Cmasterclay

Those numbers were huge, but everyone knew Star Wars was going to be massive, and it was. It's amazing, but not completely unbelievable. JW and AS were both astounding, absolutely, BUT, not to give myself too much credit, I had two of the highest predictions for that movie, and knew they were gonna breakout. IO did amazing, yes, but it did about 25 percent more than a normal Pixar movie. A universally beloved movie with great marketing doing those numbers aren't THAT stunning. I predicted Daddy's Home to do 15/45 it's entire run. It's gonna do that THIS WEEKEND. It's going to do what I thought it would do for the entire run in three days. So yes, relative to my personal expectation, Daddy's Home exceeded it by the greatest percentage. it's going to triple or quadruple what I thought it would do. So yes, that is astonishing to me. Not that it's as awesome as Star Wars or anything, c'mon.

Huh, I sorta felt the complete opposite of Bacon and Shorts, here. I loved this movie's first half- an absolute masterclass in building tension and suspense through staging, dialogue, and character work. Some of Tarantino's best work- a thrilling piece of cinema masterwork, with some of his best dialogue. Really fascinating exploration of twisted humanity. Funny as hell, and dark as hell. And once the action finally explodes, it seems like a right ole payoff, with some nice QT explosions of violence- but then it isn't. It turns into Resevoir Hostel. Obviously, I don't mind Tarantino's form of gratuitous violence- IB and Django are two of my favorite films of the millenium so far. But this last half hour is Tarantino at his worst tendencies- violence unfounded in any sort of emotional or coherent backing. In Django and IB, every exploded head and massive firefight made sense on an emotional level- as cathartic releases of developed emotional beats and character decisions. This felt like QT wanted to see how many heads and legs he could blow off, and it didn't have any regard for the story. It's a climax in terms of violence, but it doesn't FEEL like it builds anywhere, and it isn't any sort of climax in the tone/emotional sense at all- and that sucks, because the two and a half hours spent building to it rocked. A step down from Django and IB, but there's a ton to like here. Excellent cast, with Goggins and Leigh as highlights. Beautifully shot. Dialogue is scorching hot. And the score......best of the year, hands down.

That number for Daddy's Home is probably the most astonished I've been by a box office number in years. That's fucking astounding. It might do 50 million, depending on whether it performs more like a family film. Insanity. Also, that's a good number for Point Break, honestly. 12 million is fine considering the massive amounts of competition, especially directly from Star Wars. It'll probably be able to leg to 30+ cuz of the holidays. Honestly, had this released on a random weekend in March, do we honestly think it would have done any better than 12/30? So the idea being bandied that releasing it in the holidays instead of dumping it on some empty February weekend hurt the movie doesn't track with me? Also, H8ful was paccckkked yesterday when I saw it. It's gonna keep doing gangbusters- crowd ate it up.

Question unrelated to Star Wars (gasp): 2.3 million for Big Short yesterday in 1,500 theaters on a Wednesday is a pretty ok number, right? I'm not really sure how that should be interpreted, TBH.

Doesn't seem too irregular. I'd have to check for specific examples pero IIRC there's quite a few kids movies that have had similar Christmas increases. Makes sense, alll things considered, unless this franchise has suddenly become frontloaded (I know Ethan was there at midnight).

28....not bad at all. A very solid Xmas Eve drop that still allows it room to blow up tomorrow. Fun times.

I'm pretty sure it was the 23rd. The Fassdick was just so long it extended into the whole next week.

It's a weekday numbers thread in December. Someone post Michael Fassbender's dick and let's call it a night.

What if Rth IS Dean, though? Both are mysterious figures spoken about in awed whispers with connections at the very top of the movie business and lots of secret inside information. Maybe Kal and Rth/Dean are playing the long game on us.

Snoke definitely said that Kylo is the MASTER of the Knights of Ren.

Rich, you may be a piece of shit, but you're OUR favorite piece of shit. Seriously, though, I think the past week has seen a serious influx of power-level obsessed Redditors.

The whole point of Luke nailing that shot in the Death Star was that he LET GO of his conscious training and style and let the Force guide him. In the fight with Ren, Rey is getting her ass whooped by a half-dead dude until she takes a moment to close her eyes and let the Force guide her. Yes, it's not something you can use without training, but when you use the Force in combination with a skill you already had (she's clearly already a solid fighter), then you succeed. That's, again, kinda the point here. Also, those Vader and Dooku examples don't work. Darth Vader was a Sith Master who was uninjured (well, you know, for him...) and had been preparing for this battle, facing an emotionally unprepared Luke who had rushed to Cloud City irrationally. Count Dooku was a former Jedi Master and a skilled Sith Lord who destroys Obi Wan twice and holds his own with Yoda- and again, he's unijured and mentally prepared. Kylo Ren is an unstable, emotional headcase bordering on psychotic who had just killed his Dad, then proceeded to get shot with Chewie's super crossbow in the chest, and then stabbed with a fucking lightsaber- and even then, he still almost wins, despite not trying to kill her. So not exactly the best example. Not that it should matter- comparing power levels and battle health meters is pointless, because it's not a video game, it's a movie, and that plot point made thematic and cinematic magic. So who cares?

