Elvis | WB | June 24 2022 | Tom Hanks is Elvis' manager | Baz Luhrmann directs | RIP Lisa Marie Presley

[Jonwo]

8 minutes ago, Eric loves Rey said:

Maybe the Cannes premiere will change my mind, and I'm aware this movie is likely really, really, really good, but my big issue when it comes to this movie being a breakout is that I don't think this has a lot of appeal to younger viewers, which is what helps these kind of music biopics break out. The two biggest of these kinds of movies were Straight Outta Compton and Bohemian Rhapsody, and those films brought in a lot of younger people my age that don't usually come out for these types of dramas. NWA and Queen's music is still huge with people my age, plus Dre, Cube, Brian May, etc. are still active in the business. Queen still tours all the time with Adam Lambert, Ice Cube's in a ton of movies, Dre does a lot of stuff on the business side of things. They all played active parts in the ad campaign and all did a great job crossing over to people born after their peaks.

 

Elvis doesn't really have that. I know his music is big, and I know this is anecdotal, but my main exposure has mainly been parodies of him that take jabs at his persona. And it could just be my experience, but I never really see people my age talk about how much they love Elvis in the same way they do with, say, Beatles, which doesn't have that much youth appeal, and I don't really see anybody really keeping his name alive the way on the same level there is for Freddie Mercury.

 

This just feels like Rocketman where it still did really well, but didn't break out from any usual biopic numbers, because it was on somebody who doesn't really have a lot of appeal to 20somethings around my age. Elton's a personal hero of mine, but I have a lot of LGBT friends, and Elton isn't really somebody my friends obsess over like Freddie, unless they're really into music. He's an old people act to them. Plus Elvis is surrounded by a bunch of easy 4-quad hits that will take up the film's audience. It'll be hard for it to stack up to Jurassic World or Thor or even Lightyear and Minions. But still, 90M would still make Elvis an easy success, so this isn't me trying to say the movie will do bad. And maybe the Doja Cat song will make it a hit somehow, I dunno.

If WB and Baz could turn The Great Gatsby into a hit then I don't think they have much to worry about with Elvis. 

 

By giving it a summer release, I get the sense WB is really confident on Elvis's chances. 

[Eric the IF]

13 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

If WB and Baz could turn The Great Gatsby into a hit then I don't think they have much to worry about with Elvis. 

 

By giving it a summer release, I get the sense WB is really confident on Elvis's chances. 

But Great Gatsby is a Leo vehicle first and foremost. The only other hits under Baz's belt is that, Romeo + Juliet, which is over 20 years old, and Moulin Rouge! which had help from the awards circuit. The Get Down was one of the first ever Netflix cancelations at a time when the service was way more willing to give shows a chance.

[filmlover]

The Great Gatsby's overperformance was definitely mostly on Leo (and to a lesser extent, a terrific marketing campaign and a highly-publicized soundtrack that boosted awareness). A drama with mediocre reviews is typically the perfect recipe for box office doom. Personally I always thought Rocketman numbers were the right expectation to have for this. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by filmlover

[JustLurking]

49 minutes ago, Eric loves Rey said:

Maybe the Cannes premiere will change my mind, and I'm aware this movie is likely really, really, really good, but my big issue when it comes to this movie being a breakout is that I don't think this has a lot of appeal to younger viewers, which is what helps these kind of music biopics break out. The two biggest of these kinds of movies were Straight Outta Compton and Bohemian Rhapsody, and those films brought in a lot of younger people my age that don't usually come out for these types of dramas. NWA and Queen's music is still huge with people my age, plus Dre, Cube, Brian May, etc. are still active in the business. Queen still tours all the time with Adam Lambert, Ice Cube's in a ton of movies, Dre does a lot of stuff on the business side of things. They all played active parts in the ad campaign and all did a great job crossing over to people born after their peaks.

 

Elvis doesn't really have that. I know his music is big, and I know this is anecdotal, but my main exposure has mainly been parodies of him that take jabs at his persona. And it could just be my experience, but I never really see people my age talk about how much they love Elvis in the same way they do with, say, Beatles, which doesn't have that much youth appeal, and I don't really see anybody really keeping his name alive the way on the same level there is for Freddie Mercury.

