RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Finale Up, … 
Friday Box Office: ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ … 
Cannes: Worldview Options Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn … 
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
‘Mike & Molly’ Creator Mark Roberts To … 
Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts Set For … 
Hammond On Cannes: Weinstein Brings Out Stars For 2013 … 
Cannes: Fake Gunshots Interrupt Canal Plus Live Broadcast … 
‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
Cannes: Music Box Snags Competition’s ‘Michael … 
UPDATE: Amazon Studios Begins Pilot Pickups; … 
Bruce Rosenblum Bids Classy Goodbye 
RATINGS RAT RACE UPDATE: ‘American Idol’ Hits … 
UPDATE: ‘Iron Man 3′ Box Office Crosses $1B … 
Upfront Market: Will Auto Makers Subsidize TV … 
Cannes: Thief Makes Off With $1M+ In Chopard Jewelry Meant … 
‘Scandal’ Finale On Small Screen And Onstage At … 
‘Modern Family’ Gets Cable Makeover For Launch … 
Adam Sandler To Leno: “Maybe Go To Fox” 
Anyone Care Who Won ‘American Idol’? 
Syfy’s ‘Warehouse 13′ To End Run With … 
This weekend Paramount’s The Devil Inside received an ‘F’ 
CinemaScore. That almost never happens. In fact, in all my time reporting box office, I’ve never seen it. Needless to say, the studio was deeply embarrassed. Here’s what a Paramount exec emailed me about it: “People love us or hate us but I think evil spirits corrupted CinemaScore’s model. Because the breakdown was ‘A’ = 16%, ‘B’ = 18%, ‘C’ = 24%, ‘D’ = 23%, ‘F’ = 19%. I’ll admit I went to public school but I think this should have got us a ‘C’!”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Many more films should receive F scores.
Who cares? Cinemascore means nothing. The Devil Inside opens to over $30 million in it’s first weekend which is higher than the underwhelming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Trust me, Paramount isn’t embarrassed about the money.
No, but if people are hating the film then it will plummet at the box office next weekend.
That’s very interesting. Does anyone know why it averages as an ‘F’? The movie definitely doesn’t feel like ‘The Artist’ but those grades seem to warrant a higher score.
Actually, it is a D/D+.
A’s – 16 x 4 = 64
B’s – 18 x 3 = 54
C’s – 24 x 2 = 48
D’s – 23 x 1 = 23
F’s – 19 x 0 = 0
TOTAL – 189
189/100 = 1.89
That’s a D on the cusp of a D+, depending on the graders scale.
I went to public school, also. But dont’ your own numbers make that a C- ?
LOL. I also went to public school, so maybe the grading was different, but I thought it was as follows:
A – 3.5-4.0
B – 3.0-3.49
C – 2.0-2.99
D – 1.0-1.99
F – > 1.0
+ and – were the top or bottom 0.10 for each grade.
According to the CinemaScore entry in Wikipedia, this is the 6th film to get an F, all within the last 10 years. The others are George Clooney’s “Solaris” remake (2002), “Darkness” (2002), “Wolf Creek” (2005), Ashley Judd’s “Bug” (2006), and “The Box” (2009).
….and to show how thoroughly lame the Cinemascore criteria is, both BUG, and SOLARIS – both made by extraordinarily talented filmakers, both received positive consensus ratings on ROTTEN TOMATOES. I realize that RT is not gospel regarding film worth. But enough people liked these films (myself included) to make an “F” rating ridiculous. I haven’t seen DEVIL INSIDE, but for the commenters on this site to react with any kind of seriousness on what Cinemascore means, is funny.
Rotten Tomatoes is only an average of what critics think. Cinema Score is what the masses think. Example: the last Transformers movie. Rotten Tomaotoes: 35%; Cinema Score: A.
Wolf Creek fucking SUUUUUUUUUUCKED!
I’m still trying to get my money back from that one…
The only other film I remember ever getting an F was The Box.
trash trash big trash i dont like bad bad i dont know guys how you make the movie[ the davil inside ]i lost my time for the bad movie next time make good scary movie ,for the movie [big f]
This must be really horrible. To quote my favorite movie review of all time – “dreck of the most repugnant sort.”. Hope that Paramount guy chokes on his own vomit. They should be ashamed.
yikes. easy does it, Shame. Which “guy” at Paramount, I guess we’ll never know.
Funniest post of the day right there.
Though a 7% Rotten Tomatoes score may corroborate the F.
Turds often smell like turds.
