BoxOfficeFangrl

So, this is a message from Pablo Larrain that awards journalists/voters were recently sent... Guess the reports of potential voters also being cold on this are true.

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR CODA DON’T LOOK UP DUNE KING RICHARD LICORICE PIZZA NIGHTMARE ALLEY THE POWER OF THE DOG tick, tick… BOOM! THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH WEST SIDE STORY AFI SPECIAL AWARD BELFAST SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED https://www.afi.com/news/announcing-2021-afi-awards-honorees/

Well, if you say so... It's a whole thread...

I watch her on YouTube. A lot of Black critics have talked about the gatekeeping PR departments engage in with the talent. Even with Black actors, the studio publicists will sometimes keep the stars away from Black outlets in favor of more "mainsream" ones. Sure you don't want to pigeonhole a project that could broader appeal, but there’s no reason to leave a key group out of the fold completely. This even happens with stuff with a huge Black fanbase, like Black Panther and Atlanta: There's just a lot of insular and backwards thinking in the entertainment industry written off as "business as usual". So I guess the PR people think letting the Black reporter only speak to Black actors is an "improvement". Not really surprised it's WB called out here.

They'll just pick what's in the lead on Gold Derby, or want to prove how committed to diversity they are now .

'Licorice Pizza': 27 Locations Set for Added 'Pop-Up' Screenings – Exclusive So, the numbers for the pop-up screenings will be rolled into the Christmas weekend?

The Golden Globes where multiple dudes wearing #TimesUp pins went on to be accused of predatory behavior, and they brought out Kirk Douglas for a special tribute...Twitter was going off that night, the rumor about him assaulting a teenage Natalie Wood was fairly well known by then (which her sister finally confirmed earlier this year). I guess it wouldn't be the HFPA if they weren't a mess on some level...

So the winners named in the press conference will just go on Instagram the next morning and distance themselves from the Globes that way... The awards journalist types and Film Twitter will just love trying to use the Globes as a negative against winners they already don't like, and most of the contenders will just issue any statement/apology needed to keep themselves out of controversy and in the race. I don't think the HPFA have really thought this one through, beyond a desperation to be relevant. In their minds, it's like a press conference vs fully skipping the year is the difference in the organization’s long-term survival.

The Chosen is a crowdfunded Christian series, the series episodes are released to different apps but they've put the Christmas special into theaters. Fathom events can get extended if they're popular enough.

Tyrone Power was 33 when Nightmare Alley was released and he's not particularly young looking in it either-just edit the script. It was going to be Leo at first and he's older than Bradley, but DiCaprio's baby-faced days are long gone. A story going on about how youthful someone supposedly is when they're clearly not just makes the actor seem vain. Lilith from the 1947 movie, Helen Walker, she was 27 when the movie came out, but the age range for the character seems a lot more flexible. I think people now (or at least Film Twitter) would complain about a 27 year old actress playing a psychologist. Coleen Gray (Molly) was 25 when the original movie came out, Rooney is 36 but reads a bit younger. I'm reading the book again and I think maybe it's just not twisty enough for me, I can get why critics now might say the story is predictable. But I felt the same way about the original movie and it's an underrated masterpiece, apparently...

Aunjanue Ellis! Rachel Zegler!!! Will she get hit the NBR curse? And Nightmare Alley lives another day. No Power of the Dog, surprising...

Spoiler? Heh... The stans of the 1947 version are going to hate this soooo much (even though it's an incredibly seedy and bleak book). Looked on Searchlight's YouTube and the second trailer has way more views (12.3m) than the first one (7.6m). Better ad placement the second time around or a sign of growing interest?

Here's the logic of it, according to the distributor: https://www.indiewire.com/2021/11/licorice-pizza-preview-three-cities-saturday-1234681679/ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Knives Out's 5-day Thanksgiving multiplier is 3.99x, so it's not without precedent in recent years. It's not the most likely outcome for House of Gucci but maybe the legs will be good.

Not really, there's been a ton of real/fictional Diana content since her death, the typical audience for it doesn't mesh with this movie's arthouse horror approach to her life.

They only ever watch stuff on streaming and use extensive adblockers online, yet complain that there's "no marketing" for a particular movie, lol. Hollywood hasn't figured out how to beam images to the back of people's eyelids, so until then, people aren't going to see things when they've done everything to shut their eyes to them. It's like having blackout curtains and complaining that there's no sunlight. Like you, saw all the ads for The Last Duel, but between the premise and Damon/Affleck as medieval knights with unfortunate hair, it just didn't seem like a good time at the movies to enough of the audience. It would've done better pre-pandemic but still a flop, most likely.

Not sure I've ever seen a Deadline write-up about a movie's marketing be this...extensive: People still have to care and show up at the end of day, though it seems like a lot, written out like that. OTOH, how many times do people complain that a movie had "no marketing"--which is almost never true BTW, the trades end up reporting millions in ads for most films--after they flop on opening weekend. This movie hit a pandemic best OW for its genre, you can't dismiss the milestone as all marketing. I guess you can if you want, it just seems a bit like sour grapes.

Saw this ad during NFL yesterday, doesn't seem to be on the Searchlight YouTube channel yet.

Encanto is Disney but not exactly Frozen 3, and the 5-11 vaccines haven't been happening that long. It's still 2 shots and some time before full immunity, and there are still families with kids younger than that. I just figured it would be like other genres, the "highest OW since the pandemic" gradually kept increasing, from the $30m milestone to $40m to $50m and then we got to $90m eventually. Maybe the family demo has also gotten used to day-and-date, but IMO the biggest opening for a kids' movie in almost 2 years isn't a reason to get discouraged.

Haven't all the animated kids' movies since the pandemic made like $50-60m total at the domestic box office? Was there some reason Encanto was realistically supposed to make more than that in one holiday weekend? Just having the biggest animated OW since Covid would be a win IMO. If the HoG number is really just 400K off the Knives Out previews, that really isn't bad, though time will tell if that's frontloaded with her fanbase.

I wouldn't go that far, it presents a flawed man who gets called out at times, but also could have shown Richard in a worse light than it did. The REPLIES: Black Twitter is really not having it! Every awards contender gets some sort of negative attack, but with Venus and Serena so heavily involved in the production, I don't think the sexism argument will go very far.

I hadn't fully considered how the prestige audience has kind of been conditioned to expect day-and-date releases, or something very close, for nearly two years at this point. People find out something's not on streaming/VOD right away and they'll just wait. Reviews, promo, subject matter: it doesn't matter, you're making $4-8m opening weekend. It's looking like House of Gucci will do slightly better but still nothing like what it could have made in 2019. All the studios want to promote their streaming services, and if they care about the theatrical experience at all, it's for the blockbuster-type movies. It's wild how In the Heights is practically a high-water mark for an awards contender opening weekend in 2021, when it was written off as a flop at the time. As for King Richard, even in the before times, tennis was never the most popular sports movie genre. As a huge fan of the sport, I have to concede that tennis has been kind of a box office disaster, historically. KR might have been a bright spot before, alas...

Looks like The Discourse is starting to turn on Licorice Pizza...there's anger at the age gap ("Reverse the genders and everyone would be making Woody Allen jokes!") and also a recurring Asian caricature, apparently. Nice...