Weekend Thread (Dec-30-Jan 2nd) 3/4-day #s R1 49.5m/64.3m, Sing 42.8m/56.4m, Pass 16.15m/20.7m, Moana 10.97m/14.3m, WH 10.6m/13m, Fences 10m/12.7m

[Jonwo]

1 minute ago, Fancyarcher said:

 

I just think Illumination is a company that's more concerned about keeping their budgets down and doing silly animated films, than telling a really good story. Something like SLOP was amusing, but I would hardly consider it an animation classic for example. 

 

SLOP IMO squandered its premise and it's a film that starts really well but goes downhill, it didn't help like the main characters weren't particularly likeable, it was saved by the supporting characters. 

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with silly animated films, I enjoyed Storks and I think WAG has huge potential with their animated films but I think Illumination shouldn't rest on their laurels because we saw what happened with DWA

[MrPink]

18 minutes ago, SteveJaros said:

 

Your general point about there being no college football playoffs in 2011 is correct, but FWIW, there were no bowls on January 1st. That was Sunday, an NFL day. There was a full slate of NFL games that day, the last day of the NFL regular season so playoff positioning was at stake.

 

On Saturday, 12/31, there were six bowl games, none of them "major". Monday January 2nd was a big bowl day, with four pretty big bowls early and then the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl that day as well.

 

Good catch, I think they usually fall on Jan 1st unless it falls on Sunday, my mistake

[YM!]

8 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

 

SLOP IMO squandered its premise and it's a film that starts really well but goes downhill, it didn't help like the main characters weren't particularly likeable, it was saved by the supporting characters. 

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with silly animated films, I enjoyed Storks and I think WAG has huge potential with their animated films but I think Illumination shouldn't rest on their laurels because we saw what happened with DWA

Agreed.

[Fancyarcher]

12 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

 

SLOP IMO squandered its premise and it's a film that starts really well but goes downhill, it didn't help like the main characters weren't particularly likeable, it was saved by the supporting characters. 

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with silly animated films, I enjoyed Storks and I think WAG has huge potential with their animated films but I think Illumination shouldn't rest on their laurels because we saw what happened with DWA

 

 

 

I'll give them credit, they're at least smarter than Dreamworks. They aren't flooding the market with 3 animated films a year, yet. 

 

I do think they should try to make their characters and story a bit better though.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Fancyarcher

[Jonwo]

15 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

 

I'll give them credit, they're at least smarter than Dreamworks. They aren't flooding the market with 3 animated films a year, yet. 

 

I do think they should try to make their characters and story a bit better though.

 

DWA's biggest mistake wasn't three films a year although that played a part but going public, being an independent studio meant they had to have a hit or the shares went down, WDAS, Illumination, Pixar etc are part of a parent company so they're sort of insulated and also Katzenberg were overambitious with DWA with the expansion into theme parks, buying Classic Media etc 

[baumer]

36 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

 

SLOP IMO squandered its premise and it's a film that starts really well but goes downhill, it didn't help like the main characters weren't particularly likeable, it was saved by the supporting characters. 

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with silly animated films, I enjoyed Storks and I think WAG has huge potential with their animated films but I think Illumination shouldn't rest on their laurels because we saw what happened with DWA

 

It's amazing to me, so many people in this thread are commenting about how terrible illumination films are and they need to be careful and so on and so on. And yet here's illumination basically dominating the animated fiels right now. The only Studio that's better is Pixar and that's because they have a long history. Illumination gives the kids exactly what they want. Because kids get what they want that means that parents have to take the kids. You guys have to realize that not every film was made for you. There are tons of horror movies out there that don't get mainstream support because it's not made for everybody. They're making films that kids enjoy and just because you don't enjoy them doesn't mean they aren't good films.

 

 

[Olive]

SLOP was garbage from start to finish IMO.

[Jonwo]

4 minutes ago, Christmas Baumer said:

 

It's amazing to me, so many people in this thread are commenting about how terrible illumination films are and they need to be careful and so on and so on. And yet here's illumination basically dominating the animated fiels right now. The only Studio that's better is Pixar and that's because they have a long history. Illumination gives the kids exactly what they want. Because kids get what they want that means that parents have to take the kids. You guys have to realize that not every film was made for you. There are tons of horror movies out there that don't get mainstream support because it's not made for everybody. They're making films that kids enjoy and just because you don't enjoy them doesn't mean they aren't good films.

 

 

 

Didn't you hate SLOP? I thought it was unremarkable but I didn't dislike it, just that it was wasted potential in a great premise. 

 

 

 

[aabattery]

14 minutes ago, Christmas Baumer said:

 

It's amazing to me, so many people in this thread are commenting about how terrible illumination films are and they need to be careful and so on and so on. And yet here's illumination basically dominating the animated fiels right now. The only Studio that's better is Pixar and that's because they have a long history. Illumination gives the kids exactly what they want. Because kids get what they want that means that parents have to take the kids. You guys have to realize that not every film was made for you. There are tons of horror movies out there that don't get mainstream support because it's not made for everybody. They're making films that kids enjoy and just because you don't enjoy them doesn't mean they aren't good films.

 

 

 

Yeah, you're on the money here. I personally think most of their movies are shit but obviously a lot of people do like them. And they sure as hell aren't doing anything wrong; their box office numbers are proof of that.

