Hopeful, Encouraging, Promising, Wonderful!

This is the first good news we've heard on The Silver Chair in a long time!!

It's not the official announcement or anything.... then I'd be too excited to type straight! Plus I'd be too busy planning a celebration party and telling all my friends and reporting things on Aslan's Country! :)

Anyway....

I have to say I was more than pleased to read the following in a Box Office Report by Thompson on Hollywood:

Dawn Treader quietly sailed past $100 million at the domestic box office on Jan. 23rd—a remarkable feat considering that many pronounced the threequel dead in the water after its $24.3 million bow, an all-time low for the franchise. But that’s not all: Dawn Treader sped past Disney’s Tron: Legacy at the global B.O., $373 million vs. $363 million, and is poised to whip the foreign take of the previous Narnia chapter, Prince Caspian ($278 million).

It might have appeared that Dawn Treader was just another 3-D title (repping 58% of its U.S. total) in a crowded PG season, but moviegoers told their friends otherwise. To date, Dawn Treader has made $102 million at the domestic B.O. – a number that Warner Bros.’ pop toon Yogi Bear ($93 million) has yet to hit. Such good news has spurred talks between Fox and Walden Media about bringing the fourth C.S. Lewis book The Silver Chair to the screen. Clearly, audiences burnt by a weak second Narnia entry were brought back to the cinemas by upbeat word-of-mouth.

YAY!!!! We haven't heard something like this in a while, so it's very encouraging. Because of people telling their friends to go see it (me! me!), it has made $102 million in the USA, and (as of today) has made $372 million worldwide! This is what has got Fox and Walden talking about another movie. Yes! Go get 'em! Keep seeing the movie! Keep buying the DVD and Blu-ray! Rah Rah! Ok, enough cheerleading....

I'd encourage you to read the whole article. Well, the parts about The Dawn Treader, anyway. It tells about Fox and Walden's studying of Prince Caspian to see what they could do better. It also describes their marketing and promotion plans. I talked about their interesting marketing scheme in my post, The Fate of Narnia depends on You. Some of my post:

They marketed the film as a “Return to Magic. Return to Hope. Return to Narnia.” I loved that. I wanted the movie to have more of the fun, magic, wonderment feel the first film had. I had hope that it would be a fabulous movie. We also heard that they were trying hard to keep the spiritual themes of the Dawn Treader book alive in the movie. They claimed to have a "renewed commitment to the message of the books" and admitted that they made some mistakes with Prince Caspian. I thought was very promising, since a lot of us Narnia fans care deeply about the spiritual and Christian symbolisms C.S. Lewis put in the books.

It also is very popular in international theatres (You wouldn’t guess how much international promotion the movie received!). So in the long run it will probably do very well. And we're hoping that a future "Silver Chair" movie is announced soon!

This is echoed in the Box Office story! I've quoted some of it below:

“The second [Narnia] film left a less-than-satisfied flavor in the audiences, and Treader marked a return to the spirit of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” observed Fox senior VP of distribution Chris Aronson, about the masses’ desire to climb aboard. “Dawn Treader provided more heart and a whimsical sense of adventure.”

“We did a lot of research before releasing this film and learned that audiences didn’t like the second film because it lacked the magic, mystery and adventure of the first film,” says Fox International co-president Paul Hanneman, “When it came to marketing Dawn Treader, it was these qualities that we emphasized.”

Rather than capitalize on the Narnia brand in a universal campaign, Fox International tailored a country-by-country secular promotion, unlike the U.S.‘s Christian focus. Fox tapped the Chirstian niche where appropriate, hosting screenings for Evangelical Christians in South Africa and conducted grassroots efforts in Latin America. “Voyage” became the central message in Dawn Treader’s ads; a character action collage à la Lord of the Rings repped the key outdoor/print images in many territories over Aslan the Lion, which was the signature U.S. hook.

Well, just had to share this cool story with you! To read the Aslan's Country post, click here: Fox and Walden "talking about Silver Chair"?