Something For the Weekend: Jones, Narnia and Iron Man

Indiana Jones 4, Narnia and Iron Man had production budgets of $185MM, $200MM and $140MM respectively, but the attention they are getting in the blogosphere doesn't paint a great picture for the reception of the second Narnia flick.

 

Comments

[Chris]

There's one small issue with this sort of comparison: Narnia has a different audience than the other two films.

[Matthew Hurst]

Chris,

When I read your comment, I thought - that is an issue that the money behind the projects don't care about; but then I realised that you meant that the signal is different due to the demographic that blogs (a younger audience, you claim, will generate less of a signal in the blogosphere). Certainly worth looking in to. Social Media analysis certainly does permit the analysis of demographic features of the authors - I don't have those tools at hand right now.

[Chris]

Matthew... the different audience can be interpreted a few different ways. Here's what I was thinking:

First, you have the blogger audience, which is largely an audience that fits a specific niche as far as entertainment preferences go. In this case, you have something that's been able to develop a cult following (Indiana Jones), something that appeals to any nerd (like me)/comic book fan, and then you have a film that largely pertains to children, young adults and families.

Sure, there's bound to be some crossover, but for Narnia, there isn't much crossover for children/families and how these rankings are calculated in this sort of comparison... the word of mouth and familiarity with the Narnia series negates much need to search for information online.

Despite a slightly weaker if similar opening domestically, Prince Caspian seems to be besting many records overseas, and it was the international box office takings that made Narnia: LWW so lucrative.

Hope that clears some stuff up. Cheers!