 

This just feels like Rocketman where it still did really well, but didn't break out from any usual biopic numbers, because it was on somebody who doesn't really have a lot of appeal to 20somethings around my age. Elton's a personal hero of mine, but I have a lot of LGBT friends, and Elton isn't really somebody my friends obsess over like Freddie, unless they're really into music. He's an old people act to them. Plus Elvis is surrounded by a bunch of easy 4-quad hits that will take up the film's audience. It'll be hard for it to stack up to Jurassic World or Thor or even Lightyear and Minions. But still, 90M would still make Elvis an easy success, so this isn't me trying to say the movie will do bad. And maybe the Doja Cat song will make it a hit somehow, I dunno.

Only thing I'm fairly sure about is that this movie won't be a breakout hit OS (unlike Bohemian Rhapsody which was MASSIVE OS, honestly making its great DOM numbers look tiny in comparison). 

[ban1o]

11 hours ago, Eric loves Rey said:

Maybe the Cannes premiere will change my mind, and I'm aware this movie is likely really, really, really good,

Are you sure about this lol??? I'm highly skeptical of the awards hype this is getting based on what I've seen. I love Baz but his style is a bit divisive and it's not like he's known for getting stellar reviews. 

 

I somewhat agree with the rest of your assessment though.   But I see this making around 250 - 350 million WW which would be good for this. (hopefully the budget isn't outrageous lol). This will definitely do better internationally than SOC because Elvis is not a black rapper and is more of a globally known figure. Also this will probably get some love from older audiences. However it's definitely not breaking out to Bohemian Rhapsody's levels. Queen's songs are still pretty ubiquitous among young people. They were able to just sell the movie based on the songs and Rami's strong performance. 

 

I don't really understand why they didn't play more of Jailhouse Rock or even Can't Help Falling in Love  in the trailer. Those are the only Elvis songs i would that are close to the ubiquity of Queen's songs. I kinda understand why they used Unchained Melody as the main song but that's not even his song and I don't think his Indianapolis performance is  well known among young people. Freddie's Live Aid concert was much more well known. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by ban1o

[filmlover]

Official running time: 2 hours, 39 minutes.

 

ELVIS - Festival de Cannes (festival-cannes.com)

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

10 hours ago, filmlover said:

Official running time: 2 hours, 39 minutes.

 

ELVIS - Festival de Cannes (festival-cannes.com)

 

WB must feel extremely confident...

 

 

 

 

[Krissykins]

16 hours ago, filmlover said:

Official running time: 2 hours, 39 minutes.

 

ELVIS - Festival de Cannes (festival-cannes.com)

Eek that’s long. 
 

Got the trailer before Doctor Strange last week. I think it looks great.

[EmpireCity]

On 5/9/2022 at 9:18 AM, Eric Strange said:

But Great Gatsby is a Leo vehicle first and foremost. The only other hits under Baz's belt is that, Romeo + Juliet, which is over 20 years old, and Moulin Rouge! which had help from the awards circuit. The Get Down was one of the first ever Netflix cancelations at a time when the service was way more willing to give shows a chance.

 

No offense, but you are wrong on this and likely due to your age.  Moulin Rouge! wasn't helped by the awards circuit, it was helped by a scorching red hot music tie in with Lady Marmalade.  

 

Baz has the best knack for taking old material that nobody thinks can work and modernizing it.  He did it with Shakespear, he did it with the 1800's France, he did it with a 100+ year old novel having the music updated to make Jazz into hip-hop with most of the music done by Jay-Z.  

 

Elvis is arguably his easiest task on a lot of levels.  His tie in with the MET Gala and Doja Cat and others is going to do the same thing to attract younger viewers.  Elvis also has insanely catchy music that will connect.  

[EmpireCity]

I forgot to add to further prove the point, Moulin Rouge was released in May, so it had zero boost from any awards circuit. It came out on DVD that December and the Awards season hadn't taken place yet.  It got absolutely no boost from awards season.  

 

Lady Marmalade was the #1 song for 5 weeks in a row and a smash hit that entire late spring and summer.  

Edited May 13, 2022 by EmpireCity

[Eric the IF]

Okay, I was wrong about Moulin Rouge's success. I apologize for that. Even still, I think there will be issues this movie will face in getting younger audiences, no matter how many records Elvis has sold, which I do think will limit its box office potential. But like I said before, Rocketman numbers would still be very impressive and an incredibly strong result.

[Last Man Standing]

19 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

 

WB must feel extremely confident...

 

 

 

 

Man uses his influence to get younger people work, what a don.

[excel1]

4 hours ago, EmpireCity said:

I forgot to add to further prove the point, Moulin Rouge was released in May, so it had zero boost from any awards circuit. It came out on DVD that December and the Awards season hadn't taken place yet.  It got absolutely no boost from awards season.  

 

Lady Marmalade was the #1 song for 5 weeks in a row and a smash hit that entire late spring and summer.  

 

Moulin Rouge was also a complete media afterthought in May 2001 which featured record challengers in Mummy Returns & Pearl Harbor alongside breakout smash hit Shrek and high profile disappointment A Knights Tale. MR made far more money than it would have in pretty much anyone else hands. 

[filmlover]

Moulin Rouge! was arguably one of the more publicized movies of that summer between the stars being at the peak of their mainstream exposure (Kidman was in the midst of her super-high-profile split from Cruise, McGregor was Obi-Wan), a big opening night premiere at Cannes, and all the hype surrounding its soundtrack. Even though IP hadn't officially completely taken over yet, $57M for a kind of movie that normally would've been deemed DOA and destined to be overshadowed by the big boys at that time of year was no small feat (and kept it alive when awards season came around).

[Chaz]

Moulin Rouge was a pop culture moment. It came out the summer before I went to high school. Everybody was talking about it.

[excel1]

I don't know where you all went to school, but the release MR was FAR from a pop culture moment (it made $57m total domestic, Mummy and Pearl both beat that in less than 3 days). The film did have outstanding staying power, not just at the box office but in general pop culture Without Baz's flare and the team up song, it would have been DOA. MR's long-term industry influence is felt much more strongly in the string of high profile musicals which were taken much more seriously in the years that followed.  Joel Schumacher's attempts to w/ rip it off with PHANTOM OF THE OPERA a few years later w/ a hint of Zorro being the most obvious rip off attempt.

[filmlover]

3 minutes ago, excel1 said:

I don't know where you all went to school, but the release MR was FAR from a pop culture moment (it made $57m total domestic, Mummy and Pearl both beat that in less than 3 days). The film did have outstanding staying power, not just at the box office but in general pop culture Without Baz's flare and the team up song, it would have been DOA. MR's long-term industry influence is felt much more strongly in the string of high profile musicals which were taken much more seriously in the years that followed.  Joel Schumacher's attempts to w/ rip it off with PHANTOM OF THE OPERA a few years later w/ a hint of Zorro being the most obvious rip off attempt.

I mean, it's not hard to look back at when it came out to see that it was everywhere (even if it was largely due to Kidman's presence at a time when she was everywhere in the news due to her personal life). This Entertainment Weekly cover back from May of 2001 (lol that title):

 

[excel1]

22 minutes ago, filmlover said:

I mean, it's not hard to look back at when it came out to see that it was everywhere (even if it was largely due to Kidman's presence at a time when she was everywhere in the news due to her personal life). This Entertainment Weekly cover back from May of 2001 (lol that title):

 

 

That was back when EW had weekly additions (they still even exist?).It may have been everywhere in the young art scene of 2001, but it was totally overshadowed in mainstream. It placed 4th when it finally went wide release. It did incredibly well for what it was and really bumped Kidman's star power, but let's not exaggerate. It's pretty easy to verify on the web. 

 

http://www.boxofficeguru.com/060401.htm

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by excel1

[dudalb]

On 5/13/2022 at 11:15 AM, Eric Strange said:

Okay, I was wrong about Moulin Rouge's success. I apologize for that. Even still, I think there will be issues this movie will face in getting younger audiences, no matter how many records Elvis has sold, which I do think will limit its box office potential. But like I said before, Rocketman numbers would still be very impressive and an incredibly strong result.

I think you are really understimating Elvis as a cultural icon. He is only surpassed ashistoric figure in pop music by the Beatles. Even those who have'nt really listened to his music much know about him, and have a vague idea of why he is imporntant.

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by dudalb

[Chaz]

1 hour ago, dudalb said:

I think you are really understimating Elvis as a cultural icon. He is only surpassed ashistoric figure in pop music by the Beatles. Even those who have'nt really listened to his music much know about him, and have a vague idea of why he is imporntant.

 

They don’t call him the King for nothin’.