BadAtGender

Huh. Never been to the Alderwood theater. I wonder if it's any good. (Not that it's exactly convenient for me.)

You must not watch many movies.

There are many, many factors that can affect the box office. The video release is one of them, but certainly not the only one.

Fan entitlement is an interesting thing. There's this weird belief that creators owe something to fans (although it's a nebulous and changing thing to define what is owed) and that the works they create are somehow public domain, even when they aren't. (Whether things should or should not be in the literal public domain is another discussion entirely. Also a fascinating one, but different.)

Part of the problem is that given the long production time it takes for top tier animation, the films that are currently slated up through about 2017 are probably well enough along that they can't easily be abandoned. And if they were, it would probably put a lot of people out of work. Also, it's not so simple as reducing budget. Part of the problem DWA has is that if they're ambitious and they fail, people deride them for spending too much. (See: Peabody & Sherman). But if they apparently take an effort to scale things back, people criticize the films for looking bad (See: Home). There literally is no way to win in that situation besides having a breakout. And not every film can be a breakout. What's weird is DWA actually has a more consistent success record than WDAS. Remember Tangled was a huge success... and it barely got to $200m, which was under both DWA titles released in 2010. And Wreck-It Ralph was a success, but also threw under DWA's efforts in 2012. It's only in the past couple of years that the narrative has changed. Even so, something has to give. There are 6 remaining animated films due to be released this year. There are 12 scheduled for next year. 14 scheduled for each of 2016 and 2017, and 12 for 2018. So for the next several years, there's going to be more than one animated film a month, on average. I love me some animation, but I bet I'm only going to get to a third of those.

Yeah, I forgot SPA. Here they are: Popeye (2015) Sony 2015 Hotel Transylvania 2 Sony 9/25/15 Untitled Smurfs Movie Sony 8/5/16 SPA TBA (2016) Sony 9/23/16 SPA TBA (2017) Sony 9/22/17 (Angry Birds doesn't seem to be from the SPA studio, I guess? Kinda like how Book of Life isn't DWA or Blue Sky, but it is Fox.) Dreamworks is easily the most aggressive, with 3 films a year for the forseeable future. SPA, Illumination, and PIxar all seem to be hitting 1.5-2 films a year starting in 2015. WDAS averages 1 a year, but is on a wonky schedule thanks to the Pixar shakeup that put The Good Dinosaur in 2015. (Combine the 2 studios and they're hitting 2.5 a year, which seems a bit heavy.) If most studios dropped back to 1 film a year, and DWA even just dropped to 2, it would ease a lot of the stress.

Good stuff! Even if it was my first non-appearance.

Yeah, in comparison, here's WDAS: Big Hero 6 BV 11/7/14 Untitled Disney Animation (2016) BV 3/4/16 Untitled Disney Animation (Nov. 2016) BV 11/23/16 Untitled Disney Animation (2018) BV 3/9/18 Untitled Disney Animation (Nov. 2018) BV 11/21/18 One a year. That's a good amount for a studio. Here's Pixar: Inside Out BV 6/19/15 The Good Dinosaur BV 11/25/15 Finding Dory BV 6/17/16 Untitled Pixar Animation (2017) BV 6/16/17 Untitled Pixar Animation (Nov. 2017) BV 11/22/17 Untitled Pixar Animation (2018) BV 6/15/18 I tend to view this as too aggressive. Here's Blue Sky: Untitled Peanuts Movie Fox 11/6/15 Ice Age 5 Fox 7/15/16 Anubis Fox 3/23/18 That's very light. I wonder if they're going to slot something else in. But I've also heard that Chris Wedge is going to direct something for another studio, so maybe Blue Sky and Fox are scaling back to give more room to DWA? And here's Illumination: Minions Uni. 7/10/15 The Untitled Pets Project Uni. 2/12/16 Untitled Illumination Entertainment (2016) Uni. 12/21/16 Despicable Me 3 Uni. 6/30/17 Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2017) Uni. 11/17/17 While it's on pause this year, that's getting to Pixar levels of aggressiveness. And we know that Paramount and WB are ramping up animation studios of their own, too. Pretty much everyone outside of Blue Sky is either pushing things super aggressively or is already at a saturation point. When you add in the smaller production houses, it looks even worse to slot things in. This is probably only going to hurt everyone in the future. DWA could drop a film a year from their slate and Pixar could pull back to one film a year, and that alone would probably free up a lot of dollars and audience interest. DWA could also abandon trying to do non-film projects. I hadn't considered that the HTTYD TV series might be a detriment to movie interest.

The Penguins of Madagascar Fox 11/26/14 Home (2014) Fox 3/27/15 B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations Fox 6/5/15 Kung Fu Panda 3 Fox 12/23/15 Boss Baby Fox 3/18/16 How to Train Your Dragon 3 Fox 6/17/16 Trolls Fox 11/4/16 Captain Underpants Fox 1/13/17 Untitled Kevin Lima Bollywood Musical Fox 3/10/17 The Croods 2 Fox 11/3/17 Larrikins Fox 2/16/18 Madagascar 4 Fox 5/18/18 Puss in Boots 2: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves Fox 11/2/18 Me and My Shadow Fox TBD

Hmm... now that GoT and Cosmos are over, I wonder what TV shows I should follow.

It's probably going to come up a bit short. It should get to 260-270m, though, which is amazing regardless.

Not the final scene I was expecting in tonight's Game of Thrones. But a pretty good episode overall. Really nice score.

Ugh. It looks like I only got 7 right this week.

WTF? Is this what happens when Blank decides not to give any likes?

No lines, but the Elsa gloves make me feel about like so:

I'm not reading the last 30 pages, but I'm drunk and I hate this weekend. I blame Shawn for leaving right as Dragons was opening. Dammit, Shawn! We needed you and you blew it all up! YOu maniac!

While racist and homophobic behavior is really shitty, you don't need to be ableist in response to it.

Now - August 1 - GotG August 1 - November 6 - Interstellar November 6 - May 1 - Avengers May 1 - December 18 - Star Wars Not especially interesting, all things considered.

The problem is that even with a 4x multiplier, 54-55m only gets it to match the original. Expectation was a hell of a lot higher than that.

TLAM2

Reasons today is poo: The months-long effort to get my health insurance sorted out is still not taken care of. I have no clue when it will be. I realized I have to pay my taxes. So much for that paycheck. While doing work today, I realized how old and terrible my phone is, but i can't really afford to replace it. The recurring thought that I also need a new computer remains, but due to taxes, I couldn't possibly buy a new one. A friend I've been needing to have a long, serious conversation with has apparently been avoiding me. I've been simmering with low level anger for a week. Shawn's leaving the forum. Frozen's starting to drop in Japan. Oh, and that Dragon opening. I want a do over.

I think I'm going to take a few weeks off of hitting the theaters. I saw a bunch of films at SIFF and this weekend has crushed my enthusiasm. But I do have a bunch of books to get through. Leviathan Wakes is up once I finish the current one.

I think I give up on this. Ugh.