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My slate is pretty bland...not for kids (3 huge kids movies in Nov.) but I could not afford a bona fide hit like Beowulf, Bee Movie, American Gangster or Lions for Lambs. Please help me come up w/a strategy that would give me a good-sized total and possibly 1 hit. Oh, and 1 movie per week.

Here's the slate:

Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Oct. 12 - $41
30 Days of Night - Oct. 19 - $22.5
Saw IV - Oct. 26 - $45
Martian Child - Nov. 2 (date change acc. to boxofficemojo.com) - $23.5
Fred Claus - Nov. 9 - $60
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - Nov. 16 - $60
Enchanted - Nov. 21 - $59
Thomas Kinkade's The Christmas Cottage - Nov. 30 - $17.9

I know...sorry about Martian and the Cottage, but I couldn't afford anything better!

Why do you HAVE to have 1 movie per week?

Well...I had to have one per week because...

I didn't have a reason, but I don't know. I have so many studios (15), I wanted a challenge, I guess.

Well, if no one has an answer, I'll hang it up.

Fred Claus...alot of problems during production...that's all I'm saying....

Also, those Damn Brit films...they cannot market for Sh*t...I have gotten burned twice choosing Brit films and I'm not sure I want to ber burned again...

Haha...problems during production for Fred Claus were probably that they didn't have enough cookies for Santa and Fred.

So Elizabeth will be a poor gross? Kinda like the Queen. Except that did OK.

Okay, call me crazy -- and I am new at this game -- but I have a hunch Sydney White will do better than expected. I've been following early reactions to it (an actor I like has a supporting role) and it's been very positive. Plus Amanda Bynes movies usually don't do half badly.

I also have a feeling Trade will do better than expected, though I don't think it's going to make it to hit status. Sexual trafficking is a pretty hot topic right now, so some political and religious groups will probably be advising their members to see it. And I have a feeling that Saw IV will do worse than I expected, thanks to both genre fatigue and series fatigue.

As for Fred Claus, I have it on my slate for now, but I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. Just at the moment it looks like it could go either way.

But as I said, I'm new, so take all this with a grain of salt!

Oh, and by the way, how do you edit a post?? I hate not being able to fix my typos.

I'd stay away from Fred Claus. I here its just a bunch of recycled jokes and that every actor's performance is wasted, in terms of quality.

Although, people do love to see Xmas movies. I won't have that on my slate.

I saw a preview and it looks pretty good to me. Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti. Plus they started the teasers last christmas so people who really want to see it have been waiting a year in antcipation. It was a great teaser to by the way. The only competition I think this one will have could be I am Legend and National Treasure two. I think National Treasure will take number one but Fred Clause will do very well considering the two actors fan bases. Not to mention it has kathy bates which will draw a somewhat older crowd and we could see some teenagers going to the movies with their grandparents. I think it will do fine.

Kelly52 04/09/2007 09:05:14 Subject: Re:Slate for mid-October through November - a problem?

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Oh, and by the way, how do you edit a post?? I hate not being able to fix my typos.

Kelly, once you've made a post you can do any editing by going to the top right corner of the message you've just posted on the board. 'Edit' should be there. Click on it and Bob's your uncle!

Even though Saw IV might be starting to suffer from series fatigue, the marketing is already in full swing. And as that Halloween date comes closer, the marketing machine will be running overtime and that opening weekend will be close to $40M.

Fred Claus is a good bet. It is the only Christmas movie in the month, which means 80 to 100 million dollars.

Christmas with the Kranks was one of the worst holiday movies ever, but its theme and star power brought in a little over 80 million. Even the third Santa Clause made over 70 million.

While a movie like Polar Express cost WAY more to make and only made around 100 million.

Beowolf is not holiday themed, it's Polar Express meets Final Fantasy: Spirits Within. It will be lucky to break 100 and will probably flop hard.

Am I the only one thinking that Bee Movie could really underwhelm in box office/ PTA earnings? After seeing an early trailer for it (maybe back in May?), the graphics looked okay, the humor was classic Seinfield, but I couldn't see why a kid would care about it. And that is a big deal.

Dreamworks tried an animated movie in the spirit 3-4 years ago- Big Star plus CGI equals big bucks. Although it did well, you could tell great looking CGI would no longer sell a movie. You need thius thing called... a solid story. The movie was called A Shark Tale, quite possibly the worst project with Will Smith's name attached to it. I think the fact that Will Smith is a natural draw towards children helped sell it.

Jerry Seinfield has little to no draw with kids. So the story better be really enjoyable and funny. Otherwise, this film is asking to be an also-ran.

Early reviews for Bee Movie ain't that great.

You're not the only one, jameydunne. I don't see what the big deal is supposed to be.

A_Roode, thanks for the editing tip! I should have seen that.

But on a new board sometimes it takes me a little while to get acclimated.

My Studios

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