Porthos

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Greater Sacramento Area Premiere Night Seat Report: T-3 days and counting Capped Sellouts Showings Seats left Total Seats Seats Sold Perct Sold TOTALS 0 0 172 22066 23919 1853 7.75% Total Showings Added Today 36 Total Seats Added Today 2648 Total Seats Sold Today 273 T-3 Comps % Sold T-3 Total Sold Sellouts Shows Seats Left Total Seats Perct Sold Final Sold % of Final Comp BA 85.31 286 2172 0/223 27742/29914 7.26% 4494 41.23% 7.33m Wick 4 70.00 342 2647 0/152 16697/19344 13.68% 5448 34.01% 6.23m Fast X 90.13 262 2056 0/228 30813/32869 6.26% 4122 44.95% 6.76m AtSV 41.56 516 4459 0/142 18015/22474 19.84% 9744 19.02% 7.21m RotB 93.68 282 1978 0/162 21019/22997 8.60% 9744 19.02% 8.24m FNAF 50.14 398 3696 0/220 22434/26130 14.14% 6466 28.66% 5.16m BOSS 141.67 185 1308 0/115 13982/15290 8.55% 2701 68.60% 8.15m GBFE 189.08 134 980 0/193 26679/27659 3.54% 2197 84.34% 8.89m FINAL SOLD NOTES: "Final sold" is the number of tickets sold for the movie in question at stop of tracking while "% of final" is the percentage of Godzilla x Kong's current tickets sold versus that final number. Regal: 426/8226 [5.18% sold] Matinee: 69/2252 [3.06% | 3.72% of all tickets sold] 3D: 243/5195 [4.68% | 13.11% of all tickets sold] PLF: 1062/9733 [10.91% | 57.31% of all tickets sold] === Now late reviews are always something of a wild card, but thinking 7m+ is very very likely, and like @keysersoze123 thinks, touching 8m is a possibility. Not sure how strong of a possibility, but I think it's def possible, again while noting the wildcard of incoming reviews/reactions. For me, holding steady against Rise of the Beasts is a pretty good omen, as is gaining on Across the Spider-Verse. Also rose slightly against Black Adam. Still not bringing in Jurassic World Dominion as the extra month of pre-sales is still putting waaaaaay too much of a thumb on the scale. All in all doing what it needs to. But, as said, late-ish reviews are a wild card as always, so we'll see what Tue/Wed brings.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Greater Sacramento Area Premiere Night Seat Report: T-4 days and counting Capped Sellouts Showings Seats left Total Seats Seats Sold Perct Sold TOTALS 0 0 136 19691 21271 1580 7.43% Total Seats Sold Today 186 T-4 Comps % Sold T-4 Total Sold Sellouts Shows Seats Left Total Seats Perct Sold Final Sold % of Final Comp BA 83.78 216 1886 0/169 22425/24311 7.76% 4494 35.16% 7.20m Wick 4 68.55 241 2305 0/119 14274/16579 13.90% 5448 29.00% 6.10m Fast X 88.07 159 1794 0/179 26350/28144 6.37% 4122 38.33% 6.61m AtSV 40.07 370 3943 0/142 18531/22474 17.54% 9744 16.22% 6.95m RotB 93.16 195 1696 0/120 17741/19437 8.73% 9744 16.22% 8.20m FNAF 47.91 242 3298 0/159 18168/21466 15.36% 6466 24.44% 4.93m BOSS 140.69 108 1123 0/90 12272/13395 8.38% 2701 58.50% 8.09m GBFE 186.76 88 846 0/142 22130/22976 3.68% 2197 71.92% 8.78m FINAL SOLD NOTES: "Final sold" is