Jonwo

It did work for Home although I'm not sure it'll work for Trolls.

DWA won't shutdown so soon after Comcast just bought them but I expect the budgets will be slashed to under $100m apart from the ones already in production .

DWA needs this to be a hit since KFP3 underperformed. Storks underpeforming for WB/WAG isn't good after the success of The Lego Movie but they'll survive and the two Lego films next year will do much better business.

It'll be interesting how Trolls does because if it's mediocre then I can't see it doing more than $30-35m. I do think Storks being a talking animal film didn't help either. Not that there is anything wrong with them but they're the most overused animated concept and audiences need a break from them

I imagine WB thought Sully would do $20-25m and Storks $35m and not the other way around. The scheduling of Sully I thought was so it could play in IMAX, October wasn't feasible because Hanks would be too busy promoting Inferno and November and December were just too packed. It worked out for them in the end.

The reviews for Storks has been mixed at best. I imagine Lego Batman and Lego Ninjago will do better but it's dissapointing their first non Lego film didn't open well

That's doable although Trolls has a early OS release which will eat into its audience.

WB marketed it really well but clearly it hasn't clicked with audiences. The budget is under $100m so with OS it'll make a profit or break even at least but I imagine WB were hoping for a lot more. It does put original films in jeopardy though as they're not releasing an original film Smallfoot until 2018, The 2017 WAG films are Lego spin-offs and the other 2018 film is Scooby Doo.

October 14th with previews the week before but I imagine Trolls which is released a week after will do better. It's also releasing in the same week as Inferno in the UK which will likely do very well.

Storks' Friday is lower than Cloudy 1 which did $8.1m opening day for a $25m weekend, WB better be hoping it does at least $10m on Saturday.

Sony are lucky that Hotel Transylvania, Smurfs and to an extent Cloudy were successful as I imagine SPA would have closed by now. WAG seems to taking the WDAS/Pixar approach with their Think Tank but they don't have an actual studio using companies like Animal Logic, Imageworks etc for the animation itself, Storks costs $70m which is slightly lower than Illumination but half of Pixar. Interesting that they're using live action directors like Nicholas Stoller and Dax Shepherd to help co-direct their films,

Anything above the $30-35m mark is a win for WAG, HT is the exception to that and that had the advantage of Adam Sandler and monsters, Storks has no big names apart from maybe Samberg and Kelsey Grammer.

It wouldn't be the first time an animated film beat a big live action film e.g BH6 and Interstellar, Madagascar 3 and Prometheus,

Flight was a much more difficult sell even with Denzel at the helm and I think a lot of people weren't sure if Zemeckis could pull off his first live action film in over a decade.

I imagine they saw how successfull Transformers was and thought what they could with other automobiles and came up with Monster Trucks.

Ben Hur likely wiped out any money MGM made with the New Line films. Mag 7 will make a decent amount of money but not enough to cover Ben Hur's losses Inferno will likely be a big hit for Sony moreso OS than domestic. I think it'll do over $250m OS and crack $100m domestic.

Its interesting that WB opted for previews considering it's not holidays. It's difficult to see what the final OW will be just from previews but using Spongebob's multiplier would mean $46m OW which is too high, low to mid $30m would be more likely and on par with September animation

Deadline is predicting high 20s- low 30s for Storks which would put in range with other September animation apart from HT and HT2. $30-35m would be a win for WB and WAG for Storks, they are ramping up the slate with the two Lego films next year then Smallfoot and Scooby Doo in 2018. I'll be curious how Ninjago does as doesn't have the name recognition that Batman does, the short in front of Storks will help audiences will familiar with the characters I'll be curious to see what WAG comes up with, they're drawing upon existing IP like Lego but also the various libraries that WB owns as well as original ideas. I imagine they'll be a Plastic Man or Metal Men movie from WAG since those characters lend themselves to animation and also we've seen how successful Big Hero 6 has been from WDAS

I'd love to see a Hanks-Denzel movie but I imagine that it too expensive as both are $20m a film each same with Leo

Given Denzel a draw for audiences, I wonder if studios have approached him for big tentpoles and he's turned them down.

If it does $43-45m then that's the second highest September opening and the the highestt live action film debut for the month.

This movie was likely made for more for OS rather than domestic, I do think $30-35m OW is doable, Hanks is on a roll after Sully although there is a fair bit of competition from The Accountant and Jack Reacher

Warner Bros has had a good balance of tentpoles and midbudget titles, New Line Cinema has been on a roll with their films being profitable.

October should be solid with The Accountant and Fantastic Beasts will do great in November.

I'm guessing Sully will hit $100m by next Sunday assuming it has a good drop against Mag 7 and Storks. Considering nobody thought it would do more than $60-80m total, it's a win for WB