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Eric Atreides

The Whitney Houston Movie: I Wanna Dance With Somebody | Tristar | December 23, 2022 | Kasi Lemmons directs

By Eric Atreides, in Box Office Discussion

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wboxoffice Sleeper Hit

wboxoffice

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https://www.boxofficepro.com/long-range-box-office-forecast-puss-in-boots-the-last-wish-babylon-and-i-wanna-dance-with-somebody/

 

The first domestic box office forecast is out and they have IWDWS at:

(low range-high range)
Opening weekend: 10-15 million
Domestic total:  65-115 million


What they write about the movie:

Whitney Houston fans are expected to drive I Wanna Dance with Somebody as the latest music biopic featuring the story of an international pop star. Again, this is the kind of counter-programmer that has historically done well over the holidays. Appeal to women over 35 will be key, not unlike the target of Elvis last summer, and 2019’s Rocketman.

If there’s any notable caution toward I Wanna Dance with Somebody at the moment, it’s simply that — unlike Elvis — there isn’t an element of casting star power to help extend appeal beyond Whitney Houston fans. That’s not necessarily a detriment to potential, though, as long as reception is positive.

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filmlover Cinematic Universe

filmlover

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This is easily the biggest wild card of the holidays IMO because it could really go in any direction. While people like Presley and Mercury had been gone for decades when their big Hollywood biopics came out, Houston's passing was only just over a decade ago, and there's been no shortage of new Whitney content in that brief amount of time between the documentaries, the previously unreleased music, etc., including a Lifetime biopic in 2015 (that was notable largely because it was directed by Houston's Waiting to Exhale co-star Angela Bassett). It's gonna come down to the reviews and how they approach her life given the relative recency of it all: hopefully they do mainly focus on her years of success and remind folks of what a groundbreaking artist she was and don't dive too deep into the downfall that was mostly treated as a punchline until it was too late.

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Verrows Box Office Gold

Verrows

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Posted (edited)
On 11/25/2022 at 11:26 AM, wboxoffice said:

https://www.boxofficepro.com/long-range-box-office-forecast-puss-in-boots-the-last-wish-babylon-and-i-wanna-dance-with-somebody/

 

The first domestic box office forecast is out and they have IWDWS at:

(low range-high range)
Opening weekend: 10-15 million
Domestic total:  65-115 million


What they write about the movie:

Whitney Houston fans are expected to drive I Wanna Dance with Somebody as the latest music biopic featuring the story of an international pop star. Again, this is the kind of counter-programmer that has historically done well over the holidays. Appeal to women over 35 will be key, not unlike the target of Elvis last summer, and 2019’s Rocketman.

If there’s any notable caution toward I Wanna Dance with Somebody at the moment, it’s simply that — unlike Elvis — there isn’t an element of casting star power to help extend appeal beyond Whitney Houston fans. That’s not necessarily a detriment to potential, though, as long as reception is positive.

Really hope it outperforms those projections. Is it just me or would that OW be fairly weak, especially because this isn't a Wednesday opener anymore?

 

EDIT: Or is it still? I had thought it quietly moved to Friday the 23rd along with Babylon.

Edited by Verrows
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wboxoffice Sleeper Hit

wboxoffice

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13 minutes ago, Verrows said:

Really hope it outperforms those projections. Is it just me or would that OW be fairly weak, especially because this isn't a Wednesday opener anymore?

 

EDIT: Or is it still? I had thought it quietly moved to Friday the 23rd along with Babylon.


Yeah it has been moved to a Friday the 23rd opening (basically with Thursday previews to be included)...  I also think the predicted OW is on the weaker side and I'm hoping it does at least 20+ million weekend.   However for sure the Saturday being the 24th Christmas Eve will cause a significant drop for all movies during that day of the weekend, although Sunday/Monday will be bigger...

