ViewerAnon

Has it been? Feels like the only real disappointment has been THE FIRST OMEN, and that's a movie based on a dead franchise where the last movie was pretty badly-received (plus Disney waited till very late in the day to start marketing and even later in the day to tell the world 'Surprise, it's actually good!'). But looking at the rest of the calendar, the wide stuff has done about as well as could be expected (NIGHT SWIM and IMAGINARY performed like typical Blumhouse slow season dumps, LISA FRANKENSTEIN played like JENNIFER'S BODY without stars, etc) and IMMACULATE and LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL both over-performed, at least compared to my expectations.

123 mins 118 mins 132 mins 113 mins 115 mins vs. 144 mins 149 mins 154 mins 165 mins 154 mins There's something to be said for pacing and not exhausting the audience.

This is silly. They went in expecting not to be bored when the monsters weren't on-screen, there's a difference.

It's an hour shorter than DUNE 2.

I have trouble rating them against each other because they aim for such different things (G2014 scale, KONG: SKULL ISLAND fun, KOTM awe/wonder with the monsters, etc). I just split the series into two tiers quality-wise: Tier A: GODZILLA 2014 KONG: SKULL ISLAND GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS Tier B: GODZILLA VS. KONG GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE But I still enjoy the movies in Tier B, and obviously plenty of people like GVK more than KOTM so GxK is probably more their speed.

I can't stand that guy or his opinions

Definitely, and I don’t mean that as an insult toward DUNE. The LOTR movies were designed as crowdpleasers in a way DUNE wasn’t.

This is a terminally online way of thinking. Contrary to what angry people ranting at webcams on YouTube say the general public does not hate movie critics.

That doesn't seem fair. DEAD RECKONING opened 11% lower than its predecessor and had the lowest 3-day M:I opening in 17 years. Even if DUNE: PART TWO undershoots all projections here, the worst it could possible do is what, $60M? The odds of that are incredibly low and it would still be a 50% increase.

I don't think streaming day-and-date affected DUNE as much as some believe, at least not in the U.S. - there was still a huge push to see it on the biggest, best screen possible.

Quantumania out here like

They’ve tested this a couple times and I keep hearing positive things, even from people who expected not to like it.

I still don't think it's gonna pull a DARK KNIGHT and make 2.5x its predecessor's gross but a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with an 8.7/10 average for a big spectacle movie is going to convince a fair few people to give it a chance.

Feeling very wrong now because I hated the first DUNE - I found it so cold that I just couldn't care about anyone or anything that happened in it - and these reactions are great enough that I'm definitely checking out PART TWO. The number of people who were a little more mixed on the first but are over the moon for the sequel makes me very happy.

I think it's telling that none of these movies were released as "Part One." SPIDER-VERSE dropped it from the title and re-titled the sequel. DUNE didn't have Part One anywhere in its marketing materials - trailers, posters - and only included it on the title card at the beginning. (And I heard that was a late addition because test audiences got mad at the cliffhanger without it)

I need the engagement, it feeds me, it doesn't matter if the information is accurate or not. Cliiiiiiiiiicks.

omg if I turn on Twitter ad revenue can I say "Current data shows DUNE 2 opening lower than THE MARVELS"? My engagement will be through the roof and I can move to a tropical island.

No, kid's movies are a little more challenging because their test screenings require attendees to actually have children and not many of my usual sources do. Thanks Sylvester, it's always nice to hear stuff like this SCREAM VI was a major factor in my decision. It wasn't so much that I was wrong as I have more "reach" than I normally take into account, so when I said things like "Neve Campbell is definitely back!" it led to Neve actually being questioned and confronted like she was lying. Combined with people being spoiled unintentionally as things spread on various movies and I just thought I'd become more of a net negative than a positive.

Fun fact: every KUNG FU PANDA movie has opened lower than the previous movie. Given the last one opened to $41 million and there's been an eight year gap I'd be surprised if it nudged that far over $30 million OW.

I think this is the biggest factor. TOP GUN: MAVERICK was a phenomenon and a ton of people saw it who hadn't seen or didn't remember TOP GUN. DUNE: PART TWO just doesn't feel - and hey, I could always be wrong, check back in a month - like a movie that's going to bring in people who didn't see or didn't like the first. Audiences know at this point whether DUNE is or isn't for them, so the movie's depending on audience growth from streamers who now pay for tickets and people who came to the first in the interim between movies. How big is that audience? We'll see. Just based on personal feeling, an opening that's 75% higher due to sequel rush and a total around 50% higher due to those newly accounted ticket buyers sounds about right to me.

I'm just a cynic but I don't think actors really draw audiences anymore.

I think DUNE skews too 'geeky' male to have a major walkup run in normal auditoriums - much of the audience is going to prioritize a great IMAX/PLF experience over just seeing it. We're already seeing that with presales where there's a mad rush for the Early Access shows (all on premium screens, I believe?) and release weekend IMAX seats with a major slowdown when it comes to average screens.

It's been screening for a little while, Warner Bros is very confident in it. I just don't know how much appeal there is for people who don't already love the first one.

I can't see Aquaman's reviews being Morbius-level bad. Morbius is narratively incompetent, Aquaman's just a bit dull.