Eric Prime

Since I know I'm being talked about here as one of the doom and gloomers--yes, it's perhaps overzealous to say that Saw/Creator opening below expectations isn't worth being overly negative. Especially when, frankly, things weren't even looking that great until a week prior. And yeah, Clay is being very hyperbolic with the whole "the end of movie theaters and society as we know it". Like that's not happening. But also there's just not much else to get excited about since theaters have reopened that doesn't make me very happy for the future of box office. And this weekend, despite likely always setting up for failure, doesn't help my emotions and feelings at all. We only get 2-3 huge breakouts each year, every other movie that comes out feels like they are bombing left and right, even if it's more inflated budgets, huge audience demographics have basically abandoned theatrical, and whole entire genres are on the verge of being extinct. It's been about two years since theaters have reopened, and we are still dealing with 65% of movies failing to break even. We still have comedy as a dead art form. We still have specialties and indies failing to leave any impression minus an EEAAO here or there. We still have the issue where the only major breakouts for movies aimed at older audiences consist of like...3 of them. Oppenheimer doesn't even count since it was mainly young people like me going to it. If things haven't changed much since 2021, I don't think it's going to change now. Even if you don't like the constant pessimism from me or Clay or CJohn, I think it's still a stretch to say everything is just fine and dandy or that things will get better. Plus for somebody like me, specialty releases and counterprogramming, the little guys, are my favorite things to look at box office wise. Blockbusters can have fun runs and I'm a big animation nerd, so I like seeing those leggy runs too. But those weird breakouts you didn't see coming or awards hopefuls legging out to 70M+ are the nice cherry on top and typically are the movies I gravitate towards the most. But at this rate, they're destined to be nothing more than Netflix/Amazon fodder that gets buried in the algorithm. And that leads to awful repercussions for the art form in general that we are already seeing. Even if it turns out to be a good movie, did you really want Barry Jenkins, the guy who worked on Moonlight, wasting his time on a prequel to the Lion King reboot nobody liked? Is this really something worth his time? Was this really a project you want him to focus years of his life on? Well it's a shame all these great directors and indie hopefuls are stuck or will soon be stuck as faceless cogs in the nostalgic toy commercial industrial complex. So having yet another bad weekend on another line of bad weekends doesn't make me feel better, nor do I feel satisfied. And hey! Things could be rosier down the line. Maybe Flower Moon really does break out and become a Departed-level hit. Maybe Wish makes Zootopia numbers. Maybe the new Hunger Games revives the series. I'm definitely bullish on Wonka being a huge breakout success. That's a nostalgic toy commercial, yeah, but it's also great for musicals, which was on a comeback before COVID killed off interest for In the Heights and West Side Story. Would have loved to have seen them come out in a non-COVID timeline and be breakout hits like they deserve. And for all I know, 2024 could be an amazing year, especially with the strikes likely making things way better for the people who make the stuff we like. But I'm sorry to say, as of now, I just can't find a good reason to be cheery or happy. And this kind of venting makes me way happier than trying to find a bright side that doesn't seem to be there. So frankly, if you guys don't like me or Clay or CJohn doing this, maybe it's best to just ignore our little pity parties. Just a thought. I dunno.

Quorum Updates Dumb Money T-1: 29.97% Awareness Killers of the Flower Moon T-22: 31.86% The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes T-50: 34.32% Napoleon T-55: 22.42% Wish T-55: 29.14% Wonka T-78: 52.56% The Creator T-1: 33.51% Awareness Final Awareness: 35% chance of 10M, 2% chance of 20M Medium Awareness: 43% chance of 10M Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie T-1: 37.88% Awareness Final Awareness: 35% chance of 10M Animation/Family Awareness: 0% chance of 10M Saw X T-1: 47.26% Awareness Final Awareness: 84% chance of 10M, 55% chance of 20M, 32% chance of 30M, 19% chance of 40M Horror Awareness: 100% chance of 10M, 83% chance of 20M, 33% chance of 40M The Exorcist: Believer T-8: 46.92% Awareness Final Awareness: 84% chance of 10M, 55% chance of 20M, 32% chance of 30M, 19% chance of 40M Horror Awareness: 100% chance of 10M, 83% chance of 20M, 33% chance of 40M

WHAT

The Mario movie made 1.3 billion dollars.

Okay let’s not go that far. There have been a few theater closures here and there, but the big chains are still doing fine enough with the big events. And even bombs like Indy or M:I or Transformers still made 170M, which is still a good amount of revenue for theaters that don’t get impacted by these overinflated studio budgets. Theatrical might not be as big as it was before, but there’s not gonna be any epic collapse. And coming from a fellow doomer and gloomer, that says a lot right there.

