Eric is Quiet

Can confirm that I got goosebumps. Ariana's still unwatchable, but Cynthia Erivo's voice in that IMAX surround sound? Heavenly stuff. She's gonna kill Defying Gravity for sure.

Oh I never believed people didn’t want the same NTC slop anymore. If anything, it just kept getting worse. I’d love to be in a world where people actually were demanding like people claimed they were, but the math doesn’t math sadly.

In my opinion, they were a crucial part of these movies' appeal. Partly because of the real-life husband and wife connection, as well as how they help add a sense of emotional and familial grounding that isn't seen in a lot of horror movies. They may not be the deepest characters, but they play a big part in the popularity and quality of these films, and I feel it doesn't quite feel right not seeing them in this. But hey! Could just be me! Could be wrong!

Devil's advocate though: Kingdom of the Apes still did well, and it didn't have the original cast or characters. So hey! That could happen again!

I mean not really? Transformers has no Shia or Mark Wahlberg, but they aren't the reason people go to these. Rise of the Beasts still had Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee.

Might be the constant underperformance of horror and Furiosa bombing, but Quiet Place feels like an underperformer tbh. It has the same problem Furiosa has where there's almost none of the original cast (though I guess Djimon Honsou makes it a little better?), and the hook isn't even all that interesting. It's showing what happened the first day the aliens took over...which is something we already saw in Quiet Place 2. Just feels like one where opening in the 30s would be an achievement IMO

Moderation Yeah, we're gonna end this before it begins. It's too early in the day for this.

I will say that Twisters obviously won't gross as much as Top Gun Maverick, but it has a lot of the same vibes as that movie, so long as the film's got a banger RT score. And honestly, Lee Isaac Chung makes me feel pretty confident in that regard. Like it has some heartland/Americana stuff that can appeal to flyover states and rural/conservative areas, fun action and spectacle that you don't really see in movies anymore for PLF junkies, while potentially being a legit crowdpleasing and exciting movies for coastal elites like me. Plus, it's the only big PG-13 movie in town. So Deadpool will for sure hurt it on its second weekend, but it arguably stands out from all the R-rated mayhem coming afterwards. Weird to say PG-13 feels like counterprogramming, but this has been a weird summer. Again, it all depends on reviews, but I feel, at the very least, it will play well to underserved audiences.

They're currently where A24 was circa 2016/17 where they've had one or two solid hits, but the normies don't recognize their name just yet, nor do they have overpriced merch to make them seem cool to hipsters. I don't even think any of their movies have appeared on Netflix, while A24 hops to Netflix/Max/Hulu/Prime for mass exposure. I think Neon's stuff is Hulu-only. The guy who owns Neon threw shade at A24 for selling candles and shit, but that might not be a bad idea if they want to get to their level. Just saying.

He’s doing his job reporting on the box office. And yeah, talking about historical lows and being negative over those objective truths are part of the job. Even if you “knew it would happen”, that’s still terrible. I mean the bigger issue is that only one movie opened to the expectations from box office nerds and the industry. Everything else opened below expectations. Even if you think IF or Fall Guy were predicted too high, that’s still really bad, very alarming news. If you can’t even open to 35M or 45M like what the industry projected, how can you not be disappointed or say negative stuff about it?

Gotta be honest, the whole “Netflix movies have no impact” thing just doesn’t hold much water as the years go by. Like yeah, a lot of their movies come and go, but anecdotally, Don’t Look Up has been mentioned in climate change circles many a time,Leave the World Behind was brought up when some social media sites are down, Irishman is still brought up during Scorsese discussions online, Marriage Story memes were a huge thing, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio gets brought up as a modern animated classic. Like Lana Condor was on Abbott Elementary a few weeks ago, and tweets were out saying “Look, it’s Lara Jean”. Sure, they might not be talked about as much as they do when they first came out, but that’s how every movie works. There’s a peak time for discussion for anything, then it dies down. Everything Everywhere isn’t talked as much after the Oscars, but you can’t say the movie isn’t popular. Really, the big reason why most Netflix movies don’t “leave impact” is because a good chunk of them either aren’t in popular media franchises that have been around for decades, or simply aren’t good or interesting. Like quality is a far bigger issue here than the platform, since the movies I listed all were a step above quality, or at least have more to say about them. Plus being a box office hit doesn’t automatically mean your movie left some big cultural impact. Like honestly, when was the last time you saw somebody talk about Free Guy out in the wild?

You're not a real movie.

Neon must have some sort of sixth sense in knowing what will win the Palme. Like this can't be a coincidence.

Sadly, I don't think these types of milestones aren't getting the same kind of push or priority as they used to. The last time we got some big fudge jobs to reach certain box office milestones was probably 2019 with The Addams Family. And even then, Rocketman and Downton Abbey didn't get any fudging. Post-COVID, The Bad Guys didn't get it even though it was only a couple million short, Bob Marley tried to do something and then stopped. I feel like those cable TV rights bonuses studios get for this kind of stuff don't really matter much or are worth it anymore.

I'm pro-furry, but when I see my baby get disrespected, I'm going to fight for my right to defend him. Not on my watch!

We all know why. But I don't think now is the time for me to go all thirsty. Maybe in a couple hours or so...

So we're just gonna completely ignore Dune? Or Wonka? Or any of the small-scale hits in those months? Or even the solid grossing 150M+ hits? That's cute. You're really cute.

Not everything needs a sequel. And honestly, Fall Guy's one that I think works well as just the one thing.

I genuinely forgot Snow White & The Huntsman even existed until this very post right here. Can you believe that movie adjusts to a whopping 210M in today's money?

Were they ever really thriving tho?

Thought about it for a couple minutes and I think it’s just the 2009 Star Trek movie. I like Hemsy a lot, but he really got so lucky career-wise. He’s gonna play Thor until he is in his 80s

That CinemaScore for Garfield has me legit curious on what could be in it that would isolate family audiences. Doesn’t seem to have anything objectionable in it.