BoxOfficeFangrl

Don't forget Mars Needs Moms, not only an epic flop but one that convinced Disney that movies with Mars in the title wouldn't be hits. So, John Carter of Mars became just John Carter, which really helped with the movie's problem of seeming nondescript to audiences. /s Was always surprised Katie wasn't legally obligated to return for The Dark Knight, given how franchise contracts usually go. Supposedly the way she promoted TomKat more than Batman Begins in 2005 didn't go over well with WB and her performance was fine but nothing extraordinary. Maggie Gyllenhaal is an Oscar nominee but I didn't really buy her as Rachel. Rebecca Hall would have been perfect except she already co-starred with Bale in The Prestige, and maybe Nolan wanted to avoid a retread story arc with those two actors. No BOGO? I kind of wonder how is an emergency price reduction decided: does the studio CEO have to approve it or is it up to the discretion of the marketing department? Are there emergency Zoom meetings on Friday night as the numbers come in?

At least one of the Asteroid City locations in LA is selling a "premium experience" with $50 tickets. Most showtimes are for typical rates, however. Also, Fandango shows tickets available in 8 theaters between New York and Los Angeles this weekend: Angelika Film Center & Cafe Alamo Draft house Downtown Brooklyn AMC Lincoln Square 13 Landmark Theatres Sunset AMC Century City 15 AMC Burbank 16 AMC Burbank Town Center 8 AMC Burbank Town Center 6 Why so many AMCs in Burbank?

Don't miss 'The Flash', a small film with a giant heart, directed by Andy Muschietti with an unforgettable performance by Ezra Miller Sasha Calle. What a gem! Bravo @filmbyandymuschietti! and @sashacalle The "To Leslie" Oscar campaign was one for the ages-and made the Academy change their rules. Still, Andrea Riseborough only needed ~200 votes to get a Best Actress nomination, while you can't turn random effusive celebrity endorsements into blockbuster box office. Aquaman could be another hit, could be another Alice In Wonderland 2. DCEU sequels have a very spotty track record...

FYI, there are sneak previews tomorrow in some markets (US). This got tons of ads during the NBA playoffs. Can't say they made me more excited to see it...

Sorry, I should have added that I'm not actually fluent in Spanish. My phone must think I am because I get ads in Spanish sometimes on YouTube, and on the forums today. LOL

Lol, don't go on Twitter and search "postminor" or "minor coded": some people out there genuinely feel anyone 25 or under is a helpless baby... The whole "brain development" argument is kind of bunk, BTW: https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html What, did he watch the 2007 movie on repeat and fall for Eva Mendes before they even met? Terrible numbers for The Flash and Elemental. The forums are giving me ads for Acer laptops and Spanish PSAs for my state's department of health.

I love it! Really interesting to hear Gerwig talk about the artificiality of 1950s musicals as an inspiration for the backgrounds. Midge and Skipper are in! Not sure why they would share a clubhouse, the characters are in different age groups.

I was thinking of the most economical way to restructure the movie, if they'd have had to change it due to a shift in the national mood. But a fundamentally different script from the start would have helped, too. Obviously, Disney had visions of a Titanic-like epic, but 105-120 minutes is a perfectly fine length for a war drama and probably more Bay and Bruckheimer's speed. A shorter movie can get more showtimes and can make repeat views less daunting. Who knows if Titanic would have made $600 million as a summer release (the original plan)? It was beloved but there weren't lots of blockbusters releasing in January-March 1998.

