TServo2049

The Gift's theater count for last weekend was corrected.

Yes, it was the worst August in 20 years.

Another example of the contradiction - that's a movie that always would have been PG. If movies like Frozen and Cinderella had been G, Into the Woods' PG would have actually signaled something to parents. Again, why I think they either need to properly enforce the existing ratings so parents can actually tell something about the film from them, or create a new rating to absorb the "hard" PGs (e.g., Rango, HTTYD2, ITW) and "soft" PG-13s (e.g., Ant-Man, Pixels).

I think it's a bit of both. When Shrek got a PG, it was still when you had to earn it. Its success had to have contributed to studios WANTING their animated films to get PG, at the same time that the MPAA made it harder to get a G. I honestly think at this rate, there should be another rating in between PG and PG-13, because all the G stuff has moved into PG, but "true" PG stuff is lumped in with it and you get "This is meant for kids?!" bellyaching over stuff like Coraline and Rango. If all animated/family films are going to get PG like they used to get G, maybe there needs to be a PG-8 or PG-9 or something for the stuff that would have gotten PG even *before* all the films that would have been G started getting PG (sort of like the E10+ that was introduced for video games).

Actually, 2012 was the least attended August of this century, not 2000.

I agree with you, but at the same time Dragonball Evolution pissed off even the fans. So it appealed to absolutely no one. (I'm still amazed that Fox was able to get it to even $48M OS - how are they able to get such disproportionate OS grosses from domestic flops?)

Point well taken. I'm wondering if this was a holdover from the previous regime and the current people didn't turn out to be as hot for the prospect of a Joe Wright Peter Pan movie, and tried to get their hands into it to make it more what they wanted - I swear this was greenlit/announced when Robinov was still in charge, am I wrong? How often has a completed score been tossed? I believe that Gabriel Yared's score for Troy was finished when they tossed it and brought in James Horner?

This film is totally off my radar, but I will say that pickups/reshoots being done by a different DP is not always a sign of a disaster or meddling. Vilmos Zsigmond did not film the pickups for Close Encounters (I think they went through 2-3 different DPs for the additional shooting after principal!) and that movie turned out fine.

Every year, it seems like Tuesday increases more and Wednesday drops more. By the time we get to 2020, I wouldn't be totally shocked to see 100% increases on Tuesdays...

I see you, like most, ignore 1941 in between Close Encounters and Raiders. And as I said before, I don't hate 1941. But it does bounce between feeling like Spielberg, Zemeckis (he and Bob Gale wrote the screenplay), and John Landis (I get similar vibes to Animal House and/or Blues Brothers at points...even though Blues Brothers came AFTER 1941. Not to mention AH and/or BB cast members Belushi, Aykroyd, John Candy and Tim Matheson being in it. And I'm not even the only one to compare it to Blues Brothers or say it feels like Landis. And Landis does cameo; Spielberg, of course, did the same in Blues Brothers.)

My exact reaction when I didn't see Close Encounters on that list. That's another essential. Also, if you're really curious, watch 1941. That was Spielberg's first misfire, people think of it as this horrible trainwreck, but I think it's somehow fun in spite of all its problems and shortcomings.

Actually, I stand corrected, what DreamWorks said was that they believed they bet wrong targeting the FILMS at older audiences, not just marketing them, and that they are moving to "lighter, younger skewing and more comedic films." Yes, that does seem to set off alarm bells that this teaser poster might actually reflect the tone of the film, but at the same time everyone keeps saying that the Chinese trailers AREN'T showing a completely goofy kids' film? So in this case, I could be right and it could just be that the marketing is going lighter?

Yes, that happened back at the beginning of the year (as the Deadline article date shows). Don't these threads usually get updated when the date changes happen?

Well, remember DreamWorks' declaration that they had made a mistake marketing to older kids/teens, and blaming their failures on that? Remember how they said they were reorienting towards young kids and their moms? This looks to fit the new marketing direction. IMO, better that they dumb down the marketing, than dumb down the movie itself (which, judging by what I know of the Chinese marketing, they apparently haven't done).

The biggest problem with Halloween III is that it's called Halloween III. I know Carpenter and Hill wanted it to be an anthology series, but then you don't make the second film a direct sequel to the first. (Or were they forced to make a direct sequel?)

Oh god, I forgot about Tim Burton's Dumbo. If it means we don't get a quirky dour macabre Burton Dumbo, then Beetlejuice (2) Beetlejuice (2) Beetlejuice (2)!

Also, a larger portion of a shrinking proportion to the total population of US/CAN seeing the biggest movies in a more compressed amount of time. Total ticket sales for this summer will be on the level of 1993-97, after the first big jump in summer season admissions, but before the second explosion from 1998 on that led to summers adjusting to over $4.5B every year from 1998-2009 (save for 2005, which only adjusts to $25m below that threshold). It's just that 2015 is even top-heavier than the mid-90s summers (more movies clearing $300, none clearing $200, and as I said, the was business is crammed into a shorter period.) Look at 1993: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/seasonal/?view=calendargross&yr=1993&season=Summer&adjust_yr=2015&p=.htm Kind of similar, except business was actually spread out more - Jurassic Park legged its way to $620m adj. by Labor Day, by this time it was only at $567.3m adj. - and The Fugitive opened in August (and legged past summer). Am I making sense?

Cast Cara Delevigne as Lydia's daughter. Not because of any acting talents, but because those facial contortion photos are fucking creepy and make her look like she was born to be in a Burton movie.

Many showings are one-night-only, only at certain locations. It all depends. NCM and Screenvision have done things like this before (DBZ: Battle of Gods, the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls pilot movie), but they don't always get reported on the BO charts.

Tim Burton needs to cast Cara Delevigne in SOMETHING. I don't know what, but SOMETHING. Because she is creepy as fuck when she does that. As for this movie - yes, it does seem like it could be a turkey. The last time Besson did a big-budget sci-fi like this, at least it had Bruce freakin' Willis.

Weinstein hasn't updated their own website, methinks.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

Original Star Wars trilogy. The Corman F4 has never been officially released, and likely never will be. A VHS copy of the completed film got leaked in the 90s, that's where all bootlegs of it come from.

Not a dime from me until they release a proper restoration of the original versions.

Kick-Ass 2. Though does that really count? If you don't count Kick-Ass 2, you're absolutely right, we have not had a superhero CBM not open at #1 since TA1 opened. We haven't had a "Big Two" superhero movie really and truly flop in the 3 years and 3 months since TA1 (really, the 3.5 years since GR2) - until now. (Even TASM2 merely disappointed compared to studio expectations for the film and the future plans for the franchise, and didn't recoup all the money poured into it. It didn't actually TANK.)