Memorial Weekend Thread: 4-Day Actuals - Aladdin $116.81M | John Wick 3 $30.97M | Avengers Endgame $22.06M | Pokemon DP $17.25M

[Jake Gittes]

4 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Is Christopher Nolan the only director who can make a movie with a $100m budget and a original screenplay?

Tarantino. Cameron could obviously do it if he wanted to. Abrams, Coogler, Wan could also presumably leverage their massive recent franchise successes to get originals financed.

[sfran43]

 

[BoxOfficeZ]

1 minute ago, Jake Gittes said:

Naturally. Doesn't make it any less exasperating. (It's almost as if capitalism sucks.)

It does horrible shit to people crushed by companies relentless drive for maximum profit in the industry. I mentioned this before in the classic convo thread but you should see all the crap VFX artists go through and they get no credit/shit pay. Plus they'll get blamed online for terrible CGI when in reality Hollywood is always pushing out more movies with more vfx shots than ever before and the constant schedule sucks for the limited pool of VFX artists. 

[TServo2049]

3 hours ago, BoxOfficeZ said:

Well, capitalism means film companies want to chase stuff that'll give them guaranteed profits (they might go risky if they're sure a big name like Nolan would guarantee some success).

This is an important thing, though I’m going to shift focus from directors. People bag on Scott Mendelson (and I fully understand why), but one of the things he often says that makes sense is that original films have declined in no small part because people don’t go to movies to see a particular actor/actress. Back then, the stars were the franchises (and the occasional director like Spielberg). 

 

Yes, you got some big expensive “original” movies that banked on the concept above all. Keanu Reeves wasn’t an instant-recall actor when Speed came out (and actually, Speed only cost $28 million anyway, it was not a mega-budget spectacle). ID4 was sold more on the huge destruction than Will Smith who was still mostly associated with TV. And The Mummy (which was so loose a remake of so old a movie it might as well have been original) was not sold on Brendan Fraser. (The Matrix was maybe 50/50, 70/30 at worst, sold on mystery and how-did-they-do-that effects, Keanu was in a sort of slump but people still knew who he was so he had to have been somewhat of a draw.)

 

But would anybody have shown up for The Fifth Element without Bruce Willis front and center? Would as many have decided to see Armageddon without Willis? Demolition Man without Stallone and Snipes? True Lies without Arnold? Even though it wasn’t a success, does Waterworld even get made without Kevin Costner riding the success of Dances with Wolves and Robin Hood? And while Titanic absolutely sold itself on concept, the fact that Leo was already a teen heartthrob off of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet definitely played to its favor in reeling in teen girls who otherwise might not sit through a 3-hour historical melodrama.

 

Nobody starring in the few expensive originals we get, successful or not, would draw people just by putting their name and face front and center on the poster. It’s sad but it’s true.

Edited May 25, 2019 by TServo2049

[That One Girl]

2 minutes ago, filmlover said:

It only feels like remakes/franchises have completely taken over because other genres have simply dried up to balance it out. For example, R-rated comedies were considered by Hollywood to be a goldmine for a period of time after surprise successes like The Hangover and Bridesmaids and look where they are today. 

 

they died out because studios stopped promoting them heavily.  stuff like Game Night, Blockers, Long Shot, Booksmart etc. all got great reviews and should've been smash successes but the highest grossing of that bunch was Game Night and that made only 69M.  the last time an R-rated comedy crossed 100M was Girls Trip almost 2 years ago and that was because Universal actually bothered to give the movie a big push and it had a great release date.

[MovieMan89]

Just now, Jake Gittes said:

Tarantino. Cameron could obviously do it if he wanted to. Abrams, Coogler, Wan could also presumably leverage their massive recent franchise successes to get originals financed.

I wouldn't be surprised if Peele could get the greenlight since he's produced blockbuster results with entirely original concepts (much harder than doing it with franchises), though it's unlikely he'd want to make the kind of movie with that budget in the first place.  

[Krissykins]

2 minutes ago, sfran43 said:

 

I get the impression this China opening is being spun as being good? 

 

It isn’t. 

 

People can say disney dumped it, but they still used a release slot for it and put it on thousands of screens. 

 

Didn't BATB open to $45m? 

[sfran43]

 

[Jake Gittes]

Concepts can still sell. See A Quiet Place, Get Out, Crazy Rich Asians. And concepts + right/recognizable people can definitely sell (Gravity-Interstellar-Martian, The Revenant, Us, etc.) 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Jake Gittes

[cdsacken]

4 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

I get the impression this China opening is being spun as being good? 

 

It isn’t. 

 

People can say disney dumped it, but they still used a release slot for it and put it on thousands of screens. 

 

Didn't BATB open to $45m? 

It was forecasted to do Dumbo numbers.  It has a shot do double that. Awful but less awful.

[Tentatek]

Aladdin is bombing in China.

 

The Chinese have taste. We love that.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Tentatek

[TServo2049]

I get that you’re half-joking, but we’re all bipolar about Chinese taste in movies. Bayformers or Venom do well, they have worse taste than we do. If (Star Wars movie Internet doesn’t like) or Aladdin bombs, or Coco does better than in the States, suddenly we wish our fellow audiences had as good taste as they do. It’s like how Americans still often consider France the epitome of Western cinema, but plenty of French moviegoers also love the Minions.

 

Every country, every culture, both enjoys some great movies and some absolute trash. They have their own reasons for wanting or not wanting to see a given movie. It doesn’t always speak to a monocultural sensibility or taste in cinema.

Edited May 25, 2019 by TServo2049

[cannastop]

22 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Tarantino. Cameron could obviously do it if he wanted to. Abrams, Coogler, Wan could also presumably leverage their massive recent franchise successes to get originals financed.

Does Coogler even want to direct a $100m original movie?

[cannastop]

9 minutes ago, Tentatek said:

Aladdin is bombing in China.

 

The Chinese have taste. We love that.

 

 

 

Nah

[Jake Gittes]

5 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Does Coogler even want to direct a $100m original movie?

idk. but post-Black Panther nothing would stop him if he did.

[JohnnyGossamer]

Great numbers for Will Smith. Solid hold for Avengers. Expected drop for Wick. Will stabilize next weekend. Wish Gojira and Fam was out this weekend.

[JohnnyGossamer]

Just now, Jake Gittes said:

idk. but post-Black Panther nothing would stop him if he did.

Is he gonna do the sequel? I wonder if he'll just move on a la Waititi.

[JohnnyGossamer]

Random question... Does Bong Joon-ho's Parasite have a stateside release date yet?

[TalismanRing]

1 minute ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

Is he gonna do the sequel? I wonder if he'll just move on a la Waititi.

Yes he's doing the sequel and Waititi was all for Thor 4 but that's not happening right now

[JohnnyGossamer]

1 minute ago, TalismanRing said:

Yes he's doing the sequel and Waititi was all for Thor 4 but that's not happening right now

Good. He can divert all focus to Akira now after Jojo Rabbit.