the number of tickets sold for the movie in question at stop of tracking while "% of final" is the percentage of Godzilla x Kong's current tickets sold versus that final number. Regal: 380/7688 [4.94% sold] Matinee: 57/2083 [2.74% | 3.61% of all tickets sold] 3D: 209/4926 [4.24% | 13.23% of all tickets sold] PLF: 927/9733 [9.52% | 58.67% of all tickets sold]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Greater Sacramento Area Premiere Night Seat Report: T-5 days and counting Capped Sellouts Showings Seats left Total Seats Seats Sold Perct Sold TOTALS 0 0 136 19877 21271 1394 6.55% Total Seats Sold Today 120 T-5 Comps % Sold T-5 Total Sold Sellouts Shows Seats Left Total Seats Perct Sold Final Sold % of Final Comp BA 83.47 149 1670 0/169 22641/24311 6.87% 4494 31.02% 7.17m Wick 4 67.54 166 2064 0/118 14480/16544 12.48% 5448 25.59% 6.01m Fast X 85.26 74 1635 0/179 26509/28144 5.81% 4122 33.82% 6.39m AtSV 39.01 278 3573 0/142 18901/22474 15.90% 9744 14.31% 6.77m RotB 92.87 144 1501 0/120 17936/19437 7.72% 9744 14.31% 8.17m FNAF 45.62 186 3056 0/157 18176/21232 14.39% 6466 21.56% 4.70m BOSS 137.34 69 1015 0/90 12380/13395 7.58% 2701 51.61% 7.90m GBFE 183.91 64 758 0/142 22218/22976 3.30% 2197 63.45% 8.64m FINAL SOLD NOTES: "Final sold" is the number of tickets sold for the movie in question at stop of tracking while "% of final" is the percentage of Godzilla x Kong's current tickets sold versus that final number. Regal: 314/7688 [4.08% sold] Matinee: 39/2083 [1.87% | 2.80% of all tickets sold] 3D: 181/4926 [3.67% | 12.98% of all tickets sold] PLF: 836/9733 [8.59% | 59.97% of all tickets sold]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Greater Sacramento Area Premiere Night Seat Report: T-6 days and counting Capped Sellouts Showings Seats left Total Seats Seats Sold Perct Sold TOTALS 0 0 136 20006 21280 1274 5.99% Total Showings Added Today 6 Total Seats Added Today 1047 Total Seats Sold Today 104 T-6 Comps % Sold T-6 Total Sold Sellouts Shows Seats Left Total Seats Perct Sold Final Sold % of Final Comp BA 83.76 124 1521 0/163 22454/23975 6.34% 4494 28.35% 7.20m Wick 4 67.12 154 1898 0/113 13673/15571 12.19% 5448 23.38% 5.97m Fast X 81.61 81 1561 0/179 26583/28144 5.55% 4122 30.91% 6.12m AtSV 38.66 266 3295 0/142 19179/22474 14.66% 9744 13.07% 6.71m RotB 93.88 98 1357 0/120 18080/19437 6.98% 9744 13.07% 8.26m FNAF 44.39 151 2870 0/153 18194/21064 13.63% 6466 19.70% 4.57m BOSS 134.67 123 946 0/87 12033/12979 7.29% 2701 47.17% 7.74m GBFE 183.57 10 694 0/141 22282/22976 3.02% 2197 57.99% 8.63m FINAL SOLD NOTES: "Final sold" is the number of tickets sold for the movie in question at stop of tracking while "% of final" is the percentage of Godzilla x Kong's current tickets sold versus that final number. Regal: 274/7694 [3.56% sold] Matinee: 35/2085 [1.68% | 2.75% of all tickets sold] 3D: 158/4926 [3.21% | 12.40% of all tickets sold] PLF: 768/9733 [7.89% | 60.28% of all tickets sold]

