LonePirate

A quick update on tickets sold for shows starting in the next few minutes at one of my local theaters: BP: 7 ICOI: 16 Paul: 19 SG: 11

It is well over 2 hours before the first showings at one of the local theaters I have been watching this week. Here is how things sit right now with tickets sold for the first show. BP: 9 ICOI: 11 Paul: 33 PR: 19 SG: 26 TR: 10

Here is a terrific article written by Anna Silman for New York Magazine’s The Cut website. In it, she talks to 10 LGB teens in the US and Canada about their lives and how Love, Simon has impacted them. Needless to say, every single one of them raved about the film and its positive effects on their lives. Some have even seen the movie multiple times. The film’s tremendous significance to the lives of so many of its viewers cannot be recognized often enough. Few films are able to achieve that sort of cultural breakthrough. LS is doing so effortlessly. https://www.thecut.com/2018/03/10-teens-on-love-simon-and-what-its-like-coming-out-in-2018.html

A week ago was anybody predicting ICOI would surpass TR in the dailies on day 6? I didn’t think so. I do not know a single person who has seen it but there is a segment of the population determined to see the movie as if tomorrow was the beginning of the end of days.

I think it is foolish to make any long term prognostications based mostly on yesterday’s numbers which will abnormally negative for almost all films.

I wonder how much the blizzard in the northeast impacted business yesterday. Pretty much all of DC to Boston was walloped.

I just finished reading a couple of opinion pieces about LS. The first was from notorious contrarian Armond White. He's now writing for that backwards right wing site National Review and his thoughts are about as horrendous as you could imagine. White is solely cashing a paycheck or else he is oblivious to the fact that readers of NR would prefer to see a gay, black man such as himself burned at the stake before listening to him. So he attacks the film and the Hollywood progressives behind it in order to make the readership of that site pay attention to him. He even attacks Moonlight a couple of times in his article. I won't be linking to that trash site but you can look it up if you wish. The second piece was found on a site called Highsnobiety by David Opie. He ends his piece by referring to LS with these words: "the most important movie that you'll watch this year." His article is about the significance of the film which you can read it here: https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/love-simon-movie-important/

Simon definitely needs to pull a lucky rabbit buried somewhere in that hoodie of his this weekend or else the film runs the risk of being deemed a failure. The rom com genre was comatose before its release and it may not awaken from its slumber anytime soon if Simon doesn't start growing some legs. Not only that but films with LGBTQ+ lead characters will be relegated to the arthouse circuit if LS cannot turn it around (especially if Deadpool remains heterosexualized). The only saving grace I can think of right now (apart from LS likely obtaining cult status) is that every actor in the film, the writers and the director will all be able to use this film beneficially on their resumes. LS will only help each and every one of their careers given the quality of the work they turned in and the respect the film has earned from its fans (and probably from those in the industry as well). Several of the young actors are likely to move on to big careers with Robinson possibly becoming another Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise. The writers will be asked to adapt or create more scripts. Berlanti will be directing/producing more feature films. They certainly deserve it. The movie business is a strange one at times.

There is no doubt that Love, Simon is underperforming given the outstanding A+ Cinemascore, its Rotten Tomatoes score in the low 90s and exceptional WOM from those who have seen it. Unfortunately, the reason for its underperformance is pretty clear. Anybody who enjoys a good rom com (I am guilty as charged here!) or a high school/young adult movie should go see LS. Were it not for one F bomb and a couple of other profanities, this film could easily be mistaken for a PG film from Disney. It is sweet, fun, emotional, wholesome and life-affirming. The performances and writing are solid plus anyone who has ever experienced a first love can relate to it. LS should have been a $100M hit. It will be lucky to earn 1/3 of that domestically. SAD!!!

The ICOI train keeps on rolling ahead in my area. At one theater, there is a show that does not start for about another hour and it has already sold 40 tickets. At another AMC a few miles away, there is a showing that starts in 15 minutes in one of their smaller Dine-In theaters and all 32 seats have been sold. At that same theater, there is a showing that starts in an hour and it has sold 56 tickets. There is nothing else coming anywhere close to selling this number of tickets in my area today.

