TMoS webpages?

[Chris Springob]

You know one thing that's surprised me is that, with all of the various rumors about TMoS over the course of the last two months, no one (to my knowledge) has created a dedicated fan website for the movie. Sure, there's keepb5alive.com, but that's dedicated to the campaign against recasting. I'm talking about a webpage for the actual movie, a site that posts all of the news and rumors, regardless of whether or not it has to do with recasting. I've seen several people come out of the woodwork on both this board and others, saying 'I haven't been keeping up with this story. What do we know about the movie?' or some such thing. A website that covers *all* TMoS news might answer a few people's questions. Now I'm not volunteering to do this myself. Just thought it was curious that it hadn't happened yet.

P.S.
I googled "The Memory of Shadows" just to see if I hadn't missed something. Didn't realize that TMoS already had an account on HSX. Can someone remind me what the dollar value for the stock represents? The total domestic gross in millions? If so, the current value of $15.76 seems pretty low.

 

[iamsheridan]

I googled "The Memory of Shadows" just to see if I hadn't missed something. Didn't realize that TMoS already had an account on HSX. Can someone remind me what the dollar value for the stock represents? The total domestic gross in millions? If so, the current value of $15.76 seems pretty low.

The domestic (American) gross in millions for the first four weeks of release.

/IamS

 

[darth_librarian]

Chris,
there simply aint that muich confirmed news about at the mo, and there are still more than a few B5 sites out there to cover what is going around.

 

[Sindatur]

You've got JMS' moderated boards, you've got IMDB, and Lurker's guide. So, I really don't think you can expect anything more official than that, until something is actually announced.

 

[The_One]

I brought this up before - I'm perfectly prepared to run a website, having had quite a bit of experience in this field. However, it was decided it wasn't really the right time for it. I also lack the funds for domain and server costs.

I'm going to be out of the country for 3 or 4 months soon. Hopefully, once I get back - in mid/late June - there'll be more information out there, and enough to put together a decent TMoS resource. I'm thinking of something along the lines of TheOneRing.net...

 

[Chris Springob]

The domestic (American) gross in millions for the first four weeks of release.

OK, not as low as I thought then. But still, don't most movies nowadays make about 75% of their money in the first four weeks? Though I guess people might be hedging on the possibility that the movie won't get made after all, seeing as how there still hasn't been an official announcement.

You've got JMS' moderated boards, you've got IMDB, and Lurker's guide. So, I really don't think you can expect anything more official than that, until something is actually announced.

IMDb and Lurker's Guide aren't reporting every news item or rumor though. And pouring over Usenet or messageboards like this is not the sort of thing that the average fan is going to do. It would be nice if there was one central place that would report on, say, the Hollywood North Report, or IGN's article which tells us that several of the original actors didn't know anything about the movie, etc. As it is now, you have all these people stumbling across the messageboards, reading part of the story, but not knowing where to look to find the rest of the news and rumors. If there was one place that was compiling all of this information, that would be handy.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

OK, not as low as I thought then. But still, don't most movies nowadays make about 75% of their money in the first four weeks?

Like all statistics, that one can be misleading. "Most" films aren't especially successful, so they don't stay in theaters long. So, yeah, if most films are pulled from theaters after five or six weeks because of declining attendance, then chances are they will have made 75% of their revenue in the first four weeks. But even a moderate hit that stays in theaters 10 or 15 weeks does so precisely because it is continuing to sell tickets week after week. A blockbuster that lasts 20 weeks or which keeps a consistently high ticker sales for an extended period almost always doess so because people who saw it the first week keep coming back for more (and bringing their friends) Jaws, which more-or-less created the phenomenon of the summer blockbuster, was the first modern film to have the same people come back to watch it over and over again in large numbers. Star Wars, Raiders and Titanic are all examples of films that became huge hits through repeat viewings in the weeks after the first four. So the percentage of their total take represented by the first four weeks will decline.

