Jonwo

Affleck had a misfire but given most of the veteran directors apart from Eastwood had failure in the last year alone, he will bounce back from this. I'm sure WB will bankroll his next project but I imagine Affleck will learn not to put his eggs in one basket

I agree about circuses and water parks but zoos are important and the animals there are treated really well.

Seeing Cirque is on my bucket list although I'm unsure whether I should go to Vegas or see one of the touring productions

Just seen that The Lego Batman Movie has previews on the 4th and 5th February, will be interesting which will better between it and Sing

I think Illumination should be looking at different directors and writers for their films rather than sticking with the same teams they used for SLOP, DM, Minions etc I agree that DWA's issues was Katzenberg more focused on expanding the brand to theme park and TV and I think the films suffered as a result with the odd gem like HTTYD. WDAS, Pixar, Illumination, WAG and Blue Sky will be fine long term but I think Sony and Paramount are in danger of getting left behind, SPA in particular seems to throwing ideas to see what sticks.

DWA learnt the hard way that multiple animated films in a year isn't a sustainable model.

I think with so many animated films a year, fatigue is inevitable

The ridiculousness of Storks IMO is what made a good film and when the gags landed, they really worked. I think it's an honourable failure for WAG and hopefully it won't have an impact on future original films

I usually agree with Tele on most things but I disagree on his views about La La Land. It's not realistic but it's not aiming to be and I think they did a great job mixing the dream/fantasy with the reality/struggles of the characters. Seb is a bit of a douche but his aspirations aren't too dissimilar to anyone moving to somewhere like Los Angeles in the hope of catching that big break then having to compromise.

Sing's underperformance OS is surprising, it's doing great in some places but poorly in others. Moana had poor marketing in many places like the UK hence poor OW but strong legs. I saw Manchester by the Sea and I thought it was great film, I'm hoping it has success awards wise, I have a feeling Casey Affleck may pip Ryan Gosling at the Oscars assuming he's nominated. Amazon Studios is off to a great start with this, Paterson, Love and Friendship etc

I'm curious to see if the other new releases like Manchester by the Sea get decent numbers, I think Manchester is in limited release so I'm not expecting huge numbers

Affleck will be fine, i suspect he will still get directing gigs but he will learn with Live by Night not to juggle too many tasks.

I think giving the presales, the budget was recouped so Paramount, Studiocanal and other distributors aren't losing too much money.

Marty will be fine, he can direct and deliver a hit once in a while and he's a veteran so Studios will still pick up his projects. For a film like Silence, I suspect everyone including Marty took a pay cut. It's true it won't make money but heads aren't going to roll because of it

£30m will be tricky but I think £25m is doable.

I don't mind Love Actually but it's not Richard Curtis' best film and it's far too long! Four Weddings and Notting Hill are really good and I do like About Time

I think in regards to romcoms, I suspect the decline is due to them being in the category as midbudget dramas, the marketing costs and low franchise potential as well as the lack of actors who want to do these films. They isn't the new Garry Marshall, Nora Ephron or Richard Curtis writing or directing these films either. For me, Bridget Jones's Baby OS success does show there is still hope for romcoms but studios need to take a punt.

I'm surprised Lynton lasted as long he did after Rothman took over at Sony.

The Lion King had Julie Taymor to reimagine it as a theatrical piece, don't think Lionsgate would succeed as well as Disney did I saw La La Land and loved it. I suspect they'll be a huge surge in tourism to LA after the Oscars. I was recently in LA and I enjoyed seeing the likes of the Griffith Observatory and the Warner Bros lot in the film, I bet WB will be hugely pleased with that as that'll increase the number of people going on the tour

Moonlight and also La La Land are often sold to foreign distributors so the budget is recouped before the film is even released, Arrival I suspect has already made a profit from the presales from Paramount, eOne and others who bought the distribution rights

Mid budget films can do well but they need to have a name or based on a existing source like a novel Traditional advertising can be effective, WB and Universal do it very well and as a result, the big tentpoles like BvS or FB get big openings

He will be fine, every director has a flop once in a while, Clint Eastwood had two back to back for example and most of the veterans like Spielberg, Zemeckis, Scorcese etc don't produce hit after hit

I think WB when they moved up Live by Night were expecting it to do a lot better reviews wise.

Peter Berg and Walhberg aren't having much luck lately, guessing Paramount won't be asking Berg to direct Transformers 6 or 7 Hidden Figures will win the weekend now, who'd thunk that would beat both Live by Night and Patriot's Day a few months ago?

Don't forget it had an early West End release so I think £5m is doable.