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Scott Pilgrim film takes on Toronto!

We finally caught a matinee of this today at the Scotiabank, it's a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it but there were few surprises as I thought that the trailer gave way too much away. I think the poster and print ads are a failure too, they are huge deciding factors when people make a decision to watch a movie. The 4:20 screening today was about half full which surprised me, I guess it's doing OK in TO but not elsewhere.
 
Saw it! Theatre was packed full.

Toronto was portrayed similar to how New York is portrayed in Sex and the City - lots of subtle cues about New York culture if you know when to look or listen, but they hardly ever make it a point to say this is New York, see the Empire State Building over there?

For Scott Pilgrim, the audience knows that the movie is supposed to place in Toronto, but many people even from the GTA might not pick up that it was actually filmed here. It was filmed from the eyes of locals, and not tourists. Neat stuff!
 
oreoshack said:
i hope this doesn't have an effect on any future hollywood movies being set here in toronto.
spvtw was supposed to be toronto's big splash, what a let-down
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I doubt that releasing a niche film at a time of the year when box office is typically soft with a questionable marketing campaign will have any effect on whether future films will or will not be set in Toronto. SP is still scoring well with an 8.2 rating on IMDB and 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, it's just not making any money

SP drops from 5th to 10th place in it's second weekend, raking in an estimated $21M to date. It's kinda' hurts to see Vampires Suck nearly equal SP in just three days.

This opens in the UK on Wednesday, it'll be interesting to see how it is received there.

BOchart.jpg
 
They totally botched the release of this one - would have made way more sense to start in a few limited markets, either in early summer or the fall, and let it build some buzz. Doing a wide release in mid-August was suicidal.

Movie was good, though! The only real criticism I could level against it is that it's more like a nice gift for fans of the books than it is a stand-alone film success.

And, I guess, to be fair, it looks like it's going to out-gross that Jennifer Aniston movie.
 
To put a positive spin on things, SPVTW is likely the highest grossing film set in Toronto, ever! This is the most exposure Toronto has ever explicitly received from Hollywood. Most Canadian movies and movies that are set in Toronto gross an absolutely paltry amount compared to SPVTW. Admittedly, these films generally have miniscule budgets that are partially funded by taxpayers, BUT, let me be Bill Nye for a second, and please consider the following:

"Last Night" (set in Toronto)
Budget: $1.6 million
Gross: $591,165
sources: http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lastnight.htm & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Night_(film)

"Owning Mahoney" (set in Toronto, with Philip Seymour Hoffman!)
Budget: $10 million
Gross: $1 million
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owning_Mahowny & http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=owningmahowny.htm

"Trailer Park Boys: The Movie"
Budget: $5 million
Gross: $3.8 million
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_Park_Boys:_The_Movie & http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=trailerparkboys.htm

"Splice"
Budget: $30 million
Gross: $17 million
source: http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=splice.htm

"Passchendaele"
Budget: $20 million
Gross: $4.5 million
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele_(film)

"It's all Gone Pete Tong"
Budget: $2 million
Gross: $1.5 million
source: http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2005/ALGPT.php

The list goes on and on and on...

Let's see how this one does in the UK and Asia.
 
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GraphicMatt said:
They totally botched the release of this one - would have made way more sense to start in a few limited markets, either in early summer or the fall, and let it build some buzz. Doing a wide release in mid-August was suicidal.
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Absolutely, you know your stuff. Because of this, this franchise is most likely dead in the water unless it makes one hell of a splash in the home market - basically it needs a miracle. Pity.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Absolutely, you know your stuff. Because of this, this franchise is most likely dead in the water unless it makes one hell of a splash in the home market - basically it needs a miracle. Pity.
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??? Franchise? They combined the books into one movie.

Saw it Friday with the wife -- we both loved it, but part of the lovin' was definitely the Torontocentric stuff, so I don't know if that translates to Iowa or not. Lots o' fun seeing the logo that had been painted on a false wall just east of the Canary -- I had assumed it was for some SciFi production or other -- Stargate or some such.
 
My final gross estimate was a little harsh. It looks like this is going to hit about $25-28 million, approx what Nick and Norah did. So I guess we can assume this is the average box office for a young urban-type movie. It will definitely do relatively better in the UK - maybe $10 mil? - and with all of the merch and DVD opportunities, will eventually justify its budget.

To put this all in perspective, EPL is probably underperforming studio expectations. It's budget was also $60 million, but unlike SP, had a huge star behind it (Julia Roberts) and had the push of Oprah et al. But only $50 million in its second week? This movie doesn't have cult status legs, so it needs to rake in a huge BO. I also suspect it will have a harder time overseas. It's going to be profitable, but it should have been bigger (I'm guessing the studio was projecting an $80-100 million domestic box office gross).
 
GraphicMatt said:
Yes, all six Scott Pilgrim books were combined into the one film. They never designed this as a (film) franchise.
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The very end of the movie implied that there could be a sequel though... But I guess it'll never happen with that box office take.
 
GraphicMatt said:
They totally botched the release of this one - would have made way more sense to start in a few limited markets, either in early summer or the fall, and let it build some buzz. Doing a wide release in mid-August was suicidal.

Movie was good, though! The only real criticism I could level against it is that it's more like a nice gift for fans of the books than it is a stand-alone film success.

And, I guess, to be fair, it looks like it's going to out-gross that Jennifer Aniston movie.
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Agreed, the timing and marketing wasn't very impressive.

For what it's worth, the first Austin Powers movie wasn't a success either. It really caught on in video and TV.
 
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