My goodness, the "Rey couldn't have beat Kylo Ren" stuff is probably the most annoying post TFA storyline, unless somehow the "Han died offscreen" camp gains momentum. It's established early on in the movie when she beats up the gang members that she is skilled in hand-to-hand combat. These same people probably would have watched ANH and said "How could this untrained pilot possibly take down this super station without using his computer?!?! It doesn't make sense!!!!!!!" Luke was established as being a crack shot and decent pilot early on in the movie, and he's able to use the Force to transcend these skills and nail the shot. In this one, Rey is shown to be a street-tough survivor who knows how to fight, and she lets the Force in and wins. They're both able to win because she embraces the Force and uses it to guide them. They even spell it out for you when Obi says "Use the Force" and Rey stops and closes her eyes and says "The Force..." THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF THIS FUCKING FRANCHISE. The entire saga is based around ordinary individuals using the Force to do amazing things. And even then, she barely beats a critically injured guy who just killed his dad and is actively trying to recruit her. This is some mentality straight off the IMDB boards or something.

Absolutely insane and unbelievable. This weekend is like someone got drunk and went crazy doing the numbers for CAYOM. So awesome. I'm happy for Star Wars. And I'm glad it gets to hold the record, if only for a weekend. Unfortunately, the only thing that is stronger then the power of the Force is the power of........ DA TROOF

Look, when it comes down to sports, and box office in general, it's about isolating variables. The fight and the Derby were CLEARLY the only factors impact AOU's Saturday, and the Sunday hold confirmed that. This weekend, you cannot POSSIBLY isolate sports as the only intercedent variable having a statistical impact. There's so many other variables- shopping, travel, parties, church, and even baking fucking cookies- that can have an impact. It's just faulty statistical thinking to put all of the significance on ONE variable when there's so many in play. Sure, maybe sports DOES have a big impact, but there's no way to prove it on this weekend like with AOU or the Finals in June, so to call anyone who disagrees an idiot makes you look less like some noble crusader and more like a dick.

I feel kind of left out because everyone else has Star Wars avatars right now, but I felt that TELLDY TRUF needed its moment in the sun.

I've been one of the biggest advocates for the effect huge sporting events can have on Box Office. I was one of the first and the loudest to say the fight was gonna damage AOU big time. AND I've said that I think Star Wars, sadly, is going to have a pretty precarious drop over the weekend. But even I think the two things are completely unrelated. I can't see Star Wars again this weekend because I have two Xmas parties and I have to do all my shopping. Even if I could, no friends would be able to go, because they're either all going to church or travelling. It's the biggest shopping weekend of the year. The biggest church weekend of the year. The biggest family-style party weekend of the year. The biggest travelling weekend of the year. It is by no means the biggest sports weekend of the year, or even close. Hell, with everything else going on, I expect the NFL's impact to be much, much LOWER than usual in damaging movies this weekend. So I gotta agree with jandrew. To say "THE NFL!!" is the big reason movies drop this weekend, and ignore that it's literally the busiest weekend of the year in four or five other regards, is faulty logic.

Oh yea, I know! But all jokes aside, Von Sydow has STILL looked like he was in his 80s for decades now.

True story, T.J. Miller called my apartment the other day, and I picked up the phone for my roommate while he was in the shower. Long story short, my roommate is in the same improv comedy group that TJ used to run at GW, and he's coming back to do a show for us. Good times. From all my roommate's interactions with him, I can tell you that he is a strange, strange man.

Did anyone else notice that Max von Sydow looked younger in this movie than he did in the Exorcist, which came out 42 fucking years ago? The dude is like @Obi-Wan Telemachos- he's both ancient AND ageless at the same time.

I've gotten the 5th Wave trailer at almost every movie I've seen in the past two months. It's the new I, Frankenstein in terms of that. God, I'm sick of it.

Yep, because Star Wars, a movie about a rag tag group of diverse, peace loving hippies fighting against an evil corporate empire, is sooooo conservative.

Also, the Stormtrooper that Rey does the Jedi mindtrick on is totally Daniel Craig.

I thought it was terrific. Not too much of a stretch as a comparison, but since nobody has made it, I'll make it- this reminded me alot of Creed. It's great in a very similar way for very similar reasons. It's part reboot, part remake, part sequel, but it takes the structure and strength of the original and fills it in with excellent characters, inventive setpieces, and strong emotional beats. It's not a perfect movie- it feels far too breathless at times, and I would have liked a few minutes to flesh these characters out. Also, as terrific an actress Nyongo is, I thought her character and the entire scene in the bar felt hokey, rushed, and silly. But JJ knows what makes this franchise great, and he takes this universe as his sandbox to fill with inventive, propulsive fun and emotional moments. It's spectacularly shot and has real weight to it in terms of design. But where this movie really succeeds is the new cast and the new characters. Sure, they can be fleshed out a bit more, but rewatching ANH this week, they didn't REALLY go to extreme lengths to flesh those characters out, either. They gave them archetypes and let the charisma and chemistry of the cast make you love them- which is what this movie does. Boyega is so immensely likable. Ridley is a star in the making. Issac is magnetic as usual. Even Gleeson, who I've been critical of for his wooden performances in Ex Machina and Brooklyn, really steps up. He goes in the opposite direction of those stiff performances and just hams it the fuck up. But the highlight of the movie is Driver, who really does a fantastic, subtle job of alternating between psychotic, evil, vulnerable, and pathetic. I felt for the guy, and I hated him, and I thought he was badass, and I thought he was a punk. It's an exceptional multidimensional performance and the dude came through. Most importantly, the establishment of this new world, and the terrific, terrific cast and characters, makes me excited as FUCK for Episode 8.

Sorry Rallax, no idea why I can't make this accidental quote go away.