Eric Ripley

As the man who coined the phrase "nostalgic toy commercial", I have the final say on whether Inside Out 2 and Deadpool 3 are nostalgia bait. The answer...is yes.

Good luck to the both of ya's. 🙃

Dune 2 and Wonka should have made more though. Just because.

I mean...I guess an extra 50M was lost with Christmas Eve being on Friday...I guess? But you're really overstating how the calendar works. And honestly, I'd argue the Christmas bump in general isn't as extreme as some users here make it out to be. It's there, but a film's not gonna add an extra 200M to a movie's total just because it came out in late December.

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!

I made a top 10 for the summer prediction earlier this year, so might as well look back on it and laugh. The actual top 10 meanwhile is probably: I was going super conservative because it really seemed like things were going to be bleak and embarrassing for the rest of the year, especially since it seemed like Disney movies and superhero stuff seemed like it would be permanently depressed and down. But alas, I should have never, ever in a million years doubted Mickey's Law. For non-Disney studios, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Disney movies can bomb...but not because of the law. Not making that mistake again. And all told, despite the law being the law, it was definitely a decent summer all things considered. Still got concerning spots in our NTC hellscape...but it could be worse I suppose.

That’s weird. I thought Deadpool being so big would help trickle down the money to Reagan. 🤔

https://deadline.com/2024/08/box-office-summer-labor-day-deadpool-wolverine-afraid-1236073792/

Great film. Love the whole nonlinear structure and how brutal it got at points.

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/babygirl-2024/ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/babygirl_2024 82 on MC, 83% on RT

So...how have y'all been this past week? Enjoying yourselves?

HUSBAND