The Fabelmans | Steven Spielberg's autobiographical coming-of-age-drama | Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, and DAVID LYNCH | November 11, 2022 (limited), November 23 (wide)

[lorddemaxus]

I felt every bit of me in this movie. Just wish I had the initiative to start making movies since I was in school.

[35MM-18]

1 hour ago, lorddemaxus said:

I felt every bit of me in this movie. Just wish I had the initiative to start making movies since I was in school.

Same here, and I haven't even seen the film yet. 

[John Marston]

On 11/25/2022 at 5:35 PM, ddddeeee said:

I kinda hated Williams in this.

 

Movie is...good. 

 

 

yeah she was awful. Better not be given any awards

[lorddemaxus]

Rewatched Catch Me if You Can, and aside from the similarities to Spielberg's own life, Tom Hanks looks so much like Dano in this that I wonder if he would've played the dad if Spielberg made this 30 years or so ago.

[Jake Gittes]

1 hour ago, lorddemaxus said:

Rewatched Catch Me if You Can, and aside from the similarities to Spielberg's own life, Tom Hanks looks so much like Dano in this that I wonder if he would've played the dad if Spielberg made this 30 years or so ago.

 

We can also tell who would've played the mom. (Not 30 years ago, though, but 10-15)

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by Jake Gittes

[John Marston]

Heard this is coming to VOD December 13

[cannastop]

https://time.com/6238019/best-movies-2022/

 

Stephanie Zacharek of Time Magazine names The Fabelmans as the #1 movie of the year.

[interiorgatordecorator]

29 minutes ago, cannastop said:

https://time.com/6238019/best-movies-2022/

 

Stephanie Zacharek of Time Magazine names The Fabelmans as the #1 movie of the year.

 

you cant expect me to take someone who places Armageddon Time in their top 3 seriously 

[CoolioD1]

never been so quick to hit the ignore user button.

[movies!movies!]

 

[Kalo]

I loved this movie. although it made me wish I had perused my dream as a filmmaker harder at that age and made me kind of sad. but I guess it's never too late they say.

 

What I don't understand is how they really didn't give this film a chance at he box office. it's easily the best Spielberg film I've seen in probably over a decade. and seems like a film that could garner a fairly wide audience. and they only put it in about 600 theaters over thanksgiving? I had to drive about an hour to see it as it was. sure maybe it would't have made $100m+ but with a wider release it should have easily got to $30m+ or even 40/50m. it's like they totally gave up on anything that wasn't a blockbuster this season. 

[ViktorLosAngeles]

Boy did this bomb...

[interiorgatordecorator]

 

releasing a trailer after the movie has already bombed to advertise the VOD release, had never seen that before

will see it later today on vod (wink)

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

On 12/6/2022 at 11:36 PM, Kalo said:

What I don't understand is how they really didn't give this film a chance at he box office. it's easily the best Spielberg film I've seen in probably over a decade. and seems like a film that could garner a fairly wide audience. and they only put it in about 600 theaters over thanksgiving? I had to drive about an hour to see it as it was. sure maybe it would't have made $100m+ but with a wider release it should have easily got to $30m+ or even 40/50m. it's like they totally gave up on anything that wasn't a blockbuster this season. 

The per theater averages of this fall’s awards hopefuls have mostly been awful. It's less the first weekend, than what happens when it goes wider. Ideally, these movies used to make enough money to hang around in hundreds of theaters for months, but now the business just isn't there. Compare the opening of The Post (Spielberg's last movie to get a platform release):

 

Date	Rank	Gross	% Change	Theaters	Per Theater	Total Gross	Week
Dec 22, 2017	19	$526,011		9	$58,446	$526,011	1
Dec 29, 2017	24	$561,080	+7%	9	$62,342	$1,760,121	2
Jan 5, 2018	15	$1,698,027	+203%	36	$47,167	$3,847,683	3
Jan 12, 2018	2	$19,361,968	+1,040%	2,819	$6,868	$23,851,205	4
Jan 19, 2018	4	$11,716,960	-39%	2,851	$4,110	$44,758,362	5
Jan 26, 2018	5	$9,107,141	-22%	2,640	$3,450	$58,793,064	6
Feb 2, 2018	5	$5,218,122	-43%	2,462	$2,119	$67,202,632	7
Feb 9, 2018	8	$3,631,998	-30%	1,865	$1,947	$72,968,518	8
Feb 16, 2018	10	$1,988,634	-45%	1,050	$1,894	$76,598,006	9
Feb 23, 2018	13	$1,242,239	-38%	795	$1,563	$78,890,240	10
Mar 2, 2018	14	$1,069,501	-14%	671	$1,594	$80,527,737	11
Mar 9, 2018	17	$328,610	-69%	278	$1,182	$81,168,402	12

 

The per theater average for The Post only got as low as $1200-ish dollars the weekend after that year's Oscars.