Cap brought up a good point earlier this week where having the movie being about protecting and saving an AI robot feels a little out of touch when so many of us are worried about AI replacing writers and actors and other sectors and industries. Which like…I don’t think that’s the main culprit, but it does kind of feel a tad awkward in hindsight, especially when the best, most successful sci-fi is designed to either be escapist or politically progressive. Or in some cases both.

Simple. It has to be a nostalgic brand people recognize, but also a brand that isn’t nostalgic to only old white people at the same time. Not a lot of those out there sadly. And if you want to dare make something that isn’t based off a brand, you might as well just give up. People get mad at my pessimism, yet it’s harder every week to not feel pessimistic. Ohhhhhhhhh well.

I mean...somebody here might end up seeing this.

Discuss

Discuss

...why would I do that? 😆

Because it offered nothing of value to the forums. It was an instigator for flame wars, it was a beacon for trolls, and because of the way the thread was devised, it basically meant people could mock and troll and insult others with little to no repercussions. This is why we had to remove that thread and be a lot harsher when it comes to fanboy war nonsense. And frankly, there's no reason to bring it back when most agreed it just made the forum unbearable and seep it into discussion. We've been fine without it for three years, and there's no need to start this again. You can read more into why here: As for derailments, nothing has really been derailed here? Talking about the state of the MCU as a franchise in a thread dedicated to an MCU movie is more than fair game and fits with the context of these threads. These kinds of posts have been done before in other MCU movie threads and it was almost always on-topic, barring a random TV show tangent. Maybe some people may find it annoying, but everybody who posts here is old enough to have self control and either ignore or just simply not post such content. And hey, if people prefer this being away from The Marvels specifically, we have a general Marvel subforum in the Clubs section people can utilize. Nobody uses it, but the option is still there.

Moderation @ChipDerby has been threadbanned for 24 hours for continuing to start fights and arguments I asked him to stop and continuing their schtick. I didn't want to have to do this, but I was left with no other choice.

This project sounds too wild for me. They should make a movie called The Mild Robot for people like me 😓

Moderation @ChipDerby Enough. Your whole "MCU IS AMAZING AND EVERYBODY LOVES IT AND YOU'RE ALL OUT TO GET IT" schtick you're doing isn't funny. Throwing a temper tantrum on people daring to be pessimistic over a dumb kids movie, and blatantly ignoring the facts and evidence because you don't want a dumb kids movie to bomb isn't helping anybody. Stop this fanboy nonsense, or you will see a threadban. Your choice.

As CG movies get more and more experimental, I've gone through the same pattern of "this looks cheap. This looks weird. I don't like it", every time a new trailer drops for one of them. Didn't like the way Puss in Boots looked, how TMNT looked, how Elemental looked, all those. Then I actually saw them on the big screen and their animation is typically some of the best aspects of the movies. Don't know if it's my eye getting used to these new art styles or some sort of weird issue with YouTube and Twitter. But it is very weird that this happens every time with me. Assuming this will be the case when I get around to watching this.

Maybe Canadians are just inherently sick in the head. You guys ever find yourself in the mood to torture?

It was never going to work lol. Even ironically, how do you convince a 28 year old to see a Paw Patrol movie?

Not speaking for everybody, but I've used the RT score more as a "this % is the likelihood you will like this movie". So a 90% isn't a "9/10", it's a "90% chance it's at least a 6/10".

Quorum Updates Dumb Money T-2: 27.77% Awareness Five Nights at Freddy's T-30: 37.44% The Marvels T-44: 47.12% Trolls Band Together T-51: 40.22% The Iron Claw T-86: 13.54% The Creator T-2: 31.75% Awareness Final Awareness: 35% chance of 10M, 2% chance of 20M Medium Awareness: 43% chance of 10M Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie T-2: 39.49% Awareness Final Awareness: 35% chance of 10M Animation/Family Awareness: 0% chance of 10M Saw X T-2: 46.67% Awareness Final Awareness: 84% chance of 10M, 55% chance of 20M, 32% chance of 30M, 19% chance of 40M Horror Awareness: 100% chance of 10M, 83% chance of 20M, 33% chance of 40M Freelance T-30: 28.66% Awareness T-30 Awareness: 53% chance of 10M Low Awareness: 35% chance of 10M Priscilla T-37: 23.97% Awareness T-30 Awareness: 53% chance of 10M Low Awareness: 35% chance of 10M

Sooooooooooooooooo ready for the Wonka press tour. My baby's gonna be legendary

Timothee is the most beautiful, most wonderful man in the world, Gene Wilder was also a beautiful, wonderful man. Therefore, they are obligated to be connected to each other. Simple as that really.