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

[JB33]

2 minutes ago, Porthos said:

There is LITERALLY nothing wrong with this tweet. Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.

 

And folks knee-jerking against it might want to pause a bit.

 

She is NOT blaming the lack of sales on sexism.  She is very correctly pointing out that films made by women tend to get less slack when they do poorly than films made my men.

 

And when I say "tend to" I mean exactly that.  Of course there are counter examples in either direction.

 

But her calling out the very real structural problems in the entertainment industry?  Even if it helps her own movie?

 

We need MORE of that IMO, not less.

 

 

But does she know for a fact that studio executives would pin its modest box office on the women issue? I think she's getting ahead of herself. Or, am I giving these execs way too much credit?

 

Either way, I just felt the tweet would have been fine without the last part. Instead, it's just one more thing that has to be political when it probably isn't very political at all. I mean, we're all box office nerds. We know FULL WELL why the movie is doing modest numbers and it has nothing to do with the fact the director is a woman and the two stars are women.

[Cap]

12 minutes ago, VenomXXR said:

I am crazy cool toward TLK, and even I think 1.2B is the WW floor. It’s not going under 450M DOM. Add In like 150M from China and it only needs 400M OS to hit a billion.

[baumer]

2 minutes ago, captainwondyful said:

I am crazy cool toward TLK, and even I think 1.2B is the WW floor. It’s not going under 450M DOM. Add In like 150M from China and it only needs 400M OS to hit a billion.

 

I don't think it's hitting any of those numbers.  

[XXR vs XXR]

1 minute ago, captainwondyful said:

I am crazy cool toward TLK, and even I think 1.2B is the WW floor. It’s not going under 450M DOM. Add In like 150M from China and it only needs 400M OS to hit a billion.

 

I'm very hot on it (over Titanic WW) but that's my super optimistic, made-a-club scenario. Either way, I can't see it coming in lower than BATB ($1.263b) under any circumstance and if it has an extremely high WOM (like Aladdin for instance, which seems to have great WOM all over the world despite lower critical ratings) then I think my club is doable. 

[Porthos]

1 minute ago, JB33 said:

But does she know for a fact that studio executives would pin its modest box office on the women issue? I think she's getting ahead of herself. Or, am I giving these execs way too much credit?

 

Either way, I just felt the tweet would have been fine without the last part. Instead, it's just one more thing that has to be political when it probably isn't very political at all. I mean, we're all box office nerds. We know FULL WELL why the movie is doing modest numbers and it has nothing to do with the fact the director is a woman and the two stars are women.

She doesn't need to "know for a fact" that her specific project won't have external circumstances taken into account to recognize the structural system in place. 

 

Hell, call it fear if you want.  But lots of women have a very real reason to fear or be suspicious of the entertainment industry.  You pointed that out yourself that the entertainment industry is pretty fucked up in this regard.

 

More to the point, she's calling to people who say they want to support films made by women and saying "don't take your time on this one coz the studios might not be as forgiving as you think."

 

I know you have a REAL sore spot when it comes to this sort of thing, but I think you're really overreacting.  At absolute worst she's trying to "play the game" and drum up support for her movie.  Good for her, as she's not actually denigrating anyone or blaming another movie's fans.  At best, she's issuing a warning that films like hers might not be as secure as some think.

 

Again, literally nothing wrong with what she said.  Just the opposite.

[Cap]

2 minutes ago, baumer said:

I don't think it's hitting any of those numbers.  

Cool Story.

 

(No really. Just gonna be more awesome when Frozen makes 1.5B WW) 

[baumer]

24 minutes ago, Geo1500 said:

 

Your trying to say that Memorial day is memorial day and it will never change using stats from nearly +10yrs ago movies. 

 

I kindly exit this argument politely and as gentle as possible. 

 

John

 

I'm saying your increases have never happened in the history of film, there's no reason for them to increase that much today.

[JB33]

7 minutes ago, Porthos said:

She doesn't need to "know for a fact" that her specific project won't have external circumstances taken into account to recognize the structural system in place. 

 

Hell, call it fear if you want.  But lots of women have a very real reason to fear or be suspicious of the entertainment industry.  You pointed that out yourself that the entertainment industry is pretty fucked up in this regard.

 

More to the point, she's calling to people who say they want to support films made by women and saying "don't take your time on this one coz the studios might not be as forgiving as you think."