 

Here's how The Fabelmans has started out:

 

Date	Rank	Gross	% Change	Theaters	Per Theater	Total Gross	Week
Nov 11, 2022	-	$161,579		4	$40,395	$161,579	1
Nov 18, 2022	-	$89,733	-44%	4	$22,433	$309,655	2
Nov 25, 2022	7	$2,261,110	+2,420%	638	$3,544	$3,463,236	3
Dec 2, 2022	8	$1,269,515	-44%	638	$1,990	$5,534,961	4
Dec 9, 2022	7	$1,172,230	-8%	973	$1,205	$7,322,196	5

 

Already, the per theater average for The Fabelmans is at $1200 just 5 weekends in. If a movie has a weak showing in 600 theaters, it rarely improves much in 2000-3000 theaters. Starting out in thousands of theaters has also gone badly for "grown-up movies" lately (She Said, for one). So now, studios are cutting their losses and putting stuff on VOD/streaming earlier, which IMO doesn't help the attendance situation.

 

I think a big chunk of the audience for "Oscar bait" used to hear about those movies through the pop culture grapevine, eventually, which was fine back when more people were showing up to begin with and theatrical windows were longer. Now they can be only 3 weekends, some movies are streaming exclusives or day-and-date, or maybe someone heard about a thing in passing, but they're not sure if it's a limited series or a movie. These people never really looked up movie news, see little movie advertising anymore, and have no idea what's coming out or when, unless it's a big blockbuster. It's a cluster and the industry has no idea if this part of the business will ever recover.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[Macleod]

Like ‘Jaws’ Before It, Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ May Rewrite Box Office History

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jaws-steven-spielberg-fabelmans-may-160016107.html

 

Nice to see all of you in this thread saw it...no one else has!  And check out the comment section below for all the reasons...

[Chaz]

What’s with the backlash to this movie? I am interested in it but it never opened near me. 🤷‍♂️

[filmlover]

8 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

I think a big chunk of the audience for "Oscar bait" used to hear about those movies through the pop culture grapevine, eventually, which was fine back when more people were showing up to begin with and theatrical windows were longer. Now they can be only 3 weekends, some movies are streaming exclusives or day-and-date, or maybe someone heard about a thing in passing, but they're not sure if it's a limited series or a movie. These people never really looked up movie news, see little movie advertising anymore, and have no idea what's coming out or when, unless it's a big blockbuster. It's a cluster and the industry has no idea if this part of the business will ever recover.

 

 

All of this dawned on me the other day while watching the Golden Globe nominations on The Today Show during the post-discussion when Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie had no clue what The Banshees of Inisherin (the most nominated movie) was while talking with one of those movie specialists (forget his name) that often appears on these talk shows. Just goes to show how big the disconnect between the movie world and the actual world has become.

[Lucas]

This ruled so hard

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

 

6 hours ago, Chaz said:

What’s with the backlash to this movie? I am interested in it but it never opened near me. 🤷‍♂️

A not-exhaustive list:

• Comes after a seeming glut of semi-autobiographical movies from directors about their youths
• Film snobs too cool for sentimental Spielberg
• Iñárritu stans mad that semi-autobiographical Bardo got bad reviews, but semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans got good reviews, therefore racism
• Spielberg getting $40 million to make a glorified home movie about how brilliant he's always been as a filmmaker, even as a child

 

Personally, I saw it and was charmed. I might have sold it as being about creativity, a family drama, and coming of age before "The magic of movies!" angle. Too bad it wasn't the Regal Mystery Movie that time, it's pretty mainstream at the end of the day and it would've generated buzz. And maybe the box office that day could've been treated like Early Access screenings.

 

 

6 hours ago, filmlover said:

All of this dawned on me the other day while watching the Golden Globe nominations on The Today Show during the post-discussion when Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie had no clue what The Banshees of Inisherin (the most nominated movie) was while talking with one of those movie specialists (forget his name) that often appears on these talk shows. Just goes to show how big the disconnect between the movie world and the actual world has become.

I guess there have always been low-information moviegoers? Not an intelligence thing, just that movie release dates were never their priority. Now these movies are barely in theaters by the time they've even heard about them. We've speculated in the weekend threads about which groups have pivoted to streaming and it seems to disproportionately affect the Typical Fall Oscar Hopeful.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[Ithil]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:19 PM, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

 

A not-exhaustive list:

• Comes after a seeming glut of semi-autobiographical movies from directors about their youths
• Film snobs too cool for sentimental Spielberg
• Iñárritu stans mad that semi-autobiographical Bardo got bad reviews, but semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans got good reviews, therefore racism
• Spielberg getting $40 million to make a glorified home movie about how brilliant he's always been as a filmmaker, even as a child

 

Personally, I saw it and was charmed. I might have sold it as being about creativity, a family drama, and coming of age before "The magic of movies!" angle. Too bad it wasn't the Regal Mystery Movie that time, it's pretty mainstream at the end of the day and it would've generated buzz. And maybe the box office that day could've been treated like Early Access screenings.

 

 

I guess there have always been low-information moviegoers? Not an intelligence thing, just that movie release dates were never their priority. Now these movies are barely in theaters by the time they've even heard about them. We've speculated in the weekend threads about which groups have pivoted to streaming and it seems to disproportionately affect the Typical Fall Oscar Hopeful.

 

 

I have not seen it yet but I did hear from someone who did that Spielberg isn't all that kind to himself on a personal level in the film. Much less a film about how great he is.