Monday Morning Quarterback

By BOP Staff

April 10, 2012

We've always wanted a guy named Bubba to win the Masters.

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Max Braden: If you can't convince an audience to come see a ginormous ship snap, crackle, and pop in 3D, what does that say about the format? Every once in a while when I see anniversary showings of my favorite '80s films at the local indie theater, I think "I'm definitely going to see that." And I never do. They're movies that I'm glad exist and are available to see in the theater, but I'm not moved enough to go because I catch them on cable every now and then. That's Titanic 3D to me.

Bruce Hall: James Cameron made Titanic and Avatar. Both were massive, glitzy vanity projects that went way over budget, had failure written all over them and the entire industry licked its collective chops waiting for the John Carter sized crater they would both inevitably make on impact. Except they didn't. They became the two highest grossing films of all time, and by a considerable margin. One was about a silly boy, a silly girl, and a Billy Zane on board the post industrial age embodiment of all man's hubris - in a film where everyone on earth already knew the ending. The other was basically Dances With Wolves in Space.

Stupid? Yes, so stupid that Cameron knocked them out of the park. I don't really care for either film - except for the part where the boat sank, which was awesome. But Cameron hit the cover off the ball and sent it into the stands. He crushed it. You can argue about the plot, the characters - with anything you want - except a pile of money so big it would tilt the earth off its axis and destroy all life as we know it.




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So while this is a lot less money than I'd have expected to see out of Titanic 3D, I don't think it means a damn thing. I'll bet you four billion, six hundred and eighty seven million dollars that James Cameron is still King of the World.

Felix Quinonez: I'll admit I got a little carried away with my expectations and I actually wondered if this could put Titanic back in the number one spot. But in the end I have to say it's a pretty impressive number. A lot of people see the fact that the second biggest movie of all time "only" made $17 million dollars in a 3D re-release as somewhat disappointing. But the fact that its the second highest grossing movie of all time means a huge number of people have already seen it...probably a few times. Also a lot of people are comparing it to Lion King's 3D performance. Yes, Lion King 3D made more but I think it kind of benefited from being the first (or one of the first) movie to embrace this whole 3D re-release thing. Plus the people who made Lion King a huge hit might have kids now and they probably want to take their kids to see it in theaters. I don't think that the teenage girls who saw Titanic six times in the theaters last time have the urge to introduce their kids or younger siblings to the magic that is Leonardo DiCaprio circa 1997.


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