Eric Quinn

I'm sure it's an issue of maintenance and cost. There's a lot of money in maintaining a streaming service, keeping it running, and making sure all the content on there is running at high video speeds constantly. Adding in, whether we like it or not, hundreds of older films that don't have appeal to the youths isn't always ideal if you don't have the infrastructure for them. Disney bought an experienced streaming service developer with BAMTech prior to Disney+, so they already had a strong infrastructure, and a good chunk of their older titles are already evergreen titles, so there was better financial justification to put their classic films on the service Day 1.

I forget who said it (I think it was AJG?), but I remember somebody on here basically saying Peacock was the equivalent of a Wal-Mart $5 bin. Just full of weird direct-to-video titles and good films that everybody already owns and air on cable TV every other Sunday afternoon, like Twins, Knocked Up, Apollo 13, etc. Their originals, from what little I've seen, also feel like NBC shows that would have aired in 2007. Paramount+ is a mess and like 75% of their content is available on competing services, but at least there are some nuggets of intrigue here. Peacock just feels like a gas station. I did enjoy watching the Universal Monsters movies on the service, but I think it's boneheaded they don't have all of them. If these studios want to compete in the streaming wars, they should really try and get all their movies and shows they own onto one service. Feel like that's the one way to really stand out and at least get cinephiles intrigued at seeing decades of film history under one low price.

This is anecdotal of course, but my family always goes to the movies every Christmas Day. But just a couple days ago, my mom said point blank she doesn't want to go this year because she had such a good time watching Soul at home. She said she prefers sitting on the couch with the family while wrapped up in a blanket rather than getting into the car and going out. She probably would enjoy something like this or find it interesting, but she would rather just enjoy it on TV. I know this is one story, but I do think for a lot of individuals, especially for older folks, COVID has really normalized watching movies at home, especially ones that don't get a PLF push behind them, as the prime destination for viewing. So stuff like this are movies they would be interested in, but only worth a "wait until it's home on digital/Netflix/cable". I know this sounds ridiculous and saddening for some here, but that's sadly how it is in my eyes.

King Richard is another one and I can't wait for that. It'll be really funny to see Venus and Serena inexplicably look a year older in certain shots and sequences.

I guess to move away from the doom and gloom about the state of adult-oriented films and awards hopefuls, I will fully admit that Halloween Kills' performance was a pleasant surprise. It's still a big drop from the last one, but even before the pandemic, I kinda felt this would have gotten a 35M opening, as I didn't see any big hook here that would make people come back. So potentially doing 10M more than that, despite the day-and-date release (yes I know nobody uses Peacock, but this movie is definitely a bigger deal and way more impactful than Boss Baby 2 was) is really good stuff IMO

https://www.boxofficepro.com/long-range-box-office-forecast-marvel-studios-eternals/ Long Range Box Office Forecast & 2021 Calendar (as of 10/15/21) Release Date Title 3-Day (FSS) Opening Low/High Range % Chg from Last Week Domestic Total Low/High Range % Chg from Last Week Estimated Location Count Distributor 10/22/2021 Dune $42,000,000 – $52,000,000 +4% $95,000,000 – $145,000,000 -4% 4,000 Warner Bros. Pictures 10/22/2021 The French Dispatch 50 Disney / Searchlight Pictures 10/22/2021 Ron’s Gone Wrong $7,000,000 – $12,000,000 -14% $25,000,000 – $50,000,000 -16% 3,500 Disney / 20th Century Studios 10/29/2021 Antlers $3,000,000 – $8,000,000 -21% $7,000,000 – $17,000,000 -21% 2,400 Disney / Searchlight Pictures 10/29/2021 Last Night in Soho $6,500,000 – $11,500,000 -5% $15,000,000 – $30,000,000 -6% 3,300 Focus Features 10/29/2021 My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission TBD TBD 1,500 Funimation / Toho Co. Ltd. 11/5/2021 Eternals $82,000,000 – $102,000,000 $210,000,000 – $280,000,000 Disney / Marvel Studios

Lady Gaga will be the one element that will save Gucci. She'll be the big draw for the 18-34s, though it'll probably only do like 70M or whatever, so still not this big Knives Out-style breakout. But it'll probably still be leaps and bounds above every other adult-skewing film/awards hopeful this year.

