Customer Reviews

Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession

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I wouldn't want to bet that this will tell anyone who works in Hollywood anything they don't already know. But to the rest of us it's a eye-opening look at the popcorn-driven big-box office system that keeps one "big" picture after another coming towards us on a treadmill. It's a treadmill heading towards disposibility, but nobody seems to care in mellow L.A. The authors are more succesful at revealing the state of Hollywood today than at how it connects to yesterday, and maybe that's why.

Still it's a compelling read, most well-judged when it looks at how studio executive can $&#* up their own films. And especially when taking a look at the role of fans in the marketing machine, when it comes to films like Terminator 3.

The authors see the cynical exploitation on the one hand, but rightly point out studios can't assume they can control or predict fan reaction either.

I'm a movie buff, but not a Hollywood guy and devour a lot of the big books that come out of Hollywood. This books is great because it gets all the dirt, gets the big picture and small picture and captures it in a way that is enjoyable to the lay reader. I bet that this book will be on every night table in L.A.

Open Wide is much more than a mere analysis of the state of today's Hollywood. It also give its readers a very generous lesson on the history of the box office take, going from the very early days up until today. What the authors have done is to give the readers an inside-look into the Hollywood machine so that we can all understand better what constitutes a hit.

The authors have decided to study the three films that opened on the 4th of July weekend in 2003; Terminator 3, Legally Blonde 2 and Sinbad. From their moment of conception up to their release, the authors study the various stages the films went through before finally arriving to the Silver Screen. Through this, they also give us history lesson on firms like EDI Nelson, Technicolor, some studio anecdotes and a great, detailed history of the movie theatre itself.

The book never sides with one studio or one person. The authors remain impartial throughout, something that seems fresh, especially since this book is discussing Hollywood. Although the authors give a bit more attention to Terminator 3 (the biggest film of the three) and very little to Sinbad, what they do give us is very detailed and informative.

This is a great book about the Hollywood machine. Ever wondered why some movies flop, while others are a success? Ever wondered how a film is created, how various test screenings can help change a film and the marketing behind it, how word of mouth can make or kill a film? Then this one will probably answer most of your questions.

This is a fascinating look at the marketing of major motion pictures, focusing on the summer 2003 releases of TERMINATOR 3, LEGALLY BLOND 2, and SINBAD. I picked this book up after reading about it in People magazine and in the local newspaper book review. This book explains the nuts and bolts of hyping movies and mega-box office returns.

It was interesting to learn that focus groups and test audiences have a lot to do with what ends up on the final silver screen. The process of movie by committee seems to take a lot of the creative air out of a movie's sails.

Stars and trailer placement generate a lot of return later. Extremely informative and insightful with every page. I learned a lot about the motion picture industry that does not usually make it into the news.

I was especially interested in the panic that goes on behind the scenes when the suits get an inkling that their film isn't going to do well. Movie buffs interested in the marketing will find this very interesting reading.

Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became A National Obsession is the tell-it-like-it-is story of how the millions of dollars and literally years of work behind Hollywood summer movies finally all come down to a fierce popularity competition -- a competition whose success is measured by the size of the opening weekend box office gross. Focusing especially on the elaborate case study of one weekend's box office face-off between Terminator 3, Legally Blonde 2, and Brad Pitt's Sinbad in thousands of theaters across America, Open Wide reveals the nitty gritty of clashing titans and the individuals who put so much of their heart, soul, and reputation into movies. Movie buffs and film fans are treated to a fascinating peek behind the curtain where the power struggles resemble the royal intrigues of antiquity.

This is a well-written and revealing study of Hollywood marketing. The first weekend means everything in the 21st century! Fun, compelling, exciting....it's a slice of film culture.

This book was simply a gem. It smoothly interweaved the present state of the film business with its historical foundations and developments.

Having lived in Arizona for over two decades, I noticed that each new movie complex that opened up had more screens, and often bigger screens, than the previous one that opened up. This when more and more entertainment was found online or in rental stores. I always wondered why, until reading this book. Serving as part history and part commentary, this book delves into the history of how Hollywood markets and releases movies, especially those in key time periods such as early summer when kids get out of school. The focus is on the summer of 2003 when Legally Blonde 2, T2, Sinbad, Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean came out. Ignoring the two Disney blockbusters, the book instead looks at the next 3; 2 sequels that made a profit, and Dreamworks' bomb, Sinbad, that had the most star-studded cast of any animated movie that year. The book examines the path each movie took from inception to final bow out of the theaters, highlighting key events, successes, and flops along the way. Key individuals are spotlighted, such as cast members, writers, directors, ad agents, publicists and even lawyers who helped secure rights to scripts. Overall, a good book on how Hollywood works.

This reasonably current appraisal of the film market is quite well written, and uses a lot of real world examples that are familiar to most if not all movie lovers. It's a tad long but easily accomplishes it's goal of illustrating the dismal state of the industry. Great to use for quotes.

In "Open Wide", Variety editors Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing explore the phenomenon of the big opening weekend that often determines a film's fate in Hollywood's current economic climate. No longer do films build popularity; they must grab it up front in order to be profitable. "Open Wide" examines how saturation came to be the standard method of releasing big-budget films and the realities of marketing films this way. Hayes and Bing chose three big summer movies -"Terminator 3", "Legally Blonde 2", and "Sinbad"- to follow from concept until their opening on July 4th weekend 2003.

The authors recount the marketing maneuvers of these three contemporary films and give the reader a history of movie marketing over the past few decades, in particular those sea changes that created the "open wide" phenomenon. We follow the three films for about 6 months of fine-tuning and marketing, through focus groups, television ads, test screenings, ShoWest, fan conventions, trailer houses, junkets, tracking reports, and, finally, their flashy, nerve-wracking premieres. The degree to which audiences and statistics shape big-budget movies cannot be overstated.

How things got this way is even more fascinating. Hayes and Bing take us back to the first saturation marketing schemes that fueled the popularity of monster and exploitation films in the 1950s, the application of those strategies to "Jaws", creating the first summer blockbuster in 1975, how and why the industry became obsessed with numbers, the pioneers of movie data-gathering, and the evolution of the multiplex theater. All of this leads to the films, the publicity, and the people who make them today. This specialized history of film marketing is entertaining and insightful for both film buffs and professionals.