Weekend Thread: SW 26.2/25.3/21 72.5M | Jumanji 11.7/12.4/11 35.1M | Frozen 6/5.85/5.3 17.15M

[therana]

2 minutes ago, Feanor said:

Gavin Feng also said something like this a few days ago: The whole futuristic aesthetic of the Prequel Trilogy was much more appealing to the Chinese market than the Sequel Trilogy, which has pretty much only focused on barren and empty planets.

 

But ofc Disney/Lucasfilm for some reason tries to avoid acknowledging the prequels as much as possible, so they doubled down on the original trilogy nostalgia, which evidently didn’t really work outside of TFA in not only China, but in many other emerging markets.

 

 

Pretty much this. My friend says that a lot of people in China were pretty hyped for TFA, but they left the theater baffled and disappointed, because it wasn't at all like the prequels: very few lightsaber fights, a boring western setting that didn't feel futuristic at all. Basically "not my Star Wars" type of reaction, which explains the huge drop from TFA to TLJ.

[Marcus Cato]

Star Wars is failing in China for one main simple reason: no nostalgia factor. Chinese authorities allowed american movies only after 1994, so the original trilogy was not seen by the chinese public. The Force Awakens made $125 in China on purely hype alone. But after the hype was gone, and without any nostalgia to rely on, the rest of the Star Wars movies just crumbled at the box office, with Rise of Skywalker doing a measly $16 total. 

[YourCake]

1 hour ago, Ipickthiswhiterose said:

It can say hi all it likes, nobody in Avatar is born as the chosen one, or is special by birth.

 

They become special by circumstance and personal connection.

 

As for Harry Potter, my impression is that China is just okay with Harry Potter, no more no less. I could be wrong.

 

Look, I might well be wrong on this, that's fine, but it seems one way or another than something very fundamental is dissonant between Chinese culture and Star Wars and that dynamic predates this trilogy by a long time. Investigating why ROS specifically hasn't done well in China is futile, in other words, because that would imply there should have been any expectation in the first place, when clearly there shouldn't based on the recent and far past.

Why do you think Jake Sully wasn't born as The Chosen One? He was the only person who could form a special connection and ride the red flying chicken while the others could only ride the blue ones. The holy tree even threw jellyfishes at Jack as a welcome for the Chosen One. 

[MrGlass2]

1 hour ago, Ipickthiswhiterose said:

It can say hi all it likes, nobody in Avatar is born as the chosen one, or is special by birth.

 

They become special by circumstance and personal connection.

 

As for Harry Potter, my impression is that China is just okay with Harry Potter, no more no less. I could be wrong.

How about Aquaman then? He says he is nobody, but he is pretty special by birth (he can talk to fishes).

[Gavin Feng]

Disney & Lucasfilm already fine a way to solve the problem that China can't feel Star Wars:

 

Spoiler

make western markets join them. 

 

[a2k]

38 minutes ago, therana said:

Pretty much this. My friend says that a lot of people in China were pretty hyped for TFA, but they left the theater baffled and disappointed, because it wasn't at all like the prequels: very few lightsaber fights, a boring western setting that didn't feel futuristic at all. Basically "not my Star Wars" type of reaction, which explains the huge drop from TFA to TLJ.

 

33 minutes ago, Marcus Cato said:

Star Wars is failing in China for one main simple reason: no nostalgia factor. Chinese authorities allowed american movies only after 1994, so the original trilogy was not seen by the chinese public. The Force Awakens made $125 in China on purely hype alone. But after the hype was gone, and without any nostalgia to rely on, the rest of the Star Wars movies just crumbled at the box office, with Rise of Skywalker doing a measly $16 total. 

Interesting that TFA did manage good legs of 2.4x. As such very good for China but Dec can be leg-friendly.

Spoiler

 

Jan 8-10	1	$52,348,430	-	-	-	-	$52,348,430	1
Jan 15-17	1	$20,271,608	-61.3%	-	-	-	$96,090,030	2
Jan 22-24	1	$8,037,137	-60.4%	-	-	-	$114,293,636	3
Jan 29-31	4	$2,213,122	-72.5%	-	-	-	$122,115,515	4
Feb 5-7	4	$1,246,219	-43.7%	-	-	-	$125,398,521	5

 

 

RO also did well with 2.3x. The boxoffice retention was good and this same drop (125.4 to 69.5) from TFA would have given it 520 dom (Exr, inflation, growth in China vs US/Can would alter that number but don't think by a big amount)

Spoiler

 

Jan 6-8	1	$30,078,393	-	-	-	-	$30,617,178	1
Jan 13-15	2	$8,001,638	-73.4%	-	-	-	$54,254,663	2
Jan 20-22	5	$3,432,706	-57.1%	-	-	-	$61,743,082	3
Jan 27-29	12	$337,013	-90.2%	-	-	-	$69,178,690	4
Feb 3-5	17	$33,857	-90%	-	-	-	$69,484,899	5

 

 

TLJ opened close to RO with 28.1 in Jan but did just an abysmal 1.5x for 42.6 total. TLJ's reception could still have salvaged the franchise I think. 