 

I know you have a REAL sore spot when it comes to this sort of thing, but I think you're really overreacting.  At absolute worst she's trying to "play the game" and drum up support for her movie.  Good for her, as she's not actually denigrating anyone or blaming another movie's fans.  At best, she's issuing a warning that films like hers might not be as secure as some think.

 

Again, literally nothing wrong with what she said.  Just the opposite.

She can point out the issues in the industry, but don't try to mix it with the circumstances surrounding her film. Like, come on.

 

99% of the time I agree with you Porthos. You're one of the best on this forum. But on this, we disagree. We don't need more. At least we don't need more of the needless "calls to arms" as it were. We need more calling out of stuff like the Weinstein affair, or equal pay in Hollywood (I digress, but pay equal pay in the workplace is something I actually do champion. I think it's disgusting when women are doing the same job, if not working harder, and get paid less, but we'll leave that for another day) etc. What I don't like is attaching the politics to EVERYTHING, where it's not applicable.

 

Like I said, we're all pretty versed in box office. Please, let's not just throw out all that knowledge because it's hip to be a liberal. Nobody on this forum suggested misogyny when it came to the low numbers we were seeing for this movie. Nobody. Then the director comes out and says it and nobody wants to talk about the basics (ie. going up against a tentpole on Memorial Day weekend, comedies have been declining for awhile now etc.)? Give me a break.

Edited May 26, 2019 by JB33

[AJG]

17 minutes ago, That One Guy said:

 

 

I’ve not seen the film but from what I’ve gathered from my wife (who did see it) was that this was a mainstream comedy “Superbad for girls”.

 

All the advertising I’ve seen made this look like one of those Oscar bait “prestige” comedies so I wasn’t really interested. The aesthetic, costumes, title font and the lite “A24” treatment the ads went for did nothing for me. It’s a movie for a generation of kids quite fine with staying at home and watching these kinds of films on TV, I don’t understand how any of the advertising (posters included) was made to appeal to them. 

[baumer]

6 minutes ago, captainwondyful said:

Cool Story.

 

(No really. Just gonna be more awesome when Frozen makes 1.5B WW) 

 

I can buy Frozen making 1.5 billion before TLK makes a billion.  

[Porthos]

1 minute ago, JB33 said:

Like I said, we're all pretty versed in box office. Please, let's not just throw out all that knowledge because it's hip to be a liberal. Nobody on this forum suggested misogyny when it came to the low numbers we were seeing for this movie. Nobody. Then the director comes out and says it and nobody wants to talk about the basics (ie. going up against a tentpole on Memorial Day weekend, comedies have been declining for awhile now etc.)? Give me a break.

But she's not blaming low numbers on misogyny.  That's the point.  At the absolute worst she's saying that studios might use the low numbers as an excuse not to fund similar projects in the future.

 

And every last one of us has seen studios make... questionable decisions over the years to think that they don't always take everything into account like they should.

 

No more.  No less.

[baumer]

1 minute ago, AJG said:

 

I’ve not seen the film but from what I’ve gathered from my wife (who did see it) was that this was a mainstream comedy “Superbad for girls”.

 

All the advertising I’ve seen made this look like one of those Oscar bait “prestige” comedies so I wasn’t really interested. The aesthetic, costumes, title font and the lite “A24” treatment the ads went for did nothing for me. It’s a movie for a generation of kids quite fine with staying at home and watching these kinds of films on TV, I don’t understand how any of the advertising (posters included) was made to appeal to them. 

 

If they marketed it that way, then they didn't do themselves any favours....that's not the film I saw....this was a straight up comedy and a vulgar one, with lots of sexual inuuendo, kids partying, drugs and so on.  Not an oscar bait film at all.

[AJG]

33 minutes ago, JB33 said:

Agreed, but also don't pin your films problems on misogyny either.

 

She never said that.

 

Calm yourself.

[That One Girl]

4 minutes ago, JB33 said:

She can point out the issues in the industry, but don't try to mix it with the circumstances surrounding her film. Like, come on.

 

99% of the time I agree with you Porthos. You're one of the best on this forum. But on this, we disagree. We don't need more. At least we don't need more of the needless "calls to arms" as it were. We need more calling out of stuff like the Weinstein affair, or equal pay in Hollywood (I digress, but pay equal pay in the workplace is something I actually do champion. I think it's disgusting when women are doing the same job, if not working harder, and get paid less, but we'll leave that for another day) etc. What I don't like is attaching the politics to EVERYTHING, where it's not applicable.

