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Decision to Reduce Borat Opening Costs Fox 53 Million Dollars

boratrules.com — What do you do when you are sitting on one of the hottest comedy films of the decade? If you're Fox, you get scared by Santa Clause 3, show an incredible lack of faith, slash the opening of your film from 2500 to 800 theaters, and lose yourself a nice tidy $53 million in the process. As Borat would say, "Very Nice!"

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 7, 2006

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  • TheG2, on 10/12/2007, -10/+89Oh come on now, FoxNews is a respected and trusted news channel...

  • fightingirish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+58Does this mean Borat will be execute?
  • Revadarth, on 10/12/2007, -8/+56Fox is stupid as hell. The only thing they have going for them is Family Guy.
  • Yashar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39@Revadarth

    Yea and they even canceled that. After they realized how stupid they were, it was brought back.
  • shiftt, on 10/12/2007, -6/+39Fox doesnt need your money, the Republican government owns them.
  • thelastknowngod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30fox does this all the time.

    first firefly... now borat... im not supprised
  • neoform, on 10/12/2007, -4/+30I saw the movie on friday.. I'm STILL laughing from that hotel scene.
  • Jonas1982, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22This has to be the second biggest mistake Fox has ever made.

    I miss Firefly.
  • xuanyan, on 10/12/2007, -6/+25As the article states, they obviously wouldn't have maintained $37000 per theater if they quadrupled the number of screens. When I saw it (Saturday at 8 PM) it wasn't sold out.
  • weneedsound, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19They recently f'd up the new Mike Judge (office space) film.

    Fox.. tisk tisk.
  • donnikhan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18its funny that for a lot of the movie, he's actaully speaking hebrew.
  • UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Pay to go see this one, it's fun to laugh with a crowd.
  • titlesaysitall, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Foxnews brainwashes my dad...
  • joaob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12the point of digg is to read the article/content behind the headline. and if you did so then you would see that the editor points out the fact that the numbers are not exact.

    i'm digging you down for lack of reading comprehension.
  • borninda818, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11really? Guess that's why he can say all that stuff and get away with it.
  • D4r7h3v1l, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Yea, I found that pretty funny. My dad was laughing because he is Israeli.
  • TopherT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Sacsha is Jewish.
  • stubadub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@carapi

    I saw it at 2:45 here in Austin, got to the theater 30 minutes early, and got seated near the front right of the theater because there were so few seats left together. People had finished combing the theater looking for the odd open seat over 10 minutes prior to the start of the film, with only people walking in from the concession stand after that. Considering the scenario described, I'm pretty certain that people who tried to buy tickets were unable to get in, and I'm certain it continued over the course of the night.

    While more theaters wouldn't have equaled the same per screen average, they would have made more money. Not that I think it matters that much in the long run. It will still get the positive word of mouth and people will still want to see it when it expands next weekend.

    I also checked to see what was playing at the Drafthouse the next night(Sunday), and noticed that by 4:30 PM all showings except the 10:30 showing were sold out.

  • pixelate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@murdats

    dont forget arrested development!!
  • wundie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Sold out Saturday in Rockville, Maryland - USA at 7:55 - I saw the 10:10 showing - also sold out - - and had to sit in the very front!!! DOH!
  • TheG2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Sold out in Rochester, NY at 10PM on a sunday...

    Hilariously disturbing is my review.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8yah, i would have paid the frickin $10+ to see it this weekend, but they weren't even playing it near here...
  • Pic0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Sounds something the RIAA says when they lost 80 billion in profit cause someone downloaded one song
  • joaob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@daldredge
    haha and i suppose the hype that digg created was the sole reason this movie reached $26mil ?

    Dude there is a world outside of digg....digg does not dictate the world. sorry.
  • korimickster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Sold out in my area everywhere as well. You had to drive over an hour to see it and I live in one of the biggest cities in Michigan (Saginaw).

    Pathetic, Fox. Absolutely pathetic.
  • loudthing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6My friends and I wanted to see it the day after the premiere, so we ended up having to drive almost two hours to the get to the nearest theatre that wasn't sold out... and we ended sitting in the second row, too.

    Devotion?
  • digitalintrigue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It won't cost them $53M.

    At most, it simply delayed the receipts, but they won't 'lose' the money, and it might actually get them even MORE money, due the exceptional word of mouth.

