BoxOfficeFangrl

So, Poor Things is going to be this award season's Licorice Pizza? Hooray... /s

Lol, so Grace Randolph has just seen this and tweeted out the premise to her followers (plus everyone else). It's going exactly as well as you'd expect. She also hated Oppenheimer and I don't think its awards chances will be hurt any by Beyond the Trailer's disapproval. Though I agree that Searchlight must have caught the MPA on a good day for Poor Things to get an R rating.

I also saw it tonight. Not a huge crowd (it's a pretty dead theater outside of weekends) but there were lots of laughs throughout and (as far as I could tell) no walkouts. I cackled at the shot at American Fiction won TIFF when The Holdovers was right there, so maybe it can survive Twitter drama. Though maybe the drama will be less right wingers angry about "woke Hollywood" than people who like "hood stories" and feel attacked by this movie.

The little birdies at Reddit are saying this might be the Regal Monday Mystery Movie/AMC Screen Unseen tonight (7 PM local time at participating theaters). These are strong guesses from sources who've previously been in the know with these things, but nothing absolutely 100 percent confirmed. Do with the info what you will...

Oh, I heard Saltburn wasn't as "gay" as people had hoped, as part of the mixed reviews. I've seen it likened to The Talented Mr. Ripley but 25 years later maybe people want something more to happen between the leads. Also, I think Saltburn, Bottoms and Bros were courting edginess and provocation in a way that Brokeback Mountain wasn't, really, though I guess in 2005, having love scenes between the male leads of a Western was pretty edgy stuff. But Brokeback was more of a romantic drama and not caustic or satirical in tone, and each thing can pull in a different audience. With Call Me By Your Name, IIRC there were complaints from fans about its rollout being too slow or not timed in a way to maximize the box office. It made $18m domestic but there was a feeling then of money being left on the table.

Well, egg on my face, the poster in the RegalUnlimited subreddit who's correctly spoiled the other Monday Mystery Movies says tonight's movie is American Fiction. Though there seems to be a little more caginess than usual with the confirmation, so it may actually end up being some terrible horror movie after all. Just passing along the info...

I don't think "The Hanging Tree" was eligible for Best Original Song because the lyrics were preexisting from the books and therefore not specifically written for the movie. The original songs got pushed for awards but only hit precursors like the Golden Globes. I thought it was odd how the original series couldn't even make the crafts categories when other youth fantasy/sci-fi movies like Potter/Narnia/Lemony Snicket could. Maybe the Hunger Games prequel will have better luck with Oscar, like how the first Fantastic Beasts movie finally won an Oscar while the main Potter series never did.

BOM has two lists for each year, Calendar Grosses and In-Year Releases, there's a pull down to toggle between the two. Sometimes there's a slight lag with updates for the In-Year Release list but BOM's 2023 list already has Eras in the Top 10. Dancing with the Stars did their Taylor Swift episode last night. The ahow's audience is not the youngest overall and maybe a few might end up checking out the Eras movie. Also a fan discovered that one of the contestants follows Scooter Braun on Instagram and sent out the bat signal for the Swifties to vote en masse for his competition LMAO.

Dim, dull and lifeless: wasn't a fan. I get what Coppola was going for with the lighting and the exaggerated height difference and Priscilla's meekness, but it just fell flat for me. I hadn't even seen the other adaptation of Elvis and Me yet (a 1980s TV miniseries) but felt underwhelmed leaving the theater. The low verified audience scores are completely unsurprising. And now that I have watched the same story told another way, I'm even less impressed with this movie. Congrats to Cailee Spaeny on the Volpi Cup, but IMO Sofia could've given her so much more to do.

And according to Fandango, Saltburn is playing at 3 theaters in New York, 1 in Austin, and "3" AMCs in the LA area: The Grove, Century City, and "Burbank" (the Burbank 16 and the Burbank Town Center 6). So actually 8 different locations but the per theater average for 7. I wonder if all the AMCs in Burbank count as one theater for wide releases, too. Jacob Elordi, indie box office king? I wasn't impressed with Priscilla (saw the 1980s miniseries adaptation of the memoir on YouTube, it's the same story but lets her have a personality, plus it has Elvis music) but I liked his performance. The Fantastic Beasts book was like an bonus thing JKR released between Harry Potter books, a mini guide of wizarding creatures that came complete with student doodles on the side. Another one was called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neither was really a narrative novel; the movie had to invent a story. Newt Scamander existed as a character in the universe technically but not as someone fans would have been attached to.