Looks like Sacramento underperformed pretty badly. Interestingly enough Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hit it almost exactly (4.68m). But literally all of my other comps were low, including Shazam 2 at 4.49m. Probably could go digging through my comps, but no two ways about it, Sacramento was an outlier, even for Q&Ds. Bustin' didn't make Sacramento feel good, I guess. Anyway, well done as usual @charlie Jatinder. 👍

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Greater Sacramento Area Premiere Night Seat Report: T-7 days and counting Capped Sellouts Showings Seats left Total Seats Seats Sold Perct Sold TOTALS 0 0 130 19063 20233 1170 5.78% Total Seats Sold Today 131 T-7 Comps % Sold T-7 Total Sold Sellouts Shows Seats Left Total Seats Perct Sold Final Sold % of Final Comp BA 83.75 123 1397 0/152 21562/22959 6.08% 4494 26.03% 7.20m Wick 4 67.09 161 1744 0/113 13827/15571 11.20% 5448 21.48% 5.97m Fast X 79.05 43 1480 0/179 26661/28141 5.26% 4122 28.38% 5.93m AtSV 38.63 263 3029 0/140 19113/22142 13.68% 9744 12.01% 6.70m RotB 92.93 124 1259 0/120 18178/19437 6.48% 9744 12.01% 8.18m FNAF 43.03 170 2719 0/138 16614/19333 14.06% 6466 18.09% 4.43m BOSS 142.16 113 823 0/85 12166/12989 6.34% 2701 43.32% 8.17m GBFE 171.05 61 684 0/123 20040/20724 3.30% 2197 53.25% ---m FINAL SOLD NOTES: "Final sold" is the number of tickets sold for the movie in question at stop of tracking while "% of final" is the percentage of Godzilla x Kong's current tickets sold versus that final number. Regal: 248/7694 [3.22% sold] Matinee: 31/2085 [1.49% | 2.65% of all tickets sold] 3D: 127/4642 [2.74% | 10.85% of all tickets sold] PLF: 711/8686 [8.19% | 60.77% of all tickets sold]

Quick and Dirty Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Sacramento Report [T-0] [FINAL] [3:50-4:20] 2197/29280 (7.50% sold) [+684 tickets] [209 showtimes] *NOTE: All showtimes that started before 3:50pm were sampled at the start of the showing. 0.72413x GBA at T-0 [3.68m] [adj'ed for ATP hikes since 2021] 0.55606x Sonic 2 at T-0 [3.48m] 0.48887x BA at T-0 [3.72m] 0.40327x Wick 4 at T-0 [3.59m] 0.53299x Fast X at T-0 [4.00m] 0.44179x RotB at T-0 [3.89m] 0.81340x BOSS at T-0 [4.68m] 1.11241x Wonka at T-0 [3.89m] 0.83568x Aqua 2 at T-0 [3.76m] ----[Bonus Sub 4m Comps] 1.19924x BB at T-0 [3.96m] 0.95480x Haunt Man at T-0 [2.96m] 0.93649x KFP4 at T-0 [3.56m] 1.32111x Shaz 2 at T-0 [4.49m] ========= Meh. Just: Meh. Comps are all over the place, but I don't like using films that did 7m+ to comp against ones that are gonna do under 5m. Think I'll just project a flat 4m +/- .3m and call it a night. Probably under-performing locally, but I noticed it dropping in a few other markets, so who knows. But it's a Quick and Dirty so I can't say I care to overthink this.

Surprise twist! The motif was both a floor wax and a dessert topping! 🤯

Yeah, have to admit that "a new digital-only record" is a bit too weasely/press-release-y for me. Still, positive press is positive press so I can't say I care. Plus I also have to admit I kinda like the fact that LFL is stepping up their PR game a bit, as it shows commitment to the show rather than just being somewhat passive. To put it another way, I respect the fact that they're even playing the game, even as I somewhat archly note the wording.

Not the only person to say that, but there's also a fair amount of debate if it was said character's motif or the person who was already in the episode. FWIW, prior storytelling beats/ways they tell their stories in TBB does suggest you are right.

