SHANG-CHI WEEKEND THREAD | NO SPOILERS | 75.38M 3-Day, 94.67M 4-Day. Record for Labor Day! | Tony Leung saved the theater! | Get Vaccinated and Wear a mask.

[Cap]

I am SOOOOOOO HYPED.  I have spent the past week watching Tony Leung films, and my body is ready for him to destroy everyone on that screen.  General Thoughts (films posted in the order I watched them):

 

Chunking Express: Nice amuse bouche for what's to come, but didn't linger with me.

 

The Grandmaster: I love when Art Hos do Wing Chun.  Beautiful to look it, but felt trapped by the "must do 50 years in 2 hours" biopic straitjacket.  Bonus: I love watching Zhang Ziyi steal movies away from the boys.  

 

Lust/Caution: I have still not recovered.  I may never recover.  Does anyone do a slow burn better than Ang Lee?

 

In The Mood For Love: The whiplash of watching Lust/Caution and this as a double feature is REAL. Oh and I got my answer to above.  Wong Kar-wai does a slow burn better than Ang Lee.  

 

2046: Need to revisit this.  As a direct sequel to In The Mood For Love, it really didn't jive with me.  That film feels/is soo ethereal, that I was just turned off by the sequel link.  2046 its own film, though, is firing on all cylinders.  So, again, a revisit is needed.

 

Hard Boiled: SPEAKING OF FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS.  I'm pretty sure when we reached The Hallway Scene my soul left my body.  John Woo is a crazy motherfraker, and the world is better off for it.

 

Infernal Affairs: I can't believe Marty won his Oscar for his shitty remake of this masterpiece. 

 

And I've been staring at Happy Together on HBO Max for a week.  I thought my gay heart getting wrecked was not the best HYPE, so it's being saved for a late night dessert this weekend.  

 

[Cmasterclay]

Our vaccination rates have skyrocketed this month and hospitalizations/test positivity are significantly down this week, though still obviously shockingly and concerningly high. I'll just say this - I am a political candidate and I run pretty much exclusively in liberal political circles and I can't undersell how little appetite there is for another shutdown of activities for vaccinated people, even among those of us in those kind of circles. Keep theaters open and let the market recover - it was never snapping back that easily Delta or no Delta. 

[ThomasNicole]

Just now, TwoMisfits said:

 

See, you all keep saying that...and yet, it's the most obvious move based on its demographic pull - it doesn't draw those who are most likely to go to theaters right now, and it does draw everyone who won't...

 

I know it's the closest release - but that makes it even more problematic for its prospects...

 

35% 50+ in its last interaction with its audience aging up 6 more years...

I think everyone think that not only because it's too close this time (but yeah move at this point is way harder and expensive), but because it seems unsustainable.

 

This movie cost 250-300M to make and already spend too much money on 2 marketing campaigns (starting the third). The last time it was delayed we heard the movie is suffering losing not only timing but the costs are becoming too big to keep holding it. I'm not sure they consider delay to 2022 now and spend even more (and worse, without knowing if delay more 5-6 months will be helpful, from what we seen this past 18 months everything can happen).

 

 

[TwoMisfits]

To continue on why Bond should go and Venom should stay - it's an F9-like audience draw...and that's who is going to the movies.  Venom's last audience breakdown...young, diverse, male are 100% the folks going right now...

 

"One big reason for Venom‘s success: it appealed to an ethnically diverse audience of fanboys — more so than most superhero titles (Black Panther being the big exception). While Caucasians made up 38 percent of Venom ticket buyers on opening weekend, overall sales were fueled by Hispanics (26 percent), African-Americans (18 percent), Asians (11 percent) and Native American/Other (6 percent), according to those with access to comScore and Screen Engine’s PostTrak exit-polling service."...

 

Males made up as much as 66 percent of the audience over the weekend, while a hearty 45 percent of ticket buyers were under the age of 25."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/venom-a-dramatically-diverse-audience-makes-a-record-october-opening-1150068/

 

 

 

 

[titanic2187]

2 minutes ago, grey ghost said:

 

Hurricanes hitting the North East seems to be a new thing.

 

I can't remember many cases before Sandy where NYC flooded.

Which means, Northeast region, one of the most wealthiest region in USA, are completely unprepared for a category 3, 4, or 5 hurricane. This should be rectified once and for all , if not we will New York become a new orleans in Katrina.   

[Eric Duncan]

Think there were reports a while back that MGM financially are unable to delay Bond again because it was delayed and advertised so much. Doing another delay would put it in even more debt, though this was before the planned Amazon buyout. I guess with that now in the picture it can afford to push Bond back again?

[Cmasterclay]

I'm least worried about Halloween getting pushed back, given that it is a seasonal horror film appealing to younger crowds.

