Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | March 31, 2023 | Paramount | Amazon Prime advance screenings March 19 @ 2 PM

[Daxtreme]

People who weren't predisposed to see this movie just simply aren't changing their minds, no matter how people rave about it.

 

An unfortunate result of the "image" D&D has, I think, in terms of what you can expect from the movie.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Daxtreme

[SnokesLegs]

I’ve come around on this film quite a bit since I saw it last weekend, I wasn’t keen on it at all last week, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. I think I must’ve just been in a weird mood. Jarnathan was hilarious.

[SpiderByte]

Shame it doesn't seem to be holding too great despite the strong WOM. Hopefully they see the response and take a gamble on another one with a better release timeframe. Luckily they could do an anthology thing with an entire new cast if they needed

[Valonqar]

1 hour ago, Daxtreme said:

People who weren't predisposed to see this movie just simply aren't changing their minds, no matter how people rave about it.

 

An unfortunate result of the "image" D&D has, I think, in terms of what you can expect from the movie.

 

Yep. That something that should be taken into consideration when predictions are made. Some movies have limited appeal and strong reviews cannot help them transcend the demo or fanbase and hit it off with other demos or non-fans. The example for demo limit would be Woman King whose reviews and Audience score were super high but legs very mediocre and it totally flopped OS. D&D would be the example of fandom limit. Strong reviews, high audience score but bad second weekend drop and struggle OS. 

 

It's simply I trust you that the movie is good but I have interest in it. If concept doesn't click audience won't show up no matter the praise. Look at most of Oscar movies. High praise, low interest. 

 

Also, someone correctly pointed that audience likes serious fantasy or at least not goofy/tongue in cheek one. Levity is fine but not at the expense of the overall tone. Massive fantasy hits such as LOTR, HP, POTC and TV's GOT had levity but were overall serious. 

[screambaby]

On 4/5/2023 at 3:30 PM, TwoMisfits said:

 

If it doesn't make 1x its production budget WW (so $151M), epic bomb is exactly what it is, even if we don't want it to be one...

Bombs away

[Kon]

2 hours ago, Valonqar said:

 

Yep. That something that should be taken into consideration when predictions are made. Some movies have limited appeal and strong reviews cannot help them transcend the demo or fanbase and hit it off with other demos or non-fans. The example for demo limit would be Woman King whose reviews and Audience score were super high but legs very mediocre and it totally flopped OS. D&D would be the example of fandom limit. Strong reviews, high audience score but bad second weekend drop and struggle OS. 

 

It's simply I trust you that the movie is good but I have interest in it. If concept doesn't click audience won't show up no matter the praise. Look at most of Oscar movies. High praise, low interest. 

 

Also, someone correctly pointed that audience likes serious fantasy or at least not goofy/tongue in cheek one. Levity is fine but not at the expense of the overall tone. Massive fantasy hits such as LOTR, HP, POTC and TV's GOT had levity but were overall serious. 

 

Lack of interest in the concept is the worst thing that could happen to this movie. Not only makes unlikely that the movie has a profit for the studio, but it also gives little reason to continue with the concept.

 

It doesn't matter that the reception of the movie is good. It's unlikely the numbers will increase in a sequel due to the lack of interest.

 

[Halba]

16 hours ago, RandomCat said:

I am pulling for this movie. I really enjoyed it.

agree really good film. lots of good moments

[PrinceRico]

Well looks like it will bomb after all. Not shocking 

[Valonqar]

9 hours ago, Kon said:

 

Lack of interest in the concept is the worst thing that could happen to this movie. Not only makes unlikely that the movie has a profit for the studio, but it also gives little reason to continue with the concept.

 

It doesn't matter that the reception of the movie is good. It's unlikely the numbers will increase in a sequel due to the lack of interest.

 

 

Yep, this. No interest in the concept = no room for audience growth. And sequels always tend to be more expensive. 

[Daxtreme]

Yeah barring a miracle this is dead going forward.

 

A shame, the lesson for Hollywood here is that quality doesn't matter. I hate when Hollywood can draw that conclusion  

[dudalb]

On 4/8/2023 at 7:33 AM, RandomCat said:

I am pulling for this movie. I really enjoyed it.

