BoxOfficeFangrl

I never expected EEAAO to do well across the pond, but thought Banshees would go all the way due to British/Irish favoritism there. But that was no match for World War I...or a biopic performance. BAFTA winners: BEST FILMALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; Malte Grunert LEADING ACTRESS CATE BLANCHETT; Tár LEADING ACTOR AUSTIN BUTLER; Elvis EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public) EMMA MACKEY MAKE UP & HAIRELVIS; Jason Baird, Mark Coulier, Louise Coulston, Shane Thomas DIRECTOR EDWARD BERGER; All Quiet on the Western Front PRODUCTION DESIGNBABYLON; Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILMTHE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN; Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin BRITISH SHORT ANIMATIONTHE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE; Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy, Cara Speller, Hannah Minghella BRITISH SHORT FILMAN IRISH GOODBYE; Tom Berkeley, Ross White COSTUME DESIGNELVIS; Catherine Martin SOUNDALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; Lars Ginzsel, Frank Kruse, Viktor Prášil, Markus Stemler ORIGINAL SCOREALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; Volker Bertelmann DOCUMENTARYNAVALNY; Daniel Roher, Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Melanie Miller, Odessa Rae SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTSAVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER; Richard Baneham, Daniel Barrett, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYTHE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN; Martin McDonagh ANIMATED FILMGUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO; Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCERAFTERSUN; Charlotte Wells (Writer/Director) CINEMATOGRAPHYALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; James Friend EDITINGEVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE; Paul Rogers CASTINGELVIS; Nikki Barrett, Denise Chamian FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGEALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; Edward Berger, Malte Grunert SUPPORTING ACTOR BARRY KEOGHAN; The Banshees of Inisherin SUPPORTING ACTRESS KERRY CONDON; The Banshees of Inisherin ADAPTED SCREENPLAYALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell

If you regularly followed box office in 2021-2022, it's obvious people just wouldn't show up at all if there wasn't something they were desperate to see. Attendance has improved from its lowest point but streaming is now too much of a bargain/convenience for many consumers. Maybe if theaters made tickets $3 every day, but that would cut into the box office and profits too much and maybe attract too much of a $3 crowd. I saw 9 of this year's Best Picture nominees theatrically and outside of Avatar/Top Gun/Elvis, those were some pretty empty auditoriums. I mean, there were huge movie franchises in the 2010s and adult dramas were making a lot more money back then. Streaming/peak TV and the downfall of DVD sales, all that changed everything for adult-skewing dramas. If the MCU goes away, it's not like Kramer vs Kramer: The Next Generation suddenly makes $450 million. I will scream if I see one more Twitter screenshot of that Times Square AMC with dozens of showtimes of the latest MCU, accompanied by some smug tweet about Marvel ruining cinema. A theater with 25 screens heavily scheduled a blockbuster in its opening weekend? You don't say. And it always turns out that the Empire 25 is simultaneously playing like 16-17 other movies, in addition to the latest CBM. Not to mention that it's New York City, which has tons of movie theaters of all varieties, and gets nearly every limited release weeks/months before the rest of the country.

Even the Taliban were no match for the power of Jack and Rose. The movie was huge in Afghanistan despite not being released there (as the cinemas were closed in 1996), and this was a time before high speed internet or even DVDs in that market. How James Cameron’s Titanic became an under-the-surface sensation in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan (The Star, Dec 16 2022) Pirated copies were widely rented and purchased. The Jack Dawson haircut became popular among young men there and the rulers did not like it: Taliban Bans Titanic Tops (CBS News, Jan 26 2001): More Titanic fever in Afghanistan, circa 2002.

The response to Cruise was huge at the Academy luncheon. Spielberg openly praising Tom for saving theatrical distribution?! Top Gun: Maverick will get a lot of 1-2-3 rankings on Best Picture ballots...

Domestically, The Lost City made $105m to Ticket to Paradise's $68m. I think the difference is that with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, you're appealing to more generations. Even Daniel Radcliffe as a villain pulls in a few Potterheads, an even younger group than Tatum or Bullock fans. It had an adventure angle. Brad Pitt didn't help Babylon (at least in the US) but he seems to still do all right as an action guy. Ticket to Paradise just had George and Julia as draws, which worked out really well internationally. What would have been really strategic is casting someone with their own fanbase as the daughter, maybe a twentysomething singer looking to act, or a person from Euphoria or Stranger Things. Even if the, say, Sydney Sweeney/Natalia Dyer/Maude Apatow fans didn't show up to theaters, their fans would have tweeted about it excessively and given it free publicity that way. I think romcoms can still succeed theatrically but studios have to be strategic about it. Either get a cast that appeals to different/under-served demos, or add in elements of other genres to broaden the audience. See if you can adapt the genre to the Blumhouse model.

Seems unlikely, WB is pulling a Tenet with Magic Mike...

Haha, that would've been cheaper than CGI...

Controversy! Which won't affect the box office, but still...

When I first saw this, I thought it was a joke, and what would be the reason? I mean, Hallmark and Lifetime made dozens of Christmas movies in 2020 once productions resumed and the actors still kissed, except that movie where the actors kissed through Plexiglass: https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/lifetime-christmas-movie-plexiglass-kiss-ali-stroker-interview.html Did Jonah and Lauren London just hate each other or something?

- (-) A Man Called Otto Sony Pictures $330,000 -73% -45% 3,407 $97 $53,406,006 39 - (-) Missing Sony Pictures $220,000 -78% -43% 2,565 $86 $23,222,969 18

AMC hopes to push people to join their loyalty program so the fees are waived. If you live in areas with other options and you weren't loyal to AMC, you would probably take them, so I'm not sure how this will work out.

