The Hot Blog

I'd heard the one in Burbank had morning lines out into the parking lot so I had to drive by after work to see for myself: More lines and it was hotter than hell outside.

The Venice/Sepulveda KwikEMart had a security guard that was regulating the line into the store. we waited about three or four minutes to get in. Everything was sold out except for the Simpsons straws and while we were there the Slurpee/Squishie machine broke down, so we all left without getting our squishies which is why we went in the first place.

Thank you, come again.
Seriously, any outside of NY, Chicago or L.A.?
Nice if Matt Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon was represented.

Buzz beer is from The Drew Carey Show. On The Simpsons, they drink Duff!

Its actually Buzz Cola....they decided not to go with Duff Beer for the Kwik-E-Marts, didnt want to tampt the kids, I guess.

Its actually Buzz Cola....they decided not to go with Duff Beer for the Kwik-E-Marts, didnt want to tempt the kids, I guess.

Whoa....is this serious?? The 7-11's around here are still chock full of all the promo items....EBAY HERE I COME!! Woo-hoo!

None of it matters. Still $80m, tops.

None of it matters Wrecktum? So gormand rats but not the Simpson's to soften a hard heart?

I think the Nostalgia factor will knock it up higher than 80, but I give it 3 weeks and people will be tired of it already. The reruns make it not something so strongly anticipated.

I took a bunch of people to see RAT today and they will return bringing others at the weekend. It won't be long before RAT is "vendre comme des petits pains chauds"

and as for Transformers...ce qui ne tue pas rend plus fort.

I know I sound like Don here, but Simpsons could be the BIGGEST MOVIE EVAR.
Seriously, the show's been going strong for 18 years. I remember my wife (then girlfriend) and I watching the clips on Tracey Ulmann and seeing a few more clips (along with Beavis and Butthead) at an animation festival back in 1988.
"We're the best parents in the world."
If it's any good, it could make boatloads of cash, hopefully more than all the threequels.

Whoo-hoo! There's one about an hour from where I live!
Burbank, CA
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Lake Buena Vista, FL/Orlando, FL
Las Vegas, NV/Henderson, NV
Los Angeles, CA
New York City, NY
San Francisco, CA/Mountain View, CA
Seattle, WA
Vancouver, BC/Coquitlam, BC
Washington, DC/Bladensburg, MD

I was going to go to the one in Burbank, but I drove by and there was at least 40 people standing in line to get in and some security guards so I decided I didnt need Krusty O's that bad and drove on past.

I was going to go to the one in Burbank, but I drove by and there was at least 40 people standing in line to get in and some security guards so I decided I didnt need Krusty O's that bad and drove on past.

Every time I see the trailer, people seem to be enthusiastic for it. If you can get people to line up at a freakin' 7-11, you can get butts in seats for a movie.

As of tonight, NY's Kwik E Mart has no Simpson merchandise left except for Homer cookies, which have been around for years and obviously have no ongoing value.

No takers on DP stopping into the Kwik E Mart on 42nd St to buy Pellegrino after midnight, huh?

You guys disappoint me.

Definite interest for Simpsons among males under 25 is well over 50% and that's three weeks out, which his huge. This will definitely be setting an opening record for a 2D animated movie.

Well there aren't any 7-11's in Minnesota, but we've had Kuik-E-Mart's for about 5 years now. (not me in the photo, thank god: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lookoutrach/25703550/)

For those that are in Southern California there's one in Newburry Park off the 101 they don't have any lines. I suspect most of the stuff will hit EBAY.

Dave,

Did you get the Pellegrino? Was it a memorable night? Was she nice?

"This will definitely be setting an opening record for a 2D animated movie."

LOL! No seriously, L the fucking OL!!

Wrecktum, is that so hard to believe? I'm not bothering to fact-check so I could be wrong, but isn't the 2-D animation opening record Lion King's forty or so mil? Is it really *unfathomable* that a Simpsons movie could surpass that? Personally, I'm guessing it will open in the 35ish range, but I wouldn't have any trouble seeing it inch a little higher. The people who want to see this movie are, largely, going to want to see it RIGHT AWAY.

You're right, the biggest 2-D animation opening is The Lion King with $40.9m, and I don't see that it's impossible for Simpsons to beat that.

What amazes me is the lack of comparison to the SOUTH PARK movie. What drew people to SP:BLU was the naughty words and the fact that it was a musical--SIMPSONS, on the other hand, looks like an extended episode with no value-added extras, so I'm guessing most people will wait to rent it on DVD.

The X-files movie, with its huge fanbase begging for answers, only manages $30m back in '98. Why would Simpsons do any better?

I just drove an hour out of my way crosstown to get a squishee, a talking beer opener and take pictures of my local Kwik-E-Mart.
New episodes of the Simpsons get 9-10 million viewers every week, plus every hour of every day some station has an episode on. I consider myself a hardcore fan, yet I miss the occasional episode. I know it will be repeated later. I guarantee my family will see this movie at least once-more if it's really good.
It's going to do better than South Park (even adjusted for inflation). Should beat the Rugrats movie. How much better it does depends on how much of a chord it strikes.

