ElsaRoc

The move to June made perfect sense, once Star Wars moved. At that time, there was no indication that SW9 was going to underperform. But even with that underperformance, and even if Jumanji hadn't moved, SW9 was still a $500m DOM film, which is a lot of competition. Whereas June was an exceptional date, with relatively weak competition. August feels optimistic, to me. There is little indication that things will be settled by then, especially nationally. The only two effective tools we have at the moment are testing and isolation. The US is lagging badly in the first, and there are many indications that the latter is not going to be universal nor held long enough. However, they can always move it again.

We have five in Washington. Three are currently open, one opens April 3, the fifth is delaying its 2020 opening.

Was the AUS weekend bigger than the DOM weekend?

Basically this. What I'm more wondering is if even the information about half capacity is enough to keep people away.

While nothing is playing at capacity, I wonder how much the 50% cap on sales at the major chains is having an effect. In Seattle, it's basically only the AMC and Regals that are open. Most of the independent theaters are closed.

It took about 2 days for Seattle to go from "wash your hands and weather the storm" to "it's really bad". We had to close all libraries 2 hours early today because we were so short staffed. And by the end of the day we announced that all libraries will close for a month starting on Saturday. Pacific Science Center, MoPOP, and the Space Needle are all closed. (and with PacSci, its IMAX screens to go along with the Cinerama's abrupt and entirely unrelated temp closure last month). Tons of restaurants are closed. A few movie theaters have closed, and others are capping sales at 50% capacity, but I think we'll be seeing closures for them, too. This is in addition to the school closures. On Friday my friends and I did a Costco run... They were out of rice. Entirely. This isn't something unique to Seattle. It will happen elsewhere... Everywhere, probably. Any attempt to quarantine the city or state won't really have an overall effect... So expect to face the same in your area, eventually. (federal response is exceptionally bad, so we're probably in for an Italy rather than a South Korea). The odd thing is despite all this, so much mundane stuff still needs doing. It's more like a constant edge of dread rather than a panic.

Several franchises have grossed more WW, because they've all had more films. Despicable Me is on top (3.7b, 4 films), then Shrek (3.5b, 5 films). Then Ice Age (3.2b, 5 films), and I believe Toy Story (3b, 4 films). Frozen is the best on a per film basis, though. 2.7b in two films. If there was a third, it would probably be about at 4b in three films, though Minions 2 is going to push the DM franchise to 4.5b, probably.

It's damn good. Violent, in some shockingly painful ways. Funny, but from a character building way, rather than being quippy. Fun and inventive in the action scenes, which feel more interwoven with the narrative, rather than being set pieces. Also, it impressively juggles six major characters, so you get their personalities, motivations, and even backstories, without dragging the pace down. Just, really cool to watch.

Watched The Good Place finale last night, and I am really not okay. Been on the verge of tears at work all day just thinking about it.

Adventure movies without an antagonist are great, IMO. There are multiple venues for conflict and tension that don't require a villain. If you go by the classic plot conflicts (vs man, vs nature, vs self, vs society, vs technology, vs fate) F2 has nature, self, and fate...

It's playing at the Regal Meridian for the next week at least. I got a ticket for Tuesday evening after work

This is a pretty underwhelming selection of nominees... but 2019 was a pretty underwhelming year for movies, overall. Nice that Klaus got an animation nod, tho. That's surprising. Sad that Frozen 2 didn't get one.

First sub 1m day? I think we were tracking that for 1's run, because it was an interesting comparison to Finding Nemo, maybe?

Maybe this will finally mean that they'll let the franchise die.

Yes, it's still possible.