Both BP and ICOI had showings start 20 minutes ago at one of the local theaters I frequent. BP sold 15 tickets. ICOI sold 40. BP has staggered times on two total screens whereas ICOI is playing on only one. Several other theaters in the metro are playing ICOI so it’s not like they are limited to this one cineplex. I am wondering if ICOI’s patrons think the film is only playing for a week so they are rushing out to see it this week. I am at a loss to explain why it is performing so well apart from it being a massive crowd pleaser for its core fans.

One of the theaters near me has showings for BP, TR and ICOI all starting in about 30 minutes. Here are the tickets sold so far: BP - 11 TR - 7 ICOI - 31 I have no idea who these people are who are seeing ICOI en masse in this area.

I wondering how long it would be before ICOI passed TR in the dailies. I was thinking it would happen Thursday or Friday. Looks like it might happen with Tuesday’s numbers.

I don't know if I wasn't paying attention but when I saw the first teaser or trailer for this film, I thought it was a stalker type of horror film. This current (second?) trailer clearly suggests this is a much more interesting sci fi horror film along the lines of Alien or Pitch Black. That PG-13 rating has diminished my hopes, though, as it seems like it is more like Signs than either of those two superior films.

This fan gets it. Clothes are important to storytelling!

If Simon could somehow break out from its core audience, the film would actually increase this weekend. The core audience is eating it up like no other film since probably Titanic. There weren't this many tears shed over The Notebook or Brokeback Mountain and those two films certainly brought the waterworks. People are seeing this multiple times just like they did with Titanic and similar emotional ties are being formed with LS. If straight women in their 20s and 30s could turn the film into a date night with their boyfriends and husbands, the film would take off. All the ingredients are there if people would be willing to give the film a chance.

It was only a matter of time before LS spawned a BuzzFeed quiz. That time has arrived. Which "Love, Simon" Actor Is Your Soulmate? https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/which-love-simon-actor-soulmate-quiz?utm_term=.hpdp1nNDx#.ydpR2r6GO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/halrubenstein/2018/03/20/why-you-should-go-see-love-simon/#ccdeb9889274 Forbes has published a nice commentary on the significance of the film via one man's perspective. There are some very minor spoilers in the article related to the movie's ending but they will not ruin the movie if you read the article. One key takeaway from the piece is more anecdotal evidence of the rapturous response of audiences to the film in diverse locations throughout the US.

It it has been selling as well if not better than pretty much everything else in my area despite playing on fewer screens. In the one 20 plex I have been watching, it plays five times a day in a single 64 seat theater. It has already sold 37 of those seats for the 7:30 pm show. It has a 10:00 showing that probably won’t sell 6 tickets if yesterday is any gauge. It is playing on two screens at another theater a few miles away from that one. It has a 7:30 show in a ~350 seater and it has sold 22 tickets for that show. The churchgoers in my area are turning out for the film like it is a revival.

Do all the drops for Monday seem like they are a few points higher than expected given the past few Mondays? Yesterday was a brutal than usual Monday.

Given the strong reviews and Cinemascore, that hold should have been better. Maybe it is skewing younger than what was reported this weekend. As such I have no idea how this will perform in the coming days. It could continue with this mild underperformance or it could take off/stabilize or it could flatline. None of those possibilities would surprise me.

BP and ICOI both had shows start a few minutes ago at one of my local suburban theaters. ICOI won this admissions battle 42 - 21. Granted, BP is on two screens whereas ICOI only has one.

That Monday drop for AWIT is atrocious, especially for Spring Break week.

It underperformed to such a massive degree that it could be considered to a bomb. If a movie only featuring Wonder Woman can clear $410M just a few months before JL and JL adds Superman and Batman (plus others) to the mix and it barely grosses half of WW, then it sure looks like a bomb.

A sub- $1M Monday suggests the film is playing like a kids film as those are usually the only films to drop more than 65% on their first Monday. Do other YA films follow this same pattern? There is undoubtedly a very passionate audience for the film. However that audience may be limited in size.