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

[XXR vs XXR]

12 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Aladdin should have had Dumbo's spot on the calendar, the legs would have been insane. Granted I realize why Disney would want Aladdin in the summer, but unless they were willing to sit on it until 2020, summer was too competitive this year. 

A lot of shuffling could have been done to help various films. Move Captain Marvel into the Presidents Day slot (doesn't really help CM, but wouldn't hurt it either.) Move Aladdin into the Dumbo spot, then move Dumbo into the old Maleficent 2 spot (October 18th I believe).

If you did all of that, there's a good chance that Pikachu and John Wick both move back another week which gives Endgame even more room.

[filmscholar]

I think Bad Buzz online can go two ways.  Yes it can show some audiences are upset with the direction of the film I.E. "Sonic" but what if fans don't like the new  Redesign?  Are they gonna push it back again?  Sometime you have to go with what you got.  I was happy Will didn't back down after the first "Blue Genie" shots.  He went online and explained it to people. about being motion capture and not him painted blue.  We live in the "Overreaction" Age.  People blow thing way out of proportion sometimes online.  "Nobody cares about Captain Marvel, Everyone hated TLJ, Nobody wants to see a Blue Will Smith Genie"   The internet has a way of blowing everyone's opinions on a large jumbo tron screen.   I'm glad "Aladdin" overcame that initial reaction.  

[LonePirate]

23 minutes ago, Tentatek said:

Saw booksmart.

<snip>

There’s fuck, vagina, lesbian, drugs jokes every three seconds of the movie. 

Um, what exactly did you expect from an R rated comedy? Films are R rated typically for violence, nudity, language or very adult situations such as drug use. Booksmart is a comedy about teenage girls, so violence and nudity were unlikely to be causes of the R rating. That leaves language and adult situations. I'm guessing you went into the movie exceptionally unaware of its rating or subject matter and/or you have spent very little time around current day high school seniors.

 

It's perfectly fine if you did not like the movie but you cannot feign ignorance or offense at the content of an R rated comedy about high schoolers, especially when the trailer spells out what you're going to see.

[Porthos]

Not going to go back and quote them all, but are people seriously suggesting that Aladdin would be doing better if it was in Dumbo's slot?

 

Have I taken crazy pills or something or did we all forget every piece of hype available was sucked out of the box office landscape on April 2nd?

 

Putting Aladdin out four days before EG tickets went on pre-sale would have been asinine.  We would have been crucifying Disney for doing something like that, and rightfully so.

 

Never mind it might not have been ready two months earlier.

Edited May 26, 2019 by Porthos

[jaybox]

I'm not that surprised by these numbers. I think it had the chance to do even better. Aladdin is my fav Disney movie and was an iconic movie in general back in the 90s. 

 

Lion King won't do endgame numbers but an Aladdin movie with "bad buzz" just blew out the gates. If Lion King has good reviews watch out.

[Ms Lady Hawk]

37 minutes ago, Tentatek said:

Saw booksmart.

 

It was not funny at all. There was like one genuinely funny scene that actually reminds me of mean girls. The rest are unnecessarily  vulgar, dumb and cringey. There’s fuck, vagina, lesbian, drugs jokes every three seconds of the movie. 

 

 

 

It’s flopping?

 

Trailers did not make it look any more interesting than what you described. It looked lame. I typically try to support female centric movies, but I won’t support any movie just because simply it is female centric. It has to be worth my money. I have no interest in seeing this movie. 

[lorddemaxus]

 

 

 

 

 

4

39 minutes ago, Tentatek said:

It was not funny at all. There was like one genuinely funny scene that actually reminds me of mean girls. The rest are unnecessarily  vulgar, dumb and cringey. There’s fuck, vagina, lesbian, drugs jokes every three seconds of the movie. 

 

 

 

It’s flopping?

 

That's not true at all lmao. There aren't any lesbian jokes for most of the movie. Only a scissoring joke in one scene. Also, I bet everyone who hates Booksmart also loves Superbad even if it has the same kind of humour. In fact, I think Booksmart executes it much better.

[Porthos]

Look, there is ALWAYS competition in the "good months". Always always always.  Competition is starting to show up in the "bad" months as well.  Only with perfect hindsight can we tell if a film would have had a better release date as we know which films flopped at the time.  And that's presuming a film is even ready to be released, as I said in my last post.

 

Want to blame anything, blame Disney Marketing.  Not just for their actions this year, but for whatever the hell they showed at CinemaCon last year that really kicked off the bad buzz.  Plus whoever cut that first trailer.

 

A MDW release date is fine.  It's a 4 day holiday and is showing that with the right movie it can still do well there.  As long as it is properly marketed and goes well with the movie going audience.

 

[TwoMisfits]

6 minutes ago, LonePirate said:

Um, what exactly did you expect from an R rated comedy? Films are R rated typically for violence, nudity, language or very adult situations such as drug use. Booksmart is a comedy about teenage girls, so violence and nudity were unlikely to be causes of the R rating. That leaves language and adult situations. I'm guessing you went into the movie exceptionally unaware of its rating or subject matter and/or you have spent very little time around current day high school seniors.

