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Sauron the White · 01-17-2008, 12:40 PM

Why do you continue to harp on the same point when you ignore a polite request to provide an objective and authoritative source to lay that foundation?

The success of a film is generally judged by one thing over all others: how profitable was the film.

This may come as a shock to some here, but the motion picture industry is a business. The purpose of business is profit. Making a movie is not painting a picture in your part time in your basement and then displaying it at the local townhall hoping it matches someones sofa. It is a business. Pure and simple above all else.

The fact is that the three LOTR films wildly exceeded anyones hopes for profit and turned into three of the most successful films of all time in revenue production. In addition to the $3 billion they took in at the box office, they produced another $1billion in ancillary income for a total of $4 billion US dollars. This on a total investment of $290 mil to make and $140 mil to market the films. That is ratio of nearly 10 to 1 in return for dollars invested.

That is the scale that the rest of the world uses to judge a commercial motion picture. You can like it or hate it. But that is the scale.

However, the film industry also keeps track of film success in two other ways. The first is critical reviews. All three LOTR films were among the most positive reviewed by professional film critics for the years they were released. Rottentomatoes.com can provide you with the exact numbers.

In addition to that, the film industry as a busines and professional association has a series of awards to bestow on films that they feel are particularly succesful by artistic standards respected within the industry. The Academy Awards are one example and the best known. LOTR won 17 of those including the highest award for ROTK as Best Film of the Year.

But you know all this.
But you refuse to accept all this.

Instead, you cling to a fiction you created in your own mind about faithfulness of adaption. Slavish page by page duplication from book to screen.

Again, yet again, for the umpteenth time, I ask you not for your opinion on this standard, but please show me where some other objective authority on film says that faithfulness of a books adaption into film is the way we measure a films success

01-17-2008, 12:40 PM	#26
Sauron the White Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 903	Why do you continue to harp on the same point when you ignore a polite request to provide an objective and authoritative source to lay that foundation? The success of a film is generally judged by one thing over all others: how profitable was the film. This may come as a shock to some here, but the motion picture industry is a business. The purpose of business is profit. Making a movie is not painting a picture in your part time in your basement and then displaying it at the local townhall hoping it matches someones sofa. It is a business. Pure and simple above all else. The fact is that the three LOTR films wildly exceeded anyones hopes for profit and turned into three of the most successful films of all time in revenue production. In addition to the $3 billion they took in at the box office, they produced another $1billion in ancillary income for a total of $4 billion US dollars. This on a total investment of $290 mil to make and $140 mil to market the films. That is ratio of nearly 10 to 1 in return for dollars invested. That is the scale that the rest of the world uses to judge a commercial motion picture. You can like it or hate it. But that is the scale. However, the film industry also keeps track of film success in two other ways. The first is critical reviews. All three LOTR films were among the most positive reviewed by professional film critics for the years they were released. Rottentomatoes.com can provide you with the exact numbers. In addition to that, the film industry as a busines and professional association has a series of awards to bestow on films that they feel are particularly succesful by artistic standards respected within the industry. The Academy Awards are one example and the best known. LOTR won 17 of those including the highest award for ROTK as Best Film of the Year. But you know all this. But you refuse to accept all this. Instead, you cling to a fiction you created in your own mind about faithfulness of adaption. Slavish page by page duplication from book to screen. Again, yet again, for the umpteenth time, I ask you not for your opinion on this standard, but please show me where some other objective authority on film says that faithfulness of a books adaption into film is the way we measure a films success Last edited by Sauron the White; 01-17-2008 at 12:43 PM.