By the same method I can prove that "most" TV shows draw miserable ratings and never make a dime in profit - because the vast majority of what gets on the air gets cancelld quickly and don't have enough episodes to be syndicated. But that doesn't mean that most shows on the air at any given time will die quickly and lose money, because a certain number of the current crop of shows are precisely those that survived the winnowing procss in earlier seasons.

(Similarly if you went by the statistics you would conclude that it was impossible for the crew of an 8th Air Force B-17 flying daylight bombing missions over Germany to survive its required 25 missions. The raw numbers, the rate at which planes were destroyed per mission, suggested that any given crew would surely be dead by mission 10 or 12. But the fact is that the losses fell disproportionately on the newest crews, those with the least combat experience. In fact every mission that you survived made it less likely that you would be shot down. Chance could always get anybody, but by the time a crew had completed that 10 or 12 missions it was almost assured of surviving the remaining ones. The same applied to infantrymen. It was mostly the new replacements, not the veterans, who bore the brunt of the casualties.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Chris Springob]

Like all statistics, that one can be misleading. "Most" films aren't especially successful, so they don't stay in theaters long. So, yeah, if most films are pulled from theaters after five or six weeks because of declining attendance, then chances are they will have made 75% of their revenue in the first four weeks. But even a moderate hit that stays in theaters 10 or 15 weeks does so precisely because it is continuing to sell tickets week after week. A blockbuster that lasts 20 weeks or which keeps a consistently high ticker sales for an extended period almost always doess so because people who saw it the first week keep coming back for more (and bringing their friends) Jaws, which more-or-less created the phenomenon of the summer blockbuster, was the first modern film to have the same people come back to watch it over and over again in large numbers. Star Wars, Raiders and Titanic are all examples of films that became huge hits through repeat viewings in the weeks after the first four. So the percentage of their total take represented by the first four weeks will decline.

I take your point Joe, but I actually think I was being fairly conservative with 75%. Go to:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/?yr=2004&p=.htm

And pick some 2004 releases at random. I think you'll find that the *vast* majority of movies are making upwards of 75% of their money in the first four weeks. And sci-fi movies with a built-in audience like TMoS tend to be even *more* frontloaded. Things have changed just within the last five years or so. Nowadays, it seems everything opens big and then plummets in succeeding weeks. Sure, you still have those Energizer Bunny movies that keep going and going week after week, like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", but those are the exception. While there's always the chance that TMoS will perform like that, I certainly would *not* count on it.

 

[Za_Ha_Dum]

By the same method I can prove that "most" TV shows draw miserable ratings and never make a dime in profit - because the vast majority of what gets on the air gets cancelld quickly and don't have enough episodes to be syndicated.

Could you please explain what exactly means "syndication". I read many times this term but I have trouble to fully understand it. As you know english is not my mother language. Thanks.

Regards,

Cadu
Zahadum

 

[Flounder]

IANAEP (I am not an Entertainment Professional)

Syndication is the re-runs of a show sold (usually) to other TV stations than the network that first ran the show.

The original network paid for most of the production, but usually the studio that's producing the show is actually losing money during production. They need a buffer of money, either a loan, venture capital, or money from a previous success. It's when the show goes into syndication that the studio earns back the money that they lost during initial run. So there you have it: If a show doesn't last long enough to be sellable as re-runs, the studio will have lost money on it.

/me waiting for much better description from JDM

EDIT: Here's more: Syndication

 

[dfs]

I think that Cadu's confusion about syndication comes from being Brazilian. Here in Brazil there's no such thing as independent TV networks. Every single one is "affiliated" to one of the big ones - and there would be a snow storm in Hell before one sold a "in-house" production to the other.

Regards,
dfs.

 

[Za_Ha_Dum]

Here in Brazil there's no such thing as

Hi dfs,

Are you brazilian? Where do you live? Do you visit others B5 brazilian web pages?

Have a nice day.

Regards,

CADU