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

[upprdeck]

My daugther plays D&D every week her college friends.. Not one of that group knew about this movie.  She loved it.    She goes to lots of movies and never saw a trailer.   If you are not finding the 20-30 demo with marketing then you are missing home some how.. 

[John Marston]

movie was heavily marketed. Saw the trailer in front of every big movie since Black Panther. They did early screenings and other type of events. Some movies just don' have appeal no matter how good they are. It sucks but it is true

[screambaby]

6 minutes ago, John Marston said:

movie was heavily marketed. Saw the trailer in front of every big movie since Black Panther. They did early screenings and other type of events. Some movies just don' have appeal no matter how good they are. It sucks but it is true

I remember how many people were 'shocked' blade runner 2 flopped...like it's a 150 million dollar sequel to a 150 million dollar movie (in 1982 dollars) that flopped...doesn't matter how good it is or isnt

Edited April 11, 2023 by screambaby

[upprdeck]

I have seen in 2023

 

Ant man

john wick

Otto

cocaine bear

shazam

creed
65

marlowe

 

i did not see the trailer for this once. 

[Pinacolada]

Straight up, I think this just gets chalked up to Dungeons and Dragons having no pull as a brand and IP, or even worse, is an IP that people actively look down upon.

 

We can argue about the marketing (What I'll say is that I think the trailers were generally seen as pretty poor or silly by the average consumer, the only time I ever saw the trailers were in front of Confess, Fletch and Babylon lol, the late marketing push was good), but when you have really positive reviews, really positive audience WOM, early reviews and previews for critics and audiences alike spewing positive stuff on Social media, and can only muster what's it's getting.... there's just a problem with the brand.

 

The fact that this is looking like it's not even gonna hit $100m DOM despite a $38m OW and fantastic WOM I think speaks volumes about how no one gives a shit about DnD, or thinks the movie looks stupid and don't care, regardless of the WOM.

 

Hurts me to say this because I really liked the movie, love Chris Pine. Dude is just kinda cursed with franchises that do fine-ish DOM but can't get saved internationally the way the majority of these kinds of blockbusters do and should. Historically, international audiences are way more down for Fantasy stuff than DOM market. The fact this is gonna do worse internationally than the DOM market says a lot, I think, about the aversion non-players have with DnD

Edited April 11, 2023 by Pinacolada

[dudalb]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:33 AM, Stas said:

In ex-USSR and partially Eastern Europe countries, the trailer was well received. But only in geeks circles, that follow all pop culture news and watch all the trailers. The trailer reminded pre-LOTR fantasy - Ladyhawke, The Princess bride, A Knight's Tale. Counter-proposal to superhero genre, which frankly amounted a quite deal of tiredness. So yes, without an existing fan base it is very difficult to launch a franchise.

 

The main problem is the budget. Epic fantasy requires epic budget. For example, first John Wick movie (7.4 on IMDB) started with $86M at WW box-office and only with third film in series it had reached 300+ million globally. If D&D HAT (7,6 on IMDb) had a budget around $50M, the sequel would have already been greenlit. $100M - most likely. But launching with a blockbuster budget without huge dedicated fanbase behind (like Super Mario movie) is extremely risky right now.

 

I don't even know how to fix the situation. Perhaps a partnership with Apple or Amazon - they are now actively looking for feature movies to enter theatrical exhibition market. But these, of course, leads to another risks like producing participants disagreements.

Sword and Sorcery movies always did well in Russia even if the did not do well in most countries; no Russia market for this hurt it's international gross more then the lack of a Russia market hurt most films.

BTW with a couple of exceptions, I don;t see the Russia Market reoopening to the West until Putin is gone. Evidence is he wants to keep Western movies out of Russia as much as possible since he sees them as a corrupt influence.

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

4 hours ago, screambaby said:

Once upon a time though the original scream was expected to be a flop.. Everything has to have a beginning...if you don't have a good beginning you won't have any....the weinstein perv Brothers at least knew how to market the original and get a good release date...(until they got to scream 4)...if you don't know how to market or open any movie It's probs ly gonna flop 

I mean, arguably the best Scream aside from the first one - Scream 4 - was a complete dud at the box office. Sometimes this stuff happens. My favorite movie from the guys that did the latest two Scream entries was a dud at the box office too... Had a blast with Ready or Not. But, again, sometimes this stuff happens.

