The Last Duel - Ridley Scott, Matt Damon & Adam Driver | October 15, 2021

[lorddemaxus]

I would personally say this is his best since Alien Covenant.

 

And under The Counselor is astoundingly awful. A talky medival drama might be a hard sell it's nowhere near as of a hard sell as something like The Counselor. They really should've tried selling this as an epic (which it isn't) and focused on the last duel. But I guess it's target audience was never gonna come for this.

Edited October 15, 2021 by lorddemaxus

[lorddemaxus]

1 hour ago, A Star is Orm said:

 

Sitting with some neighbors, all over 60, at a restaurant this morning and I told them how much I loved NTTD. To a one, they all said they would wait until it streams. I said, "But don't you want to see it on the big screen?" and one replied, "I have a big screen. It's in my basement." 😞

 

 

The pandemic has turned boomers into redditors.

[dudalb]

6 hours ago, wildphantom said:

yup. $350k Thursday preview number. 
I love how deadline try to spin it being a turn off for viewers due to the subject matter.  Like that’s turning viewers off from watching, say, Squid Game at the moment. 
 

Fact is, there’s a way too high proportion of older audiences that are only coming out for recognisable IP. And they are embarrassing.  Hell, I love all the IP movies too, but I would love to have a conversation with a 50 year old grown adult as to why he’ll go day one for any Marvel superhero movie, but not a Ridley Scott one. 
 

I don’t blame the youngsters. They’re showing up and keeping the business going. But these middle-aged plus audiences really need to get their act together. Nobody can blame it on the pandemic as they’re showing up for Venom and James Bond. Hell, they’ll show up for an art film in a few weeks because Marvel have made it! 
 

Why won’t they go and see a movie like The Last Duel? It’s insane. I’m not even talking about significant numbers. Just a couple of million grown adults to go and see a major Hollywood movie with great reviews and an all-star cast. Ffs. 

Fact is  historical epics are a hard sell with younger audiences, and the older audience is still skeptical about going to a movie while the Covid rages. They might for a film they really want to see, but will decide to stay home for borderline movies.

Even if no pandemic, I could not see this doing big numbers.

Not happy about this since I love Historical  Epics but right now they are niche  market.

Edited October 15, 2021 by dudalb

[wildphantom]

1 hour ago, dudalb said:

Fact is  historical epics are a hard sell with younger audiences, and the older audience is still skeptical about going to a movie while the Covid rages. They might for a film they really want to see, but will decide to stay home for borderline movies.

Even if no pandemic, I could not see this doing big numbers.

Not happy about this since I love Historical  Epics but right now they are niche  market.

it should still be doing minimum $60 million though. 
 

You say covid still rages, but there are still millions of older aged audiences showing up for children’s films during the pandemic.  Shang Chi and Venom haven’t made that kind of money just from the younger demos. Why is that? Why will they not show up for Last Duel, but will turn up in droves in three weeks for a Marvel film based on a comic they’ve never heard of? It’s tragic stuff. 
 

Again, I see these movies too and enjoy them, but I would be mortified as a middle-aged moviegoer if all I saw was IP films.  
 

It’s from the director of likely a ton of their most beloved movies. With big stars, big budget and screams big screen. 
 

Will they come out for Ridley’s next in November? Or will we have to rely on youngsters coming out for Lady Gaga? 
 

 

 

[dudalb]

12 minutes ago, wildphantom said:

it should still be doing minimum $60 million though. 
 

You say covid still rages, but there are still millions of older aged audiences showing up for children’s films during the pandemic.  Shang Chi and Venom haven’t made that kind of money just from the younger demos. Why is that? Why will they not show up for Last Duel, but will turn up in droves in three weeks for a Marvel film based on a comic they’ve never heard of? It’s tragic stuff. 
 

Again, I see these movies too and enjoy them, but I would be mortified as a middle-aged moviegoer if all I saw was IP films.  
 

It’s from the director of likely a ton of their most beloved movies. With big stars, big budget and screams big screen. 
 

Will they come out for Ridley’s next in November? Or will we have to rely on youngsters coming out for Lady Gaga? 
 

 

 

What was the historical film to do 60Million? "Dunkirk" i think and that was on the strenth of Nolan..who, franky, is a bigger box office name director then Scott is at the moment.

Scott has never had consistent history at the box office. He seems most of the time to have a hit, then a flop. then a sucess, then a failure.

He is one of my favorite directors,but he has along history of inconsistency at the box office. And IMHO< some of his box office failures are better films then some of his hits.

[dudalb]

Just now, dudalb said:

What was the historical film to do 60Million? "Dunkirk" i think and that was on the strenth of Nolan..who, franky, is a bigger box office name director then Scott is at the moment.

Scott has never had consistent history at the box office. He seems most of the time to have a hit, then a flop. then a sucess, then a failure.

He is one of my favorite directors,but he has along history of inconsistency at the box office. And IMHO< some of his box office failures are better films then some of his hits.

Bottom line is younger audeinces are seldom interested in Historical films.

That frustrates the hell out of me also,.

 

 

[Firepower]

The fact that Venom 2 is the movie with the biggest OW in almost 2 years makes it even more tragic.

[Ronin46]

 

 

Ridley Scott is dropping out of Disney's Merlin (no idea he was attached honestly) due to scheduling issues.

