Activity 2: Super Ticket Sales

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Activity 2: Super ticket sales

Focus Questions:

Q. What are the mean, median, and mode values for the opening weekend? Q. Using the box-and-whisker plot that represents the ticket sales for the opening weekends, where is the first quartile? Q. Using the box-and-whisker plot that represents the ticket sales for the opening weekends, are there any outliers? Where does the largest spread occur? Q. What are the mean, median, and mode values for total ticket sales? Q. Using the box-and-whisker plot that represents the total ticket Activity Overview: sales, where is the third In this activity, you will create two box-and-whisker plots of quartile? the data in the USA TODAY Snapshot, "Super ticket sales.” Q. Using the box-and-whisker plot You will calculate mean, median, and mode values for both that represents the total ticket sets of data. You will then compare the two sets of data by sales, are there any outliers? analyzing the differences graphically in the box-and-whisker plots, and numerically as percents of ticket sales. See reading comprehension questions on the last page.

For use with the TI-Navigator™ Classroom Learning System

Conquering comic heroes LIFE SECTION - FRIDAY - APRIL 26, 2002 - PAGE 1D By Susan Wloszczyna USA TODAY Behind nearly every timeless probably spent many a x Darren Aronofsky comic-book hero, there's a childhood afternoon absorbed (Requiem for a Dream) is deceptively unassuming alter in superhero exploits. busy conjuring the fifth ego who secretly possesses While growing up in Detroit, Batman episode. superhuman abilities. Raimi slept under a mural Pitof, a French visual depicting the arachnid x And, lately, behind nearly effects whiz, is trying to get avenger. "I love the Spider- every timeless comic-book a leash on Catwoman with Man comic books the way an movie, there's a seemingly Ashley Judd. non-mainstream director English scholar loves blessed with a bold populist Macbeth," he confesses. Comics are serious business nowadays, especially at the vision. Others are equally eager to movies. The campy archness plumb the emotional depth Hollywood's hiring policy will be engendered by the '60s found in comics. In the Marvel put to the ultimate test when Batman TV series doesn't fly universe: Sony's heavily anticipated with generations weaned on Spider-Man swoops into x Bryan Singer, best known cowls and capes. theaters next Friday. It will for the twisty ensemble mark not only the blastoff of Says Michael Uslan, executive noir The Usual Suspects, the summer movie season but producer of the Batman successfully tackled the also the blockbuster baptism of franchise: "Our parents didn't mighty mutants of X-Men filmmaker Sam Raimi, he of read comics, or they burned in 2000 and is doing the cultish tastes (The Evil Dead) them and threw them out. sequel. and low-budget morality plays Baby-boomer parents have a respect for them and don't (A Simple Plan). Ang Lee of Crouching x want to see them treated in a Tiger, Hidden Dragon is Those in charge of the way that violates their applying his emotional multiplex blitz based on integrity." characters owned by Marvel lyricism to the Jekyll-Hyde and DC (the Coke and Pepsi of duality in The Hulk. Precious merchandise the comic-book world) are on x Guillermo del Toro's Recruiting directors who will do the lookout for distinctive operatic approach elevated justice to a treasured hero's filmmakers to propel the genre the vampire blood bath transition to the big screen is to new heights. Blade II. like "interviewing a babysitter to take care of your child," says "People are realizing the Says del Toro, who next does brilliance that can be found in Avi Arad, Spider-Man's the film of comic Hellboy: "If a executive producer and the comics," says Joe Quesada, director looks down on the editor in chief of Marvel, home head of Marvel Studios, which genre, fans can smell it a mile has dozens of film spinoffs in of the 40-year-old Spider-Man. away. You shouldn't take a "We're fighting the stigma that development. "To me, all our comic-book movie any lighter babies are important and it's a child's medium. This is a than you would Shakespeare." more mature industry than is fragile." given credit for." DC, a division of the AOL Time Forget formulaic hacks. Warner empire, is famously Considering that the first The right directors to conquer tightlipped about upcoming misperceptions are those who X-Men extracted $157 million projects, all under the Warner at the box office and Blade II respect the material's modern- Bros. banner, of course. But at day myths yet carry enough cut deep with a $32.5 million least two are likely to get off opening, it can pay to go confidence to lend a personal the ground soon: sensibility to high-stakes beyond the typical candidates. endeavors. And ones who

