LawrenceBrolivier

I think Vin will be relieved right up until Fast & Furious 9 makes less in its OW than this did...

Maybe the better question is why would you want to wait for it to hurt you before you did something about it? Her name is a purposefully bad misspelling of a bottled water brand. She picked that name as a joke because her whole rap "career" was an ironic joke.... she's suffered criticism specifically for this... if you look up "Awkafina" and "cultural appropriation" you're going to find a lot of think-pieces... Here's a weird comparison... it's like how "Grumpy Cat" became "Grumpy Cat" because the cat's real name, "Tard," was a bad joke based on how the cat looked "tarded." When the cat became a meme, the owners lied and said "Tard" was short for "Tardar Sauce," and people went along with it, until the internet decided "Grumpy Cat" was its real name, and so everyone went with that. At some point Awkafina is probably going to have to use her real name because eventually people are going to wonder why she's still sticking with that bad joke of a stage name for a career she doesn't even pursue anymore... The sooner she does it the sooner that part of her career becomes a footnote to her larger success, like how "Fresh Prince" is how most people first knew of Will Smith, but Will Smith isn't starring in "Gemini Man" as "The Fresh Prince." editing to add: Gaga is a great example of how a music-based stage name wouldn't be a hindrance, but I'd argue that Gaga was way bigger than Awkafina... or even The Fresh Prince... ever was as a recording artist, and that Lady Gaga doesn't have the weird baggage "Awkwafina" has, nor the weird origin story... But it's a VERY good point that A24 might have suggested sticking with the Awkwafina name for this movie because the size of the movie and the lack of the marketing budget in comparison to major studios...

There's probably a reason Dwayne Johnson goes by Dwayne Johnson now, for example... Or why Mos Def changed his credit to Yasiin Bey as he shifted to acting primarily... Or why Donald Glover doesn't star in movies as Childish Gambino. "Awkwafina" was never a good name. That was kind of the point, she started out as a joke rapper... And it was an ironically bad joke in the first place... the idea that she's going to break out as a serious actor with a purposefully bad misspelling of a popular bottled water brand as her name is a pretty silly one... and I wouldn't be surprised if she starts getting cast in follow-up roles as "Nora," which is reportedly what she's called by everyone anyway... This isn't like Ice Cube or Ice T, who are fine in genre stuff... It's going to be jarring if she goes up for what would be her "Erin Brockovich" and the producers have to put her old dumb joke rapper name on the posters and in the trailers... eventually its going to become a bigger and bigger distraction and people will ask why she's still clinging to her parody name when its obvious she's outgrown it and it was never really a good idea in the first place...

Glass wasn't very good at all, either....

That graphic doesn't seem as informative as it thinks it is. But it's "Fandom" so that makes sense.

I think the joke is that the movies don't have that scene, whereas the book does... the book has multiple instances of child sex in it, actually... King made some pretty questionable decisions during his most successful period as an author, and hinging his biggest novel (sales and size-wize) on the prospect of a bunch of 13 year olds all having sex with each other as some sort of holy ritual is one of the most questionable decisions in his entire career... I don't think the book should be skipped, but only because there's a lot of subtext about the town and the nature of communities to knowingly ignore and leave behind its vulnerable members... and almost none of that is really in the movie. But if those elements show up in the sequel, then I think its possible that the book could be skipped entirely... because otherwise it's one of those adaptations that improves on the novel considerably. So far as its box office prospects... I think IT will do just fine. Even if people aren't going to movies as much because it's become the amusement park... IT is considered one of the best rides to go on... Scheduling is going to help it... everyone's going to be in the mood to see something scary, and they already know they like this, because they saw part 1 and loved it a couple years ago...

Tarzan made the top 25 and Mononoke didn't.... I don't see Perfect Blue anywhere, which is weird because I know I voted for it...

Not a lot of room left, and a lot of very deserving movies haven't been posted... Matrix, Iron Giant, Toy Story 2, Princess Mononoke, Perfect Blue... ...and also, The Phantom Menace has to be somewhere in the 30-60 range, right? Or did it not get a single vote at all?

Not really box office news, but pretty important studio news... https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/cbs-viacom-tentative-management-structure-bakish-ianniello-1203289764/ CBS and Viacom are getting back together, it seems... This is probably a good thing, especially since Paramount could use the extra help and backing. But it might also mean that CBS All Access suddenly becomes an interesting streaming option... especially if they get access to Viacom's TV output. If CBS and Viacom become a single company again, All Access would potentially have all of Paramount's library, and offerings from MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. I think it also would allow for Kelvin Timeline Star Trek stuff to show up on the TV shows now?

I need to look into this Murrell person it sounds like. Thanks everyone!