 

A source close to Ridley said he wanted to do it but was doing Gladiator 2, Alien (a prequel,  a sequel, 2 reboots, 3 reimaginings), doing another cut for Blade Runner, a sequel to Kingdom of Heaven with an inanimate carbon rod replacing Orlando Bloom (Ridley said it had more charisma and screen presence).

 

Deadline:

 

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Matthews is set to direct Disney’s Merlin, an adaptation of T.A. Barron’s novel series where King Arthur’s wizardry mentor is at the center of the story. Ridley Scott, who directed the 20th Century Medieval pic The Last Duel,  which bows today in theaters, was attached to direct at one point but parted ways due to his busy schedule. Sources say the film is still in early development with Disney’s live-action team.

Gil Netter is producing from with the latest draft by Chris Weitz

  

[wildphantom]

33 minutes ago, dudalb said:

What was the historical film to do 60Million? "Dunkirk" i think and that was on the strenth of Nolan..who, franky, is a bigger box office name director then Scott is at the moment.

Scott has never had consistent history at the box office. He seems most of the time to have a hit, then a flop. then a sucess, then a failure.

He is one of my favorite directors,but he has along history of inconsistency at the box office. And IMHO< some of his box office failures are better films then some of his hits.

1917. With no stars. 
 

Exodus did fine. Noah did really well. 
 

Historical big budget epics should be making half decent money. 

Edited October 15, 2021 by wildphantom

[Ronin46]

I actually love Ridley Scott and Kingdom of Heaven (directors 4hr cut and not the first 1 released). Even Orlando can be fine at times but he is a weaker point in KOH. But my god how many projects is Ridley attached to that he has no real ambition to make. 

[Cooper Legion]

1 hour ago, wildphantom said:

Why is that? Why will they not show up for Last Duel, but will turn up in droves in three weeks for a Marvel film based on a comic they’ve never heard of? It’s tragic stuff.

It's because the marvel film is way more fun and appealing 😛

[CoolioD1]

as everyone seems to be loving affleck's performance in this let's all remember the time when the mods took away the sadfleck emoji/reaction because there was that ten second period where they were scared he was going to get cancelled for i don't even remember.

[Macleod]

I'm buying a ticket for this thing for tomorrow even if I don't go, just to support what I would call "a real movie" rather than another spectacle or horror franchise.  

[Ozymandias]

34 minutes ago, Ronin46 said:

I actually love Ridley Scott and Kingdom of Heaven (directors 4hr cut and not the first 1 released). Even Orlando can be fine at times but he is a weaker point in KOH. But my god how many projects is Ridley attached to that he has no real ambition to make. 

 

The trick to Kingdom of Heaven is just accepting that Orlando Bloom was miscast and take in the top notch movie all around him.

 

Its also ridiculous how many beautiful shots are in that movie that you could frame on a wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Firepower]

6 minutes ago, Macleod said:

I'm buying a ticket for this thing for tomorrow even if I don't go, just to support what I would call "a real movie" rather than another spectacle or horror franchise.  

Great call. I'm gonna watch it multiple times in theaters, even though I planned it before, but that's another reason to do it.

[35MM-18]

34 minutes ago, Macleod said:

I'm buying a ticket for this thing for tomorrow even if I don't go, just to support what I would call "a real movie" rather than another spectacle or horror franchise.  

Booked my ticket a few days ago for Saturday evening (I'm within walking distance of 4 cinemas, but annoyingly only 2 of them are offering showings before 8pm - my screening's for 5.30).

[CJohn]

43 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

as everyone seems to be loving affleck's performance in this let's all remember the time when the mods took away the sadfleck emoji/reaction because there was that ten second period where they were scared he was going to get cancelled for i don't even remember.

I still miss it. One of the many tragic decisions by this North Korean regime.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

1 hour ago, CoolioD1 said:

as everyone seems to be loving affleck's performance in this let's all remember the time when the mods took away the sadfleck emoji/reaction because there was that ten second period where they were scared he was going to get cancelled for i don't even remember.

Affleck groped Hilarie Burton's boob when he was drunk and promoting something on MTV back in the day (she was a VJ). The clip resurfaced in the early days of #MeToo and he apologized pretty quickly. There was some other junket interview where he was overly touchy with a female reporter, but she came out and said she hadn't felt didn't uncomfortable with it. It didn't help that his big break to fame was due to Weinstein himself, but the controversy for Affleck blew over pretty quickly as there were so many famous guys getting taken down for much, much more predatory behavior around that time (including his own brother). Also, pretty soon after, Matt Damon kind of defended Louis CK in response to some interview question about #MeToo, so it was Matt's turn to be the bad guy of the Matt/Ben duo.

 

*

 

Showbiz411 says the budget is "close to $200 million", but I'm dubious about the source.

 

https://www.showbiz411.com/2021/10/15/box-office-disaster-looms-for-ridley-scotts-star-studded-the-last-duel-made-just-350k-in-previews-thursday-night

[filmlover]

3 hours ago, wildphantom said:

Why will they not show up for Last Duel, but will turn up in droves in three weeks for a Marvel film based on a comic they’ve never heard of? It’s tragic stuff. 

So because people see some movies they are required to see others even if they have no interest? Watching movies is a choice, not a personal obligation we have to fulfill like paying our taxes.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

It's not so much "requirement" or "obligation". Just a question of why interest died down for non-MCU/disney, etc movies? Is it the oversaturation of those action movies? Was it streaming? A cultural shift? Is it the movies themselves? Then again, a lot of them have decent reviews and still fail to catch on.