El Squibbonator

In that case, I'll edit this post to have a different review.

We should be treating this as a Warner Animation Group movie first, a DC movie second-- and as such, subject to reduced expectations. With the exception of the first LEGO Movie, none of WAG's movies have truly over-performed, and the only reason they haven't had more flops is because their budgets also tend to be relatively low.

Regarding League of Super-Pets, According to this article (and Variety is the gold-standard for box-office reporting), League of Super-Pets has already accumulated $2.2 million in Thursday previews. Unless our data is way off, it's actually tracking ahead of The Bad Guys. I think a good comparison for this movie might actually be Storks or Smallfoot, WB's two "original" animated movies. Both had budgets in the $80-90 million range, both were released in late summer, and both opened in the low $20 millions. Both of those movies managed to cross the $180 million mark, so if League of Super-Pets plays like them, it should be able to do the same, though probably not by much. If it has good legs, it might have a shot at $200 million worldwide.

Pretty much my thoughts. We should be treating this as a Warner Animation Group movie first and foremost, not a DC movie. The LEGO Movie aside, none of WAG's movies have been major breakout hits. That's not to say they've been failures-- most of them have at least managed to earn back their budgets-- but they haven't had the massive staying power of Disney and DreamWorks. League of Super-Pets will likely be similar in that respect.

Not so small it wouldn't be able to double its $90 million budget worldwide, I would imagine. Probably wouldn't do much more than that, but still.

Given that Minions is still going strong, I'm picturing Storks/Smallfoot numbers from this movie. If it opens around $25 million domestic-- which all signs are pointing to-- then it should at least be able to reach the $200 million mark worldwide.

I expect Super-Pets to perform similar to Smallfoot or Storks, WB's last two "original" animated movies. For reference, Smallfoot opened to $23 million domestically and grossed $214 worldwide. It also had a budget of $80 million, slightly less than the supposed budget of DC Super-Pets. Super-Pets will probably benefit from having the months of August and September pretty much to itself as far as family movies go. Minions has been out for a month already, and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile doesn't come out until October. That ought to give it enough wiggle room to leg it past the $200 million mark. Of course, Minions is still very popular, and if it weren't overperforming the way it is, Super-Pets might be able to open with over $40 million.

Not seeing very many positive reviews in this bunch.

Evolutionary Breakthrough at Fossil Record? In an exclusive interview, Mark Pierce, CEO of Fossil Record Animation, made a small announcement with what could be major implications for the North Carolina-based studio's future. "Everything's been kinds of hands-off so far," Pierce said, when asked about the track record of animated films put out by the company. With the exception of last year's blockbuster Frankenstein Jr. (produced by children's film subsidiary The Workshop) Fossil Record has a tradition of casting relatively unknown actors and giving its movies low budgets. "We've sort of been trying to find our footing, and seeing what sort of movies land with the public. The idea of making separate brands for kids' movies and more mature movies was part of that." The bombshell came when Pierce was asked a follow-up question, namely about what he believed could be done to make Fossil Record a major player on the cinematic world stage. "Franchise contracts are definitely going to help," said Pierce. "We already have Judge Dredd lined up under the Fossil Record banner, and Furby planned for the Workshop label. But what's going to be really important, given the critical reception of our past movies, is to improve communication between our subsidiaries. I said things have been hands-off around here so far, but it won't be that way in the future. Some new talent is being brought in to make sure of that." Pierce didn't answer who that new talent might be, but speculation has been rampant.

Gotcha.

All right, so now that we have another year's worth of CAYOM entries in the bag, we might as well set about reviewing them. There's a lot of movies this year, so we're going to go about this in an orderly fashion and-- WHAT THE *BLEEP* ARE YOU DOING HERE? Who are you? I'M SPUD THE COUCH POTATO, AND I'M TAKING THIS SHOW OVER! NOW GET YOUR *BLEEP* OUT OF THAT CHAIR, OR I'LL KICK IT OUT FOR YOU. Excuse me, we seem to be experiencing some. . . uhh. . . technical difficulties. As you were saying? I'M GONNA REVIEW THESE MOVIES, SINCE YOU'RE TOO *BLEEP*ING LAZY TO DO IT! Wait, what? YEAH, YOU HEARD ME. All right. Just one condition. You don't get to review my movies. WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT. NOW HERE'S HOW IT'S GONNA WORK. I'LL REVIEW THREE OF THESE *BLEEP*ING MOVIES FOR EVERY MONTH. PICKED TOTALLY AT RANDOM. I'LL GIVE THEM BETWEEN ONE AND TEN POINTS, THOUGH HONESTLY I DON'T KNOW IF ANY OF THEM DESERVE THAT MUCH. And me? THAT'S THE BEST PART! THIS ISN'T YOUR SHOW ANYMORE!

Are we allowed to write reviews for our own films, provided we don't show any favoritism? I'm asking because I had a plan for a special kind of review thread that would being an "equal-opportunity" reviewer, so to speak.

When does the Oscar voting begin, then?

When's the deadline for the review period?

I request Raven Island.

Yes, Dinosaucers can have IMAX screenings.

You should add Dinosaucers to my list of franchises.

A while back, I wondered what the budget of this movie was, since it wasn't made clear in the lead-up to its release. Now it appears my question has been answered-- series creator Loren Bouchard tweeted that the movie cost $38 million to produce. Obviously, then, its $33 million gross isn't good at all in light of that. But it does raise a new question. The Bob's Burgers Movie was originally announced in 2017, and planned for a 2020 release. The 2020 release was delayed due to the pandemic, first to 2021 and then to 2022. My question is, in a hypothetical scenario where there was no pandemic, and the movie came out in 2020, how might it have done?

And I'm really, legitimately, afraid Disney is going to listen to those people and dial back any LGBTQ inclusion in their future movies.

What I didn't like about The Good Dinosaur is that it had really creative setting but didn't tell a particularly interesting story with it. I had the same issue with Raya and the Last Dragon, and I'm concerned that Strange World might have that problem too.

I think it would have made a lot more sense if Turning Red and Lightyear had switched release strategies. Lightyear, as has been pointed out before, really seems like it would have been better-suited as a direct-to-streaming spinoff, while Turning Red could have been Pixar's triumphant return to original theatrical movies. It probably would have gotten a Chinese release (unlike Lightyear), and it wouldn't have had to worry about Jurassic World: Dominion and Top Gun: Maverick either!