Mango

Jim Halpert- savior of cinema

People really will ruin anything if they get the chance (Never seen the Paddington movies but thought it was charming how they were both so high up in the aggregator rankings)

Finger's crossed for Jim Halpert to save movie theaters

If this gets anywhere close to $70M 4-day then we're back in business theater-wise and any upcoming day-and-date streaming or streaming only is a deliberate decision. Not sure if I can see it happening, but here's hoping.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as I can tell. While every other big studio was scrambling to make their own streaming service, Sony did the smart thing and stood back and waited to be the ones to provide content. Now they have a crazy huge deal with Netflix and Disney to provide content that these streaming services need. On top of that they are in no rush to pull their films from theaters early like a lot of other studios, possibly providing longer and more fruitful runs for them in the future. If you ask me, they came out of this extremely well. I agree Paramount really should have done the same thing.

I agree it isn't the "be all end all" but it is extremely important. It's the first tentpole release since Tenet that isn't going straight to a streaming service on day one. If this movie overperforms, then it is more likely that studios start pushing their movies theatrically a lot harder over the summer. If it underwhelms, then a lot probably won't change, but I'd imagine more studios will double down on their day/date streaming release plans.

Please, please, please, breakout Quiet Place. I don't want the Disney Plus future, I really don't.

Fingers crossed for A Quiet Place to break out this weekend but I can't get optimistic about box office or this industry in general anymore

ugh Amazon can't resist grabbing whatever they can with those grubby hands

I still don't get this casting at all. I like both actors just fine but they seem very miscast for this. Marky Mark especially, my main problem with Holland is he isn't old enough yet since I assume Drake was in his early 30s? I mean he's mid 20s but he's has a very youthful appearance. It's a weird scenario where it's two actors I quite like in roles I absolutely do not want them to be in. I guess they're going for a prequel of sorts? But whatever, hoping this ends up being some fun, much needed escapism.

Would have been a better apology if he just copied this:

I hardly ever use RT anymore. I don't dislike the idea of a review/score aggregator itself but people stick to that percentage like it's the word of god. When I do use it I generally narrow it down via "top critics", primarily because I've seen that some movies have 400+ reviews on there that they pulled from all sorts of places and I'm very questioning of the credibility. People seem to think the percentage is more important than the tastes of the critic (and how they line up with yours) and more important than the actual review itself.

That's a great point. "Universal acclaim" is also kind of a slippery slope. The actual meaning of it seems to change depending on who you talk to or what you're reading. Rotten Tomatoes is the absolute worst for that kind of stuff. A lot of people see a movie that has 94% and thinks "holy shit that must be an amazing movie" when in actuality it just means 94% of RT's "critics" gave it a 6.5/10.

Because Disney (and anything under their roof) is prone to executive meddling to ensure that everything fits their blockbuster formula so it can get off of their blockbuster assembly line and make a lot of money in China, or I guess nowadays go on their streaming service to garner subs. They don't actually care about doing something creative and fun. Of course all studios meddle in various degrees depending on the project but Disney seems to be the company where everything screams "this feels corporate" I'm not the only one to feel that way, there might be some bias against the studio I've conjured up at play but it is what it is. Hoping Indy 5 is fun, regardless. As far as the Star Wars fanboys and Kennedy I think some (emphasis on some) have a point with the lack of organization surrounding the sequel trilogy and spin-off films but I agree specifically pinning everything on her is fairly dumb, though I doubt she's entirely free from whatever blame when it comes to SW. Truth be told I doubt a Star Wars movie will ever be universally considered "good" ever again just because it has a massive and extremely divisive fanbase as it is.

Damn go Waititi holy shit

Mangold gave me hope for this, please don't tell me Disney/Lucasfilm is going to make it total bullshit

True. Post-theatrical negotiations were in place for a lot of these releases long before Covid ever hit, so it definitely does make sense from that standpoint to just get stuff out in whatever way you can.

I can't help but feel this is kind of premature. The situation for theaters has looked a lot better the past couple of months and things have been steadily getting back to something resembling normalcy. The Rock and Blunt probably could have led this to be pretty successful assuming the quality is decent. I just wonder how Disney's day and date streaming is going to effect the box office for their films. WB's releases have put up solid number despite the hybrid release, but a lot less people own HBO Max than Disney Plus. Raya has been holding up well but didn't touch Godzilla vs Kong.

Is this the Despecialized Edition of Star Wars by any chance?

Demon Slayer's opening is huge. The film was released in both a dubbed English format and subbed; I'm not sure what the breakdown was but most showtimes I've pulled up seem to be for the subbed version. Outside of Pokemon I'm pretty confident is this the highest opening for an anime film even adjusted. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie in 2004, at the peak of the series' popularity, didn't even make that much as a lifetime gross. Comparing this to Pokemon: The First Movie isn't even an apt comparison because that was a multimedia cultural phenomenon experiencing huge surges of interest and curiosity. Also, R-rating. The two films combined opened to $40 million, and Mortal Kombat is a lot more mainstream than Demon Slayer but still not exactly a top tier earner. If Disney hadn't continued to fuck exhibitors in the ass caved, Black Widow probably would have done at least $50 million opening.

Technically Last Crusade and Crystal Skull came out before their respective competing Batman movies, but I like your thinking. Raiders of the Lost Ark came out a week before Superman II, as well.

I'm not entirely sure how the performance in one location (where the series is most popular, no doubt) is a good indication of other international markets, and certainly not domestic, seeing how big the covid variable differs from location to location. Seems like ass backwards logic but this is Hollywood we're talking about so...

When the actor asked Jon Watts, the director of “No Way Home,” how the movie would bring Doc Ock back — since, as he pointed out, “I died” — Molina said the director told him, “In this universe, no one really dies.” Don't get me wrong, I praise Spider-Man 2 and Molina's Doc Ock every chance I get (still the best movie preceded by the "Marvel" logo), so even seeing the return of that character is great imo. Watts might have just been being cheeky with the line about nobody dying, but man if that is really a direction the MCU wants to take with multiverse and mass character resurrections the general audiences are about to get a major taste of why comic books were fucking impossible to get into/follow in the 90s.

I figured that had more to do with the internal controversy of not knowing whether or not it would go to HBO Max or Netflix or SegaNet or whatever streaming service wanted it but I guess after last year Hollywood probably learned not to make long term marketing commitments in these times.

Any ideas when the trailer should be dropping? I feel like we should have had at least a teaser or something by now. I'm really interested to see where this thing goes. The Wachowskis are often mocked these days online thanks to numerous misfires but you definitely can't say they aren't some of the most interesting and creative people working in the industry right now, which we desperately need more of. Though I do understand only Lana is returning on this one? Either way, I'm hyped- albeit, cautiously. Stuff like Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending, and Sense 8 had some of the most inventive and imaginative ideas behind them. They all might not have worked out (one of those failing spectacularly) but The Matrix is still one of the best and one of my favorite movies ever. Really hope there is enough magic left for one more go around.