 

It's perfectly fine if you did not like the movie but you cannot feign ignorance or offense at the content of an R rated comedy about high schoolers, especially when the trailer spells out what you're going to see.

To be fair to the poster, I think 2 F bombs or a cigarette getting smoked will give a movie an R nowadays...and yet you can have acres of sex and violence before getting there...so, there's a lot of leeway in expectations between a "barely R" and a "hard R"...it seems since it was a high school setting, the poster probably expected more of the former...and got the latter, to his disappointment...

 

[charlie Jatinder]

Disney not giving the sacrifice to boxoffice gods this year and see Endgame is about to miss Avatar. 2020 looks terrible, with 30-50% drop staring in face. God save Disney. @Porthos be strong.

[lorddemaxus]

3 minutes ago, Ms Lady Hawk said:

Trailers did not make it look any more interesting than what you described. It looked lame. I typically try to support female centric movies, but I won’t support any movie just because simply it is female centric. It has to be worth my money. I have no interest in seeing this movie. 

Well, Tentatek is seriously underselling the movie and he is the only one with those criticisms. The trailer also does a terrible job of selling the movie (which is why it's flopping). It isn't just vulgar jokes. The movie, in fact, takes a huge dramatic twist in the final act.  It's like a mix between Superbad, Eighth Grade, and Lady Bird. And it's also an extremely realistic and subversive representation of high school. I would say it's your loss if you decide not to go watch the movie because of one person even though literally everyone else is saying it's a great film.

[JohnnyGossamer]

If well received, I like Lion King over Endgame DOM. Gonna be fun to watch it absorb all that cash with peak summer days too.

Edited May 26, 2019 by JohnnyGossamer

[Porthos]

2 minutes ago, Charlie Jatinder said:

Disney not giving the sacrifice to boxoffice gods this year and see Endgame is about to miss Avatar. 2020 looks terrible, with 30-50% drop staring in face. God save Disney. @Porthos be strong.

"Star Wars Shill and Apologist" not "Disney Shill and Apologist".

 

I'll be fine.  More than fine, actually.

[john2000]

2 minutes ago, Charlie Jatinder said:

Disney not giving the sacrifice to boxoffice gods this year and see Endgame is about to miss Avatar. 2020 looks terrible, with 30-50% drop staring in face. God save Disney. @Porthos be strong.

i wouldnt say that disney can push eg, and also 2019 and 2018 were monster years for them no shame if 2020 cant match that

[syntaxerror]

Imho Disney leadership needs a shuffle. Sure they are doing well numerically but that is mainly based on their dependence on Marvel Studios and Animation. The main studio hasn’t had a big hit in a while. In fact there has been quite a few disappointments - Dumbo, A Wrinkle In Time, Nutcracker.

[stealthyfrog]

5 minutes ago, syntaxerror said:

Imho Disney leadership needs a shuffle. Sure they are doing well numerically but that is mainly based on their dependence on Marvel Studios and Animation. The main studio hasn’t had a big hit in a while. In fact there has been quite a few disappointments - Dumbo, A Wrinkle In Time, Nutcracker.

Instead of remaking their animated classics, Walt Disney Pictures should remake themselves

Edited May 26, 2019 by stealthyfrog

[syntaxerror]

1 minute ago, stealthyfrog said:

Instead of remaking their animated classics, Walt Disney Studios should remake themselves

Can’t blame them for doing remakes when everytime they ventured for original IP it’s been terrible - John Carter, Tomorrowland, A Wrinkle In Time.

[MrFanaticGuy34]

16 minutes ago, jaybox said:

I'm not that surprised by these numbers. I think it had the chance to do even better. Aladdin is my fav Disney movie and was an iconic movie in general back in the 90s. 

 

Lion King won't do endgame numbers but an Aladdin movie with "bad buzz" just blew out the gates. If Lion King has good reviews watch out.

If TLK breaks out, the money will sweep over like a big wave incoming: 

[LonePirate]

12 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

To be fair to the poster, I think 2 F bombs or a cigarette getting smoked will give a movie an R nowadays...and yet you can have acres of sex and violence before getting there...so, there's a lot of leeway in expectations between a "barely R" and a "hard R"...it seems since it was a high school setting, the poster probably expected more of the former...and got the latter, to his disappointment...

 

That's more of a condemnation of the MPAA than this movie given how Booksmart has no violence, no nudity and almost no sex. It's much closer to a "barely R" movie than a "hard R" movie given their crazy guidelines. Going to see an R rated comedy and complaining about language is like going to see a John Wick movie and complaining about it being too violent.

[MrFanaticGuy34]

9 minutes ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

If well received, I like Lion King over Endgame DOM. Gonna be fun to watch it absorb all that cash with peak summer days too.

When July comes: