Eric Prime

I feel like I've gotten a trailer for that about 10 times within the past three months. I would love to meet the man who decided to make a moody remix of a Rihanna song for the trailer and ask them what gave you the idea to do something so stupid.

Well...yeah. I know not every single person will agree on this, and I completely, totally understand why people see it in that perspective. But frankly, I find surprise stories more interesting and more compelling. So in my subjective mindset, which is different from yours and others here, I would find Fantastic Beasts the bigger story in my personal, subjective opinion. I'm sorry if people find that ridiculous or off-base, but I'm just going by how I see things subjectively, and it doesn't take away from that Avatar gross nor NWH's gross at all.

Here's my counterargument: surprise factor. If you do what's expected, even if it's really incredible from all objective measures, it's not as exciting or as interesting as something that had more going against it or just came out of the blue. GvK was in a far worse state pandemic-wise, and everybody and their Grandma said Dune was going to be an epic failure. NWH, while nobody expected to be as big as it was until the run-up towards release, was about as safe a bet as you can get. Even back in the days of 2020 or early 2021, people felt confident Spidey would be the biggest hit of the pandemic era. And yes, those numbers are impressive, but it's not that farfetched to think it could have gotten there. So with more restrictions and harder circumstances, I'm on the GvK/Dune camp. Just as another example, I will always say that Jurassic World is the bigger, more interesting story than Force Awakens. Yes, most didn't expect nearly 1B DOM for the latter...but not a soul thought 650M was a snowball's chance for Jurassic World. In my subjective viewpoint, Jurassic World is the bigger surprise and therefore the bigger story. And for the record, I know that this isn't a popular opinion or way to look at things. This is just my dumb perspective here.

Liked a lot about it, especially in how it depicts that kind of wanderlust adolescent stage of life, but I probably would have liked it way more if Alana and Gary just had a friendship rather than a romance. You can still get the point across about how the two need each other and find themselves intrigued by what the other doesn't have without the weird age gap stuff.

Honestly, ~140M is about what I expected from Sing 2 even before COVID, so I think this is a glowing success when you add in factors like Omicron and kids/family disinterest in the theaters.

Ehh, Disney will force out like 5 spin-off shows to Avatar within the next 3 years of Avatar 2's release. It'll be fine.

Scream Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-17 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 27 249 6254 3.98% Total Seats Sold Today: 6 Comp 0.929x of A Quiet Place Part II Thu+Fri T-17 (17.99M) 4.527x of The Conjuring 3 T-17 (44.39M)

Again, these Fandango lists are hit hard by recency bias. Spider-Verse had its first trailer come out during the polling process. When you factor this being the biggest, splashiest new trailer, and Spidey-Mania in general during those first three weeks of December...yeah, that's going to boost it up quite a bit. Same reason why Avatar's only at #7. There's no marketing materials for some of the other films above it, but Jurassic and Thor are franchises that are in the limelight more, so it makes sense they're above Avatar, despite it being an easy contender for #1 next year. The thing about these top 10s is that their exact rankings don't really matter too much. It's more just a signal about what should be comfortable, safe bets to be some of the year's biggest hits, and to a lesser extent how well the promotions and advertising for the winter/spring fare are going to hook the masses, since they have more marketing materials out there. Yeah there's one or two films that don't make much, but the likes of Glass/Dumbo/Wrinkle in Time/Fifty Shades is, yet again, recency bias, as well as poor critical reception. Basically, take these things with face value, and only on the assumption that the majority of the top 10 will be in the overall top 10 of the year.

To be fair, Fandango polled people in the first three weeks of December, before Doctor Strange 2 was really given the huge spotlight it has now. Recency bias is always a factor with these "most anticipated" lists.

Honestly a Wonka/Aquaman 2 swap seems like the best of both worlds. Wonka fits as good counterprogramming for kids and older auds, and musicals have performed well in December many times before (yes I know about West Side Story and Cats, don't lecture me please). And hey, Timothee as a Christmas present sounds really, really, really, really, really darn good.

She's not...in those movies?

Honestly I think Sonic isn't affected too much by the lack of families. No joke, when I saw the first Sonic movie, my showing only had like two kids in the audience. It was weird.

Fair enough. In that case... FYC Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself for Best Picture No joke, this is a rare film/show/whatever that I recommend to everybody. It will blow you away and make you really dig deep into yourself and the people around you in a way no other movie this year has achieved.

Days of Future Past: 234M Fantastic Beasts 1: 234M Apocalypse: 155M Grindelwald: 159M Dark Phoenix: 66M Dumbledore: ???

Dude, we get it.

I already said this like two weeks ago, but even if you take out the Rowling/Depp stuff, I just don't think Fantastic Beasts has really captured the attention of folks, outside of the hardcore Potter fans. Anecdotal, but the reactions about the first Fantastic Beasts around me weren't anything spectacular and Grindelwald turned away a lot of people. And keep in mind, I was a massive Potter fanatic growing up and made a lot of friends through that series. Deathly Hallows Part II had me choked up when I saw it opening day, and I still really love a lot of the aspects of the original books and movies (Screw Joanne tho). But even I can't bring myself to care. 75M DOM sounds right to me.

Do recordings of stage shows, such as Come From Away on Apple or In & Of Itself on Hulu, count for any categories? I understand they don't necessarily have the same film language, but both still rely on important conventions of film in these specific iterations. In & Of Itself in particular has a lot of moments and sequences that were not in the stage show.

I mean it makes sense on paper why they would all sign on. McKay's been on a hot streak at the awards circuit, he's a nice, likable guy, it has a good hook, and you get to work on something "important". A lot can happen from signing on to production to editing.

Yeah the thing about these Fandango polls is that they are very heavily slanted towards recency bias. Spider-Verse's trailer dropped when polling first started, which helped keep it in the conversation. Avatar 2 has fewer marketing materials, so it's harder for it to stand out to films that have trailers or are in franchises that are currently in the public eye, yet it'll be the biggest movie of next year. Really, these polls are both a reaffirmation about what should be a comfortable, safe bet of what will be a hit (and really, all of the top 10 are) and also a look into how the winter/spring lineup are looking, since they are getting more trailers and promos and ads right now. The lack of Morbius or Turning Red on any of these lists is arguably foreboding, though not really anything too scary. Turning Red especially, because it's an original piece overshadowed by all the big family sequels and spin-offs.

Full Deadline reports, not that this stuff really matters

Just saw the full list on Deadline btw: