Eric Prime

Gerry B and Fiddy C. Their POWAH

@WrathOfHan Your queen's slayed another day...while wet.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/01/17/lego-incredibles-lego-dc-villains-games-reportedly-in-development LEGO Incredibles, of all things, is now a video game. Paging @YourMother the Edgelord

My theater's weekend also has Den of Thieves doing pretty well too. And people say Gerard Butler isn't a draw! 😏

...oh.

Fitting that we're talking about sex on the Devil's number, because we're all going to Hell after this.

I was very confused for a second, because I thought you were talking about the animated movie.

The #1 movie out that week for my conception was...Private Parts. How oddly fitting.

Paging @aabattery

Reason #847 why I'll never have kids.

12 Strong 31 1427 2.17% Den of Thieves 155 923 16.79% For whatever reason, Den of Thieves is catching on a tad at my theater. 12 Strong doesn't look very good, but the movie's going to be more walkup-driven, so it's not like it needs incredible presales. I'll see if I can take a look at Maze Runner, Shades, and Panther, but I've got a busy day today, so don't count on it.

Well...at least it seems Daisy had a good time recording.

We've been forced to eat nothing but Kiwi fruit ever since AA's reign. Get out while you still can.

I am still confused why anyone would willingly sit down and watch SNL. The entire show's run is pretty much one or two funny moments, and three or four really funny actors, with the rest consisting of nothing but mediocrity. #SorryNotSorry

The only M:I film I saw was the first one. It was confusing and convoluted as shit, but it had a cool train scene, so I guess I liked it well enough.

We're going into the top 5 now, y'all. Time for the big boys!

WIN #5 JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE "I like can't even with this place." Release Date: December 20 Director: Jake Kasdan Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale B.O. Gross: $293.7M DOM, $678.7M WW, and counting In 1995, Sony released Jumanji, a family adventure comedy starring Robin Williams. It was a big success, thanks to its impressive visuals (at the time) and the starpower of Williams, in spite of lukewarm reception. In 2012, nearly 17 years later, Sony announced they were in the early planning developments for some sort of remake/reboot/continuation thing with the property. But it wasn’t until 2017 that the film finally released. And while many expected the film to do well, in spite of Internet outcry that this would "tarnish" the 1995 classic, I think it’s fair to say no one, maybe not even Sony themselves expected this film to do so well. While the film officially premiered on December 20, a few days after Star Wars, serving as the counterprogrammer to the big juggernaut, it actually began its run on December 8. Sony knew they had a crowdpleasing winner on their hands, unlike Warner Bros. who used King Arthur previews as a last-minute resort. With a clever Amazon partnership (Get it? It’s because there’s a jungle!), Jumanji grossed $2 million from these Friday previews. Considering they were only in a handful of theaters, only consisted of one showtime, and were somewhat exclusive, it really proved how much interest the concept and stars had on moviegoers. And with the film being such a crowdpleaser, word very quickly spread about how funny and smart the movie was. It wasn’t some dumb cashgrab, but a fun family adventure comedy. But when it got to wide release the film garnered over $71 million in its first six days ($36.2 million for the 22nd to the 24th), above the $60 million estimates tracking initially suggested. Very soon, word of mouth spread like crazy, with the film continuing to pack seats. So much so, the film gained a substantial amount on New Year’s Eve weekend, with a 38% jump to nearly $50 million, having the 4th biggest second weekend gain ever for a film in more than 3,000 theaters. Once New Year’s Day rolled around, Jumanji usurped the #1 slot from Star Wars, and as of this writing continues to do so. In its third weekend, the film continued to impress, as it had one of the lowest drops in the top 10, a mere 25%, making it gross $37.2 million, which might I add is more than what the first 3-day weekend grossed. This MLK weekend saw another great drop, at 25% to a $28.1 million for the 3-day ($35.4M 4-day). Currently, the film’s total is at $293.7 million domestically and $678.7 million worldwide, which has already made it one of the biggest movies of the year and a film with a long number of records. For one, it’s currently the highest-grossing film to open on Christmas weekend, beating out films like Sing and Meet the Fockers, and in terms of December movies, it’s currently only behind Titanic, Avatar, all 3 Disney Star Wars films, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the first Hobbit film. And keep in mind, this is still on its way to $350 million at worst, which will make it only behind the Cameron joints, the Star Wars joints, and Return of the King (Heck, with how phenomenal its legs are, maybe it will beat that). In fact, this is Sony’s first film to cross $200M domestically since Hancock in 2008, and when all is said and done, it will be Sony’s biggest non-Spider-Man film ever. It might even just beat out all of the other films in the franchise apart from the first one (Maybe it could beat that too, ya never know). Being relatively cheap at around $90-110M will generate even more profits for the film. What made this movie be a part of the top 5 was how unexpected its opening and legs are. Most people predicted the film would make Daddy’s Home numbers at best, and I myself thought the film was only going to barely gross $100 million. And seeing the film more than double from those expectations was incredible, and can be chalked up to many different elements. For one, starpower. The film took Dwayne Johnson, arguably the biggest name in Hollywood, Kevin Hart, one of the biggest comedians working today, Jack Black, a name that’s already been in several hit family movies, Karen Gillan, a rising star fresh off Guardians of the Galaxy, and Nick Jonas, a teen heartthrob with a lot of fans, this film delivered in the superstar factor which helped make promotion very easy, and made a lot of people excited, especially the idea of Johnson and Hart teaming up again, and Jack Black playing a teenage girl. Speaking of which, the premise was extremely clever. Instead of just doing a shot-for-shot remake of the 90s film, they made it a continuation that didn’t need any prior knowledge of the 90s film, outside of a few easter eggs, and gave the idea a creative spin, with kids turning into video game characters. This not only led to a lot of clever comedic moments (Jack Black as a teenage girl), but it also allowed them to play with video game conventions in a way that made it funny and fresh. Then you add on the fact the film was one of the rare features that was able to appeal to both kids and adults on the same level, as well as solid reviews, and it’s no surprise that the film caught on with a mass audience, and word of mouth propelled it to becoming one of the biggest hits of the year, and was a wonderful finale for a pretty decent year for Sony. Let’s hope that momentum continues for the studio in 2018. A sequel still hasn’t been announced yet, but I’m sure at the moment Sony is already negotiating ideas for a sequel, and it will be interesting to see how the second...or third...I guess...installment of the franchise will do.

