filmlover

This ended up being a pretty strong March overall. Ghostbusters the only movie to truly miss expectations (and even then, no one can claim the writing wasn't on the wall for it in advance).

A- Dune: Part Two B- Kung Fu Panda 4 Mean Girls C Bob Marley: One Love Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire C- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire D+ Argylle

Really loud and really dumb, but I didn't find this nearly as much fun or as ridiculous as it should've been. I'm sure fans of kaiju battles will enjoy themselves just fine, but for me, it's hard to get invested in a bunch of giant monsters causing billions of dollars in property damage (and almost certainly plenty of casualties) when there's so little dramatic urgency present (with actors, both returning and new to the series, too talented for the material once again showing up as the ultimately thankless humans). Also, I can't be the only one who finds it incredibly annoying that these movies so obviously favor one of the two main titans over the other, right? Godzilla only appears in this movie whenever the script needs him to, not because he's actually integral to the King Kong-centered plot. At least the CGI is superb, as expected, The biggest issue this has, though, is that it comes on the heels of the vastly superior Godzilla Minus One. That movie actually has stakes and heart to it in addition to the state-of-the-art visual effects (on a much smaller budget to boot), rendering these movies as pale imitators that often come across as less insufferable versions of the Michael Bay Transformers movies but with giant monsters instead of giant robots. C

Because the Spider-Man movies are already scratching that itch well enough.

MGM has been marketing it big time though and the movie is still almost a month away. If it tanks, lack of awareness definitely won't be the reason.

Special congratulations to WB for turning a pair of pandemic era day-and-date casualties into major theater events. Some much needed good news for the studio away from the shelved projects and so on.

IF is the next movie directly targeting families but since it's only one week before Garfield, the amount of time of having very little competition is about the same.

I always thought a total close to the '06 remake (which itself was heavily boosted by a highly gimmicky release date) would've been a major win for it. The Omen as an IP doesn't seem to carry the same relevancy today as other horror franchises, especially when it's religiously-themed and horror movies like that are a dime a dozen (one is even playing in theaters right now).

It would be cool if Monkey Man did well but it feels like it's ceiling is about $40M or so? Buzz does feel a bit on the quiet side despite the SXSW hype. Challengers only needs to clear $18M to become the biggest movie of Luca Guadagnino's career so even a $30M+ total could probably be attributed to Zendaya's power.

I actually think Challengers could go higher than the high-end of the forecast since MGM has been pushing it like crazy though I can certainly see the hesitancy in overpredicting a movie about tennis (a sports genre that's always had limited appeal at the box office) and questioning the commercial viability of a Luca Guadagnino film (his biggest movie by far to date didn't hit $20M total and that was a Best Picture nominee).

It's gotten lost in the Godzilla x Kong buzz but in case it wasn't posted before: Long Range Box Office Forecast & 2024’s Upcoming Calendar (as of 3/28/24) Release Date Title 3-Day (FSS) Opening Low/High Range Domestic Total Low/High Range Distributor 4/5/2024 The First Omen $8,000,000 – $13,000,000 $20,000,000 – $34,400,000 20th Century Studios 4/5/2024 Monkey Man $13,000,000 – $21,000,000 $37,000,000 – $63,000,000 Universal Pictures 4/10/2024 SUGA│Agust D TOUR “D-DAY” the MOVIE BTS SUGA 4/12/2024 Civil War $15,000,000 – $23,000,000 $42,000,000 – $72,000,000 A24 4/12/2024 Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (2024) Iconic Events Releasing 4/12/2024 The Ministry of Ungentlemenly Warfare $6,000,000 – $10,000,000 $12,000,000 – $34,000,000 Lionsgate 4/12/2024 Shrek 2 (20th Anniversary Re-Release) Universal Pictures 4/13/2024 SUGA│Agust D TOUR “D-DAY” the MOVIE BTS SUGA 4/19/2024 Abigail $12,000,000 – $22,000,000 $28,000,000 – $66,000,000 Universal Pictures 4/19/2024 Sasquatch Sunset Bleecker Street 4/19/2024 Spy x Family Code: White Sony / Crunchyroll 4/19/2024 Villains Inc. Purdie Distribution 4/19/2024 Wildfire: The Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse Hannover House 4/24/2024 aespa: WORLD TOUR Trafalgar Releasing 4/26/2024 Challengers $7,000,000 – $12,000,000 $18,000,000 – $35,000,000 United Artists Releasing 4/26/2024 Nowhere Special Cohen Media Group 4/26/2024 Unsung Hero $7,000,000 – $14,000,000 $20,000,000 – $46,000,000 Lionsgate / Kingdom Story Company Long Range Box Office Forecast: CHALLENGERS and UNSUNG HERO - Boxoffice (boxofficepro.com)

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To be fair, Godzilla x Kong is likely bringing in families too. They've been marketing towards that crowd as well, the trailer was even before my showing of Kung Fu Panda 4 a few weeks ago.

Not at all, really. This is a franchise that clearly has nowhere left to go creatively (something that's probably been the case since the first movie).

The Marvels did drop over 75% just four months ago in its second weekend. That would be a horrifically awful hold that would put $100M total in jeopardy though if it holds up. Sony would be nuts to make another at this point knowing the potential isn't there unless they really slash the budget down, that's now 2 out of 3 modern attempts at this IP that will end up certified money-losers.

Keep in mind folks that it's Good Friday/Easter Weekend so that's bound to play with the multipliers this weekend a bit.

Figured we might as well have a thread for this since it's RDJ's follow-up to his Oscar glory.

Definitely a major vote of confidence with this release date choice.

Good move, October was already packed even before Venom moved with Smile 2 set for the week before.

Godzilla x Kong is likely going to end up having the run the '21 movie would've enjoyed in normal circumstances with no day-and-date. That asterisk aside, the Monster-Verse has been pretty dependable gross-wise with the exception of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, an obvious outlier due to a mixture of aforementioned reasons (tepid reception to the '14 Godzilla flick, 5 year gap between movies, weak reviews, a crowded marketplace, no hook for more casual viewers not invested in Godzilla/monster lore, etc.).

Oh no. RIP.

This is going to be just as shrugged off as the Whitney movie was. Definitely way too soon and there's no nostalgia given what a bummer her life was, it's not like you can't find images or footage of the actual Amy in her darker days with a quick Google search.

To be fair, these movies definitely lack the obnoxious attempts at humor that made those flicks impossible to endure at times (and are automatically better because of it).