Moedred said:
For fans, he's the linchpin holding together a franchise tossing out its expanded universe and side stepping the prequels.
You're projecting.
It's not like the same story couldn't have been told with Princess Leia as the linchpin. Or Lando. Or a random space trucker.
Moedred said:
Concept alone won't open movies (see Jupiter Ascending, Pan, etc).
Not all movies work. Both flicks mentioned were conceptually fine; they just happened to be really bad movies, and no amount of star power was going to save them.* Or did I miss that post where Ford's winning personality and charisma powered
Ender's Game to a hundred million dollar opening?
* - Warner Bros. attempting to ape Disney and failing is another topic entirely.
Silvor said:
Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame is super excited to see Han back for one.
And that $12.50 he's going to spend might offset Iger's latte for a couple of days. If he sees it in IMAX, that $17.50 might be used to tip the guy detailing Horn's Ferrari.
Moedred said:
But you know who else can? Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Angelina Jolie, Shailene Woodley, Jennifer Lawrence, and Scarlett Johansson. Maybe Shailene as a young Marion could get all 4 quadrants.
Now you're flailing. Having a single successful opening (in relatively low budget productions) is not analogous to being able to open movies. Batman & Katniss together couldn't even put
American Hustle over a million bucks in its opening weekend*. And Katniss has an Oscar. Katniss & Cooper couldn't even power their period romance
Serena to $250,000!
* - To be fair, it was a limited release. It did about $7-million in wide release.
In an ensemble piece Katniss makes money. She has yet to prove that she can a.) carry a movie on her own and b.) have cross generational appeal.
I like Sandra Bullock. I happen to think that
Our Brand is Crisis has potential, but nothing about it says 'go see it now!' Unless critics are shouting its praises from on high (and they don't appear to be) it won't even break $8-million at the box office this weekend. That's not a good opening, and it's doubtful that it'll have the legs of
The Martian.
Woodley has one genuine hit with
The Fault in Our Stars. The second Divergent movie eked out a profit. The first made some money, but how much of that was residual Hunger Games/Young Adult adaptation interest? It's doubtful that the target audience was enamored with her work in
The Descendants.
Lucy was a phenomenal opening for Scarlet, but the majority of her work and subsequent earnings is in ensemble work. Call back when she really, really has to work for her money should
Ghost in the Shell actually ever get made with her attached. How many people are going to subsequently stay away because she looks nothing like Motoko Kusanagi? The entire nation of Japan?
JasonMa said:
Matt Damon's new Bourne movie is probably one that breaks the "rule" about actors not opening current blockbusters. People are a lot more excited about this one than the one they did with Jeremy Renner taking the lead role.
No. While the plural of anecdote is not data the absence of Matt Damon doesn't account for
The Bourne Legacy's failings. Like me, how many people stayed away because the series reached its logical conclusion and didn't feel the need to see another one? Top it with the fact that it wasn't very good, and it's failings are more conceptual rather than star related.
That's enough for now.