BLACK WIDOW OPENING WEEKEND THREAD | 80M DOM, 78 OS, Disney PR - 60M Premier Access (aka we swear it's not a disappoinment)

[EmpireCity]

Everything in entertainment, especially in movies and film, centers around power when it comes to who calls the shots.  

 

The theatrical side of the studios had zero power once things shut down in March 2020 for COVID.  It so happened to coincide right when Disney+ was hitting their stride after only a few months and HBOMax was starting (badly) and AT&T execs were desperate to make a splash.  

 

They are the ones who made the call to put everything on HBOMax day and date, not Warner Bros. theatrical or studio or producers or directors or actors side.  They all hated the decision and revolted against it.  Same thing with Disney, the streaming side tried and won in some cases to push and push for day and date streaming and the theatrical side has thrown a fit over it including Marvel.  

 

In a few months the theatrical will have a lot of power back.  They will all come to a compromise.  I think 45 days is going to be the negotiated standard within studios along with NATO.  

 

Everyone wins with a 45 day window and nobody loses.  Studios, execs, shareholders, directors, actors, agents and the consumer all win.  

[ViewerAnon]

3 hours ago, Krissykins said:

Watching at home is never the same, no matter how modern the TV is. 
 

There’s always a better TV just a year away. I just seen Black Widow for the second time, on a 12.5 metres high and 22.5 metres wide screen with 57 Dolby atmos speakers. 
 

It just can’t be matched at home, IMO. 

 

Alternatively, I saw BLACK WIDOW in Dolby Cinema at the AMC Burbank 16, the most popular theater in America. I then watched it at home with my significant other on my CX, and it looked better at home.

[EmpireCity]

Not to mention that over and over it has been proven across every streaming platform that what works and sticks and gets into the cultural conversation is long form shows.  

 

Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Making a Murderer, The Mandalorian, WandaVision, Loki, Ozark, Handmaid's Tale, Queen's Gambit, and so many others that consistently work in a huge way.  

 

Name 5 movies that released on streaming only that have entered the cultural conversation the way that any of those shows have.  

[EmpireCity]

6 minutes ago, ViewerAnon said:

 

Alternatively, I saw BLACK WIDOW in Dolby Cinema at the AMC Burbank 16, the most popular theater in America. I then watched it at home with my significant other on my CX, and it looked better at home.

 

That theater has one of the shittiest presentations around.  Not surprising, go to a better theater!!

[Cap]

Hey our buddy was quoted in CNN:

 

Quote

"The return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to cinemas has long been one of the keystone dates circled on the calendar," Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, told CNN Business. "The immense level of goodwill from fans and casual viewers alike, especially after a trio of hit series released on Disney+, only amplifies the excitement of going back to a theater and sharing that Marvel experience again."
 

The release strategy "doesn't look like what we're used to" @Shawn added, and there are giant asterisks on this weekend's opening, but "it's a big step forward from where we were a year ago, or even six months ago."

 

Also this last line made me laugh:

 

Quote

Despite the film's importance to the ever-growing world of streaming, "Black Window" is ultimately still more important to theaters, Matthew Ball, a former Amazon Studios executive, told CNN Business.
 

"They need an unquestionable win," Ball said. "And Marvel looks ready to avenge their 2020."

 

Some has just been WAITING to drop that pun.

[Cap]

20 minutes ago, EmpireCity said:

 

That theater has one of the shittiest presentations around.  Not surprising, go to a better theater!!

We use to go there when I lived in Burbank.  I remember watching into their "IMAX" for the first time and thinking wtf is this shit.

[charlie Jatinder]

The one thing I like most watching Indian films at home is I get to cut/skip the songs and useless romantic side plot in many films put just for sake of it. That has improved many movies for me.

[grey ghost]

There's no way I'm watching Spidey 3, Matrix 4, or The Batman at home.

 

Those are my "must-see opening day" films.

 

 

[Eric Atreides]

28 minutes ago, EmpireCity said:

Not to mention that over and over it has been proven across every streaming platform that what works and sticks and gets into the cultural conversation is long form shows.  

 

Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Making a Murderer, The Mandalorian, WandaVision, Loki, Ozark, Handmaid's Tale, Queen's Gambit, and so many others that consistently work in a huge way.  

 

Name 5 movies that released on streaming only that have entered the cultural conversation the way that any of those shows have.  

Soul. Irishman. Marriage Story. Hamilton. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

 

The level and longevity they've been into the conversation varies of course, and I'm not denying shows gain more traction (though they are helped by having more seasons) but I don't really totally buy the whole "streaming movies leave no impact" people like to shout all the time. The issue is more that the only things that people discuss online in terms of movies are either IPs or movies from fan-favorite directors and a good majority of movies on streaming...aren't IPs or made by fan-favorite directors.

 

This also applies to theatrical fare, even for hit movies. When was the last time you saw somebody talk about Hustlers? Or Wonder? Or even Hidden Figures?

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, grey ghost said:

There's no way I'm watching Spidey 3, Matrix 4, or The Batman at home.

 

Those are my "must-see opening day" films.

 

 

Hopefully with Covid under control in Brazil, same around here. It still hurts not watching Black Widow in a movie theater, I can deal with losing Shang-Chi at a movie theater despite wishing I could that as well, but around Eternals I hope it’s safe to go.

[ZattMurdock]

Also, saw this on Twitter and it’s beautiful:

 

 

27 films and four Disney Plus series by the end of the year. The biggest serialized science fiction franchise of planet Earth. It still feels surreal and warms my heart.

