-time at $52.2 million."
By "Internet geek," I assume Bart means bloggers who write about movies. He finishes the article by mentioning "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" as the summer's two real success stories. Coincidentally, both these films had generated a susbstantial blogosphere buzz in the months before they opened. Does it surprise anyone "The Terminal" or "Sleepover" failed to inspre that kind of energy?
The role of bloggers in determining which movies make it big is going to grow and I expect Hollywood will sooner or later have to take note. It's no coincedence the both POTC and F9/11 were the big spring/summer hits. These movies deal with big questions; ones on which people hold definite opinions. Thus, they appeal to bloggers who love discussing meaty topics.
If Hollywood does come to realize the importance of appealing to the blogosphere, maybe we'll see more serious work and a little less "Starsky & Hutch."
// posted by Dean @ Sunday, July 25, 2004 