And woe to those who While there were many films are imbued with that manhandle not only a potential capable storytellers who could crazy sensibility." cash machine but also a handle Spider-Man's technical The blueprint in place for the superbeing dear to many. Says requirements, Raimi impressed 21st century is the one 20th Century Fox chairman because he respected the established by an even more Tom Rothman, whose studio character's origins as a successful franchise bow: has X-Men, Daredevil and The Queens-bred nerd who's 1989's Batman, a grim urban Fantastic Four: "In this arena, shunned by fellow classmates fairy tale infused with Tim you can get hurt by playing it until science gone wrong Burton's peculiar brand of safe just as easily as taking a intervenes. battiness. risk. Heaven help you if you do "Trust was an important a bad version. Not only will it Alas, its declining-in-quality component," Arad says, "and fail and lose money, it will sequels sucked a good idea there was a little extra soul to engender enmity." dry. As filmmaker Kevin Smith him, an extra dimension that (Jay and Silent Bob Strike For Blade II, the best choice made you feel sure you could Back), who runs a comic-book was "someone off-center who share joint custody over this emporium in Red Bank, N.J., didn't come out of the studio baby." says, "Batman & Robin, the system and could bring a fresh Adds Spider-Man producer fourth film, was the death of sense to the sequel," says Laura Ziskin, "My theory is that the comic-book movie. It was writer/producer David S. Goyer directors put themselves too hokey. But X-Men suddenly about selecting del Toro onscreen. Sam's sly sense of opened the floodgates again." (Mimic, The Devil's Backbone). humor and his humanity are "The last thing we needed was Singer brought about a Marvel- very much in this movie. He is a journeyman who has done led genre revival with X-Men a kind of perpetual boy and 30 movies and would phone it by remembering why the relates to that kid." in." original Batman worked so Out of the Bat cave well: Focus on the human, not Even more care was used the hero. Recalls Uslan, "Tim when matchmaking Raimi with The original superhero said on the first Batman that it Spider-Man, based on Marvel's blockbuster, 1978's Superman, wasn't about a guy with a premier do-gooder. went up, up and away with square jaw and rippling Richard Donner at the controls It certainly was important to muscles. It's about Bruce -- a reliably middlebrow pick the perfect actor (doleful Wayne, the man inside the director if there ever was one. Tobey Maguire of The Cider suit, not Batman." Younger filmmakers, including House Rules) to personify Singer and Raimi, are Similarly, the Spider-Man Peter Parker, a high-school admirers. moments that Raimi is most misfit who must balance proud of aren't the flashy web- amazing physical feats, painful "The first half of Superman, flings over noisy Manhattan sacrifices and homework after with its vision of the planet traffic but quiet times "when being bit by a genetically Krypton and the town of Tobey is thinking and he's enhanced spider. Otherwise, Smallville, was a seminal, understanding the mistakes the movie's core audience modern- day approach to made in the past. I let him do would be immediately comic-book movies," says his thing and trusted the story." alienated if the star didn't Batman's Uslan. "It was match their Everyteen ideal. grounded in a sense of reality, Raimi, with a $100 million-plus touching and human." budget at his disposal, doesn't Even more key, however, was consider his foray into the a simpatico maestro who could Others, though, find it dated. summer blockbuster circus to orchestrate the crime-fighter's be a sellout. back-story drama but wouldn't "I know this sounds strange," Blade II's Goyer says, "but be intimidated by digital "If a studio asked me to do it in Superman doesn't have a derring-do. a way that was not true to the comic-book mentality. It character, it would be," says doesn't revel in it. None of the the director, who already has

committed to a Spidey sequel. But that didn't scare Singer. With sequels a given and a "But they have been so "Unlike a lot of comics, it's launch of many new Marvel supportive. They took a about a diverse group of productions possible now that potentially valuable property reluctant superheroes forced the company's legal and and went outside the box." by circumstances and beliefs financial troubles of the past But, as Uncle Bill warns Peter to defend a world who hates decade are subsiding, the most in Spider-Man, with great and fears them. I found the dangerous foe facing big- power comes great dichotomy interesting. It's a screen superheroes is a responsibility, and Raimi felt great allegory of aloneness, possible comic-book cinema the pressure. "The particularly through glut. adolescence." expectations of fans were "If you do them wrong and overwhelming, as was the Mark Steven Johnson, the make a couple movies that import of the movie for the writer responsible for the seem redundant, it will hurt," studio." crowd-pleasing Grumpy Old says Marvel's Arad. "You have But the fascinating characters Men comedies, may seem the to remember that it has to play offer creative compensation. odd man out as he oversees on a human level before you Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck add the schmaltz, the An artist like Ang saw "the as a blind lawyer whose other computer graphics and the emotional, positive side of the senses are heightened. But his hero." Hulk," observes the film's directing debut, 1998's Simon He suggests it's best to think of writer-producer, James Birch, was about a the Hulk and Spider-Man as Schamus. "He understands he handicapped underdog much stars, like Tom Cruise or Tom isn't simply a monster that is like Daredevil. there to scare us, but that Hanks. "Do you ever get sick of everyone has a bit of the Hulk Besides, the comic-book freak seeing them? No, not with the in them and there is something vows to uphold Daredevil's right stories." honor. "I hate when superhero very enjoyable, very Besides, as any parent knows, movies wink at the audience. empowering in experiencing all of Arad's "babies" are The best thing is to take it 'Hulkiness'." unique: "There's a teaser for seriously. But that doesn't The Hulk on the Spider-Man Singer never read comics as a mean you can't have fun." kid, but doing X-Men still movie and, son of a gun, they fulfilled a long-held desire. "I are so different." was always interested in doing something in the science- fiction/fantasy realm." A colleague suggested X-Men. The initial movie had the daunting task of introducing a slew of characters, such as Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, who lacked the established cultural identity of a Batman.

Reading Comprehension:

Q. What types of directors are being put in charge of making the movies based on Marvel and DC Comics? A.

Q. What numbers appeared in the article as well as in the USA TODAY Snapshot, "Super ticket sales?" A.

Q. What was the original superhero blockbuster and in what year was it released? A.

Q. Bryan Singer brought about a Marvel-led genre revival by remembering that the movies based on comics needed to be about what? A.