    The headlines show the movie as #1, so it's got that going for it as well, even though it was on so few screens.
  • spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6The people who couldn't see it last week might just go next week instead...
  • krazyman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5When I saw on Friday, it was the first night showing at that theater, and they had two shows at the same time both were sold out.
  • leidendude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5My theater was sold out as well. And lets add the cancellation of Arrested Development to the list of stupid things Fox has done.
  • indy500fan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6First Dark Angel
    Then Firefly
    Then Family Guy
    Now Borat.

    Good track record so far FOX.
  • ryMac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4yeah I can't watch it here in Elko NV. ***** fox ruined my friday night...
  • stubadub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@daldredge

    Have you seen it? Even if it hadn't been my cup of tea, I can't imagine having witnessed it over the weekend and not being impressed by the audience reaction. People were laughing so hard that they barely had any time to breath (myself included).

  • ganzhimself, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It sucks that I had to drive over an hour to see it, but in the end it was well worth it. I would have thought they would have played it in a college town, but I guess not.
  • RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The logic behind this summary is stupid. If there is a pent up demand to see Borat - then that demand wont be met until people see it... What? By not having it on those additional screens on opening day those $53 million worth of people just satiated their Borat desire by pirating it? (that's what the MPAA would have you believe.)

    If anything they just spread out the profits over more weeks - which may have made the studio more money depending on how they had contracts with the actors... many of those contracts divy up a portion of the first weekend profits to the actors.
  • bunni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Are you ***** retarded? How many other 'not a mainstream' movies 'never make it huge' all the way to a $26M #1 opening weekend?
  • rgodfrey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I think it was a good decision for Fox. Better to have jam-packed theaters and the attendant buzz than to have a zillion half-full screens and have everyone who's gonna see it see it in one weekend. With a wide release this weekend, Borat's got a very good shot at winning a second week, and then they have a bona fide hit and a pop culture phenomenon.

    The platform release might have actually added $20-30 million to the total gross. What would probably have ended up around $80 million with a traditional release may get to well over $100 million.
  • Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8FOX really needs to die they wouldn't even know a good Movie/TV Show if it hit them in the face. OH wait it did (Firefly).
  • omaryak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I think the wrong people have been defining the "mainstream" for too long. And if nothing else, Fox enormously underestimated the ability of the American people to take a joke. We should be able to laugh at ourselves; that is the essence of comedy. And even those who didn't get it could have been laughing at a foreigner. I just don't understand what they were so afraid of.
  • UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4and Arrested Development, and Family Guy, etc, etc.
  • diizy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7xuanyan, it was sold out all over vancouver, especially the 8 PM shows.

    they definitely lost some money by limiting the premier.
  • sokz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sold out in Ottawa too..
  • TheNik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ah, so no wonder it didn't come to my theater. :P
  • UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Borat was terribly sold out all over NYC. It should have been on twice as many screens.
  • c5mjohn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I lost faith with Fox when they canceled Firefly.
  • ShrimpCrackers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I was at the screener for Borat, at the Union Square theater in NYC a month ago. I was the 6th person to get there and waited a few hours for it.

    There were over a whopping 700 people waiting in line, the line grew and wrapped around the city block but they put us in a tiny theater that only had about 120 seats. Most were very disappointed.

    So yes, people were all over the movie. Did you read Gothamist? Friday you could see lines wrapping around any theater showing Borat.
  • lateralus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You must live in Tennessee. Saturday night was the most crowded i'd ever seen the San Diego theatres....well, since GIGLE.
  • rgodfrey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Do you think all the people that were turned away will just sigh and say seeing Borat wasn't meant to be? They'll see it next weekend.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I went friday night an hour before it opened and it was sold out. I went saturday night an hour and a half before it opened and every screening was already sold out.

    I still havent seen it.

    Fox, im downloading Borat as i type this. And its your fault.
  • turbod33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Also like some comments have said, movies dont just go away after their first weekend. When a movie I want to see is sold out, Im generally pissed for like 30 minutes, then make plans to go catch it the next time I can.

    So now add in the people who got left out last weekend, plus everyone who has seen all the buzz and heard from their friends that they couldn't get in because everyone wanted to go see this thing, and you have a very strong second weekend too.

    Anyway, Im just happy because I've been waiting for this damned movie forever.
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