Spoiler

 

Jan 5-7	2	$28,137,073	-	-	-	-	$28,702,843	1
Jan 12-14	5	$2,438,554	-91.3%	-	-	-	$38,754,279	2
Jan 19-21	9	$867,942	-64.4%	-	-	-	$41,250,422	3
Jan 26-28	17	$100,280	-88.4%	-	-	-	$42,111,278	4
Feb 2-4	22	$53,438	-46.7%	-	-	-	$42,577,974	5

 

 

Solo opened with small numbers and legged it badly with just 1.7x but TLJ's 1.5x worthy reception was the culprit it seems.

Spoiler

 

May 25-27	3	$9,727,334	-	-	-	-	$9,853,732	1
Jun 1-3	6	$2,219,426	-77.2%	-	-	-	$14,948,757	2
Jun 8-10	11	$424,290	-80.9%	-	-	-	$16,375,669	3
Jun 15-17	23	$12,549	-97%	-	-	-	$16,473,217	4

 

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by a2k

[Nova]

24M is a much better number and puts $70M+
for the weekend back in play. But I do wonder about it’s prospects going forward. The holidays are pretty much over and this coming week some schools will start again. I really think even with a $70M+ weekend getting to $500M is going to be very hard. I remember during the OW some users mentioned that TROS would be in a better position than TLJ because of how the holidays lined up and it looks like that didn’t matter as once the holidays ended the numbers dropped. People who wanted to watch it, watched it and by the looks of it told others to stay away.
 

Seeing how the holidays gave TROS a slight boost though, I do wonder how these movies would fare if they weren’t released during the holiday period. Would TROS still be making close to a billion or would that number be $800-900M instead? Cause that’s something else that hasn’t really been talked about. Yes TLJ made a billion. Yes TROS is looking to make a billion. But would have that been the case if they weren’t released during the holidays? And if not that’s something else Disney needs to consider going forward when they’re making these movies. The box office for these $300-$400M movies keeps decreasing even though they’re released during the holidays. So if I’m Disney, I start thinking about ways to scale back the budgets on these films because I don’t think they can continually rely on the holiday period to save them. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Nova

[raulbalarezo]

[Moviefanfr]

26-27 for Sunday ? 

 

I thought I understood how BO work... look like I was wrong 

 

 

[charlie Jatinder]

7 hours ago, Sam said:

Athough, as a AoU fan, I will say that I’m happy to see that movie’s title of “highest grossing disappointment” continues to live on! And seems like it’ll live for another few years too at least. 

Right? @Arendelle Legion @Lordmandeep

I guess TLK claimed that. Right @Arendelle Legion

[Nova]

I don’t think anyone is overreacting with these numbers. TROS is obviously not a bomb or a flop but it’s numbers should give people pause especially those who actually look at box office numbers ie people on this forum. Not only that, but it seems as a whole, the brand is decreasing.

 

This is anecdotal of course (like BKB parking lot reports) but after the movies my friend and I went to Target cause she wanted to get her little brother hot wheels. I was shocked that there wasn’t a single section in the toy area dedicated to Star Wars. There was Disney Princess stuff, Avengers stuff, WWE and so forth but nothing Star Wars. A brand that currently has a movie in theaters had ZERO toys at this Target. So I walked around to see if they had any shirts or anything Star Wars related and found nothing. I don’t expect that to be a thing across all Targets of course but I also don’t think its normal for a big store like that to completely ignore one of the biggest brands in the world. To me it just adds another layer to the discussion regarding the Star Wars brand as a whole and shows that those of use discussing the decline of Star Wars aren’t exactly overreacting. 

 

And when I think about how Disney has handled this brand, to me it can be summed up by them withholding selling Baby Yoda’s because they didn’t want to ruin the “surprise.” Now that the surprise is out, the ship has sailed and the opportunity to make millions off Baby Yoda’s is gone. 

[charlie Jatinder]

Saturday

 

SW 25

J2 12

F2 5.8

LW 5.75

SiD 4.9

KO 3.45

 

 

[a2k]

2 minutes ago, Moviefanfr said:

26-27 for Sunday ? 

 

I thought I understood how BO work... look like I was wrong 

 

 

that is a bollywood film's (good newwz) sunday number in crores in india 

[charlie Jatinder]

13 minutes ago, raulbalarezo said:

Indian box office numbers for an Indian film Good Newwz.

[a2k]

25 Sat, down from 26.2 Fri would have been disappointing for TROS as folks wanted small bump to high-20s if not more. But after 23-24 and 22-23 it feels like a relief. 525 dom / 1050 ww back on the menu it seems.

 

[Moviefanfr]

2 minutes ago, Jedi Jat said:

Indian box office numbers for an Indian film Good Newwz.

seriously ? that was a cheap move ...

[reddevil19]

Low-teens Sunday and panic is back on!

 

[Moviefanfr]

As a SW fan overreacting is part of my job.

[Nova]

4 minutes ago, Moviefanfr said:

seriously ? that was a cheap move ...

How was it a cheap move? Anyone who understands how the box office works knows that wasn’t the Sunday number for Star Wars. 

[Moviefanfr]

I just follow BO result during SW release. I thought it was strange but yeah not gonna lie I thought it was true.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Moviefanfr