Weekend Box Office: Actuals (Page 55): BP $26.6M TR $23.7M ICOI $17.1M AWIT $16.3M LS $11.8M, PR crosses $100M, Jumanji crosses $400M

[harrycaul]

The mystery factor on TR is that it opened notably bigger in China than domestic.

 

The same thing is going to happen next weekend with Pacific Rim.

 

And then we'll get all kinds of thinky thought pieces written about what it all means that China can open action movies that the US can't.

[TalismanRing]

1 hour ago, Krissykins said:

Well the problem with PASSENGERS was that the film had no idea it was depicting something unpleasant on screen.

 

That’s how stupid and misguided that whole movie was. 

That and what was truly unpleasant was played off like a stumbling block beat in a frothy Rom Com.

[EarlyDeadlinePredictions]

Friday Numbers?

 

[straggler]

1 hour ago, Krissykins said:

Well the problem with PASSENGERS was that the film had no idea it was depicting something unpleasant on screen.

 

That’s how stupid and misguided that whole movie was. 

It very clearly depicted what was going on as a bad thing and in no way condoned it. It was a classic lifeboat situation. Good scifi makes us think about the human condition, and that involves placing characters in unusual situations. There is a big difference between depicting and condoning. What contemporary film critics can no longer handle is a film that depicts something deplorable but that then does not turn it into a heavyhanded lecture, that leaves the moral unpacking to the audience which is more than capable of handling it. If Paths of Glory were made today, the court martial scene would have to be like A Few Good Men with Kirk Douglas's character shouting "I want the truth!." LOL. Was Passengers underwritten? Yes. Could it have been better? Sure. But the idea that it did not know what it was depicting is wrong. It just did not become a morality play.   

Edited March 17, 2018 by straggler

[harrycaul]

1 minute ago, straggler said:

It very clearly depicted what was going on as a bad thing and in no way condoned it.

 

The script made it very clear it was a deeply troubling action, the movie not so much. Wrong cast and wrong director for the material, among other things.

[ChrisTelclear]

8 minutes ago, straggler said:

It very clearly depicted what was going on as a bad thing and in no way condoned it. It was a classic lifeboat situation. Good scifi makes us think about the human condition, and that involves placing characters in unusual situations. There is a big difference between depicting and condoning. What contemporary film critics can no longer handle is a film that depicts something deplorable but that then does not turn it into a heavyhanded lecture, that leaves the moral unpacking to the audience which is more than capable of handling it. If Paths of Glory were made today, the court martial scene would have to be like A Few Good Men with Kirk Douglas's character shouting "I want the truth!." LOL. Was Passengers underwritten? Yes. Could it have been better? Sure. But the idea that it did not know what it was depicting is wrong. It just did not become a morality play.   

This is exactly right, well said.  What offended critics is that Aurora forgives him and they live happily every after.  He didn't pay a price for his very human mistake. I'll also add that many critics intentionally misrepresented what was shown in the movie in their reviews.  They called it "Dape Rape", which it was not "Stockholm Syndrome" which it's clearly not, they demonized the movie to a level I've never seen before.  To this day I'll see a random tweet saying these words.  "Just watched Passengers, it was a good movie, I don't see what the problem was with critics". 

[ChrisTelclear]

55 minutes ago, harrycaul said:

The mystery factor on TR is that it opened notably bigger in China than domestic.

 

The same thing is going to happen next weekend with Pacific Rim.

 

And then we'll get all kinds of thinky thought pieces written about what it all means that China can open action movies that the US can't.

It's really pretty simple.  Two words, "Rotten Tomatoes".  The US public has come to rely on that shit site far too much to decide if they should go to see a movie.  The studios need to come up with an effective strategy to minimize the damage from RT.  You need look no further than TR, and also Red Sparrow, to see that.  Sparrow is doing good business overseas, and it has a double albatross here, the RT score, and the "exploitation" police.

[TwoMisfits]

By the way, has anyone mentioned what a great BO weekend it is?  2 premier movies are gonna beat their budgets OW (with one doubling it)...and both got A+ cinescores!  Variety and NEWNESS at the box office is an awesome thing!  Tell new stories and somehow folks find these movies for awesome unexpected breakouts. 

