BoxOfficeFangrl

LOL, ViewerAnon has to be responding to melodramatics like this: Critics and culture writers, being totally normal about the Super Mario movie...

58 F-bombs and derivatives, according to Kids in Mind, plus other milder obscenities. Not quite Goodfellas but well past the PG-13/R language threshold. My mom would also probably like this, but would complain about the swearing afterwards.

Mario sold a lot of children's matinee tickets, in 2D those are especially cheap. Movies 2-5 were much stronger this week vs No Way Home's opening weekend. Yikes to the Guardians 3 presales.

Fans can be tribal and want all the success/respect, not just in one area. Movies based on video games don't have the best track record historically, so fans are defensive from the start. Some film critics feel a certain type of way about video game movies/gamers and it shows in their reviews, so it's not surprising if gamers react badly to that. Different genre, but with Joker's bad reviews, some said, "Scorsese ripoff, very basic social commentary", while other critics were mad it was by The Hangover director and saying, "It's too dangerous to exist and will inspire incel sleeper cells nationwide!" Obviously not all negative Mario reviews are about the critics' personal baggage with video games, but some have been extremely weird.

Six years is a good run, and he'll always be a Grammy winner. Any other actors out there having trouble with the G portion of the EGOT? I would love the chaos if she and Harry Styles reunited. Imagine the joint album, the collective insanity of the Gaylors and the Larries...

Huge news for Swifties: I wonder who's next?

Was it more or less bizarre than her read on The Fabelmans? Not everyone liked that one of course but Grace's "logic" was something else. I can't believe that she went to film school, or that she's like 35-36 (born in 1987 apparently). True, but some of the bigger kids' movie flops (like Mars Needs Moms, Playmobil and Oogieloves) also had very poor reviews. Maybe being better than expected might have helped a little?

Air has made $20 million domestic in five days: only four of last year's Best Picture nominees had higher grosses (Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar, Elvis, and Everything Everywhere All At Once). But every awards season is different. Can Air stick around as a contender? The other Best Picture nominees it reminds of (Moneyball, The Big Short, Jerry Maguire) were fall/December releases. I can see Air making SAG Ensemble even if it misses in other places. The Globes are back and the movie is very comedic, so it could be competitive there.

Glad the movie pretty much glossed over him, IRL I bet some higher ups were probably pushing hard for Nike to sign the "clean cut" Pacific Northwest guy. It's going to be awkward if Air gets a SAG Best Cast nomination and the guy who plays MJ doesn't make the cut...

Everyone in the cast/crew got the streaming movie money and Amazon only decided to release it in theaters after test screenings. In a world whete Nancy Meyers dared to ask $150 million from Netflix for a contemporary romcom, Air's budget might seem reasonable to a streamer. Air's 5-day opening will be strong enough for a positive spin (there are six 2022 Best Picture nominees with grosses under $18 million domestic), and the theatrical run (especially if it's leggy) is good advertising for its eventual PVOD/streaming release. With its reviews, it even has a shot for awards contention. Amazon wasn't in it for theatrical profitability. . Speaking of Amazon (and air), did anyone watch On a Wing and a Prayer? Dennis Quaid's pilot dies on him and he has to land a plane with the help of good Christian wife/mother Heather Graham:

They would have toned down the language for the Utah market, except they're Jazz fans and wouldn't have gone to see a movie about Michael Jordan's shoe deal, anyway... Here's the (spoilery) Kids in Mind guide to the movie: https://kids-in-mind.com/a/air-parents-guide-movie-review-rating.htm

Is the under-17 crowd really much of an audience for a movie ultimately about business meetings between Nike executives and Michael Jordan's mom? They originally made Air for streaming, where it would play just fine alongside the TV shows geared to adults. The Big Short and Jerry Maguire were also R-rated, though Moneyball was PG-13. I can see how you could edit down the profanity but it probably wasn't worth the effort. I'm also glad they resisted the urge to throw in some random gratuitous nudity/sex since it was already rated R: that absolutely would have happened in the 1980s-2000s. Air was super entertaining, but takes place in about four nondescript rooms. Are they for real with that $90 million budget? Whatever they didn't give to the cast/crew must have been spent on all the needle drops.

How is Hollywood hiring a Columbian-American actor to play a fictional Italian groundbreaking? The era when movie studios treated actors as interchangeably ethnic is hardly something to be celebrated. Anya Taylor-Joy has a major role in the new version. Is he saying that doesn't count because Princess Peach isn't as important as Mario and Luigi, or that Anya doesn't really count as Latina for...reasons? Representation in Hollywood is important, but come on, man, there are bigger hills to die on the animated Super Mario movie.

Sure, but some critics do approach movies based on video games with a level of derision/bafflement that seems...unprofessional isn't the right word, but if their attitudes towards all things gaming are still stuck in 1993, are they the right people to review Super Mario? That was a positive review, actually. But with certain genres critics approach the movies and fans with a hostility/disdain/bemusement that just drips out. The fans can spot it and are probably reacting poorly to that along with the reviews being negative.

It's an easy "men vs women" narrative. Theatrical has contracted somewhat since the pandemic, it feels like there's just one real headline grabber opening per weekend most weekends, so this is a different scenario. Even before with the Venom vs A Star Is Born face-off, there was the attitude that "there can only be one", a winner and a loser. A false feud but the press/social media/forums thrive on drama. How often do two Oscar-nominated directors open movies on the same day, especially post-2020? Both movies are hotly anticipated yet wild cards in oddly similar ways. Nolan had a very public, acrimonious split from his long-time studio WB, who released four of his movies on the third weekend of July (Tenet had that date scheduled in 2020 but had to be moved). So, WB picking that release date for Barbie, to go head-to-head with Oppenheimer, strikes some as a bit...deliberate. Surely, it would be better for both to have separate dates to maximize the PLF potential? There's an eagerness to see which one will come out on top. But this is a pretty online rivalry, overall, I'd agree.