 

I don't know what kind of awareness and hype the movie has compared to other biopic major hits like Bohemian Rhapsody (51m opening), Elvis (31m opening) and Rocketman (25m opening) but for sure it will have strong legs because of the Holidays...  I hope the trailer is being played a lot in movie theaters and that there will be many Tv spots in the upcoming weeks...  Here at least on the forum all the talk outside of Avatar 2 seems to be about Puss in Boots 2 and even Babylon...

 

 

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Krissykins Global Phenomenon

Krissykins

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9 hours ago, wboxoffice said:


Yeah it has been moved to a Friday the 23rd opening (basically with Thursday previews to be included)...  I also think the predicted OW is on the weaker side and I'm hoping it does at least 20+ million weekend.   However for sure the Saturday being the 24th Christmas Eve will cause a significant drop for all movies during that day of the weekend, although Sunday/Monday will be bigger...

 

I don't know what kind of awareness and hype the movie has compared to other biopic major hits like Bohemian Rhapsody (51m opening), Elvis (31m opening) and Rocketman (25m opening) but for sure it will have strong legs because of the Holidays...  I hope the trailer is being played a lot in movie theaters and that there will be many Tv spots in the upcoming weeks...  Here at least on the forum all the talk outside of Avatar 2 seems to be about Puss in Boots 2 and even Babylon...

 

 

I would imagine the target audience for this aren’t very “online” so hopefully it’s nothing to worry about. 

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wboxoffice Sleeper Hit

wboxoffice

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https://variety.com/lists/2022-best-films-movies/
 

7. I Wanna Dance With Somebody

I Wanna Dance with Somebody
 
Photo : Courtesy of Sony

The kind of lavish impassioned all-stops-out pop-music biopic you either give in to or you don’t — and if you do, you may find yourself getting so emotional, baby. As Whitney Houston, Naomi Ackie is far from the singer’s physical double, yet she nails the hard part: channeling her incandescence. She shows you the freedom that made Houston tick and the self-doubt that ate away at her, until she fell from the mountaintop she’d scaled. The director, Kasi Lemmons, creates a portrait of Houston’s dilemmas and demons that’s bracingly authentic, from the drugs to the family backstabbing to the love relationship with Robin Crawford (Nafessa Williams) that a homophobic society made her feel compelled to repress, from the attacks she weathered for her music being “not Black enough” to the self-destructive refuge she sought in her relationship with the sexy scurrilous lightweight Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders). As Clive Davis, Stanley Tucci captures the Arista mogul’s bone-dry dictator-mensch savoir faire. Whitney gets dragged down by forces both in and outside her. Yet through it all, her voice, her songs, her artistry of faith shines like a rapturous light.



 

 

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wboxoffice Sleeper Hit

wboxoffice

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24 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

New title just dropped:

 

I don't think anyone is prepared for this.

 

Based on the official Sony Pictures facebook, also the movie instagram, facebook, they are listing it in their latest video or banner as "The Whitney Houston Movie: I Wanna Dance With Somebody"...

 

 

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filmlover Cinematic Universe

filmlover

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This is clearly a marketing tactic (and the movie itself is keeping the original title as is) but the fact these desperate marketing developments are happening this late in the game must mean that they're really not liking the tracking numbers they're seeing. Oh well.

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BoxOfficeFangrl Box Office Gold

BoxOfficeFangrl

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Looks like the social media manager got the memo yesterday....

 

Before that, the posts do mention "Whitney Houston" (SEO, baby!), but not the specific wording, "The Whitney Houston Movie" and "I Wanna With Somebody" being in each tweet.

 

IWDWS isn't a bad title for a Whitney movie, it's one of her biggest hits. An odd situation where Whitney's biggest hit was a cover originally by another iconic singer, whose own biopic could end up being called I Will Always Love You. The Greatest Love of All seems rooted in the 80s (and it's also a cover, originally made as the theme to a Muhammad Ali biopic). I wonder how the decision-making goes, in deciding to name the musician biopic after the artist vs one of their biggest hits.

 

 

 

Edited by BoxOfficeFangrl
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