Jayhawk the Hutt

Big yikes

Yeah into the end of the year apparently. They’ve been filming since February but are taking a break for the Top Gun press tour. Part of the reason Part 1 was delayed was so they wouldn’t have to stop filming for two press tours (along with all the other stated reasons).

It screened this week for New York critics. Could be waiting for closer to release to get the reviews out.

It's Tony Scott so it looks fucking great. Dogfights are great. Extremely cheesy and over the top, but it's such an embodiment of the 80s that it's an enjoyable watch even if it doesn't make much sense.

No surprise the budget is that high with all the COVID delays and location shoots. They starting filming right at the beginning of COVID in Italy of all places and when it restarted they were shooting on and off lasted for over a year. A lot of money to keep the crew necessary paid and on the production. 8 should cost less for the simple reason of no delays, but they will spend whatever money it takes to get these finished, especially if this is the end for Cruise in the franchise.

Supposedly filming starts soon in South Africa. I was thinking maybe they were waiting to start production until after Top Gun's promo tour (therefore necessitating the pushback of MI:7/8, since production on 8 would run into the promo tour for 7) but perhaps not. Most of the article is about the space movie, which is still very much on apparently. https://variety.com/2022/film/columns/see-studio-space-tom-cruise-universal-1235163541/

It's potentially opening with a higher OW than any other movie has grossed DOM this year, and it's worth noting presales are always stronger earlier in a run (plus it being the Holidays extends that strength). It's impressive, but not too surprising.

Excited for a real mega-opening again. Hopefully the OW thread is the biggest in some time. Gonna try to see it tomorrow and in IMAX when I'm back visiting family in VA.

Don't think it's that crazy of a turnaround. I'm assuming summer shoot next year, with plenty of post time. Main issue would be scheduling for actors. Assuming the script will come together relatively quickly, Roth already said they have a full treatment.

Watched Dune on MAX this afternoon as I had to miss my original screening yesterday on account of me being sick. Really enjoyed it, some minor qualms aside. Think it’s really gonna benefit in franchise terms from being somewhat of “tweener” in pandemic times. The MAX/theater day and date and pandemic gives it a reasonable excuse for not performing well enough to the level that would normally justify a sequel. But it is also not anywhere close to an outright bomb; you could reasonably see under different, more normal circumstances the film playing bigger than it has (it appears it has been well received from both fans and, most importantly, the GA). That being said, there is a chance it is actually playing somewhat close to it’s normal world “ceiling,” due to the hardcore fans and the must see it in theaters hype. Additionally, WB likely wants to keep Denis happy, especially after what happened with Nolan. Regardless I personally would love to see a Part Two, not a Dune fan prior to watching but I’ll be reading the book soon.

I'm very excited about this, perhaps against my better judgement. I just the love Indy movies, besides Crystal Skull, which I honestly think is solid. I'm more confident now that Mangold is writing/directing rather than Spielberg again (who I still think is capable of making great movies, just that he feels a little worn out from doing Indy). The rumors and set photos that have been leaked make me excited as I think it's fair to say:

Def a good chance with a 20% increase today.

Range being that wide isn't a huge surprise. we're definitely not completely back to normal/we don't know what the new normal will be just yet. Just hoping for a 50m 4 day which seems like a solid bet right now. Could still fall short but the chances of that are relatively low.

Cruella Southern Tier Premiere Night Seat Report: T-2 days and COUNTING Theater Movie Showtimes Seats Sold Seats Available % Total Overall Cruella 9 10 312 3.21% Total Seats Sold Today: -3 Not great to say the least. I think yesterday was an error on my part though, due to not understanding where the DBOX seats were in the Cinemark theater I track. Still best case scenario it sold 0 seats over the past day.

Cruella Southern Tier Premiere Night Seat Report: T-3 days and COUNTING Theater Movie Showtimes Seats Sold Seats Available % Total Overall Cruella 9 10 312 3.21% Total Seats Sold Today: -3 Not great to say the least. I think yesterday was an error on my part though, due to not understanding where the DBOX seats were in the Cinemark theater I track. Still best case scenario it sold 0 seats over the past day.

A Quiet Place Part II Southern Tier Premiere Night Seat Report: T-2 days and COUNTING Theater Movie Showtimes Seats Sold Seats Available % Total Overall AQP2 20 91 1304 6.98% Total Seats Sold Today: 43 Well, AQP2 just essentially doubled it's ticket sales. Really impressive and probably bodes well for walk-ups this weekend. Everyone in my area is finally letting loose with the vaccines taking effect. Thanks everyone for your answers on the capacity. Just did the total capacity of the theater divided by the capacity limit set by the state. Local theater finally added Cruella preview screenings. Looks like the same deal (no preview screenings yet) for Conjuring 3 next week. May just have to do these week by week which isn't great but will start to get some data in. Will post the Cruella numbers in a little bit.

Cruella Southern Tier Premiere Night Seat Report: T-3 days and COUNTING Theater Movie Showtimes Seats Sold Seats Available % Total Overall Cruella 6 13 506 2.57% My local theater does not have any showings for Thursday night. Weird as they have Friday night showings.

So here it goes. Unfortunately: A. My area doesn't seem too presale heavy at all; and, B. I have a Cinemark in this 3 theater set so can't tell what the Private Watch Parties are but here goes nothing: A Quiet Place Part II Southern Tier Premiere Night Seat Report: T-3 days and COUNTING Theater Movie Showtimes Seats Sold Seats Available % Total Overall AQP2 18 48 1748 2.75% My local theater has an insane amount of showtimes for this (9 in an 8 screen theater) and not many tickets sold. As an aside: how are you guys handing total seats available? I am just doing full rows that are available knowing that the true capacity will be severely reduced once someone buys seats there. Wanted to see if there were any best practices.

To get back to posting on the forums I will start posting reports starting tomorrow for my new area. My local theater finally opened back up a few weeks back (added reserved seating over the pandemic) and I think if I combine it with another few theaters that are local-ish it could provide some decent data. Mostly just want to have the fun of BO Tracking again.

Enjoyed episode 1 more than the vast majority of S1. Setpiece was great. Budget jump for this was pretty clearly enormous.

A Bond movie would pretty easily be the biggest movie Netflix has ever released though. I think it would be well worth the money for the amount of people on the service who would watch.

Why not just sell the whole studio? Aren't their big franchises Bond, Rocky, and like Pink Panther? Bond alone has a ton of value but I do agree that at that point just sell the whole studio. The studio it self is a classic brand, and they do have some value in their tertiary franchises that probably sell more together than piecemeal. I'm sure Amazon, Apple, and Netflix would be interested in it for Bond alone, and they are clearly willing to spend huge money to build up their studios.

I’m always down for an X-Wing dogfight.

Binged the Making Of series yesterday on my day off. Pretty astounding tech. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than S1 tbh. The Volume is so cool, have to imagine that will be a complete gamechanger for a lot of productions. Really excited for S2, I'm hoping I like it more than S1 (which was a solid 7/10 imo).