Summer of Sam and Boys Don't Cry didn't even make it out of the 100's, but The Spy Who Shagged me is at #25 and American Beauty made it to #13.... The death of cinema? It's been happening since 1999 apparently...

I think it's the worst of the three Austin Powers movies... I don't think I had it on my list at all... wasn't this a top 30 list? Honestly, until it appeared at #25 I think I forgot it even came out in 1999, LOL...

we are off to a very inauspicious start already...

"Why would you hate on cat turds when there's so much dog vomit everywhere" They all suck when you step in it sunday morning...

Avengers beating Avatar really did reveal how many of these writers.... despite their protestations on social media.... go into their articles with a set agenda. Mendelson pretends to write an analysis column but what he's really doing is trying to justify what he wants to happen with the numbers... Most of his articles are "here's what I want to happen and here's the bad argument designed to make you believe that's how it is...." He never wanted the record to drop and when it became more and more likely he responded by finding more and more stuff to nitpick... for a professional box-office writer he seems to have a problem letting go of the idea that certain movies "deserve" success more than others...

Not only is he making stupid predictions you can mock him for, but he's using adjusted numbers as if that means anything... it really is like so far as these publications are concerned ANYONE could do that job...

So shortly after its third weekend it'll probably cross $100mil DOM? How much more do you think it'll have left in the tank after that?

I think the very positive word of mouth and the ease by which new viewers can jump in will help its legs this mostly-dead August. There are probably going to be a lot of people who buy tickets to this because it's more like a cuddly, bro-ey Kingsman movie than a Fast & Furious entry, and they'll recommend it like that...

Who goes to these movies for their plots? Most people can "spoil" a Fast and Furious movie on first view just by thinking while it's playing.... They're not about storytelling, they're about spectacle and personality... I firmly believe there isn't a movie alive that's ever been "spoiled" by its trailer, and that includes those Zemeckis movies... That's like saying the blurb on the inside cover of a novel "spoils" that book. It's 3% of the film's total length cut together as a commercial. That's not the same thing as a movie at all...

Ford was good in that movie, but I wouldn't say he was likable. Deckard has never been a likable character, really.... That the character was consistent in two different performances split by 30 years was very impressive... but I wouldn't say he was likeable.

True. I just hope that people who have never heard of it or have never had it tainted by the previous bad attempts to adapt it see what Villenueve is doing and react like they saw the Inception trailer... And don't react like they just saw the Jupiter Ascending one.... I don't want this to be something like the new Dredd getting ignored... I think this is a big show of confidence and it makes me happy... but I'm still nervous about the fact it's now directly competing with Spielberg doing West Side Story...

I agree with you there won't be that much overlap, but it's also not really a case of counter-programming, either.... as I understand it, counter-programming is usually more about offering up a "not the big blockbuster being shoved down your throat" option for that weekend. But both these movies are going to be presented as big blockbusters, I think... Aquaman vs. Mary Poppins Returns seems like it could be a good comparison, but I don't know how Warner Bros. sells Dune in a way that makes people feel as optimistic as Aquaman made people feel about that movie.... I like Dune as a book. I'm not the biggest fan, but I enjoy it and respect its place in sci-fi history. But I also know that for most people when you say "Dune" they think crappy '80s movies and boring miniseries and really super-dense sci-fi blah blah... I hope this can be Villenueves "Lord of the Rings". But I think there's a lot of apathy tied to "Dune" that marketing has to really work to overcome, and they'll have to do it without the benefit of all the colors and shirtless Momoas that Aquaman had for them to exploit... Also I'm not counting out that Coming to America sequel... especially if Eddie Murphy makes a big push to come back as a comedian next year...

I definitely remember people believing the BFG was going to break out that year and it is, I think, one of Spielberg's biggest misses... WSS could be 2020's "Mary Poppins Returns" But I also feel like "Dune" is, at this point... a dead brand. Everyone knows what it is, but nobody really cares about it. Even if Villenueve knocks the movie right out of the park like he did with Blade Runner 2049, I feel like you could still end up with a Blade Runner 2049 scenario, where people simply don't care to go.... because even though everyone knows its a new take on a classic... it just feels like a super-dense niche thing that's not really any fun. Spielberg's first full-on musical might be novelty enough to beat "Denis Villenueve tackles another sci-fi classic, just like the last one you didn't watch"

I'm still not sure this is going to do anywhere near the business I would like it to do, simply because it's Dune... but I'm glad Warner Brothers is giving it the big December slot... if it'll ever break out, it'll do it there.... however its also up against Spielberg and West Side Story. There shouldn't be a lot of audience overlap there, but Dune is definitely not going to have the same free run on the day that a Star Wars or an Avatar might have... editing to add: Looks like the Uncharted movie and Coming To America 2 are also scheduled for that day. I don't think either of them should be significant competition there but you never know...