It's three hours with the romance. If it was scheduled as a December 2001 release, maybe Disney changes course about the sort of movie it should be: the country needs a rousing patriotic drama right now, not another Titanic. They keep the hour-ish of battle scenes and eliminate the love triangle. A week or two of reshoots to cover the shift in character dynamics, ADR as needed, and now Pearl Harbor is a slimmed-down 110-120 minute military movie. Every ad/trailer would have used the FDR quotes and featured American flags everywhere. Faith Hill gets sent back to come up with lyrics about persevering through adversity, and the song gets pushed as THE patriotic anthem of the Fall/Winter season. Also, in this alternate universe where Pearl Harbor was a December 2001 release, maybe New Line doesn't slot Fellowship of the Ring and its fantasy battles next to the big historical World War II movie. Maybe the entire release schedule for that season is different to begin with. It's all hypothetical, but some beloved movies have had chaotic productions or otherwise benefited from having to deviate from the original plans. But as it is, the DVD sales were incredible:

I was really surprised (and relieved) at the time that the studio resisted glomming onto the 60th anniversary as a release date, but IIRC the timing worked so that the DVD was fresh that December. 9/11 was compared to the Pearl Harbor attack and there was a huge patriotic mood in the aftermath. Since the movie was based on World War II, it might have possibly gotten a pass as "history" and inspirational in a way: some form of "America's been attacked before and we won by standing together!" logic. They would probably cut back the romance a bit and focus on the military aspects, which might have probably make Pearl Harbor a better movie. Black Hawk Down did do pretty well that holiday/winter season, and it was about a much less famous/popular war, with less star power. On the other hand, the major hits of the season were fantasy/escapist. It's an interesting What If? to consider.

Does Skipper not exist in this universe? She was introduced as Barbie's little sister very early on, in the 1960s. I remember those dolls being flat-footed, but the design has changed a lot over the years. This gimmick alone would've guaranteed the PG-13:

I saw a short teaser for this tonight before The Little Mermaid. It specifically namedropped Cinemark; I don't know if they've made one for every chain. Anyway, the Ruby Gillman promo elicited a loud, deep voiced, "Low budget!" from the crowd. The tracking is probably in the right ballpark...

Terrible news:

So, the Golden Globes will still exist as an awards show, but no longer put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. At least, that's their hope. Whoever would have guessed how much change was in store for Hollywood and the HFPA, back when the Globes got 18.3 million viewers in January 2020...

Wild, who would have guessed they were each other's types? Speaking of types, Zion Williamson's seems to be...enhanced? And a million miles from the coeds he was hitting on at Duke. His side piece was absolutely spiraling on Twitter yesterday. Really surprised an athlete worth that much money doesn't just have stacks of NDAs on hand, especially when trying to present a happy family image to the public.

Only the late night shows. Some daytime talk shows have no WGA writers on staff and aren't affected by the strike, so actors still make appearances. Many of the daytime shows pretape or end their seasons in June-July and wouldn't have been on the summer movie PR circuit anyway. There's always the morning shows, which have actors on all the time but are partly news-based, so there are new episodes year round. The weekend editions of morning shows often feature well-timed extended celebrity profiles. If the actors strike, then that's a whole different story. And aren't news anchors/talk show hosts part of SAG-AFTRA themselves? The last SAG strike was well before the merger. There are TikTok stars in SAG-AFTRA now; will it be "phones down", too? Though I'm guessing any strike would be against movie/TV show production companies and not, like, the FOX affiliate in Topeka, Kansas or wherever. Still, local news is probably also in danger of being outsourced to AI, so...

Taylor is normally so image conscious, how did she not realize that a guy with a Nazi salute controversy within the last 12 months was going to be terrible for her brand? I guess because they were friends before and he had seemed decent enough to her personally, that she thought people wouldn't be too bothered. But still, she rolled Healy out the month after the Joe Alwyn breakup news. Even if Matty was the nicest dude ever, most would think, "What's the rush?" to see her with a new man four weeks later. Honestly, I'm just surprised Swift doesn't have her team vet potential love interests before any dates ever happen, let alone the public knowing about it. There will be fans who will always hold it against her that she dated this guy. Is Swift/Healy the fastest a celebrity romance has started and already burned out since Kanye/Julia Fox?