[titanic2187]

41 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Well you guys know I'm not much a fan of superhero fandom or the whole cinematic universe craze (fine with plenty of the individual films), but this weekend I'm a full blown MCU stan. Venice and Telluride are happening right now, and there's so many mid-sized adult films like Last Duel, Soho, Dune, and more that I want to see on big screen, not to mention the indies and the Netflix movies they show at my local Gateway theater. But for that to happen, for that wonderful fall to be a reality, we need theaters to be open. We need tentpoles to succeed in order to make the theatrical model viable. If the big movies don't bring in enough money, theaters will close again and everything will be sent to 2022 and streaming. And that would really hurt alot of the joy of life, especially for us vaccinated folks. We need Shang Chi to do 60m three day for things to feel confident enough to stick in their dates. 60m probably means Venom, Ghostbusters, Encanto, and Spider-Man stay, and Halloween doesn't go to Peacock. And if the big releases stay, the medium and small releases stay with them. So if you like any movies in theaters, not just MCU ones but all of them, we need this movie to be a hit. So do your patriotic duty and see Shang Chi this weekend. Or hell, even buy tickets and gift them to a friend in need.

 

And so ends my overdramatic post.

If everything goes in the right direction ideally, this weekend will have few achievements below.

 

1. Biggest opening since Covid-era

2. Biggest Labour day weekend of all time

3. Biggest aggregate weekend box office from all movies since Covid-era

4. First films to have chance to come >200m total and beat BB4L.

5. Surpassing 2020's total annual box office.

  

 

 

[ThomasNicole]

2 minutes ago, Eric and the Ten Rings said:

Think there were reports a while back that MGM financially are unable to delay Bond again because it was delayed and advertised so much. Doing another delay would put it in even more debt, though this was before the planned Amazon buyout. I guess with that now in the picture it can afford to push Bond back again?

Probably not, the Amazon deal is not even close to approval.

 

There are rumours that NTTD costs +500M already between budget, marketing and 2 years of delaying, and MGM situation probably remains at a point that they can't afford another delay and spend even more.

 

From a theoretical pov i understand why Bond should wait considering the demographic. But being practical, they already wait almost 2 years because of this and things still are bad, and there's no proof will be good enough in a few months either, there's not much they can do at this point.

 

It's sad seeing this movie being entirely fucked by Covid but it happened, MGM can't keeping it forever.

[ThomasNicole]

5 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I'm least worried about Halloween getting pushed back, given that it is a seasonal horror film appealing to younger crowds.

Halloween probably didn't cost more than 25-30M, this one is fine and could do good enough in box office given the budget.

 

They can also make a deal with some streaming platform to premiere the movie online 30-45 days after theaters and get some money from that too.

[TwoMisfits]

1 minute ago, ThomasNicole said:

Probably not, the Amazon deal is not even close to approval.

 

There are rumours that NTTD costs +500M already between budget, marketing and 2 years of delaying, and MGM situation probably remains at a point that they can't afford another delay and spend even more.

 

From a theoretical pov i understand why Bond should wait considering the demographic. But being practical, they already wait almost 2 years because of this and things still are bad, and there's no proof will be good enough in a few months either, there's not much they can do at this point.

 

It's sad seeing this movie being entirely fucked by Covid but it happened, MGM can't keeping it forever.

 

Didn't Bond get offered like $500M or even $1B early last year by one of the streaming services, or am I thinking of another movie...

 

If it was Bond, the person who declined the offer has got to be depressed right now...

[ThomasNicole]

Just now, TwoMisfits said:

 

Didn't Bond get offered like $500M or even $1B early last year by one of the streaming services, or am I thinking of another movie...

 

If it was Bond, the person who declined the offer has got to be depressed right now...

Yes, it was Bond. The question with Bond is that the producers have the final decision about everything involving the franchise, and they are VERY protective about theaters, and since last year theaters are closed they simply refuse everything.

 

But honestly they made a mistake (commercially), they would get more money selling the movie than releasing in theaters in any moment this year. If i was them, i would be trying to sell the rights now to give exclusivity to some streaming platform after 45 days for 150 million or so.

[Napoleon]

I'm confident Shang Chi will do great domestic, I'm more worried about international numbers and that it may be what triggers other studios to follow Paramount to 2022

[grey ghost]

Disney deserves credit for not flaking and moving Shang Chi and not adding PA.

 

Black Widow had a 200m OW globally with PA. Disney will be studying and comparing that to what Shang Chi gets.

Edited September 2, 2021 by grey ghost

[john2000]

1 minute ago, grey ghost said:

Disney deserves credit for not flaking and moving Shang Chi and not adding PA.

 

Black Widow had a 200m OW globally with PA. Disney will be studying and comparing that to what Shang Chi gets.

Ow doesnt matter all that much shang will almost certainly will have a lower ww opening than bw ...however legs will probably be a lot better

[Cap]

Meanwhile,

 

 

[Fox20]

Well yes, all the question that usually get asked these days are about direct plot points of future films, you don't have to be a genius to know he won't answer.

[CoolioD1]

been watching a lot of shaw brothers movies recently. hoping to check out the panda express version of those in the cinemas tomorrow. will only be my second trip to the movies this year after f9.

[BadOlCatSylvester]

The Deadline projections actually pan out and the movie barely makes $45M over 4 days 

Edited September 2, 2021 by BadOlCatSylvester

[TwoMisfits]

2 minutes ago, BadOlCatSylvester said:

The Deadline projections actually pan out and the movie barely makes $45M over 4 days 

 

Which would still be almost double their original "$23M is great" 4 day DOM projection from The Suicide Squad weekend - heck, they'd spin it like the biggest win ever if it hit their numbers:)...

Edited September 2, 2021 by TwoMisfits