2003 Top 10 (domestic) 1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (fantasy epic franchise, based on a book) 2. Finding Nemo (original animation) 3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (fantasy swashbuckler, based on a Disney ride) 4. The Matrix Reloaded (sci-fi action franchise) 5. Bruce Almighty (original comedy) 6. X2 (comic book franchise) 7. Elf (original Christmas comedy) 8. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (sci-fi action franchise) 9. The Matrix Revolutions (sci-fi action franchise) 10. Cheaper by the Dozen (remake) Four originals, two of which became franchises. The remake spawned a sequel. Two movies from the same franchise within the year. 1993 Top 10 (domestic) 1. Jurassic Park (sci-fi action, based on a book) 2. Mrs. Doubtfire (comedy, based on a book) 3. The Fugitive (action thriller, based on a TV show) 4. The Firm (legal thriller, based on a book) 5. Sleepless in Seattle (original romantic comedy) 6. Indecent Proposal (erotic thriller, based on a book) 7. In the Line of Fire (original action thriller) 8. The Pelican Brief (legal thriller, based on a book) 9. Schindler's List (historical drama, based on a book) 10. Cliffhanger (original action thriller) Three originals, none of which have generated a sequel so far. Not all of the movies based on books were well-known in the US as books (so seemed "original" to audiences), though Jurassic Park and the two John Grisham adaptations were very famous bestsellers. Jurassic has since become a franchise.

I suspect most.people aren't looking at the cost of a movie ticket vs the cost of Subway/DoorDash/takeout/etc and saying, "Wow going to the theater is actually a bargain!" They consider the cost of taking a family to a theater vs the cost of a $20 PVOD rental for the same title later that month, or the cost of a group of friends going to the movie theater together vs splitting $6 for a digital rental of the same movie two months later, or the cost of a couple doing a date night to see No Hard Feelings vs catching it in their Netflix subscription four months later. Unless a movie is an "event", moviegoers seem to be saying a trip to the movie theater is not worth their money or their time. People can say, "Well if you look at inflation, movie tickets aren't any more expensive than 50 years ago!" but it won't change a thing about how most of today's audience approaches moviegoing. They can see new movies at home more quickly and conveniently, even compared to the days of video stores or Redbox. "Must-see" titles will bring them back to theaters, but not much else. And studios are having a tough time figuring out what must-see even means anymore. The best thing that's happened to platform releases post-Covid is someone figuring out that for some reason "AMC Burbank" counts as one location, when it's three distinct multiplexes in Burbank with a total of 30 screens. The new platform releases now will often play at two if not all three of the AMCs in Burbank, but it all gets reported as one location when the per theater averages get published. I first noticed it with Asteroid City, but a lot of the 2023 platform releases do the L.A. part in Burbank now vs. The Grove and The Americana. I suspect it's a factor in the seeming improvement in platform releases this year vs 2021/2022, but why they are still falling flat in wider release.

Of course, you don't direct/star in a movie like Oppenheimer without awards crossing your mind here and there. Nolan was doing interviews/Q&As the whole time since the strike and now the actors can join in. I saw some Oppenheimer stans elsewhere being all, "Cillian is too pure to campaign!" and I was thinking, sure Jan. Many kinds of movies have campaigns, not just the so-called dreaded "Oscar bait". They want to go to these awards shows and win, not just spend weeks clapping politely for someone else.

That reminded me, the Borderlands movie with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart still hasn't come out yet! Original principal photography was in 2021. It's scheduled for next August now. There weren't streaming services during the Great Recession. I don’t know if moviegoing still feels like a cheap activity compared to a month's worth of Netflix, Disney+, Prime, etc. and YouTube is free. With the pandemic restrictions, I think that also made people value going out differently. If they're going to go out, they'd rather be out doing stuff where they can talk and be social the whole time and not just sitting in a dark theater. People will come to movie theaters in big numbers for "events" but there's less of just going for the sake of it. Plus they know it will be available at home soon enough, and in the meantime they can just watch a million other titles or listen to podcasts, etc.