Quick and Dirty Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Sacramento Report [T-1] 1513/29238 (5.17% sold) [+310 tickets] [208 showtimes] 0.72740x GBA at T-1 [3.70m] [adj'ed for ATP hikes since 2021] 0.52480x Sonic 2 at T-1 [3.28m] 0.47971x BA at T-1 [3.65m] 0.38646x Wick 4 at T-1 [3.44m] 0.51673x Fast X at T-1 [3.88m] 0.44085x RotB at T-1 [3.88m] 0.77115x BOSS at T-1 [4.43m] 1.19510x Wonka at T-1 [4.18m] 0.90382x Aqua 2 at T-1 [4.07m] ------ [Bonus sub 4m comps] 1.32719x Blue Beetle at T-1 [4.38m] 1.06250x Haunted Mansion at T-1 [3.29m] 1.20175x KFP4 at T-1 [4.57m] 1.41534x Shazam 2 at T-1 [4.81m] ========= What's there to say that the comps above don't? Did pretty badly locally. Won't even call it a saving grace because, lol it certainly isn't, but I note that the average of BOSS/Wonka/Aqua 2 is... 4.23m. Which is actually pretty funny given my post I made earlier today about 4.25m being my target/expectation. Anyway, I won't quite say it's "free falling" here locally. Will say that here in Sacramento, we respect Tomato Law*. * apparently for this flick, at least.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — Greater Sacramento Area Premiere Night Seat Report: T-8 days and counting Capped Sellouts Showings Seats left Total Seats Seats Sold Perct Sold TOTALS 0 0 130 19194 20233 1039 5.14% Total Seats Sold Today 95 T-8 Comps % Sold T-8 Total Sold Sellouts Shows Seats Left Total Seats Perct Sold Final Sold % of Final Comp BA 81.55 82 1274 0/152 21685/22959 5.55% 4494 23.12% 7.01m Wick 4 65.63 120 1583 0/109 13716/15299 10.35% 5448 19.07% 5.84m Fast X 72.30 75 1437 0/179 26452/27889 5.15% 4122 25.21% 5.42m AtSV 37.56 173 2766 0/140 19376/22142 12.49% 9744 10.66% 6.52m RotB 91.54 41 1135 0/120 18302/19437 5.84% 9744 10.66% 8.06m FNAF 40.76 122 2549 0/126 15480/18029 14.14% 6466 16.07% 4.20m BOSS 146.34 81 710 0/85 12279/12989 5.47% 2701 38.47% 8.41m GBFE 166.77 34 623 0/123 20097/20720 3.01% —— ——% 0.00m FINAL SOLD NOTES: "Final sold" is the number of tickets sold for the movie in question at stop of tracking while "% of final" is the percentage of Godzilla x Kong's current tickets sold versus that final number. Regal: 210/7694 [2.73% sold] Matinee: 31/2085 [1.49% | 2.98% of all tickets sold] 3D: 108/4642 [2.33% | 10.39% of all tickets sold] PLF: 632/8686 [7.28% | 60.83% of all tickets sold]

I say this as an outsider, but I will say I was always... concerned might be a strong word, but did feel that Eternals was going to be an important pivot point/test of the drawing power of the more... esoteric aspects of Marvel Comics. The whole Celestials metaplot and everything surrounding it I felt was going to be a challenge to sell to the GA. Mind, considering all the success they were coming off of, not to mention nailing GOTG, I wasn't a doomer about it or anything. But I looked ahead and I presumed a lot was gonna ride on the reception of Eternals. Then NWH hype overtook everything else. Ultimately I do think the Multiverse Saga not... landing as well as it could have is the real culprit. A fascinating What If is What if Doc Strange 2 came out BEFORE No Way Home, as originally planned (this presumes no COVID, naturally). How many dominoes start falling because of reset expectations/execution on the Multiverse? Hell, how much does No COVID (which is a requirement, IMO) cause? I think a lot personally. Still, Eternals... not clicking as well as it could have I think upset a different apple cart and, maybe put some cracks in the foundation is the right way to put it.

