The new TV ad I just saw was quite good. I don't know why they were not showing it till now.

Neither of the two movies opening this memorial weekend look to have the steam to challenge the powerhouse called "SITH". Mark my words, Sith is going to decimate all the competition this coming weekend. Even if Madagascar gets around $70M for the 4-days, Sith will still overtake it overwhelmly. Tell me which "Action" or "thriller" has underperformed over the history of memorial day weekends? Sith has awesome WOM, and a lot of energy, the kids will probably see Madagascar, but what will their parent's see? Finding Nemo and Shrek 2 did great because that's what the parents also wanted to watch. Madagascar is a perfect movie for parents to dump the kids to so that they can watch ROTS meanwhile.

It's true that the RT reviews don't matter for kids, but they do matter to the parents who decide whether they really want to watch it or not. And, its not that the kids don't love Star Wars, the theatre I went to watch it in was full with kids/families (both the times), and I am sure the trend is not going to change. The ratings don't matter for good movies. Did it matter for Passion? Did people stay at home because it was too gory?

Glad you're back, Lecter.

Thank you. Even though it's only till the end of the weekend.

It will not get the young adults demographics. Anyway DW is a horrible studio. With the selling power of Shrek 2 and Shark Tale, this could have been a monster. This will be the The Ring2 of CGI kids movies. The people who are ripping it on RT say it is not funny. That would be bad.

Well, judging by some of the pros, Madagascar will open underwhelmingly with about 50-65 mill for teh 4 days. That is good, but it is underwhelming. :wink:

This will not make $200M total. This will not appeal to teenagers and young adults like Shrek and Shrek 2.

My point all along with this one has been that just because this is a film aimed at the same audience as Shrke, does not mean it will do Shrek 2 or even Shrek like numbers. There is obviously a market for a film like this, that is a no brainer, but to say that there is no competition for this film is silly. SW is aimed at many of the same demographics. If this opens with about 65 mill over the 4 days, that is great, but to see it gross 200 mill.....hmmmm not too sure.

I would love for Madagascar to do less than Robots.

I think a message needs to be sent to studios that subpar CGI films will not be given an automatic free pass.

How do you know that it is going to be subpar though loyal?

I watched it yesterday.

And it wasn't that good? What are the crowd reports like? Did it sell out?

I gave it a D+. I really enjoyed the lemurs and penguins (hence the + and lack of F) but the rest of the film was something more suited for cable. The stunt casting doesn't work, the animation is pretty boring, and the film isn't really funny (outside of the previously mentioned lemurs and penguins).

It's just another example like Shark's Tale and Robots, that CGI films aren't all glitter and gold.

As for my crowd report, there were only 10 people or so in the theater (10:20 AM), almost half were kids. I've seen all the CGI films with kids in the audience (dating back to Toy Story) and I'm not going to say my theater is the end all but the kids didn't react much to Madagascar. I would actually say they were bored.

47 mill for three days for Madagascar? That is a disappointment. Wow, I didn't think it would open this low.

That is in line with our discussion last week on this thread.

Because of summer weekdays, it might get to $175M total.

I did.

Like I've been saying, the marketing sucks, the trailers weren't hilarious, and Star Wars basically took away a lot of its audience. I predicted around $50 million 3-day and $66 million 4-day. I'm a little off.

I hope not. ](*,)

No one ever really thought this would beat out INCREDIBLES or NEMO did they?

I thought it would be closer to SHARK TALE, ROBOTS all along?

I thought it would open with about 65 over the 4 days...thuis is very low compared to what anyone really thought. Cool. \:D/

Shark Tale did about 161 w/o any help. I think this will get to $175+, though the legs will be not as good compared to other CGI summer blockbusters.

Hopefully Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D will siphon away some of the audience. It might end up being as bad as Madagascar to me but at least it's earnest.

I went with a 160 million prediction for this film, and it might be that I'm not that far off. At least not as far as many of those 200+, 250+ and even 300+ predictions. So-so trailers, so-so reviews and so-so WOM didn't promise a great opening, and they are not promising great legs either.

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that I will be wrong on this film. Thank God people are finally waking up and realizing how bad DW CGIs are. I guess I should give them more credit =D>

"How bad DW CGI's are"?

No, i don't think SHREK, SHREK 2 or CHICKEN RUN are bad at all...

Chicken run is definately not a CGI film its it clay mation or stop motion or something like that, Shrek was good, better than a lot of CGI film but Shrek 2 sucked.