BoxOfficeFangrl

Not all of the current streamers will survive, but not sure how the WGA contract could dictate whether they are ad-free or not. The ad-supported services seem to be growing and some have original programming (Tubi movies, Freevee shows, etc) but at a much lower cost than the originals from the top streamers. Look at how Suits has blown up on streaming now, when it was never this massive show in its original run (unlike Grey's Anatomy or NCIS). It's not this hugely interconnected show but agreeable, so people keep watching. There's been a market for that in TV for decades. Since streamers measure in hours/minutes watched, it's surprising they haven't really cracked the code of an original hit "case of the week" show or sitcom. Maybe because streaming originals have such short season orders and shows like that often needed a longer runway (8-10 episodes) to hit their stride in the second half of the first season. But in streaming, 6-10 episodes is the season. Fine if it's an attempt to get a Limited Series Emmy, but that shouldn't be the purpose of every narrative series they make.

Dan Murrrell interviews the head of distribution for Angel Studios, Brandon Purdie. Mostly a box office discussion:

Gran Turismo is having 9 days of sneaks/previews throughout August (including tonight), all that's besides the typical Thursday previews on the 24th before the "opening day" of the 25th. Sony could get really creative in reporting the gross if they wanted, just pad out the whole first week and not just Fri-Sun...

So Gran Turismo is gonna pull a Tenet and include the 8-9 days of early access as part of the opening weekend, resulting in a "big number" that's reported in all the headlines. Then for the "second weekend", Sony will be sure to focus on the pure Fri-Sun drop to claim it's holding really well!

This Is Me lost the Oscar but secured the bag by getting used/reworked for the Wegovy commercials. Nothing is as big as My Heart Will Go On, lol. In America at least, We Don’t Talk About Bruno went #1 on the Hot 100 for multiple weeks, while Let It Go only peaked in the Top 5 (fellow 2013 nominee "Happy" was #1 for 10 weeks). Chart formulas change over time and Hot 100 success isn't the only measure of a song's popularity, of course. Awards campaigning isn't allowed as long as the SAG strike is happening. It's a totally ideal environment for Cillian Murphy right now: he seems like a nice enough guy but isn't as great at the "celebrity" part of being a famous actor. If there's a decent interval between the strike ending and awards voting, then RDJ will have Supporting Actor in the bag IMO. Gosling's Kenergy might be a bit annoying on the campaign trail, shades of Austin Butler's Elvis voice last year.

I think all quality arguments about film are subjective. If someone thinks The Room is better than The Godfather, you're not going to argue them into changing their minds. Box office is cold hard numbers, but even the numbers can be relative/up to interpretation. Metrics like Metacritic or a Rotten Tomatoes critics score can measure how critics responded to a movie, in general. But critics aren't Academy voters. To win Oscars, movies just have to appeal to enough voters at the right time. You see a lot of awards watchers miss on their predictions because they say what amounts to, "Well, I didn't like it!" about a performance/movie, as if that means much in terms of how the Oscars will actually go. Unless the AMPAS members ultimately feel the same way, not really. When the Honest Ballots came out the year that Dunkirk was nominated, there were multiple negative comments about the nonlinear structure. Little Women got that too a couple years later. Not everyone can hang with a story that isn't completely straightforward. Killers of the Flower Moon might end up being the Goldilocks choice that's "serious" enough without being too "confusing".

Next year's Oscars is the 25th anniversary of "Weinstein Presents Shakespeare Fanfic" winning over "D-Day by Spielberg & Hanks", so... Everything Everywhere All At Once just swept the last ceremony and has extremely silly elements amid the more grounded family story. After the last 5 years, I would never say never about the Academy. It's funny, awards detractors often decry how "The Oscars never reward comedy," and "They only give it to historical epics or movies they consider important, they should give other types of movies a chance!" But then when a comedy or musical or a small-scale drama wins something, the same people are all, "No, not like that..."

Will Jonathan Safran Foer shoot his shot now, or was the last time too embarrassing?

Technically, the peak was 1946: What, theaters didn't just play Gone with the Wind in an endless loop for years? Imagine 80 million admissions per week at today's prices... But even 2002 attendance is probably never coming back. Habits have changed too much and theaters have fewer seats, thanks to going recliner/dine-in/closing down whole wings of multiplexes.

People with the right movie theater subscription can see a film as many times as they want for little/no extra cost (besides time). I would disagree about Barbie's lack of cinematic appeal: for the target audience, seeing Barbieland and the costumes on the big screen is definitely part of the draw. It's not so different than the excitement for the first time a specific comic book character gets a movie, fans want to see the world realized in a way that's well produced (vs cheap).

People are posting pages of the script on social media. I know there's been a ton of talk about the script being in first person, but I hadn't considered what that meant with regard to the sex scene...

