Jason

Well, I was considering taking a closer look, but I think I'm satisfied that there's probably no general trend regarding sequels. Thanks.

Moana will definitely make the top 16. It's animated but I don't think it should count as talking animals.

That's exactly the point I'm making, that films like Zootopia and Frozen have an advantage by being original films instead of sequels. I haven't done any math on it to see if there's a significant pattern, but I've noticed quite a few examples in international markets where sequels to films that either didn't receive a theatrical release or had low attendance for reasons of a smaller market at that time seem to do more poorly than original films.

I think the reason why Pixar has been having trouble in China is that pre-2010 the Chinese market was substantially smaller than it is now, and post-2010 they've had a lot of sequels where not many people in China saw the predecessor. Inside Out is an important exception, but I think the problem there is that Inside Out isn't as relatable for Asian audiences. Because it's another sequel film, I don't think Toy Story 4 will be Pixar's breakout in China.

For predictions given in Japanese yen: Olive (¥8.6B) This one is in USD, but it's otherwise closest: Purple Minion ($71,961,312)

How do you tell the difference between a troll one star rating and a "legit" one star rating? Edit: nvm, saw your above post

But if I recall correctly, it also had an even higher average rating at that time? Edit: Confirmed. At that point IDR average rating was 3.1/5. Honestly, 2.6/5 rating is ridiculously low, I'm pretty sure that's trolls giving one star ratings. (or half?)

The average rating of 2.6/5 is very suspiciously low, IDR has an average rating of 2.8/5 even though its audience score is 36%. Seems pretty obvious to me that it's internet trolls at work.

Funnily enough, if I had visited this thread before yesterday, I would have had to google Playmobil to find out what it is. Anyway, I just did a quickie search to find out whether my lack of knowledge of Playmobil is because I've been living under a rock. Sadly, Playmobil hasn't bothered to update the press release portion of their US website since early 2013, but their global sales in 2012 were about $600M. For comparison, Lego's global sales in 2012 were $4 billion. Unlike Playmobil, Lego actually updates their website. Their global sales in 2015 were $5.4B, which is pretty impressive growth. Can confirm, Playmobil movie will bomb.

Sounds like really wishful thinking to me.

I just finally got around to seeing this (super late, I know). I wasn't really engaged by it, I'm not sure why because the voice acting and the dialogue itself were both pretty good. It wasn't until the ending when the boy convinces his dad not to glue everything in place by speaking via Emmet that I actually felt a connection. Usually I'd give a pretty low rating for a film that doesn't engage me, but I can't really point at anything specific that was done badly. B-

It meets a technical definition for animation, with the scenery and animal characters (everything except Mowgli) being generated frame-by-frame by computer animation. That being said, because of how photorealistic it is I think many or even most people are perceiving it as live-action.

Based off of critical reviews and reviews here, I think this has good potential for being unpopular: The Good Dinosaur > The Lego Movie

From what I can tell, opinions are mixed on whether films based on historical events are "original". Some authors use original to mean "not based off any existing work or historical event", others use original to mean "not based off of an existing work". Authors using the former definition tend to be very strict, authors using the latter definition usually allow films that are only very loosely based off an existing work to count as original. The term original IP seems to be much clearer, fictionalizations of historical events create new IP (Titanic), as do films that are only loosely based off an existing work (Frozen).

Not sure if you meant to imply otherwise, but Dory will definitely hit $1B WW. A number of large markets haven't opened yet.

It's quite possible I've missed part of the discussion in the past several pages, but I had the impression most of the defence was of animated films rather than CBMs. Original material is a big selling point for me, and I wish big budget live-action films were original a lot more often. I could be wrong but I've gotten the impression that amongst big budget films, animated films are significantly more likely to be original. And I don't have anything against films with smaller budgets, I've just never heard about the good ones until long after they've left theatres, if they ever had a wide release in the first place. This forum should help with that though.

I definitely do think that there's far more variation amongst live-action films then there is among (at least American) animated films. But here's the thing, I can't go out and see every single live action film that hits the theatres, and even if I could I'm not sure I'd want to because there are a lot of films out there that I'd probably regret watching (*cough* IDR *cough*). I looked at the top rated films of 2016 on RT, and there are a few very well-received live action films there. But they're not still in local theatres now and I hadn't heard of any of them before joining this site. I'm probably more reflective of GA than most people here (you all seem to have watched more films and know more about films than me). So are these other well-received films not doing well at the box office because of lack of awareness? Or is it because the general audience really wouldn't have any interest in them anyway? I know that most of the films I've seen in theatres over the past few years have ended up being animated, and with the exceptions of Zootopia and Frozen I wasn't the one calling the shots. But whenever a group of my friends have gotten together, the animated film of the season ends up being the only option that everyone can agree on.

@Telemachos I don't completely agree with animated films being almost the same, but I get the basic point you're making. I'm genuinely curious though, which films do you think should be cracking the top 10 that aren't? Because the big studio films that are not animated films or CBMs this year are mostly being pretty poorly received. (Although admittedly some of the animated films and CBMs that made bank were poorly received as well.)

If I were a mod, I would probably avoid reading active threads with a certain key word in the title until I was absolutely forced to.

Yes, it is. IO had the record for all original films as well, taking it from Avatar ($77M). Next among original films is Zootopia ($75M) and Finding Nemo ($70M).

But based on some of the comments made around here, that's just a blink of an eye for you.

Wow, just took a look at the highest OW list. After Inside Out (#50) the highest OW for an original film is Avatar (#73).

I haven't see TDKR, is it really dumber than Interstellar? That's horrifying. Btw, don't have an opinion on Nolan in general. His only other films I've seen are The Dark Knight, which I really liked, and The Prestige, which I also liked.

Finally got around to seeing this. I knew it wasn't reviewed well, so I was actually pleasantly surprised. I can understand where a lot of the criticisms are coming from (there were definitely moments that seemed a bit silly/contrived), but honestly there was nothing that actually stopped me from enjoying the film. The stunning visuals make me regret not having seen this in theatres. A-

Does this mean you won't even be happy about SLOP being a speedbump for Dory?