Cmasterclay

Oh I definitely agree with this, and find both Cloverfield and Minus One to be masterpieces next to Godzilla 2014. I was even quite disappointed in Rogue One when it dropped despite admiring much about it compared to the typical Disney visual formula. I agree about the inertness, but I also thought the same about the first of the Dune movies. I think that Godzilla 14 just had such admirable visual and directorial stylings at a time when things felt particularly low in that regard - near the horrendous Jurassic World and Meg type movies. At least Edwards seemed to be TRYING not to make a TV movie.

I def felt a surprising buzz after the trailer, I just didn't see the hook for this one compared to any of the others. I really felt they blew their wad on Godzilla v Kong being a day and date release and this would revert closer to KOTM levels. Still turns out Godzilla and Kong did blow their wad together, though.

Because it'd be cool and plenty of the biggest children animated hits are musicals. But I guess that isn't the market for this.

"We're Sauron, flyin, there's not a star in Mordor that we can't reach...."

Is the Lord of the Rings animated one musical or nah?

Godzilla 2014 was awesome and so many modern blockbusters, not just kaiju movies, could take notes from how it does things like "scale" and "building tension." Yeah the human characters sucked but at least they shot it from the human scale. I get that these silly Godzilla vs a bunch of other monsters are part of the Showa legacy but those movies were cheesy and fun in a way I just don't find these. I'm a vocal hater of the last two of these though so don't let me rain on parade.

Good Friday.

Godzilla X Kong memed itself to a breakout. The ultimate box office power these days.

I hope this is his new movie after Gladiator.

64m OW would be pretty great for a declining franchise that blew its last big hook on a day and date release.

Ding ding ding! Should be a pinned post.

I respect your opinion and know you probably have more insight than I do. From my experiences dealing with younger family members and people I help organize (even in Democratic organizing), the amount of podcast and Twitter injected reactionary stuff and misinformation is wild. Lots of young people I know in particular have very extreme takes on masculinity, sexuality, stuff like that. I think I was too simple putting it into left or right. It's more populist and conspiracy leaning. It's just very different from a millenial like me being standard Obama liberals like most 30 somethings. Just my experience! I am very worried. Also, Trump leads 18-29 in almost every single poll, and Biden leads 30-44. That could always change, of course, but it's the first generation in awhile to see those kind of numbers. Anyway, we should probably move any politics off this thread. It's more about the changing consumption habits of films for me.

They don't. The model of films becoming beloved pop culture things on video like Shawshank or Austin Powers are dead. I'm not proposing a solution here.

Mining IP has been a thing in movies since the beginning of time, so I'm just pro mining IP from different places besides comic books and video games and nostalgia sequels. I've never seen the Divergent movies of course.

Watching film at home as an adult in 2024 sucks. That's a huge part of this. Obviously I didn't come to love the original Star Wars trilogy or Terminator 2 or Silence of the Lambs or Se7en because I saw them in theaters. But I did watch them transfixed in front of a TV, likely on the same channel as half my friends or at least available at Blockbuster, and it would build this cultural reverence. That's how we got cult classics and big growth from Shawshank or Rounders. Today's media environment is too siloed to produce cult classics or home video hits like that. Heck, even for me, if I watch Love Lies Bleeding when it drops on VOD, I'll probably spend a solid third of the time checking work emails, texting, or googling NBA scores. The streaming market in today's world is just not equipped to turn these films into hits outside maybe one or two a year. I just don't know how to get out of the doom loop for the industry. I think @von Kenni has some great points and real perspective. Number one is certainly the biggest problem, the others I do think can adjust. Though I certainly think the false perception of "DEI" among the people who wouldn't see something like Lucy because they think it's "pushing things down our throats" is having a much larger impact on box office than any actual, tangible political correctness in films themselves. Read the responses on Twitter whenever a video game trailer features ANY woman or person of color at all. It's thousands of responses and downvotes bashing the film. Eventually, that kind of coordinate response can't be written off as just "twitter shit" - that is really going to impact consumer habits. I'm really, really worried about the sexless, Andrew Tate and Twitter addled younger generation. I am not remotely convinced they are more liberal at all compared to folks my age. I think that's a bullshit truism that people are falling for.

That's a good point. Thing is, it was considered mostly a bomb then with that gross - and yet we just acted like Holdovers and American Fiction were massive successes when they did 2m less and disappeared into a streaming hole where pop culture permeance goes to die. It's just a different, shittier environment, like you said.

