BadOlCatSylvester

I'm pleasantly surprised at Wonka's Friday and how much it went up from early estimates. It should have no trouble getting to a $40M opening and around $165M total stateside, if not even $200M depending on how it fares against The Colour Purple.

@Brainbug So I've finally caught up with Monarch, and yeah, episodes 4 and 5 really are that bad. The 50s storyline is gone, and in its place we have more infuriating drama with the Randa kids. Some of the most boring television I've watched in a while. Both Goji and Monarch feel like afterthoughts in a series that was marketed around them. I'd forgive that if the main kids were compelling, but they just aren't. The ladies especially are pretty unlikable and rather one-note. Thankfully Episode 6 is a major turnaround, and might be my favourite so far. The 50s storyline returns in full force and is as great as ever. And even the modern-day portion is far better than in previous episodes, mostly because the annoying kids are an afterthought while Kurt Russell takes charge, and there's just far more suspense and excitement here. It definitely restored a lot of the interest I had lost. Hopefully this momentum continues to the finish line.

The main difference here is that there's a big Superman reboot on the way the year after Creature Commandos. There are also a new Batman movie and a Green Lantern television series in active development. Unlike the previous regime this one is clearly committing to building a foundation with the classic heroes.

Eh, I'd like to be proven wrong and go see Little Timmy kick everyone's ass, and it's not a far fetched possibility to see that happen. But I wasn't here for the likes of The Greatest Showman and Jumanji, and admittedly nearly every musical either underperforming or outright bombing during my time on this forum and more closely looking at the box office has tainted my view. So my opinion is pretty amateurish. As I said earlier in the thread, it's a really great movie and I'm rooting for it to make lots of money.

Honestly, it's so fucking refreshing to see some actual direction and leadership at DC now. James Gunn is a no-bullshit leader who will waste no time debunking wild rumours before they spread everywhere. It's such a stark contrast to the Johns+Berg and Hamada eras where everyone and everything was getting a new movie every hour and weird, obscure characters were getting priority over fixing the classic heroes. For Allah's sake, Hamada was giving the fucking Wonder Twins and Black Canary their own movies before even thinking about getting Henry Cavill back as Superman.

I'm not really surprised that a distinctly British third adaptation of a British literary character isn't really breaking out in America. It's not like the same director's Paddington movies made all that much there either. Today's youth potentially not being familiar with Wonka as a character is another hurdle. Still, a $120M domestic total is not bad at all, especially in a genre that hasn't seen a real hit in years, and its overseas revenue should make up for any American shortcomings. I do think The Colour Purple, a movie with a story far more appealing to Americans, is going to steal its thunder and win December overall in America.

Musicals have beeen consistently underperforming or outright bombing these past few years, especially after C-Day, so I don't blame Hollywood for being wary here. Hopefully Wonka overcomes its initial surprise musical hurdles and does as well in America as it has been doing overseas so far. It's a great movie and it deserves money.

A behind the scenes featurette has been released as well, presumable the one that was shown at CinemaCon:

I honestly wouldn't blame Wan at all if this is his Hobbit moment and drives him away from filmmaking for good. Peter Jackson's basically retired now aside from the occasional documentary movie where he doesn't have to film any new footage. If that Blumhouse+Atomic Monster merger comes to fruition then Wan will be similarly set for life. But I do hope he still keeps making movies even after Aquaman 2 flops.

$275M? Make that at least $350M, if not more.

So can we expect Sam's goatee to be removed with CGI? And are they going to have Torres make a bunch of brunch jokes?

Looking great! Did anyone else catch the infamous "SILENCE!" scene that the Lynch movie butchered?

I mean, @keysersoze123 above is expecting a noticeably bigger Friday than Deadline's, so the latter might be lowballing here. Let's just wait for the final number tonight.

Oops. I guess I forgot.

That's a lot better than I'd expected. If Deadline's Minus One hold comes to fruition then we all owe @Shawn Robbins an apology as he'd have seen it coming far earlier than the rest of us.

Oh yeah, Rebel Moon, I forgot about that for a couple of seconds.

The top movie of a December weekend being in the low double digits is borderline depressing for exhibition. But on a per-movie basis, that's a great start for Heron. It'll come very close to Ponyo's entire domestic run with just its opening weekend. It is a very surreal and somewhat confusing movie though, so word of mouth might not be great.

I don't know if lack of competition is as much of a benefit as it once was. If none of the holiday offerings are appealing, then people just won't go to the movies. I'm sure Netflix has a big release around that time, and Disney+ has Percy Jackson.

I've been saying for a while that Wonka could be another Mary Poppins Returns in the making, in that it's a very old character that the rights holder overestimated modern audiences' interest in. This issue is nothing new of course, as both John Carter and The Lone Ranger suffered from it. At least Mary Poppins didn't, and Wonka most likely won't, do anywhere near as poorly as those. Wonka should end with a decent if unremarkable $250M-$300M worldwide total. I still think there's a chance it could outgross Aquaman 2 worldwide.

I haven't been hearing very nice things about the past two episodes though, and apparently the 50s storyline being absent in those is the main reason why they haven't been well received by the fans going off of the Godzilla subreddit. I'll get back to the series (I've watched the first three episodes so far) once I'm less busy with other matters, but this further hammers home that this franchise just isn't capable of writing compelling family drama, which is why I feel largely indifferent towards the modern storyline aside from Kurt Russell and all the Godzilla references. It's no coincidence that the 50s storyline, which is really good and carries the show, has a lot of the same elements that made Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs Kong much more warmly received than the rest of the franchise: adventure, mystery and exploration. So the episodes without that storyline, episodes where the bland modern day drama takes center stage, being poorly received in fan circles doesn't surprise me much.

Only the best results are worthy for the greatest superhero of all time.

Both Disney and Marvel should be thanking their gods that Ryan and his buddies agreed to return. They'd better stay the hell out of their way for this, because they need Deadpool more than Deadpool needs them.

She most likely knows this is going to flop and is wisely keeping her head down in order to dodge the incoming shitstorm. I imagine most of the rest of the cast and crew might be feeling the same way.