 

Here's to Hollywood continuing to put more than just sequels/remakes/supers/Star Wars up on screen!  I know you all said how disappointing you thought March was, but it's one of my favorite months of this year b/c there are finally so many new movies for so many different audiences, and that's just so refreshing:)...

Edited March 17, 2018 by TwoMisfits

[straggler]

6 minutes ago, ChrisTelclear said:

This is exactly right, well said.  What offended critics is that Aurora forgives him and they live happily every after.  He didn't pay a price for his very human mistake. I'll also add that many critics intentionally misrepresented what was shown in the movie in their reviews.  They called it "Dape Rape", which it was not "Stockholm Syndrome" which it's clearly not, they demonized the movie to a level I've never seen before.  To this day I'll see a random tweet saying these words.  "Just watched Passengers, it was a good movie, I don't see what the problem was with critics". 

Agreed. Clearly the movie could have done a better job with its themes. But critics do not credit the audience enough. Shockingly we can think for ourselves. To me you had this character, Aurora, who was a slightly less misanthropic version of Heston's character in Planet of the Apes, someone so unable to connect with life and other human beings that she abandons her friends and family to the past to write a book. And then all of the sudden, by some freak accident, she finally connects with someone and embraces this strange life that they are going to share on this ship which is a metaphor for our own lives, and in a way rediscovers her humanity. All the pieces were there and the audience can connect the dots even of the movie does not quite develop them enough. It was a much more complex tale than the hysterical headlines suggested. 

[The Panda]

Lol, the Infinity War trailer didn’t boost BP.  BP is just continuing with its strong legs.

 

If anything, BP is boosting interest for IW.

Edited March 17, 2018 by The Mad Panda

[Fancyarcher]

BP is going to be the first film since Avatar to spend five consecutive weekends at the top of the box office. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Fancyarcher

[straggler]

14 minutes ago, ChrisTelclear said:

It's really pretty simple.  Two words, "Rotten Tomatoes".  The US public has come to rely on that shit site far too much to decide if they should go to see a movie.  The studios need to come up with an effective strategy to minimize the damage from RT.  You need look no further than TR, and also Red Sparrow, to see that.  Sparrow is doing good business overseas, and it has a double albatross here, the RT score, and the "exploitation" police.

I don't mind the concept of a site that collects all the reviews, but there should not be a score. But that is how RT stays relevant so it won't change it. But that means anything polarizing or divisive will likely end up as rotten because the choice between fresh or rotten is too simplistic. Worse it means that the aggregate score gets shaped by the lowest common denominator as fringe and low rent film critics and writers get listed on the site.    

[Gamera]

3 hours ago, Zakiyyah6 said:

Great drop for Black Panther. That word of mouth is great.

 

A 23mil opening for a film with a 90mil budget is of course a bad opening. It needed at least like a 36mil opening to be okay but they could never make it look special enough. The truth is Lara Croft's popularity is nowhere near where it was before the 2001 film opened so they had more of an uphill battle selling the film. I think that gritty serious action films are not the thing that the audience is craving at this point in time. I think they could have sold a more "fun" version of the 2013 game on screen better than what they have apparently made. Apparently Vikander herself stopped that from happening. Of course the more "fun" movies have to be good. Anyway, once again a video game movie comes out to lack luster reviews (better reviews than I thought it would get though) and poor box office.  The genre still doesn't have it's Superman, it still doesn't have a solid movie that shows the way on how to make these adaptions work. I still don't blame for Vikander for signing up for the film because if you didn't book Captain Marvel then their were no better choices for an actress to sign on to lead a potential franchise than a Tomb Raider movie. 

 

I Can Only Imagine looks extremely silly to me. I hate religious films no matter which religion they are about because 99% of the time they are dumb films that do nothing but preach to the choir. It's a hit though, the surprise Christian hit that I've been dreading. And to be honest I kinda like the song it is based on and I believe in god (I'm not Christian) so I'm not some blind hater. I just dislike the genre because of how bad most of the films are. I like good movies. Good. 