What's funny is that they used to pull IP from a ton of things - books especially. The Godfather and Jaws were books. Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent.....big books! They just kind of stopped pulling IP from everything except comic books for awhile, and now they finally seem to be rounding back. I'm pro-Divergent type movies.

Oh, theaters aren't going anywhere. Just the movies I like!

I hear you. I was starting to feel quite optimistic in December, actually, as everything from platform on up was overperforming. But so far in 2024, the air is way out of the balloon. We are going to be about a billion under 2023 by September, and while I do think fall looks much better, it's an open question of whether this kind of gradual growth and improvement is going to continue. I am not buying this summer slate at all. It's clear that adult movies need both an empty market and a holiday corridor like in 2023 to really break out like they did in December, and that environment is going to be tough to replicate. Reason why I'm being so pessimistic - the other day, I was talking with a bunch of coworkers about going to the movies. These are educated, professional adults in the government sector, lean white but not exclusively. They were literally laughing at the idea of seeing a movie in theaters. They treated it like I had just told them I have a horse-drawn carriage or a blacksmithing business. I tried the same convo at the more diverse crowd at poker the other night, and got the same reaction. Incredulous laughter. They did all see Oppenheimer, fwiw. This is anecdotal evidence, but the data we are getting seems to back it up - adults over 35, especially middle-class and up, are the ones that haven't come back to the movies. Theaters won't die, and young people going is actually a good sign in many ways, but yeah, problematic as it may sound, it isn't great that the audience demographic that drove business for the films I actually like and support is the one departing the movie going public. Speaking of poker, naturally, we talk about the movie Rounders alot. Not an Oscar winner, not a brilliant film requiring a Master's degree to like, but a fun adult movie for older people that permeated the popular culture. Today, that movie probably doesn't get made, and if it does it gets lost on streaming with no impact. On the off chance it does get a theatrical release, it'd do 10m and disappear to VOD after two weeks with no lasting cultural impact. Those are the films I'm worried about. Not the Killers of the Flower Moon types. The Rounders type is what I'm worried about. Normal movies for adults that entertain for a couple hours without a bunch of CGI bullshit, make a solid bit of money, and become a cult classic.

It's because of all the people saying things like Arthur The King and Immaculate would not have made money ever. Maybe. But we hear that line with every single movie of this size that struggles. And so I wanted to point out - these movies used to make money, all the time.

I'm sorry for being so emotional about it too, it just sucks when you're used to one thing and another happens. You're a good poster and I like your contributions, but I just have the mentality that we need to grapple with reality here. I don't view it as wallowing, is the thing.

Just for fun I took a smattering of movies from 2014, which btw at the time was considered a weak year at the box office. Neighbors did 150m. Lucy did 126m. Noah did 101m. Non-Stop did 92m. The Imitation Game did 91m. Fury did 85m. The Other Woman did 83m. The Grand Budapest Hotel did 59m. No Good Deed did 52m. Look at those totals. Come on folks. You guys know none of those movies would have done even 25m domestic today except maybe Neighbors, which would have gone straight to Apple like Rogen's recent films, and maybe Budapest because Wes Power. And when they flopped, you know what people would have posted - "oh, of course a movie with those reviews/length/concept/stars flopped, they always would have!" But the fact is, they didn't always. Not remotely. And people who have been on these boards awhile just know that to be true. Which is why I think the Clays and CJohns and others of the world are more negative.

You love doing this schtick where you insult anyone who doesn't agree with your optimism on movies. Looking at it from my perspective, 2024 box office is well below 2023 and growing, consumer habits are changing, and the kind of movies I like still struggle mightily to make money. I've had four years of these movies flopping and people saying "well because the length and subject matter it would have flopped anyway!" That's what I resent. I've posted here since 2008. I have a memory of box office before COVID. If you don't, go look at the box office from like 2009 or 2011 or 2014. Mid-sized movies did SIGNIFICANTLY better than today. Significantly. Did all of them breakout? Of course not. But it wasn't like every single weekend there would have to be excuses for why the latest one failed. It's gaslighting to pretend that anyone who points out this objective fact is some crazy negative depressed person.

These are all interesting movies that should be making money. In 2014 instead of 2024, at least three of them would have gone about 50m domestic. Unfortunately interesting movies and making money are pretty much mutually exclusive outside of Dune and Barbieheimmer so.

Because nobody sees films like this in theaters anymore. Nowadays, if you don't open during the holidays or make yourself an event like Dune, you drop 60% minimum. Will happen to every well reviewed April release too btw.