The mean CinemaScore is 1.89 – that’s a D+ (C- if you’re feeling charitable).
cinemascores are the biggest con of the past decade. They mean NOTHING. The average movie goer isn’t saying “oh let’s see the film with the A cinema scores” because they don’t care. It’s all just a ploy by arrogant movie owners to show how popular they apparently are. It’s a shame that the cinema score people are robbing them so openly but it’s clever of them to profit off a need for approval. Who cares that The Devil Inside got an F. What matters is that’s done well and in this climate that should be applauded.
I totally agree – it’s great news that a movie did so well. What the grade does do is indicate the word of mouth on the movie going into its second week (and inform estimates for the box office drop off).
It didn’t do great at all.
This was a one-weekend cash grab. That’s it! And they spent something like 35-40 million to promote the crap out of it before everyone could find out it was actually crap.
Despite the #1 opening, it’s this type of business model (scorched earth) that leads to cinema attendance being at a 16 year low.
Exactly. People don’t care about Cinema Score per se. But an F rating means people will be walking around saying how terrible this movie was. If 10 of your friends saw a movie and said it sucked, you’re more likely not to go. (Depending on who your friends are, of course.)
And your ignorance is bliss! They made a movie about the average movie goer and it was called “Dumb and Dumber”
No, it’s not good news that the marketing campaign brought movie-goers to the theater (particularly the coveted young men who stay away on droves to play online games instead) only to have them assert via the net, booing in the theater and filling out cinema-score cards that they felt ripped-off and had a below plain bad experience. That is not good news for film-makers at all.
Cinemascore isn’t for the people. Ratings at newspapers, rottentomatoes, imdb, flixter, are geared towards people. Cinemascore is for the studios, for the theaters, for the industry itself, not the consumers, just as the box office numbers are for the industry more than for moviegoers. Why do they need it? It helps them make business estimates which help them make business decisions throughout the industry (studios, distributors, theaters, etc.). It is but a business tool that some outside the business might find interesting, just like they could find bo estimates interesting.
Didn’t Clooney’s Solaris get an F?
Actually, if you do the math, on a 0-4 scale, the weighted average turns out to be 1.89 or a little under a “C.” More like a “C-”
So if that’s the breakdown of the ratings, how did it score an F?
Worst piece of shit ever. Half the audience booed the ending at the show I saw tonight. The “F” score is generous at best.
…But the filmmakers and studio took your money, do they don’t care.
Didn’t Wolf Creek get an ‘F’ as well?
Solaris, bug, wolf creek, darkness — all got F’s — I can’t say that I can dispute it with those movies, but usually the non-hollywood ending gets them lower scores. But I agree the spread on top doesn’t seem correct — for it to get an F — it should over 50 percent who give it an F, right?
I suppose I should comment. CinemaScore, like law school, has a B mean.
I blame the poster. Chapped lips can be very annoying.
This is one of the worst damn movies ever made.
I just came from a screening at The Grove and I swear to you people booed. Frankly this may be the worst movie I have EVER seen.
What it “means” is that filmgoers are like sheep. Sure, it’s fun to make fun of hoity-toity film critics, but when something is as universally reviled as this film it should be at least a ‘pause’ button. Come on folks, with all the criticism online (pro & amateur) – take 5 bleepin’ minutes to check out what people are saying about a movie before plunking down $10.
That doesn’t help people who go see the movie on Friday. And then Sat…there’s lots of people who don’t follow every movie thing on the internet.
1. Most films where the studio has ANY faith whatsoever in the quality of, WILL be reviewed before Friday/Saturday.
2. Why the RUSH to see a movie that hasn’t been shown to critics on the first night? Are they produce? Will the movie get spoiled like fruit or veggies if they aren’t consumed the first weekend? Except for tiny indies (and they almost always get reviewed beforehand anyway) play for more than 1 week in theaters these days.
“I’ll admit I went to public school” Arrogant prick.
I can’t figure out if “Danny” flunked out of high school or went to Stanford. Either of which can give one an inferiority complex.
This might be public school in the U.S. and not UK context. Having experienced many people who went to the latter, including Eton and Harrow, they are no great shakes either.
Other movies have gotten an ‘F’ Cinemascore before, it’s sort of rare, but not unprecedented enough to warrant it’s own posting, Nikki…
Richard Kelly’s “The Box” was the latest; The Bug, Wolf Creek, and Darkness as well… noticing a trend of horror movies. Go figure.
Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 7%. I’ll admit I went to public school, but that kind of grade would’ve put you in the special ed classes with Mrs. Webb.
The audience scores were over fifty percent positive. That’s a serious disconnect between people and the critics.
A can equal a 90-100%
B can equal a 80-89%
C can equal a 70-79%
D can equal a 60-69%
F can equal a 0-59%
if the F are are rated 0% and 10% , it can average a F easily