Watch this spur another round of sympathy from the industry-Riseborough's in it to win it!

Deadline breakdown of ATP and admissions of the Top 2: SUNDAY AM: Universal’s M. Night Shyamalan movie Knock at the Cabin held up over Paramount’s 80 for Brady, $14.2M to $12.5M, even though the latter had discount matinee ticketing in most theaters coast-to-coast. While the experimental ticket price drop didn’t exactly mushroom more bucks than Knock at the Cabin, 80 for Brady pulled in more people than Knock at the Cabin, 1.3 million to 1.1 million according to box office stat corp EntTelligence, which actually counts seats for the industry. The average ticket price for 80 for Brady was $9.79 to Knock on the Cabin‘s $12.30. So, in regards to Paramount and exhibition’s great team-up, something definitely worked here that bears repeating with subsequent films for older demos.

This is a weekend where you really wish the US market also published ticket sales figures. Knock at the Cabin has a Dolby screenings push, while 80 for Brady is selling a bunch of senior matinee tickets. That's $6.60 with tax at my local Cinemark (it's maybe $1-2 higher at the other big chains around here). Knock at the Cabin can make more with lower ticket sales. It would be interesting to know how close the two are in attendance.

After the back-to-back Dreamgirls/Enchanted debacles (three nominees in the category and still losing), I think most musicals/music movies got scared. Generally, they decided the best strategy was pushing one song the whole season and hoping to get the win, vs risking vote splitting. Though La La Land still won when it had two Original Song nominees, it was the Best Picture frontrunner, in a stronger position than most movies with lots of original songs. We'll never know if Let It Go or Shallow would've still won even if other songs from their movies had been nominated: maybe so, but maybe not. And the studio/talent involved probably didn't want to add the risk. It feels like the dynamics are different for double nominations in the supporting categories. Usually when there are double supporting nominees, there's also someone else from the movie nominated in lead (barring a Kaluuya/Stanfield fluke, which wasn't even WB's intention). Double supporting nods are usually about a movie maximizing its overall nomination count and making a case as a top Best Picture contender. You can also add to the nomination count with multiple Original Song nods, but it means little for the Best Picture race. Dreamgirls led the nominations in its year thanks to all the songs, but missed out in Best Picture. And none of the songs even won!

"Top Gun 3" is trending...

Playmobil had $5 tickets: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/playmobil-box-office-5-tickets-couldnt-save-pic-disaster-1261121/#! Watching a true crime show at home or listening to a podcast on services already in your budget, that's much easier than going out to a theater and paying for tickets/concessions for a grim movie.

We've all seen stars use dubious temporary accents in real life before (Madonna, Ryan Gosling), it's just better if they don't address it at all vs providing long-winded excuses. "Talkies" have been around for 95+ years, actors have put on/sung with high or deep voices for roles before, then went back to talking like themselves when the job was done. That's...acting? The alternative is not good technique or normal-like, Bradley Cooper didn't walk around sounding like Rocket Raccoon or Jackson Maine until the end of time. Pretty sure we're going to get at least one Brutally Honest Ballot Guy saying, "Oh, come on!" about the Elvis voice. Filming on Dune Part 2 has already wrapped, Dave Bautista says Austin doesn't sound like Elvis in it: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/no-austin-butler-does-not-sound-like-elvis-in-dune-2-his-voice-is-different-his-demeanor-is-terrifying/ar-AA1737zC

The reduced ticket prices even out with the attendance boost, I guess. I imagine this also plays better in areas with lower ticket prices to begin with. My local AMC is selling well, but senior matinee tickets there are $6.60 before tax. * Diane Warren's future Oscar nomination, Gonna Be You:

Multiple chains are taking part in "matinee all day" pricing with 80 For Brady, so, senior matinee prices, a huge reduction in ATP. Didn't one of those previews also have $8 tickets? So that might be why the numbers are lower than they seemed based on sales.

The Wolf of Wall Street featured wild antics/partying in its trailers but also sold it as Leo playing a money-swindling crook with the FBI after him, a story set 15-25 years earlier than its release date. All that's a much easier sell to average moviegoers. Fun fact, the 2013 movie wasn't even the first time Paramount released a film called The Wolf of Wall Street-also about a shady trader. Movies about robberies/financial crimes, and the excesses of those who commit them, have succeeded in many eras. Compare that with trying to sell 1920s Hollywood to a 2020s audience, and without the trailers conveying a clear plot. What the low information moviegoer got from the Babylon ads/trailers: Margot Robbie parties hard, doesn't seem like a 1920s person, and fights snakes? Brad Pitt is drunk and...dances off terraces? Tobey Maguire is in it, and there's another guy around, I guess? I think they were trying to sell "sprawling epic", but for most it just came off as unfocused.

Apparently, some chains are doing "matinee all day" ticket pricing for this one? There are tweets from different Alamo locations about it. Locally, AMC, Cinemark and Phoenix seem to be taking part in this promo, Regal isn't.

Agree? Disagree? I feel it was a tough sell regardless, but the marketing wasn't great.

Pacino hated that he wasn't campaigned in lead and didn't go to the ceremony that year in protest. The same energy when Leo skipped the Oscars when he got snubbed for Titanic... Maybe James Hong would’ve gotten more of a push in Supporting Actor if Ke Huy Quan in lead had taken off. What's the last movie to get 5 acting nominations? I'm listening to the new "And The Runner Up Is" episode and they were saying that to go lead when supporting is justifiable, is more "category gambling" than "category fraud" because it's riskier.