[Kon]

16 hours ago, upprdeck said:

If i make the best movie of all time and no one knows about it how much money will it make?   if they spent all this money on marketing where did it go? the movie only cost 75 million  the movie studio. 

The budget of the D&D was 150 million. However, if I'm not mistaken, this budget doesn't include the marketing.

 

So, we don't know exactly how much the studio spend in this movie, but it's a good amount more than 150 million.

[RandomCat]

3 hours ago, Kon said:

The budget of the D&D was 150 million. However, if I'm not mistaken, this budget doesn't include the marketing.

 

So, we don't know exactly how much the studio spend in this movie, but it's a good amount more than 150 million.

If I recall, Hasbro footed part of the bill too. So capping where this movie profits for the studio may be hard.

[JohnnyGossamer]

19 hours ago, upprdeck said:

I have seen in 2023

 

Ant man

john wick

Otto

cocaine bear

shazam

creed
65

marlowe

 

i did not see the trailer for this once. 

Wow. I saw it before pretty much all of those... I didn't see Marlowe or Shazam though. Definitely saw it before the others. I saw it before pretty much every film I saw in an AMC theater in Dolby. I even saw it before Scream 6 which I saw in a smaller local theater. It was everywhere. People were actually joking about how often they'd see the trailer before movies.

[danman345]

I’m still holding on to hope that the movie will end up grossing more than 100m! *Fingers crossed*

[TwoMisfits]

So, I watched DnD tonight...and I get the box office.  I'm sorry...it's the worst thing I've seen in theaters this year.  Now, (since I missed Ant Man 3), that doesn't make it a bad movie, but it's not really a good one.  It was the most try hard unfunny movie I've watched in awhile.  The trailer scene at the graveyard, and everything there, was the funniest part of the movie...but that was about it.  Since I know one user thinks I have bad opinions on films (while I see myself as more GA), take this feedback for what it's worth.

 

That said, only my youngest agreed with me, while my hardcore DnD family players (the other 4) all liked it to liked it a lot.  

 

They are hardcore - I roleplay b/c my spouse got me into it, and I enjoy the friends and fun.  And maybe that's what this movie was missing - more fun.

 

Grades 

 

Me - C/C- - it had some redeemable parts, so I won't go lower, but I was checking my watch...

Spouse - B+ - finally had the game movie he liked, even though he said it was a "popcorn only" movie

Oldest - B+

2nd - B+ - she loved it, but said it was a beat for bear remake of GOTG Telltale game - I never played it, so I have no idea, but she said it's a straight rip off

3rd - B+

4th - B- (which is a low grade from him)...

 

So, even from those who like it, it's not full love, and that explains why it couldn't get traction where it was...hard to pay full price when there's a lot of like, some dislike, and no full love on a product that has both the promise and the baggage of the game.

 

Gonna post this to the movie thread, too...

[upprdeck]

I have had 7-8 people see it that i know and everyone has loved it. 

[elcaballero]

Apparently this will hit streaming mid-May?

Really wish the box office for this was better. Enjoyed the crew they set up, especially Pine, and would've loved to see more.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

I enjoyed it, though all the snarky quips were on edge of annoying me sometimes. The essential story wasn't hard to follow, though you can tell there's a lot of lore/Easter eggs for the fans and I felt somewhat out of the loop at times.

 

After seeing it, the box office makes sense to me, especially considering the stigma the franchise has in some corners. I was entertained, but maybe people with even a passing familiarity with D&D are getting more out of it.

 

Can't believe Justce Smith turns 28 this year, I thought he was 19 or something.

 

What an interesting cameo...

[upprdeck]

Interesting weekend for the BO..  

 

With a lack of anything new really coming out and again next week it had a pretty nice hold only dropping about 30% from last weekend  

 

Its got a shot at 90 plus domestic now and had a good foreign hold last week upwards of 12-13 million.

 

Did it open someplace else new?

 

could finish 90/110 for 200 million now. 

[kayumanggi]

I really wish this has enough tank to make it to 100M, but I think 93M - 96M is where this is ending.

[Saul Goodman]

It just needed a bankable star like The Lost City/Bullet Train had last year. Chris Pine might be internet-popular but when has the man ever been a draw.

[stripe]

88.2M after 4.2M... If it survives Guardians and grosses something around 3M next weekend, 100M could be again in conversation.

 

 

[PrinceRico]

Shame this was a big flop. Would have been nice to see a part 2