My local AMCs are starting their IMAX showtimes of Oppenheimer at 5 PM on July 20, then another at 9. Pretty sure they are LieMax, but still I doubt that there'd be a different embargo time for 70 mm showings. Some Regals and the Cinemark here are also have PLF showtimes on the 20th before 7 PM.

In this year's "Turning Red didn't mention 9/11!" overblown Twitter Discourse over a Disney movie... Poor Little Mermaid, too woke for the right yet also not woke enough for the left apparently. You know, there are actually fantasy books about Black mermaids vs the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Maybe some will get adapted as movies someday, but probably not by the Disney Princess division, be serious now. In the real world, the weekend hold is looking good so far.

I feel that the industry only lets singer/actors be successful AND acclaimed in both fields if they establish themselves first as singers. When they turn to acting, it's a bonus if they are good and they aren't any less respected as musicians going forward. The reverse doesn't seem to be true, especially if an actress does pop music, movie critics seem to treat the pop career like it's a frivolous distraction that takes the star away from the "real" art of film. And they might say it's made them too famous in the wrong way, so they can't take that person seriously anymore in acting roles. Maybe it hasn't always been true, and not every singer who tries acting succeeds with it. Then you have the Disney/Nickelodeon alums who got simultaneous pushes as singers and actors as kids, but as they grow up their careers end up going mostly one way or the other. Very acclaimed but she auditioned for so many franchises and lost out due to supposed lack of star power. I think her career is far better for it. Is she much of a household name outside of Ireland and maybe the UK? I have doubts. Good hold for The Little Mermaid!

Oppenheimer's Wikipedia page mentions three different relationships that were adulterous at some point, including his marriage: they got together and conceived their first child while she was still married to her third husband. Apparently, there was even some sex incident that scandalized their friend circle. His relationship with Jean Tatlock was pretty tempestuous and became a big issue in his security hearing. There was even surveillance of them together. She likely inspired the name of the Trinity test. Eager to see how it's all portrayed. This movie will draw some World War 2 heads expecting a History Channel docudrama and they will be shocked by the "adult" happenings. I do wonder if it's mostly for rampant military sweariness and Nolan figured since the movie was bound to be rated R anyway... Tom Cruise's behavior described as abnormal? What a stunner... On the other hand, the IMAX situation this summer seems untenable and big money will be lost moving films off PLFs too quickly.

And for the genre, that was a strong OS haul. Similar movies like Lone Survivor, the Michael Bay Benghazi one and that other one that was basically Call of Duty, they probably skewed at least 75-80 percent domestic. While also making way less money overall than American Sniper... It's nearly 3 PM and no number from Disney, but we're so spoiled compared to the old days.

I wonder how much Watchmen and The Leftovers were about him genuinely changing his ways or just wanting the public appearance of being progressive. Like, Joss Whedon was this lauded feminist writer, who was treating women terribly behind the scenes. Wasn't Lindelof dumped from that Star Wars movie in the last month or two? Maybe Lucasfilm got wind of this exposé and kicked him to the curb. At one point when Lindelof is being interviewed by the author and says he'd rather be known as untalented but decent than a talented monster. The author says it's a false binary, but too many creative types think being a monster is almost a requirement of genius. It's really not, you can be a great artist and a good person to work with. And there are plenty of untalented monsters in the arts who saw the "geniuses" being tyrants and modeled that behavior. It didn't make them any more talented, just bigger and more terrible bullies that unsuspecting people had to endure.

The Celtics managed to make the series interesting, only to flop dramatically in the end. Especially embarrassing on their home court. There's a book coming out next week about toxic/abusive productions in TV and film. The excerpt about Lost is out and the details are pretty grim. Avoid if you're not in the mood for sexism and racist imagery... Vanity Fair has the whole article (if it's not paywalled for you) with even more info. Lindelof has convenient amnesia but sounds remorseful, Cuse not so much. Other shows chronicled in "Burn It Down" include SNL, Sleepy Hollow and Curb Your Enthusiasm.