Feedback:
BOP Answers Its Mail
By Calvin Trager
March 7, 2005
There's a saying, "Beware of those who ask for feedback". It means people usually only want to hear the good things. Most people want to play it safe, keep doing the things they already know how to do. Reinforcement is a critical element to taking the easy way out; tolerance of mediocrity begets mediocrity. The problem with that little scenario is, where's the growth? Where's the satisfaction that comes with improvement, achievement?
Well, we at BOP love all the feedback, good and bad. We're all about continuous improvement, knamean? And there's no doubt that sometimes we are going to follow our own muse, even in the face of negative feedback. But having said that, we're also not afraid to embrace good suggestions, as we've shown throughout our tenure here. For that we say thanks. Thanks for helping make BOP the kind of place we can be proud of, and the kind of place you can be proud of, too.
Here then is some selected feedback and response from November 15, 2004 to January 19, 2005:
Ron doesn't understand that we make it up on volume:
First of all, you guys have an outstanding site. I can't figure out how you can do all of this work and make money for yourselves, but I hope you are. I was wondering if you have a function which allows the user to track the box office performance of a particular film in limited release. Specifically, I'm trying to ascertain how the documentary "Voices of Iraq" is performing. Thanks. Ron
Much to our chagrin, we receive notes like yours all the time, Ron. Well, it's not the "outstanding site" part that yields chagrin, that part pretty much just yields grins. But we must not be doing a very good job promoting our box office database. Specific to your question, here's the link to the database entry for Voices of Iraq. You can see the opening weekend gross and the gross-to-date. Though we don't focus on weekly or daily grosses by film, there are some sites out there that track this info if you know where to look. Thanks for the feedback.
Galen is in the market for a new barometer:
Has there ever been a database that recorded the number of tickets sold as opposed to the dollar amount of those tickets? With prices going up each year, dollar amounts alone are not a good barometer of a film's popularity compared to those released in prior years.
A comparison of ticket sales would yield the same relative comparisons as the box office dollars adjusted for inflation, which takes the money a flick earned way back in the day and tries to answer the question, "All other things being equal, how much money would it have made if it were released today, at today's ticket prices"? For an example of this, let's delve into the BOP database to compare the relative popularity of two quirky romantic comedies with unattractive male leads. Way back in 1989, When Harry Met Sally grossed around $92 million. Not so far back in 2004, 50 First Dates grossed around $120 million. Which quirky romantic comedy with an unattractive male lead did "better" relative to its box office era? The answer is When Harry Met Sally. The $92 million grossed back in 1989 would have been close to $140 million in today's dollars. Here's a link to the database entry for When Harry Met Sally where you can see WHMS's numbers in 1989 dollars and adjusted for inflation. Thanks for the feedback.
Lucas doesn't come off as the least bit desperate:
I need contact to Elisha Cuthbert if you can please send me
Lucas, buddy. You and me both.
Scott mourns:
I'm disappointed the death of traditional animation isn't one of your top 10 stories of 2004. Disney released its last traditional animated film with Home on the Range. When the company that invented the format gets out, it is big news. And if you've seen Disney's new Christmas movie, you know that computer animation doesn't work when used for Mickey, Goofy, Donald, etc.
While it's true traditionally animated movies will no longer be produced by Disney, rumors of death are a bit exaggerated, I think (and Mark Twain agrees). Disney will continue to distribute traditionally animated films produced elsewhere (e.g. Howl's Moving Castle). One could even argue that leaving the craft to smaller, independent operations will create something of a rebirth in the genre as an artform (i.e. more Triplets of Belleville, less Treasure Planet). While the Disney cartoons of the last 15 years have consistently been high on aesthetics and quality, they also shared a certain homogeneity. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it just was. Now, Disney's absence as the standard setter for commercially viable 2-D animation leaves competing room for a greater variety of styles and stories. And as computer animation becomes the visual norm, expect traditionally animated films to carve out their own artistic niche. And expect the Disney distribution machine to be there to help bring them to a theater near you. Thanks for the feedback.
Daniel misunderstands our intent:
On your Oscar tracker (from 12/23/04), you say Jamie Foxx would "become the first In Living Color cast member" to receive an Oscar nomination if he is nominated for Best Actor for Ray. Actually, he would be the second. Rosie Perez was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Fearless in 1993. He would, however, be the first actor from the show. Daniel P.S. I love the site. I read it everyday.
Daniel, since you bring it up, I say a cast member is the same thing as an actor, and a choreographer (which was Rosie Perez's contribution to In Living Color) is neither an actor nor a cast member, and that by failing to understand the distinction you have outed yourself as a nitpicker. But more importantly, you get minus twelve BOP Karma Points for mistakenly thinking we were sharing a factual tidbit, and not simply making a cheap joke at Jim Carrey's expense. As one of our loyal readers, you really should have known better. Thanks for the feedback.
Eric would jump off a bridge if his friend convinced him:
Like Wes Linan, I was quite disappointed with the Daredevil movie. A friend convinced me recently to watch the director's cut. Surprise!!! This is the movie that should have been released to the theaters. While not quite in the same league as Spider-man 2, it is elevated above the theatrical release - despite having Ben Affleck in it. While I still do not care for Ben in the title role, the re-editing of this movie at least made me care about Matt Murdoch. Check it out, if you haven't already.