A hazard of relying on unvetted randos to crowdfund P&A budgets... It wasn't even an actor in SoF or some top exec with the production/studio, but one alleged creep who donated a few grand to a multi-million dollar Kickstarter, years after production wrapped. And now it's an Angel Studios problem: the media will always go with the most sensational angle ("Major financier!") and detractors have been seeking out any "Gotcha!" they could find. Reporters and others will keep digging, and if they find similar stories among other investors...

If at first you don’t succeed...

Not everyone who saw Sound of Freedom is like this, but to some people it's almost like "international child sex trafficking" is more...interesting to them, in a way, than systemic abuses of children in scouting/religious/youth sports organizations. I doubt most of them have the same fervor to "Do something!" about migrant children working on American farms, or overnight shifts in slaughterhouses or fast food places... As to why some forms of child abuse galvanize people into "action" more than others.... I don't believe it's all projection, but those types would be drawn to a movie like SoF (not to say the entire audience is like that). I imagine it's like how you get the firefighter who turns out to be an arsonist, the mystery writer revealed as a murderer, or those nurses who secretly kill their patients: people inwardly obsessed with terrible acts latch onto a "respectable" way to publicly associate with the subject. Also, an action movie or thriller is going to have a different appeal than a straight drama about a tough subject. The action against the "bad guys" makes it feel like something is being done and so it is cathartic, in a way.

This was so much fun with an audience.

Every once in a while, something from a smaller studio will crash out hard and the theaters will dump it in Week 2. Oogieloves and Playmobil come to mind: neither got near $1 million for the OW in over 2,000+ theaters, the per theater averages were in the $200s. Haunted Mansion is practically Endgame compared to a Delgo.

TMNT is only 1 hour 39 minutes. A full day with morning shows meant probably two extra shows per screen compared to previews, that would boost a kids movie (in the summer) a lot. M:I 7 is over an hour longer and its previews started at 2 PM. The first "full day" only meant one extra morning show vs the day before. On a non-holiday weekday, most theaters probably weren't selling out Dead Reckoning at 10:30 on a Wednesday morning.

Covid closures took out some locations. Even before then, second-run/dollar theaters were a thing in 1998 and added a nice boost to the lower rungs of the charts. A lot of smaller theaters that existed back then are gone and weren't all consolidated into bigger chains, some were just turned into condos or whatever. As attendance began declining, many theaters reduced seating capacity by putting in recliners or becoming dine-in locations. AMC built some 30 screen multiplexes when demand was high, and many have since become 17 screen locations--they just close off a whole wing of the building. Location counts alone don't tell the story, there are less seats than before.

I doubt that anyone at Deadline genuinely believes Stephen Amell is even kind of high profile, but the headline did its job (inspiring a million views and hundreds of quote tweets). I don't expect a deal before the end of whatever counts as summer to executives, plus a couple weeks buffer. Probably much later than that...

I doubt WB volunteers any comments about her, but you know how The Discourse goes: "Barbie claims to be a feminist movie but continues to showcase an abuser of women! Greta refuses to edit the movie and that makes her complicit!" #BarbieIsCancelled Yeah, I know you can't just delete scenes from movies while they're in theaters without a major ordeal, and obviously Lizzo contributed her song before the lawsuit was public, but Twitter activists just want to stir up outrage. Maybe it'll be the right wing grifters' new angle of attack on Barbie, since they can't call it a flop...

The PR team just got done handling the Barbenheimer meme controversy when the Lizzo news breaks. After opening weekend, they probably thought Barbie PR duty would be a cakewalk of one glowing box office writeup after the other....

AMC says they've had their biggest week ever and I 100 percent saw the signs at my local theater last night. They actually had the box office open on a non-holiday weekday, which never happens anymore. Concessions was out of all hot food besides popcorn and nachos. The candy was also pretty depleted, with lots of empty racks where the M&Ms/Snickers/Butterfingers normally are. Even the boxed candy supply was looking low. Who doesn't love the singalong version boost? I wonder if Disney has a formula about exactly when to deploy it, like is it based on percentage drop or if the gross is below a certain point, is theater availability a factor, etc.

He was going to go, but the news about his ex and Tom Brady has him down bad... /s But seriously, people are out there screaming, "Scab!" at low-level YouTube movie review channels and podcasters. They're mad about A24 waivers. The A-list lead of a movie promoting it only "as a director/producer" was going to be a tough line to walk. Maybe SAG will work something out with all the actor/directors in the coming weeks, or those film festivals will have signed on a bunch of iffy actor-auteur projects for nothing. People view how he was with A Star Is Born as a sign of general awards thirstiness in him, but I don't know if I totally agree. He was in two Best Picture contenders a couple of years ago, hit some precursors for both roles, but was not going full throttle trying for the dual acting nomination, like a truly hungry star would. It was still kind of a Covid awards season, but Andrew Garfield was in a similar position (with buzz for both Tick Tick Boom & The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and he was everywhere that year.

Concerts about to have Plexiglass and netting like hockey or baseball games...