Will Gluck "responds": This whole bit has been funnier than the teaser and trailer....

The original plan was to have it open in limited release on November 10 and expand to "wide" on November 22; then the timeline was moved up two weekends. I saw The Holdovers in October and liked it, but felt it was so early for a Christmas movie. But 95% of them die at the box office after Christmas, plus it's not like the audience for a 1970s throwback movie even comes out to movie theaters anymore. I guess the plan now is to put it on PVOD here in another week or two and hope awards buzz carries it in the countries where it comes out in January.

Instagram got blamed for ruining teen girls' self-esteem. Snapchat is being sued by multiple families for facilitating fentanyl sales to minors. TikTok videos are routinely cross-posted as YouTube shorts and IG reels. Twitch isn't just a gamer site, it's full of influential and some would say dangerous politics. Twitter too. Any social media site can be used for good or ill will. Cassie, Sean 'Diddy' Combs settle lawsuit (content warning: abuses of various natures) That was fast but just in a day, more negative Diddy stories and old tweets were being unearthed: The latter account hasn't posted since 2013. And companies just want to delete inactive accounts...

Divergent, which was successful enough for a YA franchise if not at the elite level, got ahead of itself with high budgets and a split finale move that spectacularly backfired. And everyone besides Lionsgate saw it coming... With inflation I think the first Harry Potter is up there with The Hunger Games 1 if not Catching Fire. Potter has a massive fanbase but hit a ceiling as a fantasy movie with magic and kid protagonists. They grow up but Harry Potter will forever be "the boy wizard". The Hunger Games had teen leads but played by young adults, it was sci-fi but not "everyone does spells", and the games themselves were appealing to casual fans. But general audience types can move on with time and get the Battle Royale fix from the next big thing.

That tweet is thankfully a joke (they're really committed to the bit), but someone there did seriously try to argue they were troubled by Taylor befriending Sophie Tumer because it was an older person taking advantage of someone younger at a difficult time in their lives. Even friendships can have problematic age gaps now, lmao...

Golden Globes to Air on CBS: That's the last day of the regular season, can't wait until some West Coast game with playoff implications goes into overtime, delaying the show and earning the ire of awards junkies worldwide! But seriously, talk about the Globes landing on their feet!

Big profile in Variety: Fantasia Returns: The ‘American Idol’ Winner on Turning Down Oprah, Surviving an Overdose and Acting Her Heart Out in ‘The Color Purple’

It's so strange that Sony didn't just push Anyone But You to Valentine's Day. Right now, It Ends With Us is still slated for February 9, but it was only about halfway through filming before the strikes, so it's likely to be delayed. Maybe they think this is the year the "Christmas miracle" box office effect will fully return? Even the prestige market seems to be rebounding finally, so you never know what might make a comeback...

AMC is doing another Screen Unseen on November 27, the same time as Regal's next Monday Mystery Movie. Both are rated R and about 2 hours long. Will there be one movie or two? Already seeing guesses for American Fiction (too prestigious, though Odeon showed Anatomy of a Fall as a mystery movie), Poor Things (lolol), and some horror movie called The Cello with Jeremy Irons and Tobin Bell that's a co-production with Saudi Arabia. Hmmm, which one could it be? 🤔

There just needs to be a misunderstanding that leads to a temporary breakup, their friends contriving to get them back together, and a public reconciliation (at an airport or her concert/his game), and that'll be everything!

Maybe the recent sight of Tim Scott (RIP his campaign) and girlfriend offered us everyone some perspective on a public person trying to get positive PR from a romantic pairing, lol. There will always be the cynics crying, "Fake! I read Deuxmoi and know all about CoNtracT rElaltiOnshipS!" but eh, nothing gets 100 percent approval ratings on the internet. Or maybe Taylor's smackdown about being shipped with female friends sent her worst, most parasocial "fans" retreating to their own private communities of Gaylordom. Anyway... This weekend in Taylor/Travis was straight out of every cheesy romantic comedy from the nineties/aughts and I lapped up every minute. If they're done by the Super Bowl, so what? It's fun to watch in the meantime.