LegionWrex

WOM is really strong across the board on the film so I suspect that will carry over to Japan. Pixar tends to do well over there (Lightyear aside, which did badly everywhere).

Genuinely insane run happening for Elemental right now, I can feel it. Thinking it can beat Inside Out which is still Pixar's top grosser there ($30M USD), it's still got a bit to go but it's just doing insanely well there right now.

Tron 3 is DOA. I adore the Tron movies but the original was a flop and Legacy did... fine? I guess? Considering how aggressive Disney marketed it I'd say it was a disappointment. If they wanted Tron 3 to do well they would have made one like 2-3 years after Legacy but they dragged their feet on it and now we have a sequel without Kosinski, without any of the major leads from either prior film, and no Daft Punk. Ugh.

For real. One of my favourite films from last year was Babylon which was a mega flop. Sometimes shit goes sideways.

Absolutely it does.

Frankly I would shocked if it gets lower then an A- on Cinemascore, audiences seem to be liking it. Would be the only really good news for it at the moment, so rooting for that.

Depends on multipliers but it would be a possibility. Still don't think it will be that low frankly but prep for the worst, hope for the best, stay for memes.

Definitely a yikes considering it's budget, though when compared to other older skewing franchises it should frankly be a warning to not spend like $300 million on them more then anything. Thinking the final number is more around $6.3.-6.5M depending on how things turn out.

If it pulls an Elemental that might be a victory tbh.

I stand by that if Detective Pikachu was just a straight up Pokemon movie (either adaptation of Red and Blue or OG anime) it would have easily crossed a billion.

Seems like walk-ups won't stop the bleeding completely but will at least make sure this gets to the higher end of projections, at least rn. Could be wrong though.

In that case I just imagine how well it could have done if it wasn't for the pandemic. $300M WW possibly?

So this is 100% going to be #2 on the weekend right? Hell yeah.

A trilogy to rival Nolan's Batman trilogy. I'm here for it.

Most exciting thing about Barbie (outside of it, you know, looking really fantastic) is that if it is as big of a hit as it seems like it's going to be, I feel like Gerwig is going to get carte blanche on whatever she does next. Lady Bird was an indie hit ($49M domestic and $78M WW) and Little Women was... actually a pretty big hit considering it's budget ($108M domestic and $219M WW), so three hits in a row would be pretty huge tbh

Considering the way the Lucasfilm deal worked, all future Indy films would still have "financial participation" from Paramount Pictures cause of the first four films so in essence, Paramount would profit from all future Indy films while having to do nothing. Not surprising Disney isn't too keen on making more of these.

Barbie for $130M+ opening. I'm calling it now.

I have Belle on Blu-Ray and I still have yet to watch it lmao. Considering how much I love Hosoda though and how much acclaim this one in particular has gotten I'm sure it will be an all-timer.

Maybe the best to ever do it.

Hosoda is amazing. Wolf Children is my all time favourite film so definitely check that one out at least. He's very different from both Miyazaki and Shinkai even if he operates on a similar wave length - he's very grounded in his stories, they almost feel quaint compared to his contemporaries but I think that's why he works.

Movie of all time right here. Villeneuve you bastard, you are about to fucking do it.

Definitely seems to be something with the older generation for sure, though honestly I'm not sure who to blame. Animation at one point WAS considered for all ages - especially in the 30s and 40s - but then after WW2 that really changed. Obviously tides are changing and I suspect within the next 20 years it will begin to shift again but that massive shift in the 50s to "animation is kids stuff" did a lot of damage to animation for decades.

I have been watching anime for over 10 years at this point, and I run a podcast dedicated to the medium as well write about it as a career essentially. Most of my favourite shows are anime, I've seen way too many I'd like to admit, and my MAL watchlist is large enough to fill an entire 5 years worth of watches. I both agree and disagree with this in a lot of ways, though I do understand where you are coming from. I think it mostly has to do with a misunderstanding what we consider to be "formulaic". Anime took a long time to break out like this even in Japan. For decades it was seen as "child's fare" over there and it really wasn't until the early 80s with the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy (not even the original series!) that really started to change. And while yes there were anime developed for adults prior to that, the success of that trilogy proved there was a market for it. This led to a vast number of imitators and the mecha boom of 80s, which I consider very similar to the Isekai boom of today which is everywhere. Anime has it's originality like you said - Kill La Kill which you brought up is a great example of a genuine auteurist work in the mainstream - but I disagree with the idea that some anime is more original/exciting then western animation especially since most of the mainstream stuff in Japan has been following formula for a while now. Both Demon Slayer and Elemental are great/fantastic, but both are exceptionally formula driven in their own respective ways (which is also partly why Demon Slayer was a huge hit around the world). This isn't a knock against either piece of media, mind you - I find the discussion about formula to be boring personally, it's all about execution - but it's the truth of the matter. For most of the good stuff in both eastern and western, you gotta look deep. For example, if you want something really interesting and unique, check out Odd Taxi, which is one of the most engaging dramas I've ever seen and it's got a cast of entirely animals. Or here in the west, we recently had Mad God, which is a wildly horrifying masterwork made by one guy over the course of two decades. I'm not disagreeing with the idea that anime inherently is more appealing at the moment. It clearly is, and with the success of stuff like Across the Spider-Verse I do think that turning point for western animation similar to what happened in the early 80s in Japan is coming sooner then later, but also if you want the truly interesting stuff on both sides of the pond, you gotta look deeper then simply what's in the mainstream, cause there is some really amazing stuff going on in animation everywhere right now (it's kind of having a moment).

Pretty sure the country is falling apart for other reasons, but sure, let's go with hatred against Star Wars fans. #StopTheHate

This. Also, high recommendation for everybody to watch Kaguya-sama. Fantastic show.