MovieChat Forums > The Thing (1982) Discussion > Stop blaming E.T. for The Things failure...

Stop blaming E.T. for The Things failure.

posted 2 years ago by [deleted]
25 replies | jump to latest

People really need to stop blaming my dude E.T. I keep seeing this argument come up, yes, E.T. was a huge hit and The Thing had stiff competition but other films managed well enough.

Poltergeist came out one week before E.T and made bank. Poltergeist was in it's fourth week when The Thing opened and was above it on the box office charts for that week. The Thing couldn't oust a month old Poltergeist.

Rocky III and Star Trek III also opened before E.T. yet finished higher than The Thing in it's opening week.

E.T. is irrelevant.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1982W26/?ref_=bo_rl_table_1

Poltergeist held strong in it's sixth through eigth weeks whilst The Thing and Blade Runner started petering out. Poltergeist and others (Star Trek, Rocky, Firefox, Annie) had legs and endured the E.T. wave. The Thing and Blade Runner fell of a cliff.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1982W28/?ref_=bo_we_nav

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1982W29/?ref_=bo_we_nav

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/1982W30/?ref_=bo_we_nav

How come E.T. didn't kill off Poltergeist, Star Trek & Rocky?

Poltergeist bodied The Thing, it's as simple as that. Poltergeist was the marquee Horror film of 1982. It was a commercial hit and was nominated for academy awards and BAFTAs whilst The Thing struggled commercially and was nominated for a Razzie.

Stop blaming lovley little E.T. and start facing the facts that another Horror film ruled the roost in the summer of 82.

For the record I'm a big fan of both films, it just seems odd that everyone talks about E.T. and doesn't mention Poltergeist. The other Horror film that was in cinemas at the time.

[–] corey (734) 2 years ago

The original "The Thing from Another World" (1951) was a better movie .

[–] Redsfan001 (6027) 2 years ago

Just looked up the current popularity ranking of movies released in 1982 from IMDB.

1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
2. The Thing
3. Blade Runner
4. Annie
5. E.T.
6. Conan the Barbarian
7. First Blood
8. Rocky III
9. Poltergeist
10. An Officer and a Gentleman

[–] ebhaynz (3570) 5 months ago

I saw The Thing on opening night and I thought it was great I talked about it repeatedly with my dad.
From what I remember it was a very crowded movie summer and Thing was hardly promoted by Universal and it was hard R blood and guts. To top it off there was at least one very long boring scene that killed the continuity..Blade Runner had this problem as well. If Carpenter had included the Super suspenseful night chase scene to go kill the dog(s) it could have saved the film. Or just delay The Thing to a Halloween or Xmas release there was a whole lot of mistakes that caused this movie to be practically ignored upon its original release.

[–] SandyR (7479) 3 months ago

Shut up, Meg.