DAJK

I'm not sure the argument that "these would have also done well 10 years ago" really helps the argument. Because what we know now is that these movies ARE still doing well today. And we have no way of quantifying whether they would have done MUCH better 10 years ago, or if they would have done the same. Using the "well they always would have done well 10 years ago" argument for the exceptions doesn't really work.

I'm not sure, I disagree with this... I think, although I'm not sure where exactly where I fall on this scale. I think the "it's not a toy commercial" is dangerously close to becoming as much of a crutch to explain why a movie bombed as "marketing". Sure, it's beyond difficult for movies nowadays to reach blockbuster-level grosses (say, 150M+ domestic, 400M+ WW) without being "toy commercials/movie universe setups". But that's not what even those who were optimistic about a movie like Babylon would have expected. Take a look at Smile. 100M+ horror hit, 215M WW. And it wasn't sold as a toy commercial or a movie universe. What happened was that it had an easily-marketable hook, and audiences liked it. Even Violent Night was in the same book. M3GAN. And I'm sure many others if you go back over the years. Wolf of Wall Street could be seen as similar to Babylon (crazy, over the top, star-studded, etc.), but the difference there is that the marketing had a clear "hook" for audiences. Plus, I think overall, people liked that movie more than Babylon (granted , I haven't seen Babylon, this is just based off of anecdotal evidence). So it's no wonder that movie grossed 10x what Babylon did.

Huh

lol I made a tik tok last week predicting this would get a 75% so I’m happy with this so far. I also said 69% for MM3, 81% for Quantumania, and 42% for Cocaine Bear.

Anecdotal, but hype for this seems to be spiking on Tiktok at just the right moment. Normally I would say "sure, but social media hype doesn't equal real-world hype" but we all saw what happened with Minions.

You know when you see a movie and think “I must have missed something” because all the pieces are there for you to really love it, but you felt a strange sense of disengagement? This is a really well-crafted, riveting, and oftentimes very upsetting movie. But for some reason I just couldn’t find myself FEELING everything the film wanted me to feel. Just because of the subject matter, I’m going to compare it to She Said; watching that movie, not only did I empathize with all the horrible things that were happening throughout the film, those feelings transcended purely “watching a film” to feeling genuinely sick to my stomach. I don’t know, maybe I just watched it at a time when I was distracted by other things, worried about school/family/life/anything that can take me away from a film, maybe I was too tired when I watched it to fully enjoy it, but I’m not sure. For me, stretches of it fell flat when I knew objectively I should be riveted based on the content of what’s on screen, as well as the level of craftsmanship in every respect.

I'm genuinely curious what's going on at Sony and why they haven't made a Jumanji 3 already.

The 80 For Brady Early Access shows are selling really well today. I'm really starting to think this is going to turn into a mini-breakout, or even take away the word mini.

Didn't hate Shotgun Wedding. It's dreadful for the first 20 minutes, but Jennifer Coolidge is great as always, and there were a few moments that actually made me chuckle. Nothing I'd tell people they need to go out and watch, but if you find yourself in a situation where a friend/partner really wants to see it, you could do a lot worse. If it was theatrical, I could see it doing okay. Had it released this weekend, I'd go with a 17/50 run.

Starting to get the feeling that this is going to underperform big time. Could very likely see a world where Dog outperforms this.

This is very very good, and if it was seen by more people would be an awesome thinkpiece movie, with people discussing the ending. Glad it got a screenplay and picture nom. Director it was probably the “fifth spot” for sure, but still nice to see! In terms of my enjoyment on a personal level, I’m torn. The script is extremely witty, and I really enjoyed watching it from that aspect. But I just… can’t handle puking scenes in movies just in general so… yea, that was rough for me. Also, I know it was the intention, but I kind of hated every single character in one way or another, so I found it hard to root for anyone

You won’t be saying that in 50 weeks when it hits that 653M mark…

I think this looks great, but I am starting to fear that this could go the way of The Suicide Squad at the box office.

Had a dream that The Rock and Will Smith both passed away suddenly. Very realistic dream too. I was so shocked, and came here as soon as I woke Ip to see everyone’s reactions… only to realize that it was a dream and I am in fact a half-awake idiot. Stupid dreams, and stupid classes for making me get up at 6AM

Not sure how many theatres Pathaan is in today, but the theatres that it IS playing in are selling tickets like crazy. If it's in enough theatres, I could definitely see it taking the top spot when numbers are reported tomorrow.

Dang, another win for M Night! Give me a 30M opening baby!

Idk I thought this trailer was fun as hell. I'm looking forward to it, but yea John Carter numbers are probably the best this can hope for. Warcraft is more likely.

If this is getting a major theatrical release and Thirteen Lives didn’t, there has to be something here that makes Amazon confident.

I doubt it, but if something like that did happen I would say that someone had better wake me up because 2023's box office has kind of been a dream of overperformances so far...

Man, when you think about it, Split was just a massive success all around. An "original" (yes, yes I know it's technically not an original... but nobody knew that going in, and I doubt the Unbreakable connections did all that much for its box office, just look at Glass) kidnapping thriller whose central hook was the bonkers performance of its lead star, who while very well-known, is not a "butts in seats draw" like Pitt or Dicaprio. And it didn't just do well domestically. This was a horror/thriller that nearly made 300 million WORLDWIDE in freaking January. And to be followed up only a month later by Get Out... wow.

Agreed. Thinking it tops out around 175 DOM, 250 OS. 425 WW, which is great for Dreamworks.

The fact that the current box office's discrepancy from pre-Covid years can be largely attributed to a lack of market depth has me pretty convinced that we are nearing full recovery. The studios practically had to start from square one. This is to be expected. I'm excited for what 2023 has to offer.

Bring on 30M opening for Knock at the Cabin.

The Marvel/DC flame wars + threadban announcements will be longer than this weekend thread

BOM has Missing's domestic total at 4.2M. I assume that extra 800k is from Early Access screenings/Regal Mystery Movie? Or is it an error on BOM's part? If that 800k is counted towards the weekend's gross, it could come close to double-digits.