[CelestialFairyIX]

11 minutes ago, Christmas Baumer said:

 

It's amazing to me, so many people in this thread are commenting about how terrible illumination films are and they need to be careful and so on and so on. And yet here's illumination basically dominating the animated fiels right now. The only Studio that's better is Pixar and that's because they have a long history. Illumination gives the kids exactly what they want. Because kids get what they want that means that parents have to take the kids. You guys have to realize that not every film was made for you. There are tons of horror movies out there that don't get mainstream support because it's not made for everybody. They're making films that kids enjoy and just because you don't enjoy them doesn't mean they aren't good films.

 

 

In terms of box office returns, yes, Illumination is dominating the animation field.  In terms of quality, no, Illumination needs to truly get a grip on how to tell entertaining tales without being cliche.  A book may be geared towards kids, but if it's not a good work of literature, I don't think parents who want their children to grow up to push their respective boundaries would be keen to let their children read those books.  In the same way, although films may provide a sense of entertainment, much like any work of art, you always have to ask certain questions such as, "Did it push the medium forward?" "Was the storytelling coherent?"  Yeah, there's nothing wrong with films geared towards kids with kid jokes and kid themes and kid _____ so on, but there's also nothing wrong with being critical of Illumination's products and their quality because the bar for quality animation has risen considerably and Illumination should at least try to reach those standards.  Sing is a good film, The Secret Life of Pets is a good film, heck, the Lorax is a good film.  But do they really push the medium forward: Not really. 

[Fancyarcher]

29 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

 

DWA's biggest mistake wasn't three films a year although that played a part but going public, being an independent studio meant they had to have a hit or the shares went down, WDAS, Illumination, Pixar etc are part of a parent company so they're sort of insulated and also Katzenberg were overambitious with DWA with the expansion into theme parks, buying Classic Media etc 

 

 

Illumination probably shouldn't try and expand too much. Right now Illumination doesn't have the same problem as Dreamworks though since they're partnered up with Universal, in a relationship that seems fairly stable. 

[Jonwo]

3 minutes ago, CelestialFairyIX said:

In terms of box office returns, yes, Illumination is dominating the animation field.  In terms of quality, no, Illumination needs to truly get a grip on how to tell entertaining tales without being cliche.  A book may be geared towards kids, but if it's not a good work of literature, I don't think parents who want their children to grow up to push their respective boundaries would be keen to let their children read those books.  In the same way, although films may provide a sense of entertainment, much like any work of art, you always have to ask certain questions such as, "Did it push the medium forward?" "Was the storytelling coherent?"  Yeah, there's nothing wrong with films geared towards kids with kid jokes and kid themes and kid _____ so on, but there's also nothing wrong with being critical of Illumination's products and their quality because the bar for quality animation has risen considerably and Illumination should at least try to reach those standards.  Sing is a good film, The Secret Life of Pets is a good film, heck, the Lorax is a good film.  But do they really push the medium forward: Not really. 

 

I agree with this, apart from The Lorax, that wasn't a good film at all. 

 

I do think gag driven animated films have their place, I already mentioned Storks which to me did fall short story wise but made up for that with the sheer number of gags. It's not just WDAS and Pixar that are raising the bar, it's also Aardman and Laika which produce quality animation but also great storytelling, Shaun the Sheep was second only to Inside Out last year for me for best animated film and that had no dialogues but that had more heart and humour in it in 1 minute than Minions for the entire film.

[baumer]

34 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

 

Didn't you hate SLOP? I thought it was unremarkable but I didn't dislike it, just that it was wasted potential in a great premise. 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I did not like it that much. But my nieces loved it and so did their friends. It's not aimed at my age group. It's aimed at a completely different age group and the kids that you go to see it seems to love it. They have seemed to corner a kind of market with the kind of films that they're making. So it really doesn't matter what we think of it if their films are making money and the kids are loving it and why would they change their style film.

[terrestrial]

Quote

Florida State’s 33-32 victory over Michigan last night in the 2016 Orange Bowl was also a huge ratings victory for ESPN, scoring a live audience of 11,704,000 viewers. That ranks the game as the second-most watched non-semifinal New Year’s Six game since the college football playoffs were established.

http://deadline.com/2016/12/espn-scores-ratings-touchdown-with-2016-orange-bowl-1201877352/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

 

I am guessing some people were not in the cinemas

[GiantCALBears]

9 minutes ago, terrestrial said:

http://deadline.com/2016/12/espn-scores-ratings-touchdown-with-2016-orange-bowl-1201877352/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

 

I am guessing some people were not in the cinemas

First half of the Bama Washington game was close throughout, numbers appear to be bouncing back a bit from last year.

[75Live]

Forgot about the college football playoff games were on today.  That may explain why the 10 am showing of RO I went to this morning was sold out  

[FantasticBeasts]

Happy New Year to everyone in advance! I wish you a year full of joy,love and great box office numers!  

[JB33]

11 minutes ago, FantasticBeasts said:

Happy New Year to everyone in advance! I wish you a year full of joy,love and great box office numers!  

 

Thank you for including what's really important.

[Ezen Baklattan]

I'll just say....would you rather have Illumination movies or Smurfs and Shitmunks?

 

[WrathOfHan]

Just now, Spaghetti by the Sea said:

I'll just say....would you rather have Illumination movies or Smurfs and Shitmunks. 

 

 

Illuminati. The new Smurfs looks like cancer.