What's in store for the Muppets in 2012 article

[goldenstate5]

Comedy Central is strictly adult programming. When Futurama was moved to the network, the execs immediately wanted more raunchy material. It wouldn't be a good fit.

Disney still wants Muppets to be a family franchise, and the only true balance would be found on a cable network such as ABC Family. Without adult humor, sadly, there's no way that it can be convinced it can be viable to feed on a strict diet of 18-34 demos. It's really strange, but that's just how TV executives think.

 

[Drtooth]

i think international sales will be interesting to watch. worldwide grosses sometimes tell a different story, isn't the smurfs the one that had HUGE overseas numbers that completely dwarfed it here? maybe the nostalgia factor overseas will be less niche than it apparently is here.

Here's the thing... to us, Smurfs is some obnoxious dopey 80's fad. To Europe, these are classic comic book characters they've had since the late 50's. I will say, I'd expect the opposite, and have Belgians complaining about how the Americans ruined their classic franchise. The Japanese hated our Dragonball movie, but hey... EVERYONE did.

But then again, Asterix at the Olympic Games did pretty well in Europe too, but got terrible reviews and even got the French equivalent of a Razzie.

I wonder how Tin Tin will do. Apparently, it took Europe by storm.

[quote="goldenstate5, post: 852721

Also, this week's BO was actually good news believe it or not. The hold was pretty decent, though of course next week is the biggest tell. What it does say is that Muppets should wind up closer to 90 mil than 80. 100, unfortunately, is still off the table. I wouldn't count the film out at all. It's not a failure, it's what the industry calls: a modest success. It made its production budget back, had a good opening weekend, will do decent internationally and proved it still has some relevance. Anyone who declares this the death of the franchise is out of their mind.

However: don't expect a theatrical film anytime soon. Now Disney will solely focus on the small screen, great DVD sales will only speed that process up. Fingers crossed for a new Muppet series![/quote]

This article explains it

Secondly, The Muppets, while it sadly didn't pass the 70 Mil mark it SHOULD have, is now the third grossing Muppet movie of all time. That's right... only The Muppet Movie and Great Muppet Caper did better... it will take almost 30 million to beat GMC, though. I'm not expecting it to make too much more unless it gets a bump from Christmas vacation and can stay at theaters that long. But over all, it is a moderate success nationally. It made back its budget in the first week, it did very strongly against other kiddy flicks, and it can't help that everyone's using their money to buy idiotic gifts instead of seeing a movie. But it will blow up over seas and it will explode onto home video. It really should make more, but it's doing well for what's to be expected. It's probably still the best performing family comedy.

 

[Aaron]

It has passed 70 million.

 

[Drtooth]

Worldwide or just nationally (world wide includes Mexico and Brazil where the movie's already released)? Still... considering that the last Muppet movie only made (adjusted) 26 mil and even MCC made a modest 52 mil domestically (it probably did a lot better on home video). 70... or even just 66 Mil is pretty good. Without inflation, it pretty much made the most money so far. Still, the adjusted BO of GMC was over 20 bucks more...

 

[zoebell]

well, the golden globe nominations come out wednesday and i bet you anything it gets a best picture nomination there for comedy/musical. awards buzz is always something that helps sometimes, to put on the ads and reinforce how good it is to people

i still think comedy central is a good fit for something like the muppet show. i just have a strong feeling the ratings would be great and that target audience already loves them. i mean, really think about this for a minute. yes, kids watched the old show, but the way that show was, i can't imagine anything like it being on the air now and not being primarily aimed at an older audience than just kids. it was different in tone than the movies were, more monty python-esque. even then, he had to go to england to sell it, because they didn't know how to market it here and they DIDN'T think it would appeal to anyone other than kids

but now we know that demo is the one that already loves the muppets and given what happened with the box office, that older audience IS the one that wants to see them now. it could be a huge hit on comedy central with exactly the kind of demo that every network wants.

 

[Aaron]

Worldwide or just nationally (world wide includes Mexico and Brazil where the movie's already released)? Still... considering that the last Muppet movie only made (adjusted) 26 mil and even MCC made a modest 52 mil domestically (it probably did a lot better on home video). 70... or even just 66 Mil is pretty good. Without inflation, it pretty much made the most money so far. Still, the adjusted BO of GMC was over 20 bucks more...

