Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom | December 22, 2023 | David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (co-writer of first film) returns

[Firepower]

1 hour ago, ViewerAnon said:

I said MALIGNANT had awful test screenings and it really, really did. I don't know how you watch that film and think an audience of 200 people who don't know what they're seeing come out of it with positive impressions.

 

I did report hearing WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY was in pretty good shape, though. Which just goes to emphasize that test screenings aren't math. There are no concrete rules or absolute values. It's one of the reasons I've moved away from tweeting about test screenings unless impressions are really positive or interesting.

As I mentioned in my next comment, I can see why Malignant was very badly received on test-screenings, even though it's not anywhere near Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare type of awful or The Room. But I do wonder where Welcome To Racoon City positive reception came from since it was so badly received across the board: fans, average moviegoers, critics, like not a single group liked that movie.

[lorddemaxus]

5 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

the posttrak definite recommend and positive numbers are not good even for horror and again the scores from actual paying audience members >>> imdb/letterboxd where anyone can drop a review. There's literally nothing supporting your argument that Malignant was liked by the public which would support the poor test screenings report

The 2nd weekend drop was pretty good for a horror movie and a movie that was on day and date streaming. It would've been a hit had it been released at a different time. Barbarian (C+ cinemascore) pretty much had the kind of run Malignant would've had.

Edited February 21, 2023 by lorddemaxus

[Firepower]

4 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

the posttrak definite recommend and positive numbers are not good even for horror and again the scores from actual paying audience members >>> imdb/letterboxd where anyone can drop a review.

Again, "actual paying audience" thinks Wolf Of Wall Street is awful and Jurassic World: Dominion is great, if we apply CinemaScore. It doesn't indicate the overall audience reception at all, maybe in some alternate reality, but not in the one we live in.

 

4 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

There's literally nothing supporting your argument that Malignant was liked by the public which would support the poor test screenings report

Malignant was mostly liked by people by horror movie standards, I never said it had great/outstanding reception, but it's not bad either. If you want to see a horror movie with actual terrible reception, look no further than Halloween Ends.

[GOGODanca]

5 minutes ago, Firepower said:

Again, "actual paying audience" thinks Wolf Of Wall Street is awful and Jurassic World: Dominion is great, if we apply CinemaScore. It doesn't indicate the overall audience reception at all, maybe in some alternate reality, but not in the one we live in.

 

Malignant was mostly liked by people by horror movie standards, I never said it had great/outstanding reception, but it's not bad either. If you want to see a horror movie with actual terrible reception, look no further than Halloween Ends.

JWD was a case where posttrak and cinemascore clearly diverged and again you can point to box office to show that people really liked Wolf of Wall Street, you don't have that with Malignant althought thats mostly out of its control so by which measure are you gonna say it had good reception?

[Firepower]

5 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

you don't have that with Malignant althought thats mostly out of its control so by which measure are you gonna say it had good reception?

Malignant had day and date release + Covid (back then it was still excuse), so it's not fair to judge its box office in those circumstances. But since it didn't have any review bombing or backlash in general, imdb and letterboxd should be fairly reliable there and anything over 6 for a horror movie is good, over 7 is amazing.

[WittyUsername]

 

[TMP]

2 hours ago, cax16 said:

I think Shazam and blue beetle will be fine.

i want shazam to be good just because i like the first one, but the trailers have kinda put me off. blue beetle has a lot of potential but i'm just not sold rn

[excel1]

What the fuck is it with WB and post production fuck ups? Good grief. 

[excel1]

20 hours ago, ViewerAnon said:

I replied on Reddit in the hopes it wouldn't spread across the internet. Oh well, what can ya do.

 

I don't want to torpedo movies with bad press if I can help it. I've consistently heard it's worse than Aquaman, but whether it's close or a big gulf depends on the person I talked to. The version that tested last week is the first to include the intended reshoot changes, so there were a lot of scenes with temp voiceover dialogue and storyboards indicating what they'll be shooting in pickups. Reaction to this version of the film was not better than any previous version, at least in regards to people who talked to me.

 

The movie is still ten months away so there's a lot of time. The bigger problem is that I've heard Wan's had a nightmare experience on this one, even worse than Furious 7.

 

Can I just ask, what the fuck happened to getting the script right to begin with? The original made nearly $1.2 billion over 4 years ago. HOW INCOMPETENT ARE THESE PEOPLE? Did they have a high schooler writing the script? How could be so bad to require this type of adjusting?