 

Love Simon is a groundbreaking adorable looking film that I'm sure is very important to a lot of gay and bisexual people, particularly young people. Everybody deserves to see a version of themselves on screen in a good movie of course. A 12mil opening doesn't seem bad to me but not a break out. Hopefully it has legs because it's success depends on that. Christian bigots are going to be insufferable about the fact that the Christian film beat the Gay film. Ugh.

You talk about I Can Only Imagine preaching to the choir?  Are there any characters in Love Simon that disagree with his lifestyle in a non-movie-mustache-twirling-villain way?  Parents, siblings, classmates?  From what I've read, the movie is preaching to the gay choir.

 

Both films seem to be unrealistic, imo.  Haven't seen either and don't plan to

[Zakiyyah6]

6 minutes ago, The Mad Panda said:

Lol, the Infinity War trailer didn’t boost BP.  BP is just continuing with its strong legs.

 

If anything, BP is boosting interest for IW.

YUP. Trailers are easily accessible now, they do not boost a movie's box office. Black Panther has great word of mouth and thus is having a great run. It's not a grand mystery. 

[WrathOfHan]

Today at my theater:

 

Spoiler

I Can Only Imagine:

 

11:00: 64/124

11:05: 0/63

12:15: 10/78

1:45: 47/124

3:00: 12/78

4:30: 28/124

5:45: 4/78

7:15: 43/124

8:30: 6/78

10:00: 0/124

 

Black Panther:

 

11:00: 57/78

2:15 3D: 11/78

5:30: 4/78

7:00: 13/78

8:45 3D: 0/78

10:15: 0/78

 

Tomb Raider:

 

10:00: 35/113

12:45 3D: 10/113

3:30: 17/113

6:15 3D: 5/113

9:00 3D: 0/113

 

Love, Simon:

 

11:15: 13/78

1:55: 6/78

4:40: 0/78

7:20: 2/78

10:05: 0/78

 

Wrinkle in Time:

 

10:45: 12/78

12:15: 0/78

1:30: 0/78

3:00 3D: 2/78

4:15: 4/78

5:45: 0/78

7:00: 0/78

8:30 3D: 0/78

9:45: 0/78

 

Peter Rabbit:

 

10:05: 11/69

12:30: 2/69

2:50: 8/69

5:15: 0/69

 

Red Sparrow: 

 

10:10: 9/60

1:40: 14/63

4:00: 4/60

7:25: 2/63

9:45: 0/60

 

Death Wish:

 

1:20: 2/60

4:50: 2/63

7:10: 2/60

10:30: 0/63

 

Game Night:

 

11:40: 4/78

2:10: 0/78

4:35: 0/78

 

Gringo: 

 

11:10: 3/67

4:20: 0/67

 

I Can Only Imagine: 214/995

Black Panther: 85/468

Tomb Raider: 67/565

Red Sparrow: 31/306

Love, Simon: 21/390

Peter Rabbit: 21/276

Death Wish: 6/246

Game Night: 4/234

Gringo: 3/134

Strangers, Hurricane Heist, and Jumanji have sold nothing.

 

ICOI is down 47% from yesterday   It took Death Wish's morning show, but that's sold nothing so far.

Tomb Raider and Black Panther are having a healthy increase from yesterday while Love, Simon is down right now.

[Zakiyyah6]

6 minutes ago, Gamera said:

You talk about I Can Only Imagine preaching to the choir?  Are there any characters in Love Simon that disagree with his lifestyle in a non-movie-mustache-twirling-villain way?  Parents, siblings, classmates?  From what I've read, the movie is preaching to the gay choir.

 

Both films seem to be unrealistic, imo.  Haven't seen either and don't plan to

Being gay is not a "lifestyle" choice anymore than being hetrosexual is. Being religious is a choice and a lifestyle. I haven't seen Love Simon so I can't answer any questions about it. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Zakiyyah6

[Fancyarcher]

 

[sfran43]

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by sfran43

[sfran43]

 

[Finnick]

BIG $7.52M For BLACK PANTHER DOWN JUST 25%,

 

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Finnick