Nationally, i believe.

 

[beaker]

Adjusted isn't accurate. The Muppets 2011 is the highest grossing Muppet movie to date.

I'd love to see a focus on the small screen and online, I think that's really where the gang can shine. Film is still a bit of a gamble. If only JHC could have relaunched Fraggle Rock with clever online videos.

Given Letters To Santa and Muppets.com 2008-2009 videos are my favorite things they've done since the 1990's, I'd say focus on the small screen!

 

[Drtooth]

Adjusted isn't accurate. The Muppets 2011 is the highest grossing Muppet movie to date.

It is indeed the one that made the most money, but it sold less tickets because the tickets cost more now than they did back then. Even then, it did better than most of them.

Small screen is nice, but they need to have a theatrical film every so often. I'd hate to see just DTV projects because of a uniformly slow box office. And even then, Muppets is STILL the #1 family comedy. I'm sure we'll see a Happy Feet 3 and Arthur Christmas 2: Arthur Saves New Years, even though TRU will be clearing out BOTH toylines for years to come (they still can't get rid of Terminator Salvation, Planet 51, AstroBoy, and Star Trek... even though ST did well, the merchandise was a joke). Hugo will become a cult film, mark my words... but Muppets did well for a very slow period. Green Lantern made twice as much, sure... but it was a blockbuster summer film, it had a decent opening week, but the film didn't make nearly enough to cover the huge budget. TM made its up in less than a week.

The other kids films have been considered (at least domestically) flops... this one hasn't. And I'm sure it will hold up well until next month as well, albeit in the same way Puss in Boots is still making a mil or so a week.

 

[zoebell]

it won't be considered a flop, in any way. the truth is, profit IS what matters to studios, not total gross as much. i mean think about it, have any of the harold and kumar movies been actual big hits? yet they still keep making them because they're cheap and i guess they have their audience.

and also, forgetting sarah marshall, which everyone knows and considers to be jason segel's big hit, only made 63 million total. when i looked that up, i was shocked, because it seems to me that everyone knows that movie, i thought it must have been a huge hit. but because it only cost about 30 million, it WAS considered big. and because it got good reviews

so, it's a case by case basis, really. i don't think there's any way muppets is going to be seen as a flop by the studio. what this has proven is that they have their devoted, fanboy-ish (i guess) audience, and that the audience isn't young kids, it's older, in that 18-34 demographic. and that can be worked with, that audience is the perfect target for a tv show, which is where the muppets have always really been able to shine best

i agree with that notion, that TV is where they're best, because they're free to be more spontaneous, edgier, and this has all been true since the beginning. some of the best things ever have always been their appearances on talk shows, interviews, etc. and that continues now, with this press tour they were on.

in fact, does anyone else think a muppet talk show would be awesome? i was thinking this as i saw them do the rounds for this last press tour. i think their best appearances were when they showed up on the chew, and piggy and kermit with jimmy fallon, playing password with celebrities. they were also good on snl. i could SO see some kind of wacky muppet talk show, where they could sort of do a variety thing too.

 

[Drtooth]

so, it's a case by case basis, really. i don't think there's any way muppets is going to be seen as a flop by the studio. what this has proven is that they have their devoted, fanboy-ish (i guess) audience, and that the audience isn't young kids, it's older, in that 18-34 demographic. and that can be worked with, that audience is the perfect target for a tv show, which is where the muppets have always really been able to shine best

Kids will discover the Muppets through this movie the same way that kids discovered the Smurfs through their thing... I'm sure the fans made up the bulk of the audience, but I'm sure the more casual type that had kids brought them in. I can tell kids were probably screaming to see Happy Feet 2... but I can't find the kid appeal in Arthur Christmas, and Hugo doesn't seem like something young kids could sit through and not fidget. That's best appreciated by the 8-10 year old crowd. Other than that, it still is considered a family film and families are still seeing it. New Year's Eve's a chick flick girls drag their boy friends to... something tells me this will somehow surge a little said day (why it's opening up almost a month in advance is beyond me... probably to beat the humongous rush of other films), The Babysitter, frat boy college humor is probably going to see it's best week this week... Twilight we already explained... then we have the Muppets, followed by the abysmal Christmas movie Hugo and something else.