WB probably hoped the posters would inspire parodies/memes, but it's not something they can count on in advance. You never know if your target audience will consider what you're selling "cringe" or if social media will be preoccupied by some other pop culture story at the time. People are very familiar with Barbies but will they be nostalgic or like the movie's tone? How much of the meme audience will translate to box office?

The budget for His Only Son is reportedly less than $250K, and the studio crowdfunded $1.3M for marketing: https://www.ksl.com/article/50604191/angel-studios-latest-film-his-only-son-recounts-the-story-of-abraham-and-isaac I wonder if Angel Studios will eventually branch out into more contemporary faith-based movies.

A lot of the discourse on "three hour movies" is about movies that are 2:30, even 2:20 is too much for people these days, so that tracks. Infernal Affairs took place over a longer timeframe and the Vera Farmiga character was three different women in the original, and it's still 50 minutes shorter than The Departed. You're not really going to Scorsese these days for brevity...

With Majors, it's probably about winning tthe court of public opinion. There are enough teenagers and misogynists around who will see those texts and not be able/willing to recognize the dynamic going on. "See? She said no strangulation. She said grabbed for his phone: she started it!" There's always an online defense brigade that exists for anything a celebrity does, but in domestic violence cases especially, a certain segment will always blame the woman. Here, you will also get people saying the charges are just an attempt to take down a successful Black man. I'm guessing whatever video there is won't look good for Majors and his team is hoping enough people out there will buy the girlfriend as the instigator. IDK if this case will ever get to a jury, in that case you only need one person to take his side and he walks. Or, this lawyer is actually a double agent, getting justice for abusers by appealing to their vanity so much that they don't notice the incompetent representation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Opened #8 in the UK, unsurprising since this had a limited audience even in America. I figured they would call it something else internationally if it even got released outside of the US. It just seems obvious the overall interest in this would be along the lines of a "faith-based" movie that makes 95% of its gross stateside and maybe possibly breaks out in Brazil. Guess that's not happening, either, after the divorce....

Zaslav said all that before the WB movies released under his watch also underperformed/flopped, while having far less ROI than the typical Clint Eastwood movie... WB has a much healthier slate for 2023, either this thriller gets released in October/November or they hold it until 2024.

Four hours and it's Leo and Lily Gladstone sitting at that table the whole time... Maybe they'll reveal a second production still for the Cannes premiere. Brendan cut from this, Batgirl git shelved: at least he won Best Actor.

Covid really damaged the awards bait box office, $40 million would have been a win for The Power of the Dog and more than King Richard (tennis movies have a dire box office track record), maybe Benedict wins Best Actor. Netflix movies having to deal with box office narratives would be a big game changer but their current strategy needs a shakeup. I think only some of these Academy propsals will even happen.

Interesting to consider how their #1s would have fared with proper box office runs: Roma: doesn't make much but low expectations for a black-and-white period drama not in English. Still plays the critical darling of the season. The Irishman: All of Scorsese's later box office successes have had DiCaprio and that is a long runtime, appealing to older moviegoers. If it "flops" pre-Covid, does Netflix pivot to something else as their big push that year? Though Marriage Story probably isn't pulling big box office, either... Mank: theaters were barely open but it's not a crowdpleaser. Maybe The Trial of the Chicago 7 does slightly better? But I doubt it matters that year. The Power of the Dog: the stereotypical cold, critically acclaimed Netflix awards push, plays with a certain crowd but bombs in wide release. Tons of people watched Don't Look Up at home, but up against No Way Home... How many would've gone out and paid to see a climate change/Covid allegory in the mid-50s on Rotten Tomatoes? Maybe Leo's pull can counter that or maybe it flops in theaters (with no Marty editorial pleading its case). All Quiet on the Western Front: probably does well enough for a World War I movie in German, but it's nothing compared to Glass Onion in wide release. In an alternate universe, Glass Onion pulls $100+ million domestic and is a much stronger Oscar player overall. Maybe All Quiet still wins International Feature but maybe without the momentum as Netflix’s #1, something else wins? It did lose the Globe, after all...

It's been an advantage to Netflix movies that they don't have to deal with "box office flop" narratives. OTOH their movies never get to be boosted in the race by box office success, which did help some 2022 movies in particular. Netflix movies can get high streaming numbers (Don't Look Up), but people dismiss their self-reported figures and don't really understand the Nielsen metrics (which come out a month late). Soft streaming numbers don't hurt a Netflix movie like poor box office, and there's usually some positive spin on them (#1 in a dozen territories). A requirement to report the numbers might make Netflix put more effort into their theatrical releases...or cause them to move away from Oscar chasing altogether (TV is far more useful to their business model). They might change the sorts of movies they give the awards push, if there's suddenly pressure for Netflix movies not to fall on their faces in theaters. I think the creatives also wouldn't like the change much, because they go to Netflix partly so they don't have to worry about box office. Jeff Sneider tweeted that Air could've beaten EEAAO if it had come out in December. This was after the Oscars, so essentially a "Here's how EEAAO could still lose Best Picture!" post even after it already won. The Academy traditionalists might be looking to "avenge" the most recent winner. We'll see. What I really want to know is how an Air vs Maestro awards race would affect their Wordle group chat lol...