MightyDargon

Keep in mind the inverse can also be true. Some things have obsessive noisy fanbases but don't have broad support. This is true for a lot of DC stuff that isn't Batman. I had to sit through about a billion "Aquaman made a billion and that's why it deserves the XMas Slot and not Dune" BS on here. Aquaman/Aquaman 2 drop is what Avatar would be if it ACTUALLY had "zero pop culture relevance".

The nursing home demo just LOVES Aquaman!

Official budget is most likely bunk.

WB should have dumped Aquaman on Max and put out Dune 2 in this slot. Aquaman was already dead and if audiences still hadn't figured that out, they would after Momoa's promos. "It doesn't look good for Aquaman" okay, movie skipped.

I'm partial to the 300 million dollar reboot of Street Sharks myself.

Gerwig's real innovation was showing you could get kids into an adult oriented film with the right approach and marketing. Hollywood is too stoopid to learn the lesson.

If it had no "pop culture footprint" it would not have made what it did. Avatar is not a generic film, it just doesn't have a very "devout" fanbase because they watch a lot of other stuff as well. It used to be normal for blockbusters to make a lot but not have an insane fanbase. Avatar is a throwback to this.

The argument is really about whether kids will come out for a "generic" movie or not. There's pretty strong evidence they won't. It has to be an IP that at least already registers with them. I think kids were at least aware of who Barbie is, even before the film.

You never provided an age breakdown for Odyssey, just for the system itself. All you demonstrated is how popular you think "Nintendo" is, not who Odyssey sold to or why. Your entire argument is the movie somehow was needed to reintroduce a character who was already overwhelmingly popular.

I mean, Barbie didn't have "kid" themes but they watched it anyway because of the IP and because "it was cool". Stuff like Wish never had that kind of buzz despite "it's a Disney movie"

Unpopular opinion but I don't think Iger did that bad a job this year EXCEPT he didn't announce a change to MCU's plans once Majors got busted. Most people did not want Kang after Quantumania and killing off that arc will put some wind back in Marvel's sails.

Yeah, end your movie with a guy eating a cockroach. What a metaphor for DCEU quality control there.

I see people got bored with "Avatar has zero cultural relevance" and have now moved to "kids don't like Mario" for this board's latest bizarre meme. At least with Avatar there was a kernel of truth in that the fandom wasn't that dedicated (although Cameron was also smart enough not to strip mine it the way Lucasfilm or Marvel did under Disney).

Geez, you are absolutely intent on dying on the "kids don't care about Mario" hill, aren't you? I'm sure Universal got Super Nintendo World solely for the Disney Adult demo according to this argument line. Mario didn't need to be reintroduced! Odyssey sold 26 million copies! It was a super blockbuster by any standard. That's why the movie was succesful! Kids don't care about generic IP but they will get excited about "a Mario movie".

I don't know exactly how many "little" kids got to see Barbie considering it was pitched as a somewhat hard PG-13 but it wasn't exactly inaccessible either. I very much doubt many kids would have been interested in that script if it didn't feature the Barbie character and was sold solely as an original IP. Which kind of makes the point that kids basically need to already be invested to care and "generic movie" doesn't work with that age.

Then why was Stranger Things primary demo people who weren't alive in the 80s? That went out of its way to feel 80s. Ironically Mario felt more self-consciously "80s" than Mayhem did (at least in soundtrack). But Mayhem was very clearly a nostalgia push to "reintroduce" an IP in a way that Mario clearly wasn't. Rise of the TMNT only ran a season and a half on Nicktoons. Mutant Mayhem was clearly pushed to reintroduce the TMNT and it felt like it was a pitch based on the brand loyalty of older audiences, not younger, because today's actual kids didn't have much invested in TMNT.

Older gens did not drive Mario. It was little kids. If you want to see what a nostalgia play driven by "kids of yesteryear" looks like look at Mutant Mayhem's box office instead.

Aquaman's "core" target audience will still probably show (although Iron Claw and Minus One will take a chunk out of even that). The reason Aquaman 1 was a super blockbuster was because it appealed to women and other groups far outside the core. Most of those groups will avoid this sequel for anything else that looks remotely appealing. If other studios actually were scared of it we would have another Avatar 2 situation.

The idea that Mario is somehow "not popular" with kids despite the boatloads of merch, multiple system sellers, and Lego sets is...hoo boy. See, I can buy Switch owners being majority 20-40 because those people actually have money and little kids DON'T. People on this site seem to think that kids can get every single thing they want out of cash strapped parents despite all evidence to the contrary.

No, it most certainly does NOT struggle. Did you see the Switch sales figures?!? Mario was/is hugely popular among kids long before the movie came out. Mario Odyssey was a bestseller. MARIO was the draw of Mario and the core was little kids AND families still cared. Migration/Wish/etc. had no "core".

Casuals that would otherwise go to Aquaman by default will go to TCP. I realize those aren't Aquaman's core but so few people care about a superhero movie that's already dead that it will get hurt by ANY competition.

Those were in IP that kids actually care enough about to see at the theatre though. Kids are less likely to show up now just because "a Disney movie" exists.

They very clearly do care when Hollywood gives them stuff to care about (Mario). But the "casual audience" that would show up for anything is dead. Unless if inflation somehow reverses I doubt their "habits" or whatever would change.

Migration in particular stands out as a "what's the draw" movie. The concept/character art seems like it should be debuting on Netflix/Peacock. Throw in the fact that Mario's just on Peacock and you can pretty easily extrapolate what happened.

Too early to say but I expect a post Xmas collapse and Color Purple to mainly exploit that. I don't think Aquaman is going over Black Adam.