The Shape of Water (Cold War supernatural thriller) | Dec 8 2017 | Del Toro co-writing/directing | Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon

[Ithil]

[Valonqar]

[AniNate]

Color me very surprised that this won Best Picture. I really loved the film but I always thought it was too much of a genre movie to appeal to them. Congrats to del Toro.

 

Pretty cool that I got to see an eventual Best Picture winner three months before everyone else did.

[dudalb]

Maybe now, Cthuluhu willing, Del Toro can get "The Mountains of Madness" greenlit...

[TalismanRing]

1 hour ago, dudalb said:

Maybe now, Cthuluhu willing, Del Toro can get "The Mountains of Madness" greenlit...

At only 10x+ the budget of SOW - a veritable bargain. 

 

If SOW had seriously broken out financially and done say $300-400m WW it would have helped him more than the Oscar.

 

He'll need to figure out how to cut the budget by maybe half or at least a third. 

 

 

[Fancyarcher]

5 hours ago, tribefan695 said:

Color me very surprised that this won Best Picture. I really loved the film but I always thought it was too much of a genre movie to appeal to them. Congrats to del Toro.

 

Pretty cool that I got to see an eventual Best Picture winner three months before everyone else did.

I also saw The Shape of Water months before it came along. Was great to see it before all the Oscar hype, and I loved the film to boot. 

[Morieris]

 

[filmlover]

3 minutes ago, Morieris said:

 

[shayhiri]

When Mexicans have far better movie taste than Americans...

[The Futurist]

Be James Cameron's BFF.

Be James Cameron's wife.

Win a best director Oscar.

Simple.

[CoolioD1]

10 minutes ago, The Futurist said:

Be James Cameron's BFF.

Be James Cameron's wife.

Win a best director Oscar.

Simple.

Robert Rodriguez is making self space for next year as we speak. that's the reason it got pushed to december oscar season baybeeee

[Webslinger]

I just saw an ad for the Pacific Rim sequel and couldn't help but think how lucky we were that Del Toro got the funding for Shape of Water instead of having to go back to Pacific Rim 2.

 

It's sad that Best Picture doesn't really mean anything at the box office anymore. This would be the perfect movie to reap the benefits of the months-on-end presence A Beautiful Mind and Chicago had in the wakes of their respective wins in the early '00s. It's a lovely movie that will still look terrific at home, but it demands to be seen on the big screen.

Edited March 11, 2018 by Webslinger

[CoolioD1]

the shortened window doesn't help. a december release and you can already buy it digitally, dvd out this week i'm still surprised by this nonsense.

Edited March 11, 2018 by CoolioD1

[titanic2187]

4 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

the shortened window doesn't help. a december release and you can already buy it digitally, dvd out this week i'm still surprised by this nonsense.

It is really a non sense here, juno got 143m while slumdog got 141m with Oscar buzz, didn't fox searchlight see the potential of these drama ? I really wonder how much benefit can they reap by shorten the theaterical window

[Webslinger]

Juno and Slumdog Millionaire both benefited from significant youth appeal, though. Juno was the biggest teen movie in ages at the time of its release, and I remember quite a few of my high school classmates rallying around Slumdog when it finally came to our area. The Shape of Water was never going to tap into the youth zeitgeist in the same way.

 

Nevertheless, it's kinda sad to acknowledge that the general trajectory for Best Picture winners has declined sharply since the mid-'00s. To put it into perspective, BOM ran a critical article speculating on whether the Oscars meant anything anymore in 2005, when Million Dollar Baby was on its way to eking out a $100 million finish. These days, if a dark sports drama came anywhere near $100 million - Oscars or none, inflation factored in - it would seem like a miracle.

[filmlover]

8 minutes ago, Webslinger said:

Juno and Slumdog Millionaire both benefited from significant youth appeal, though. Juno was the biggest teen movie in ages at the time of its release, and I remember quite a few of my high school classmates rallying around Slumdog when it finally came to our area. The Shape of Water was never going to tap into the youth zeitgeist in the same way.

 

Nevertheless, it's kinda sad to acknowledge that the general trajectory for Best Picture winners has declined sharply since the mid-'00s. To put it into perspective, BOM ran a critical article speculating on whether the Oscars meant anything anymore in 2005, when Million Dollar Baby was on its way to eking out a $100 million finish. These days, if a dark sports drama came anywhere near $100 million - Oscars or none, inflation factored in - it would seem like a miracle.

To be fair, Million Dollar Baby was also significantly bolstered by the immense controversy surrounding its third act.

[AniNate]

It did get a pretty nice Friday bump so hope for reaching triple digits may not be lost yet.

 

I would say the Oscars' relevance problems are more about them not paying attention to us than the other way around. 

[Webslinger]

47 minutes ago, tribefan695 said:

I would say the Oscars' relevance problems are more about them not paying attention to us than the other way around. 

Honestly, I'd rather see them honor a film like The Shape of Water rather than the big blockbusters that got solid reviews (e.g. The Last Jedi or Wonder Woman - films I enjoyed thoroughly though I'll acknowledge that they would have been out of place in a Best Picture lineup).

 

It's just sad that even with Oscar wins and excellent reviews, The Shape of Water will ultimately sell significantly fewer tickets than Hellboy (again: really solid movie, but not superior to Shape of Water).

[MinaTakla]

On 3/9/2018 at 7:45 PM, Morieris said:

 

It's so much better than TLJ so well deserved.

[Gavin Feng]

no fucking kidding. This is what Fox did.