I really liked it also, but ,frankly, it does not look like it is going to make it;s saving roll at the box office.

It needs 300 Million to just break even; it seems very unlikely it is going to do that.

SOmetimes good movies don't do well and bad movies are huge hits; it the way of the film business.

[TigerPaw]

Haven't seen international numbers for the weekend..

Might have been killed by Mario overseas..

[dudalb]

1 hour ago, Daxtreme said:

Yeah barring a miracle this is dead going forward.

 

A shame, the lesson for Hollywood here is that quality doesn't matter. I hate when Hollywood can draw that conclusion  

Because, from a pure business point of view, it is a valid conclusion. I don't like that any more then you do.

A film that was not at all well received by the critics and which I am not interested in seeing is breaking some BO records this weekend. Nothing I can do about it.

[titanic2187]

2 hours ago, Daxtreme said:

Yeah barring a miracle this is dead going forward.

 

A shame, the lesson for Hollywood here is that quality doesn't matter. I hate when Hollywood can draw that conclusion  

DnD remind me of the women King. A equally critically acclaimed movie with super positive WOM , and studio clearly did give a proper marketing push but in the end still fail to do big business. 

 

The exact reason is unknown but clearly there are some specific type of movie can never appeal to mass regardless of their quality. People just uninterested.  

[Firepower]

4 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

DnD remind me of the women King. A equally critically acclaimed movie with super positive WOM , and studio clearly did give a proper marketing push but in the end still fail to do big business. 

That's very odd comparison, but niche appeal and people not caring definitely played the part in both.

[RandomCat]

3 hours ago, dudalb said:

I really liked it also, but ,frankly, it does not look like it is going to make it;s saving roll at the box office.

It needs 300 Million to just break even; it seems very unlikely it is going to do that.

SOmetimes good movies don't do well and bad movies are huge hits; it the way of the film business.

I'm going to purposely fail my will save and believe and hope it'll have magic legs.

 

Or I'll go cry in the corner.

[Pinacolada]

It's so joever dude it's depressing. 

 

Just hoping it can break $200m WW at this point. DOM $100m is looking tough. So depressing international markets gave like less of a fuck than the US, which is clearly already pretty low

[AGlitchGnome]

23 minutes ago, Pinacolada said:

It's so joever dude it's depressing. 

 

Just hoping it can break $200m WW at this point. DOM $100m is looking tough. So depressing international markets gave like less of a fuck than the US, which is clearly already pretty low

I with you but I'm not as pessimistic about $100m DOM, I think it will hold a little better over the next couple weeks. But I agree the international side pretty much sealed the deal of this movie flopping hard and I don't really have a good explanation for that. My guess is just the lack of brand recognition? In the states I would say that anything branded DND has a sort of negative connotation for the general audience, even though that has been changing recently. I feel like most people would be like "oh that nerd thing?" or would remember the first movie from 2000. Either way it doesn't exactly scream "Must See"

 

I don't know how to gauge the international markets other than there is no brand recognition and nothing about the trailers that grabbed anyone other than the core fanbase. Add on top of that the Lukewarm response from the US/Core Fans and it just did not generate the hype needed to get people in seats. I wont mention the terrible choice of release date, but I do wonder if they didn't include "dungeons and dragons" in the title if audiences would have been more receptive?

 

When you look at the most popular DND properties for media they generally don't have anything mentioning DND in them. For Example the Vox Machina animated series is based on a DND campaign and most would only know that because someone told them or they looked into it.

 

I still think this will sell a lot of Merch and do fairly well on streaming but the hopes of a sequel are completely gone at this point. I hope it finds an audience in the aftermarket and becomes a new cult classic.

Edited April 10, 2023 by AGlitchGnome

[dudalb]

I an not seeing that much Merch directly tied to the film.

Reality about merchandise tied to films; if a film does poorly, the merchandise also ,in most cases does poorly.

The film is going to lose money. Only question is how much.

It sucks, I know, but welcome to the real world.

Hey, I still regret that "Master and Commander" flopped and we never got a Aubrey/Maturin franchise, but such is life.

[Saul Goodman]

Could have released this in April instead of the most crowded March in recent years.