It's funny that SNL Kagan should come up here on the forum because until a few months ago I had never even heard of them. But allow me to backtrack to give the whole picture:
As everybody knows, for months now I've been DVRing entertainment shows like
Access Hollywood,
Extra, and
Entertainment Tonight so as not to miss anything they might do with regard to the DS film. But what might not be known is that I was once a big fan of
Entertainment Tonight, well, until it became so tabloid that real entertainment stories were ignored in favor of seemingly endless segments about the likes of Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton, at which point I gave up on it and couldn't even stand seeing the promotional ads for it, much less the actual shows. But originally I watched ET faithfully every night from the day it premiered. But even back then it wasn't exactly perfect because there used to be a host who would literally proclaim the end of the film industry as we knew it based on his belief that the box office numbers at the time proved it. Well, obviously, his dire predictions never really materialized - and fairly soon he was actually out of a job.
Fast forward to a few months ago, and I was with my friend who works in a bank, and I was telling him that ET isn't half bad nowadays and maybe he should start to check it out again like we both always did back in the day. I asked him if he remembered the host who used to proclaim the end of the film industry, and we both had a good laugh at the guy's expense - but then my friend said that he might know where the guy had gotten a new job: SNL Kagan. It seemed as if there was an article in one of the financial magazines that his bank regularly subscribes to, and because it was film industry related it caught his eye. He then proceeded to tell me about how one of the things SNL Kagan supposedly does is "analyze" box office and proclaims what film will or won't be profitable - however the article deconstructed and criticized their practices because what comes out of SNL Kagan is strictly based on guesstimating, meaning they fabricate their own figures and conclusions - they're not based on actual fact because, well, they make their proclamations long before films complete their runs in theaters and before things like complete box office numbers and actual sales/rental figures for DVD/Blu-ray releases can actually be factored in. Of course, SNL Kagan countered that everything they do is based on research and trends in the film industry. But the article came back by pointing out that if the amount of films that SNL Kagan proclaims to be unprofitable were actually true, then every film studio would clearly already be out of business because there would be no way they could all be surviving on the few blockbuster films that come out each year. Plus, they also pointed out that much of the "research" they do is in and of itself based on estimates because, for one, it's extremely rare when any of the studios release the actual budget figures for any of their films. However, one thing that they do release to their boards, stockholders, and the public is their profitability statements, and clearly not one of the studios is in as financially dire straits as what SNL Kagan would have be believed because, again, if they were, they would all be out of business.
So, take from all that what you will. But based on that article's conclusions, when it comes to what SNL Kagan has said about almost any of the films recently mentioned, it would seem that it needs to all be taken with a huge grain of salt. And another interesting thing is that there seems to be a site on the Internet called MCN whose favorite mission would appear to be to rip apart practically everything that comes out of SNL Kagan with regard to the film industry to show how outlandish many of their conclusions are. So, it's not just some of us here on the forum or financial magazines that would seem to have a problem with what SNL Kagan spouts.
And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that former ET host not only works for SNL Kagan, but if he's its CEO!
But anyway, changing the subject somewhat, we forgot to post a link to Box Office Mojo's chart for Thursday, so here it is:
Thursday's Box OfficeAnd thanks for sharing the worldwide numbers for
Hugo, madscntst.
I hadn't realized that DS had already passed it on that front.
29 days 11 hours 19 minutes 33 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!