Anyways, this is now an excuse for me to give my top 10 for the rest of the year. This oughta be fun.
1. Moana 2 (425M)
2. Joker 2 (405M)
3. Beetlejuice 2 (370M)
4. Mufasa: The Lion King (285M)
5. Sonic 3 (260M)
6. Wicked (230M)
7. Venom 3 (215M)
8. Gladiator 2 (140M)
9. Smile 2 (110M)
10. Transformers One (100M)
Joker is the one I’m going super bold on. The initial novelty factor of the first one has been circumvented by both the goodwill of the last movie and especially Gaga’s casting that I can see a decent increase. I’m also assuming its “society!” message will also resonate once again, and the trailers are resonating with damn near everybody. Even me. And I think the first Joker sucks eggs!
I had Moana doing somewhere in the 300s, and I think it’s more likely than people care to admit. And I think something like 360M or whatever would still be super impressive and incredibly good, though I know people will whine about how “IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER”. But on the other hand, the buzz and excitement seems pretty palatable looking at Quorum metrics, social media, the popularity of that first movie, etc. Just seems like we’re in for a Shrek to Shrek 2-style bump, and that would take us to 410M, so might as well go just a wee bit higher. But again, I think the 300s would still be great for it.
Using Maleficent 2’s drop for Mufasa would give it 256M, which is probably where it would be at in the summer or something. So add on a couple extra 30M to the total right there. If it hits those numbers though, we’re probably gonna have a lot of Little Mermaid-style fighting over whether that’s a “good number” or not. Which is not gonna be fun for me! Sonic and Gladiator also seem like they’ll be annoying with a lot of “IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER” takes. Oh well.
Main thing I accounted for in my own rankings is not just the NTC effect, but also, and more importantly, the Mickey’s Law effect. It’s very clear we’re back in the world where, for non-Disney films, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Joker’s a DC movie, and the masses think every superhero thing is Marvel, so that doesn’t count. But hey! Beetlejuice seems like it will be an exception, barring some Twisters-style collapse overseas.
But yeah, the non-NTCs are looking ugly. Wild Robot could get to 100M with good legs, though it’s still frustrating that animated movies, the last bastion where we could get breakout hits that weren’t NTCs, are barely able to get to the century mark unless they have great legs and zero competition. That’s a bad sign for the industry. Both it and Smile 2 seem like the only potential breakouts when it comes to non-NTCs this year. Though I guess there might be a random A24 film that gets to 40M+? Maybe? I dunno. And I guess A Complete Unknown could get to 40M+ too, but that’s also basically an NTC when you get down to it.
We’re gonna have a lot of hits this fall! But it’s still looking bleak! Wish audiences bothered to be daring for once! Oh well!