Wrecktum, The X-Files movie _opened_ to $30m, burned through its fanbase, and finished with $84m.

That's right, jeff. So how is Simpsons any different?

Wreck, one reason why it might do better than X-Files is that X-Files had been on the air for five seasons at that point (with the first season low-rated and the second-season more of a building year, not an instant turn to blockbuster). The Simpsons has been on for nearly twenty, which I would think would attract both more diehards and more casual fans. Another bonus: you probably don't need to have seen a recent Simpsons episode to "get" the movie; you probably could've stopped watching ten years ago and be fine. X-Files (which I very much enjoyed, as a fan, despite its limitations) led directly out of its season finale and directly into the next season premiere. The Simpsons Movie doesn't really need to position itself awkwardly between the hardcore and casual fans -- indeed, the show itself has been doing that, non-awkwardly, across pretty much all possible audiences, for years and years.

South Park, much as some people love it, was a cable show that didn't hit syndication until a few years ago (and even then with considerable cuts for content).

I'm not saying the Simpsons will crack $200 million or anything. But I think an opening of 35+ and a final gross over 100 is very much a possibility. Though even matching the X-Files gross would probably make it plentifully profitable.

I don't know what your point is - I thought you were saying that X-Files was a bomb, when it was about as successful as a movie based on a still-in-production cult TV show could be. Simpsons has been a wider cultural phenomenon for a longer period of time, plus it's a comedy, so I'll be very surprised if it doesn't open well.

That was to Wrecktum, not Jesse.

X-Files was hardly a bomb. It was a middle-of-the-road performer. Just like Simpsons will be.

My point was that X-Files, an extremely popular show with a rabid fanbase, only opened to $30m, and that's with the show at the peak of its popularity and a marketing campaign that promised answers to long-standing questions.

The Simpsons' popularity peaked over a decade ago and the movie looks to deliver nothing but "more of the same." How does that translate into a bigger BO than other TV-to-film properties?

Because over almost two decades, way more people have seen episodes of The Simpsons than The X-Files.

That said, I don't know that we are all saying such different things. If you think The Simpsons Movie will do X-Files Movie-level business, that probably *will* translate to opening around 40 and breaking $100 million, based on inflation alone, since that X-Files movie came out almost ten years ago.

I don't think The Simpsons and The X-Files are directly comparable. X-Files was primarily a cult show, with a complicated mythology that would have kept away casual movie-goers and even though it was rated PG-13, it looked dark and violent. Simpsons appeals to a broader demographic including families and has had greater long-term success. I would say that X-Files looked more 'more-of-the-same' to audiences than Simpsons does.
I'm not expecting it to be a megahit, but I'd be surprised if it did less than $100m.

But what is it about THE SIMPSONS that will encourage folks who have been getting their milk for free these last twenty years to finally buy the cow? There is no big reveal or wicked-kewl SFX or, well, anything that you would normally expect in the movie version of a TV series. Sure, there will be a celebrity guest, but then how many celebrities have NOT already appeared on the show?

Heck, it won't even reveal which state Springfield is in. That would be a big reveal, I suppose, but I don't think anyone would pay to find that out.

RudyV, I think your argument is a bit too consumerist, or something. THE SIMPSONS has never been a "wow factor" type of property (well, except for the "wow" I felt when they went about six or seven years without making a single episode that was less than very, very good), so to assume a bunch of Simpsons fans aren't going to see the movie because it doesn't have some kind of meaningless revelation for a show that uses continuity pretty much only for running gags... I don't think it's strong logic. I mean, what questions were answered by The Rugrats Movie ($100 million in 98-99 dollars) or the Spongebob Movie ($85 million in 2004 dollars)? I know those are kids' shows, but think of The Simpsons Movie as the same thing, for an older audience. You couldn't explain to a six-year-old, look, why don't you just watch Rugrats on TV and wait until the movie is on video. Similarly, that suggestion isn't going to hold water with two-decade Simpsons fans. I think if people love something, "I could get it for free on TV" isn't really a factor.

I mean, again, maybe that's an argument for why it won't do $200 million. But I don't think it's an argument against $100 million. (If you wanted to argue that $100 million wouldn't be that big a deal, I'd concede that point.)

I haven't bothered to watch new episodes of "The Simpsons" for probably a decade - I generally am just not at home on Sundays and don't make it a point to be to watch television. But I've gone out of my way to purchase numerous seasons of the show on DVD in the past couple of months and may watch the movie as many times opening weekend as I did the X-Files movie (which was 3 times). This has been the summer movie I've been anticipating the most. $100 million is a given, regardless of how much it opens to (although $40 million seems to be an underestimation).

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