BadOlCatSylvester

A subtitled foreign film reaching $50M domestically is honestly insane to me, when most of them are lucky to make a tenth of that in the end. This bodes very well for Godzilla x Kong next year provided that lives up to the first duel.

The tradeoff is that everyone gets a fair piece of the pie instead of one megablockbuster sucking the air out of the room while everything else fails.

Aquaman 2 is a failure and will lose a lot of money. But at least with the help of the holiday corridor it won't end up being on the same level as Flash or Marvels. This was always going to be the best case scenario for it. After the production drama and James Gunn's reboot announcement, and just by being the final leftover of a regime long gone, it was never going to be successful. At this point we should all be glad that this sick animal has finally been put to sleep, start looking to the future and see what Gunn brings to the table instead of arguing endlessly over how big of a failure Aquaman 2 is. Let's use that energy to lobby for a Wan cut of the movie in 20 or so years.

Warner's the one that wanted it out of the way as soon as they could, for they have a franchise reboot they need to get into. At least the nature of the holiday corridor will prevent it from being a Marvels-level nuclear bomb. And it's not like they're betting it all on it either, as both Wonka and Colour Purple were placed near it as backup options. That was definitely a wise choice considering Disney betting it all on Wish blew up in their faces, and Wonka is doing very well.

Yeah, some of the stuff that I've read about the source material makes me wonder why Warner thought it'd make for a Christmas musical. Again, it really should've been pushed back to Black History Month of next year where it'd be a better fit. They also probably should've gone for a more modest budget, but I digress. I also wonder if a lot of black audiences are just sick and tired of black trauma movies and rejecting this as a result.

Black women seemingly rushed out to see it on Christmas Day, and no one else cared about it, thus the steep drops in the following days. I can't help but wonder if this should've been pushed back to Black History Month of next year. Wonka would've had more room to breathe too.

Wonder Woman 1984 would've been the second coming of Batman v Superman. It would've opened huge in a normal world thanks to the goodwill of the first movie, but then it'd drop so hard it'd make the aforementioned Zaddy piece look like The Greatest Showman.

They gambled on a mini Black Panther breakout not too dissimilar to what Disney were hoping to see for their Little Mermaid remake. And it just didn't end up happening despite the early presales. At least Mermaid did decent enough domestically that merchandise revenue will likely be enough to make that profitable in the end. This one has been falling off a cliff after Christmas Day and probably won't even reach $100M domestically. Also, what happened to your old account? I recognize you, but I don't think you got banned or anything as far as I'm aware.

Especially when you consider that most of those have either underperformed or outright bombed this year.

No, if anything, his consistency in getting out there and preventing rumours from spreading far and wide is building goodwill for his reboot in me. The previous DC regimes had ridiculous leak problems, and stayed radio silent whenever many detrimental rumours and controversies got out of hand. I could also rant about them announcing 500 movies based on random characters nobody asked for every hour instead of trying to fix relations with their main cast, but that's another issue entirely.

I don't think many were expecting a mega breakout for Wonka, as it's the third adaptation of an old-time literary character, one that today's kids might not know or see as lame if they do. With that in mind, it's still making a lot more than I was expecting it to, and it has an easy path to $200M with Colour Purple not being the threat it was seen to be, and therefore not having much demographical competition.

Serious movies like this don't make much money anymore, and its reviews aren't good enough to build the word of mouth to overcome that. What the hell were they thinking greenlighting that at all after the lukewarm response to the first one? Just one of many bad decisions Fox made under Tom Rothman, decisions that would ultimately lead to their downfall and being devoured by The Mouse.

Making the second movie end the way it did is such a rash and irresponsible decision it boggles the mind. They knew in advance the second part wouldn't be ready for years yet, and they still decided to end the last one in a major cliffhanger. Sony's awful management of its Spider-Man properties is still apparent even many years after their first shared universe attempt imploded.

It's funny to see that being brought up right when its director has a new movie making the rounds. And yeah, its drops seem really bad to me, especially for the early 2000s. I guess Sony was counting on Lord of the Rings falling flat on its face.

Yeah, Wonka's winning the month in America too, not just overseas. I'll have to eat crow, as I seriously thought Colour Purple would win looking at the early presales. @charlie Jatinder saw it coming early, so props to him. I guess the big black communities all saw it on Christmas Day and nobody else showed up afterwards.

I have to agree with that Kung Fu Panda 4 prediction. That trailer did absolutely nothing for me, and Mike Mitchell's journeyman nature won't help it at all. Had the early rumours about the Puss 2 team handling it been true it would've stood a chance. Also, while I mostly expect Dune 2 to do well, I have this sinking feeling that it might underperform like Dead Reckoning did this year. People might have had their fill the first time not necessarily want any more.

How much do you want to bet these numbers end up happening, but for Madame Web instead?

With that CinemaScore, could this achieve a feat only seen every once in a blue moon?

Honestly these numbers are a lot better than I was expecting. It still would've been preferrable to see an actually big central tentpole like in previous years, but the wealth seems to be distributed fairly here at least. Aquaman 2 and Migration might both get to $100M, but poor word of mouth on the former and the latter not being received enthusiastically like Puss 2 was last year will prevent them from making much more methinks.

So I just got out of Aquaman 2, and well... That was an empty mess. The first movie's ocean's worth of charm and earnestness is almost entirely absent. The story is incoherent and all over the place. They turned Arthur into a quip machine straight out of a bad Marvel movie. The effects are a noticeable downgrade over that first movie. And finally, the third act was among the most anticlimactic I've seen on film. As a big fan of James Wan's previous work I was massively let down here. But taking all the drama we've been hearing for well over a year now into account, I don't fully blame him. In the end, it's finally over. This blubbering mess of a franchise has finally been put to rest. And now DC can finally start to move on and forward with Gunn.

Mantzoukas is an underrated actor in general. He was terrific in DuckTales and is great in Invincible. I hope this leads him to bigger opportunities in the years to come.

I can definitely see it failing to launch like Superman Returns did.

Is there anything left to say really? Is anyone surprised that a movie riddled with drama for well over a year is not very good? I'm just ready for it to finally end tomorrow. The lack of leadership and a vision, letting rumours run rampant for years and years, giving random characters movies over fixing relations with Henry and Ben, and so on. I can already tell after a year in charge that Gunn's new regime is setting out to right these wrongs. Superman Legacy cannot come soon enough. Here's to hoping DC can move on from this mess and move forward as a brand in the years to come.