 

Like I said, we're all pretty versed in box office. Please, let's not just throw out all that knowledge because it's hip to be a liberal. Nobody on this forum suggested misogyny when it came to the low numbers we were seeing for this movie. Nobody. Then the director comes out and says it and nobody wants to talk about the basics (ie. going up against a tentpole on Memorial Day weekend, comedies have been declining for awhile now etc.)? Give me a break.

 

Sometimes it's better to not post

[JB33]

1 minute ago, AJG said:

 

I’ve not seen the film but from what I’ve gathered from my wife (who did see it) was that this was a mainstream comedy “Superbad for girls”.

 

All the advertising I’ve seen made this look like one of those Oscar bait “prestige” comedies so I wasn’t really interested. The aesthetic, costumes, title font and the lite “A24” treatment the ads went for did nothing for me. It’s a movie for a generation of kids quite fine with staying at home and watching these kinds of films on TV, I don’t understand how any of the advertising (posters included) was made to appeal to them. 

Bingo. This is what I meant when I said the marketing came off like it was a big indie film. We criticize assembly line-like, studio films but those are what sell because they're trusted brands. Now us movie buffs know that there's tons of quality coming out of the smaller studios but if the marketing isn't expansive enough, your movie isn't going to make a ton of money.

 

This is another example of why the film is getting killed by the bigger movies this weekend, as Olivia Wilde pointed out. That's it. There's nothing to see here. If big studio executives want to play dumb and pretend that movies made by and starring women don't sell, well then that's a big problem. Hopefully it's something that will be dealt with by the old boys club in Hollywood dying off and getting better, smarter executives in to the industry.

[JB33]

3 minutes ago, That One Guy said:

 

Sometimes it's better to not post

I know. Libs/lefties are allowed to have an opinion, but it's better for me not to post. Get out of here lol.

[Rorschach]

7 minutes ago, JB33 said:

She can point out the issues in the industry, but don't try to mix it with the circumstances surrounding her film. Like, come on.

 

99% of the time I agree with you Porthos. You're one of the best on this forum. But on this, we disagree. We don't need more. At least we don't need more of the needless "calls to arms" as it were. We need more calling out of stuff like the Weinstein affair, or equal pay in Hollywood (I digress, but pay equal pay in the workplace is something I actually do champion. I think it's disgusting when women are doing the same job, if not working harder, and get paid less, but we'll leave that for another day) etc. What I don't like is attaching the politics to EVERYTHING, where it's not applicable.

 

Like I said, we're all pretty versed in box office. Please, let's not just throw out all that knowledge because it's hip to be a liberal. Nobody on this forum suggested misogyny when it came to the low numbers we were seeing for this movie. Nobody. Then the director comes out and says it and nobody wants to talk about the basics (ie. going up against a tentpole on Memorial Day weekend, comedies have been declining for awhile now etc.)? Give me a break.

This ain’t it chief.

[JB33]

4 minutes ago, AJG said:

 

She never said that.

 

Calm yourself.

No, she's just assuming executives will pin it on that. None of us know the truth in that regard, even though we know fucked up shit goes on, which leads me to the original point: just keep the politics out of it. It never does anyone any good since, luckily, most people see right through it. 

 

Trust me, I know. Our PM in Canada weaponizes it all the time. Manipulation and guilt tactics.

[baumer]

Let's not focus on the Wilde tweet, that's just going to get heated and there's so much more to talk about.  I don't think her tweet was in bad taste at all.  She simply said that a story about women directed by women doesn't necessarily get a lot of traction and she asked that people support her film.  Pretty innocuous on her part.

 

 

[TwoMisfits]

You all read too much into Olivia's tweet...I figured she was pushing everyone to go this weekend b/c her film did not get "the fully protected 2 week contract", so if it underperforms this weekend, it will go the way The Sun Is Also a Star/Tolkien/Poms did (which, while not dropped entirely, got showings slashed in half or more in weekend 2 before huge drops in weekend 3 for the latter 2)...I mean, the next sets will be done pretty much by the end of the weekend/Tuesday morning, so it's show now or show never...

 

As everyone points out, it's gonna be very tight again in theaters next weekend with 3 large new releases...so slashing the also-rans is obviously gonna be high on most mid-to-small size theater lists for the weekend...and once you're slashed, you're pretty much gone the next week...