I believe I mentioned this before, but I personally think it's suffering from "middle child" syndrome as well, as while it isn't in the exact same demos as Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4 or Godzilla x Kong, it crosses over with parts of all of them. And with all three films getting varying levels of attention/hype/anticipation, the "middle child" is the one that is getting overlooked.

Speaking of "TCW-style" animation, it occurred to me yesterday after seeing a comment about this very topic on Reddit that we don't have a name for this style of computer animation, or at least one I was aware of. And since it is a fairly unique style, I decided to go hunting to see if it had a semi-official name outside of "TCW-style". No dice. Again, from what I can find. But I did find something that... Well... LEGITIMATELY MY REACTION IN REAL LIFE!!!! 🤯 🤯 🤯 Now the tweet does use Season 7 of TCW, so let's use a S1 pic instead: WOW! 🤯 Now it has become more and more refined as the years go on. But can still clearly see the influence even today.

Referenced the same Lucas quote, but from different articles. 👍 (I spent longer on my post and research though 😉) ((which got me at the top of the next page, so... "I win" 😛))

@PlatnumRoyce Some quick checking has the budget of The Clone Wars movie at $8.5m. It is... exceedingly unwise to just divide by four to get a cost per episode, but that'd put it at around $1.8m per episode. Considering that also adds pre-production development costs as well as P&A that a regular season run wouldn't get, chopping that down considerably sounds wise. I've seen recent commentary that put TCW episodes at "$1m per episode", and frankly I can believe it. But a lot of that seems to be people repeating what other people are saying, but I'd start with somewhere around $1m to $2m per episode just as a ballpark figure. *does some more checking* Okay, here's something a bit more concrete: internal links got stripped on the copy-n-paste, but the quote works well enough. And while it is true that by refining software and reusing assets, they can cut costs, if they turn around and pour it back into the show to make it look even better, the overall budget will remain the same. Plus, you know, inflation. So START at $1m per episode, but probably presume up to $1.5m per (if not more), if only for inflation and art upgrades.

I've heard rumors/stray commentary on place like Twitter about how expensive TCW style animation is (even in the old Cartoon Network days), but I wouldn't want to supply a figure simply because I might be throwing out/repeating bad information. What I can say is the sheer polygon count has got to make this more expensive than a standard kids cartoon show, even with it being offshored to South Korea. I would also point out that a main reason why TCW lasted as long as it did was, and I'm paraphrasing a long ago deleted tweet from Pablo Hidalgo, is that it had a "eccentric billionaire helping foot the cost of the series." AIUI, even before the Disney sale, TCW was in trouble over at CN when it came to yearly renewals (and in fact, again as I understand it, TCW really didn't become ***TCW!!!*** until a later generation of fans discovered it on Netflix post-cancellation). As for the demo question and who they're targeting and that being a reason to pump more money in? Eh. Don't feel comfortable talking about that. Can say the ratings aren't anything to write home about, but then again neither was TCW S7 from what we can tell. I suppose if we get Yet Another TCW-style animated show from Disney Plus in the next couple of years, then we'll know that the suits are Happy Enough with how its doing. But if all we get is more short vignettes like the recent Tales of the Jedi? Perhaps not. Might try to track cost down, and see if I can get a more concrete number than "expensive".

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39768770/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-interpreter-fired-theft Uh-oh. That is.... That is some story alright. @4815162342 @TwoMisfits Just the sheer twists and turns within the initial report is making my head spin.

Or they just have different tastes than you. Imagine that. Anyway, not the GB2016 thread. Thankfully.