[Legion Again]

8 minutes ago, Zatt was right said:

27 films and four Disney Plus series by the end of the year

27 and 6 (Ms Marvel and Hawkeye). We’ll have enough for a whole nother row on that graphic before Thor comes out.

[Cap]

54 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

The one thing I like most watching Indian films at home is I get to cut/skip the songs and useless romantic side plot in many films put just for sake of it. That has improved many movies for me.

@Plain Old Tele - See, no one wants sex in movies anymore.

[charlie Jatinder]

9 minutes ago, Cap said:

@Plain Old Tele - See, no one wants sex in movies anymore.

I mean the music quality has dropped insanely badly in recent years. They serve no purpose except breaking the flow of film. 

 

Romantic track in say film like Kesari has no need at all, added just for sake of it. I skip all 10 mins of it and felt so much better than I would have in theater dragged to watch those scenes.

[charlie Jatinder]

1 hour ago, Eric Belov said:

Soul. Irishman. Marriage Story. Hamilton. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

and yet no one talks about them anymore.

 

I have even bigger/better example of film you wouldn't know.

 

Drishyam 2. Sequel to Drishyam, the biggest film of Indian regional industry at time of release, had remakes made in many language, with Chinese one doing over $200M in China despite opening something like $30-40M.

 

Drishyam 2 was released on Prime Video this year. The sequel was well reviewed and in normal theatrical release would have become biggest grosser in the regional industry. Now on Prime Video, all the hype was over in opening weekend. No one talks about it anymore.

[Cap]

14 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

-snip-

Tbh it was a joke with @Plain Old Tele

[EmpireCity]

11 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

and yet no one talks about them anymore.

 

I have even bigger/better example of film you wouldn't know.

 

Drishyam 2. Sequel to Drishyam, the biggest film of Indian regional industry at time of release, had remakes made in many language, with Chinese one doing over $200M in China despite opening something like $30-40M.

 

Drishyam 2 was released on Prime Video this year. The sequel was well reviewed and in normal theatrical release would have become biggest grosser in the regional industry. Now on Prime Video, all the hype was over in opening weekend. No one talks about it anymore.

 

Agree completely with this, and I think out of his list that 2 of them were essentially cheats, especially Hamilton.  

 

Borat entered the conversation for one thing and one thing only, and that was the Rudy stuff right before the election.  The Irishman is likely going to end up one of Scorcese's least remembered and re-watched films.  Soul is a good example, but that film would have been a monster if released in theaters.  

 

My contention is that streaming does nothing to enter your collective warm memory because there is no context to watching it.  I have always felt this for myself and talked to many others who all relay the same thing.  

 

Streaming movies have no impact on me for the most part.  I can't tell you anything about the experience which makes it that much harder to recall the film.  It is the opposite with theatrical.  I can tell you everything about a movie I have seen in a theater from what I was wearing to the trip to the theater to where I sat to what I ate/drank to who I was with and how the place smelled and the time of day/night when I left and the weather on the drive home.  The experience is burned into you because it is an experience.  

[EmpireCity]

By the way, it goes for nearly anything including sports.  I can't tell you much about watching a game on tv, but if I go to the game I can tell you nearly everything about it because that experience of being there is burned into memory.  

 

I happen to think that theatrical is a vital part to our collective culture.  I don't want to have a culture where all we do is sit in our stale living rooms and mindlessly consume alone or mostly alone.  

[Eric Atreides]

33 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

and yet no one talks about them anymore.

I agree these movies aren't talked about much anymore but that's the case with...just about every theatrical movie. There's always a big honeymoon period before things come down to earth. And just speaking personally, I've mentioned Soul a few times with family. And I've seen people online talk about the tech found in The Irishman once in a while. Anecdotal evidence yes, but that's better than no evidence at all.

 

15 minutes ago, EmpireCity said:

 

The Irishman is likely going to end up one of Scorcese's least remembered and re-watched films.

 

My contention is that streaming does nothing to enter your collective warm memory because there is no context to watching it.  I have always felt this for myself and talked to many others who all relay the same thing.  

 

Streaming movies have no impact on me for the most part.  I can't tell you anything about the experience which makes it that much harder to recall the film.  It is the opposite with theatrical.  I can tell you everything about a movie I have seen in a theater from what I was wearing to the trip to the theater to where I sat to what I ate/drank to who I was with and how the place smelled and the time of day/night when I left and the weather on the drive home.  The experience is burned into you because it is an experience.  

I sincerely doubt that first part. Is Hugo all that popular of a rewatch? Or even Gangs of New York? Besides, I'd argue the bigger issue with Irishman's rewatchability is more its length than being a Netflix original.

 

As for the second part, well...I also disagree with that. I remember the excitement of watching Soul on Christmas with my family. I remember getting excited to see Borat 2 when I got off work just to get some fun laughs. I just recently popped up a bag of popcorn to watch Luca specifically because I got to see a fun-looking Pixar film. I even remember the massive disappointment I felt when I saw Coming 2 America with my parents and being bummed over how underwhelming it was. These are memories I will probably have in me. This also happens with movies I'm excited for when I go to the theaters. I'm not gonna act like this happens with every movie I saw on streaming, but this also doesn't happen with every movie I saw in theaters, so...

 

Again, this is anecdotal experience, but this is no different from the anecdotal experience you're talking about right now.

 

I just think people are being a little too harsh here when it comes to "nobody talks about streaming movies".

[ZattMurdock]

1 hour ago, Lokis Legion said:

27 and 6 (Ms Marvel and Hawkeye). We’ll have enough for a whole nother row on that graphic before Thor comes out.

Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel comes out this year as well?! WTF!?