 

And before anyone points out that they have indeed proven to be very inept, that was a rhetorical question.

Edited February 22, 2023 by excel1

[Nikostar]

Well let's not forget Aquaman was barley fresh by critics so this movie pulling a WW86 won't really be surprising. 

[Verrows]

38 minutes ago, excel1 said:

 

Can I just ask, what the fuck happened to getting the script right to begin with? The original made nearly $1.2 billion over 4 years ago. HOW INCOMPETENT ARE THESE PEOPLE? Did they have a high schooler writing the script? How could be so bad to require this type of adjusting?

 

And before anyone points out that they have indeed proven to be very inept, that was a rhetorical question.

I have a feeling the adjustments weren't for bad writing . They were for WB not having a clear idea what they're doing with DC, something that is also clear in the way the Henry Cavill thing went down. They're absolutely flying by the seat of their pants.

[Verrows]

1 minute ago, Verrows said:

I have a feeling the adjustments weren't for bad writing . They were for WB not having a clear idea what they're doing with DC, something that is also clear in the way the Henry Cavill thing went down. They're absolutely flying by the seat of their pants.

And don't get me wrong, the writing could very well be subpar too. I'm just saying I feel like there's a lot more to it.

[MovieMan89]

Honestly, this movie sucking would be doing WB a huge favor in the long run. They need to just go full throttle with wiping the DCU slate clean, and this being a huge well liked hit would just throw an unnecessary monkey wrench in that.

Edited February 22, 2023 by MovieMan89

[TheDude391]

3 hours ago, WittyUsername said:

 

Why is WB always like this 😐 

[keysersoze123]

With all the drama surrounding WB/DCEU, its possible Wan zoned out. Its not as if 1st movie was a brilliant movie. It was a crowd pleaser with good visuals. I dont see that working without completed Visual effects. But it feels as if studio have no confidence in the product and so keep making rough cuts without VFX hoping to hit the mark. They seem to have failed miserably. Hopefully they have enough to market and hope for big OW considering its a sequel and then move on to next phase. 

[GOGODanca]

28 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Honestly, this movie sucking would be doing WB a huge favor in the long run. They need to just go full throttle with wiping the DCU slate clean, and this being a huge well liked hit would just throw an unnecessary monkey wrench in that.

Bad movies hurt the brand and make Gunns job more difficult and if Marvel is also gonna be inconsistent as they've been in phase 4 and onwards then it's gonna be an uphill climb to get audiences to care about another comic book universe

[keysersoze123]

2 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

Bad movies hurt the brand and make Gunns job more difficult and if Marvel is also gonna be inconsistent as they've been in phase 4 and onwards then it's gonna be an uphill climb to get audiences to care about another comic book universe

Why would a bad Aquaman in 2023 end impact a Superman movie releasing almost 2 years later. There are enough fans eagerly waiting for another Superman movie. It sells on its own. Of course it could impact smaller projects that are planned besides Supes and Bats projects. But hopefully they dont release them 1st. That would be stupid. 

[GOGODanca]

Just now, keysersoze123 said:

Why would a bad Aquaman in 2023 end impact a Superman movie releasing almost 2 years later. There are enough fans eagerly waiting for another Superman movie. It sells on its own. Of course it could impact smaller projects that are planned besides Supes and Bats projects. But hopefully they dont release them 1st. That would be stupid. 

You don't think a bad DC movie would hurt the overall brand and initial interest in a movie? We've already see marvel lose foothold in certain key OS markets cause of bad movies and DC has even less goodwill built up, so it would hurt even more, the casual movie goer only sees brand name, they don't really pay attention to behind the scenes stuff or who is running what now 

[keysersoze123]

44 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

You don't think a bad DC movie would hurt the overall brand and initial interest in a movie? We've already see marvel lose foothold in certain key OS markets cause of bad movies and DC has even less goodwill built up, so it would hurt even more, the casual movie goer only sees brand name, they don't really pay attention to behind the scenes stuff or who is running what now 

Its not as if DCEU had good reputation in 2022. But The Batman had good hype leading into release and did very well considering how dark the movie was. So if Superman Legacy is exciting they can build a great buzz irrespective of what happens to Aquabro 2 this year. 

[Saul Goodman]

Well Batman is Batman. But the DCU will be at a pretty weird situation in its first phase if Aquabro 2 is really bad and Shazam is mid at best. Say what you will about MoS, it was coasting off TDK trilogy with Nolan's name highlighted in the marketing everywhere.