You know it's funny. I don't have it on hand, but a long time ago I read a BtS/Making of book about the Original Ghostbusters film and one of the central tensions behind the scenes was a battle between Dan Ackroyd and others (I'd name them but I don't recall who was in the "other" camp) over making GB a "serious" horror/SciFi film with comedic elements versus a comedy with SciFi/horror elements. Ackroyd was pushing relentlessly for the harder, more mythological, serious take. I think Bill Murray was more on the make it comedic end. That tension probably helped catch lightning in a bottle back in the 80s for the first film, but leaning on more than one side or the other upsets the delicate balance that the first found. My read of the situation is that one of the reasons why GB3 was never made was that central tension between a "serious" take on the GB universe and the more free-wheeling Regular Joes/Schmoes vibes of the original. And I personally think the Ordinary Schmoes/Everyman angle is somewhat overlooked in the success of GB. In a lot of ways it's a very blue collar film, with blue collar sensibilities (even if the leads are all college professors, or at that level of education) with a strong slobs vs snobs undertone that was a hallmark of the late 70s to mid 80s. The Ghostbusters have sometimes been analogized as garbage collectors and that's not that far off. Anyway, just something I wanted to throw out there as someone who doesn't have that much of a rooting interest either way or over the interminable fights over GB2016.

Gosh, you make it sound so easy when you put it that way.

Okay, notwithstanding that we haven't seen the reaction from any of the locals yet, think I'm gonna go public with my... I don't do projections/predictions this far out (I leave that to wizards like @M37) and instead say my expectations are at around 4.25m for GBFE for previews as things currently stand, and have been for a while now (prob for over a week/last 10 days). Somewhat rare for me to be more bearish than M37, but does occasionally happen. In fact, I won't be surprised at a flat 4m, if sales just tank thanks to these reviews. Yes, I've been open to it opening higher, but that's only because there was enough differences in the rollout between this and GBA (and frankly other recent releases) that I was allowing for a data pattern shift (or rather matching the data pattern of a v late acceleration). But gotta tell ya. If falling behind the pace of GBA fairly badly was Strike One, and not even hitting 4.5m lately against comps like RotB and trifecta of Wonka/THG:BOSS/Aquabro 2 was Strike Two, then these reviews? Well, stranger things have indeed happened with the GA ignoring Tomato Law, but for me... Well let's say I'm expecting to see Strike Three when I see T-1 numbers locally. At least it's enough for me to go public with this, at any rate (already shared 4.25 expectations with M37 privately a couple of days ago). In the end, there's been two competing points of data for me for about the last 10 days. GBA and BOSS/Wonka/Aqaubro 2. It doing pretty badly locally against GBA the biggest and most influential one (it sold *10* tickets last Fri at T-6 for Pete's sake!!!). On the other hand, did have a recent spate of vaguely similarly-ish comps that were saying 4.5m was still a possibility. And you know what? Might still be. I'm always open to outliers happening. I just don't expect them to. Anyway, we'll see how the public reacts to this. Maybe WOM from the base will be enough. And maybe Sacramento really is just under-performing here. But, again have to say, ain't expecting good news when I see T-1 and T-0.

*logs in* *sees initial reviews for GBFE* *pours one out for @leoh *

I think the slightly fairer way to put it is treating a completed higher budgeted movie as more akin to a failed TV pilot (where something is shot but never aired) is in fact pretty damn rare. If only for the price tags involved. When it comes to expensive failed TV pilots, there is the semi-famous example of the GoT prequel where HBO flushed at least 30m+ down the drain on a pilot for Bloodmoon, and that's not even counting all of the money on preproduction. I also seem to recall recently hearing about another expensive streaming series which was axed before it saw the light of day, though damned if I can remember it right now. With the blurring of movies and TV with the rise of streaming (and especially expensive streaming shows), perhaps it's not that surprising to see some companies/WB treat films more like TV pilots in that they'd rather eat the costs than try to recoup them in some sort of release. On the other hand, a great deal of the backlash to Batgirl and Coyote vs Acme and even Scoob 2 is that folks in the industry don't want completed films to go down the route of being seen as akin to TV pilots. If they cause enough of a stink now, maybe they can stop the practice from actually becoming a trend in the first place.