It's up now. However, you guys are allowed to make a weekend thread when you see the numbers pop up. You don't have to wait for somebody else to do the job.

Oof. Will this even reach 5M at this point?

https://deadline.com/2021/10/halloween-kills-the-last-duel-weekend-box-office-1234856404/

Eternals Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-21 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 55 1181 11561 10.22% Total Shows Added Today: 5 Total Seats Added Today: 1,415 Total Seats Sold Today: 93 Comp 0.834x of Black Widow T-21 (11.01M)

Dune Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-7 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 36 925 7031 13.16% Total Shows Added Today: 2 Total Seats Added Today: 250 Total Seats Sold Today: 63 Comp 0.877x of F9 T-7 (6.22M) 0.350x of Black Widow T-7 (4.62M) 2.229x of The Suicide Squad T-7 (9.14M) 0.601x of Shang-Chi T-7 (5.29M) 0.891x of Venom 2 T-7 (10.34M) 0.876x of No Time to Die T-7 (5.52M)

The Last Duel Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report Final Count Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 22 98 2631 3.72% Total Seats Sold Today: 37 Comp 0.240x of Cruella Thu (335K) 0.077x of Cruella Thu+Fri (593K) 0.150x of Snake Eyes (210K) 2.649x of Cry Macho (4.24M) 0.113x of Many Saints (237K) Blech!

Halloween Kills Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report Final Count Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 5 60 2875 9725 29.56% Total Shows Added Today: 5 Total Seats Added Today: 1,054 Total Sellouts Added Today: 3 Total Seats Sold Today: 1,116 Comp 1.462x of A Quiet Place Part II Thu (7.02M) 0.555x of A Quiet Place Part II Thu+Fri (10.75M) 1.121x of The Conjuring 3 (10.99M) 0.634x of F9 (4.5M) 3.366x of Old (5.05M) 1.414x of The Suicide Squad (5.8M) 2.032x of Candyman (3.86M) 0.549x of Venom 2 (6.37M) Haven't paid close attention to the MTC counts, but this is a very solid way to end things. Especially because, I'll fully admit, I wasn't able to really track during the early 7PM hour, because I was busy with cooking responsibilities, so I couldn't really dedicate too much time checking sales like that. Stuff happens, what are you gonna do?

Story of my middle school life. 😖

Well the other big issue is that Disney doesn't care about these kinds of movies. Last Duel wasn't designed to sell toys, make sequels out of, or turn into a theme park ride. Free Guy basically falls under the Disney template of "character-driven family fantasy adventure comedy", so there's a reason why Disney was willing to push that film harder.

Audiences today only care about superheroes and nostalgic IP. Disney only cares about movies that they can sell toys from, make sequels out of, make theme park rides out of, etc. Last Duel is just in a sad, precarious situation.

Outside of the fact that it was greenlit two years ago (a lot can happen from development to final release) when the old guard at 20th Century was still around, it's a star-studded epic that was greenlit at a time when Me Too was at its peak of relevancy and when adult-skewing dramas still had an okay slice of the box office pie, from a slew of creatives who have had great success and recognition before, as well as an epic duel as the film's big centerpiece. It's still a premise and film that needed to make sure everything went right, but it's not like this was an uncommercial affair.

Real talk: should have been voiced by Jason Ritter, as a nod to his father.

Eternals Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-22 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 50 1088 10146 10.72% Total Seats Sold Today: 77 Comp 1.029x of Black Widow's First Three Days of Presales (13.59M) 0.808x of Black Widow T-22 (10.67M) 1.312x of Shang-Chi's Third Day of Presales (11.55M)