#5 FAIL COMEDY "*crickets chirping*" Finally, our first entry that's a compilation of other films. Expect this to happen a lot in this top 5. Anyway, while 2017 was a great year for horror and superhero films, it was a very rough year for comedy features. While not everything completely tanked, it seemed like 9 times out of 10, a comedy film failed to deliver with critics, audiences, or both. It all started with the film Fist Fight. Thanks to a muted marketing campaign and poor reviews, the film came and went, with only $32.2 million domestic and $41.1 million worldwide. Then in March, CHiPs was released. The film attempted to follow in the footsteps of 21 Jump Street by taking an old TV show, and turning it into a raunchy comedy. The issue however was that the show they picked had zero relevance in 2017. I didn’t even know this show existed until I heard they were making a movie out of it. And while 21 Jump Street had superstars like Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, this had Michael Pena, a guy whose entire career has been character acting and supporting roles, and Dax Shepard, a comedian who has zero starpower, and is more annoying than amusing. Then you add on terrible reception, with many saying it was one of the worst films of the year, and the film tanked with only $18.6 million domestic and $26.8 million worldwide. And surprisingly, it wasn’t even the biggest blunder when it came to films aping 21 Jump Street, but we’ll get to that in a little bit. The following May, after the critical and box office success of Trainwreck, Amy Schumer’s next feature, Snatched, attempted to capitalize on that film’s success, being a female counterprogrammer on Mother’s Day weekend against Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2. However, the film received negative reviews, and opened to a mediocre $19.5 million, and ended up with only a $45.8 million domestic and $60.8 million worldwide gross, which meant the film couldn’t break even on its $42 million production budget. We’ll see if I Feel Pretty, Schumer’s next comedy, will be any better for her. Then on Memorial Day weekend, Baywatch was released. This was supposed to be one of the biggest comedy hits of the summer and the entire year, as it followed the 21 Jump Street formula, but also had box office superstar Dwayne Johnson as its lead. And considering this was a show most people actually recognized, this should have been a slam dunk. Tracking suggested the film would open to $40 million on its 5-day opening weekend, but then the reviews came in, and it all went downhill. Critics derided the film as one of the worst of the year, and audiences seemed to agree, as the film opened to only $27.7 million in its first five days, a far cry from what was expected, and quickly disappeared, ending with a $58.1 million domestic total. Worldwide was a touch rosier, as it grossed $177.8 million, helping it break even on its $69 million (Nice) production budget. But for a Dwayne Johnson-led comedy that was planned to be a franchise for Paramount (Again, we’ll get to them in a bit), it was a total failure. June saw two star-studded comedies completely bomb with critics and audiences. The first, Rough Night, had a lot of hurdles to jump through. Despite a star-studded cast featuring Scarlett Johansson and Kate McKinnon, the film’s dark concept of a group of friends at a bachelorette party accidentally killing a male stripper did not appeal to audiences, and left critics mixed, and audiences unhappy (A C+ Cinemascore). It opened to only $8 million, and ended up with only $22.1 million domestic, and $47.3 million worldwide. The House, like Baywatch, also seemed like a slam dunk at the box office. Will Ferrell’s always been a reliable name to put butts into seats, Amy Poehler’s also well-known, and the previews were amusing enough, so it should have at least made The Campaign numbers. But once the disastrous reviews came in, the film completely tanked, failing to meet its tracked $10-14 million opening, a number that was already pretty low, the film only opened to $11.9 million on its 5-day Fourth of July weekend, and a $25.6 million domestic gross, one of the lowest in Will Ferrell’s career. September also saw Home Again as a counterprogram for It. Because of how groanworthy the trailers were, as well as the production looking more like a CBS or ABC show than an actual movie, the film opened to only $8.6 million, and ended with a $27 million gross. October later saw Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, which I've already gone into great detail on in the previous post. And to end off the year, Just Getting Started, a film that was delayed multiple times due to distributor Broad Green filing for bankruptcy and the film being flat-out terrible, opened in 10th place with $3.2 million, and dropped like a rock, only making $6 million, and Father Figures, which also was delayed multiple times, to the point where it was supposed to come out in November of 2016, opened to $3.3 million, but thanks to Christmas legs, it has so far grossed $17.2 million and counting. Although again, that’s a pretty terrible number. The genre wasn’t completely in the pits though. Going in Style made $84.9 million worldwide, while the film only costed $25 million to make, How to Be a Latin Lover surprised on its opening weekend, The Big Sick became a sleeper hit, as did Lady Bird, both of which being considered Oscar contenders, Girls Trip, as I’ve said before, did very, very well, The Hitman’s Bodyguard had a decent opening and a decent ending total, and A Bad Moms Christmas and Daddy’s Home 2, while still dropping quite a bit from their predecessors and recieved negative reviews, didn’t really drop that much. Daddy’s Home 2 even managed to cross $100 million. And of course, there was Jumanji, but we’ll get to that film in a little bit. However, with so many disappointments, including ones from reliable name talent like The Rock, ScarJo, and Will Ferrell, it definitely felt as if comedy films did nothing but fall flat on their faces. There’s been a lot of theories as to why these films failed, from the studios overreliance on tentpoles, therefore ignoring their lower-budget fare, to these films being made before the current presidential administration. While there’s a lot things in the world to blame Trump on, underperforming box office is a bit of a stretch to pin on the annoying orange. I think the biggest issue, and it’s a quite simple one, was that this year’s comedy crop flat-out sucked. This year, only about three or so comedy films got solid reviews from critics, and those three, Girls Trip, Big Sick, and Jumanji, were the few comedy films that landed. Making a good comedy is hard work, because its most important job is to make people laugh. If they can’t make people laugh, and people end up bored, uninterested, or even angry that they spent money on it, people are going to be upset, and the movie isn’t going to make any money. And that's exactly what happened to CHiPs, Baywatch, and The House, and just about every other comedy feature this year. Hopefully, 2018 will offer more laughs and make people come back and see another funny flick. At the very least, I’m sure Ocean’s 8 will cross the $100 million mark domestically, while Night School and Holmes & Watson will have a good shot at crossing that mark as well.

http://deadline.com/2018/01/lionsgate-talks-amazon-verizon-cbs-viacom-1202244991/ Amazon, Verizon, and CBS-Viacom are all interested in acquiring Lionsgate. https://media.giphy.com/media/43tP7nc6VFQWs/giphy.gif

And of course we know the reason why...

Alpha will save them.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssss Also, Hearts Beat Loud, Sorry to Bother You, and White Fang sound pretty good.

https://letterboxd.com/film/love-simon/reviews/by/added/ Some people got to catch early screenings, and it's been nothing but raves. Maybe this could beat Fault in Our Stars after all.