Shawn

Hmm... let me get back to you on that one...

Unprecedented tracking numbers across the board. I really think we could see our first $300M earner in one week, but I equally think it's at least very possible Endgame is behaving like a Star Wars movie more than a big Marvel movie in terms of pre-sales. That latter argument is becoming harder to defend by the day, though. And if it doesn't hit $300M, no one should be disappointed by that. It's going to set the record either way.

I boxed myself into that question because I don't have a single favorite either, heh. I'm the same as you -- Tennant and Smith were my gateways into the series, but I loved Capaldi's run despite inconsistent writing. Original series, I'd lean toward Tom Baker and McCoy. Desert island situation, I'd probably have to go with Tennant just because he was my first. But Smith's run had some of the best storytelling arcs of the series, IMO. I'm also loving what Whittaker is doing with the role.

Favorite Doc?

I don't mean to exclude Karen. I'm a major Whovian and have been so happy to see her landing these major roles since she left that show. I'm sayin'... not many people knew who she was before WTTJ.

Perfect timing. I don't even think Sony planned for it to be that big. Some things just can't be explained!

Definitely possible. Or maybe striking while the iron is hot? Very debatable! Side note: Alongside the reactions we already have here, your reply also makes me think there should be a "Hmm..." sort of reaction to posts that implies an ongoing thought process or subject that should be discussed further. Is that...crazy?

Nostalgia and star power. Young parents around my age grew up on the original Robin Williams movie, and Johnson + Hart + Black always looked like a big winner with families, in my opinion... I just didn't see it being THAT big. And not to throw shade at WTTJ or TLJ, but my hypothesis is that the former benefited at least slightly from the fact that TLJ didn't play as strongly as TFA did with a vast range of audiences. This is why the holiday multiplier is so coveted by studios. With the right crowd-pleaser, anything is possible.

Thanks for the catch! Looking back, data from Tuesday projections for all films was excluded from that table. Not sure how that happened.

Full disclosure: I stopped reading comment sections after TLJ and Black Panther came out. There are some disturbed people out there. I remember when the internet used to be fun.

Fair enough. One of my long time philosophies with box office runs is that sequels to well-received movies generally reap the benefits, but sequels to divisive movies pay for the sins of their predecessors. This is definitely becoming a more interesting movie to track. My gut feeling is that a best case scenario is something like War for the Planet of the Apes run. I personally think Kong v Godzilla has a stronger hook for casual audiences next year. That's the one I'd pin on a $70M+ opening if trailers and reviews go its way. But we'll see. Two months to go!

Genuinely curious: are there any specific reasons people think this will be significantly bigger than a $50-60M opening? Or is it mainly because "that's what Kong did" and/or "but this one will be more fun" ? Comp-wise, that's close to San Andreas and well ahead of Rampage... and those had Dwayne Johnson.

No worries, @Brainbug. Your post wasn't that bad. I agree though, things could change between now and then. I'm a believer in letting certain trends play out and those trends affecting future things. If there's a string of disappointments in May, for example, that could set up a good scenario for KOTM to gain traction -- and I don't see two of early June's big live action releases making a big splash after KOTM comes out, so there's that. Thank you for the support @cookie and everyone -- but we'll see! I'm just reporting the numbers we're reading right now. Right or wrong, we try to cover likely scenarios instead of nail down a specific forecast because that just isn't realistic even with the amount of data available nowadays. It's one reason I've toyed with getting rid of the specific numbers and focusing on limited ranges of likely scenarios (like $40M-60M, for example). Those won't be right 100% of the time, but it's a better representation of what we're reading. For the sake of the movie business, I always root for movies to over-perform. In fact, one of our big philosophies is to accept that box office will never be an exact science, so if there's a chance of getting something "wrong", we'd rather be on the low end than the high end. Good news is more fun to talk about.

That's an interesting question. WB has had a pretty excellent marketing run in recent years (Aquaman's was stellar, IMO), but it's fair question to ask right now. I'm not sure how much money Shazam has left on the table because of marketing (maybe more due to timing between Marvel's big blockbusters of the year), and LEGO was harmed by over-saturation of the brand. (Something I admittedly wish I'd considered a little more leading up to release.) Godzilla will be an interesting one to watch. They have a lot of competition to push aside and poor sentiment among general audiences that didn't dig the 2014 movie. Maybe some of the Kong goodwill will help, but I think the question is... who outside of monster movie fans really knows KOTM is part of a universe rather than just a sequel to a movie many were disappointed by? Disclaimer: I'm not trying to throw shade at Godzilla '14 here. I actually really enjoyed the movie, but marketing sold a very different version to attract mainstream viewers and they got a completely different tone than they were expecting. Regardless of opinions about the movies themselves, I think the big question around KOTM is whether or not enough time has passed for people to be excited about another Godzilla movie or if that feeling of being mislead still lingers. I don't think we'll know the answer to that until opening weekend.