Your suggestion is duly noted. However, Les is on his own. No amount of editing can entice me to rewatch this boring piece of detritus again. Though I admit I did like the scene where they introduce Bullseye, set to House of Pain's "Jump Around". Perhaps if the director's cut was simply this scene on an endless loop, I would watch. Or maybe I should just buy that House of Pain album. What happened to the "angry Irish rap" genre anyway? Too gimmicky? I miss the good old days when gangsta rap was just a sub-genre and Young MC, Vanilla Ice, Fresh Prince, Run-DMC, Digital Underground, Tone Loc, and Rob Bass ruled the airwaves. Now all you have is guys wanting to bust caps in other guys' asses. What's fun about that? Thanks for the feedback.
Anthony can climb the highest mountain, swim the widest sea:
Hello.. I am questioning a movie I saw back in the mid 80s.. i will describe the best way I can.. I remember a car with a little girl with Brown hair tied up in 2 braids.. she gets stuck in the car by the seat beat.. i think that the sister did something to the car seat belt.. then the family runs out of the car and then the car blows up.. the sister who gets killed comes back to haunt the family especially the sister.. I remember the sister being on top of the roof.. then the sister goes into a white rubber room and the dead sister comes in that room and continues to haunt her still.. I dont know the name, anyone in it I saw it when i was alot younger and I really want to get this movie if you have any idea I would so appreciate it so much if u could let me know what this is.. Thank you for your time.. Anthony..
Anthony, the movie in question is St. Elmo's Fire. Thanks for the feedback.
Carl doesn't think much of the advertising industry:
I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO IDENTIFY A FILM i SAW MANY YEARS AGO. In it there were a series on murders. These were all advertised in the first place by a group of children singing ring-a-ring-a-roses. The murders took place in what I believe to be a windmill. Each victim saw an axe before they would die. Can you identify the film in question???
Carl, the movie in question is the Daredevil director's cut. Thanks for the feedback.
Laura better recheck her calendar:
I have pretty good info that Pirates of the Carribean will be realeased this June 2005. Any thoughts? Thanks
Laura, I have plenty of thoughts. I think pyramid schemes are great, as long as you're at the top of the pyramid. I think the baby boom was one of the three worst things to ever happen to this country. I think TiVo has enforceable patents. I think Pete Rose and Joe Jackson should be in the hall of fame, but proven steroid users should be banned from baseball. I think Starbucks puts extra caffeine in their coffee. I think The New Pornographers are pop geniuses. I think if Deep Throat is rereleased in theaters, I will say I want to see it for its historical significance, but I think I will be lying. I think people skills are proving to be more important than book smarts, and I think I bet on the wrong horse. I think if most people really took the time to consider their values, they would vote Libertarian. I think the third Star Wars prequel is going to be every bit the disappointment the first two were. And lastly, I think if Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were to be released this June 2005, it would consist solely of dailies, given that shooting begins in about a month. Thanks for the feedback.
Chuck has just freely admitted, with no baiting, blackmail, or threats of physical violence on our part, that he moderates a Bonnie Bernstein discussion group:
I am a moderator of a Bonnie Bernstein group at Yahoo!, and your comments about her pigtails leads me to believe that you obviously don't care about how long hair must be protected in the elements. She has done these "Bonn-tails" off-and-on in adverse weather dating back to 2002, protecting her long hair from the elements such as rain and snow. It is certainly not an easy job reporting from adverse conditions, so to ignore common sense like that, and put hair literally in a Catholic School outfit is clearly not objective reporting on your part. Next time, stick to fashion disasters on the red carpet and stay away from the sidelines.
I will put aside the fact that we're not reporters, and therefore do not have to hold ourselves accountable to journalistic objectivity guidelines anymore than, say, moderators of Internet discussion groups, and instead focus - hone in, if you will - on the really critical aspect of your comments. In short, you're fooling yourself if you think Bonnie Bernstein puts her hair in braids to protect it. It's a fashion move, pure and simple. She could just as easily put it in a regular ponytail and tuck it into her coat if she wanted to keep it "safe" from the snow or rain. Why doesn't she do this? For the same reason she wears fancy hats and a different coat every week - because it looks nice. Additionally, the braided pigtail look conveys to the viewer a sense of "look at me! I'm bundled up on the sidelines of an NFL game! Brrrr!" Finally, this is a visual differentiator for Bernstein, to help set her apart from the Michele Tafoyas, Pam Olivers, and Leslie Vissers of the industry. Because really, what purpose do sideline reporters serve other than to look pretty - and that includes Armen Keteyian. Thanks for the feedback.
Sabrina is not the tallest one, but also not really big:
Hello, my name is Sabrina and I´m from Germany. I want to know the real e-mail adress from marc forster ´coz I´ve written a real great skrip and want, that marc read it personally. And please, answere me I hope you´ll read this and say marc all right from me. And you can believe, I´m not a fanaticall fan of him, I just saw him in TV and thought that he´s the right guy for me. He´s from Germany, from Baden-Wüttemberg as also me and he´s a really really great autor and he also worked with Kate Winslet and Jonny Depp and just the biggest one in Hollywood have this change. I don´t know, if is intresting for you, but there´s something about me: I´m almost 16 years old, 160 cm high, I´m not the tallest one but also not really big. I think, I´m a little bit sweet or nice and I´m also understandingful. So, I hope you´ll read it and give me an answere. Please send me the e-mail and home adress from marc Forster personal. Than I will send you my skrip with a letter in from me in German and English. Thank you SABRINA
danke für das Rückgespräch.
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