Weekend Thread (10/15-17) | Halloween Kills 4.85M Previews, Last Duel 350K

[TwoMisfits]

Adult movies will still be released...but there will be half as many with half the budget, at least probably for a little while.

 

In the next year or two, you may see these adult releases like we see supers ones - spaced and set for "good" adult-film going weekends.  That's how you rebuild the market.  Spotlight them one at a time, and get older folk "regulars" back in the habit (and keep the "aging up" ones through the years with the product)...

 

Family animated has pursued this strategy all this year b/c there hasn't been the real return of the family market, either.  Since March 2020, there has been very little overlap of the animated/family movies and they have been spaced to try to get those who are going to see all of them, and not to pick and choose (and when there wasn't spacing, animated have sold off to streaming to keep the spacing)...  

[Cmasterclay]

I'm not too worried about piracy hurting Dune in America, tbh. Most of the people I know who go deep in looking for that shit wouldn't see it in theaters anyway.

 

Tele's scenario sounds frighteningly realistic, and more than that, I think Porthos summed it up well - it's not just one thing, it's a cascade of multiple things.

[titanic2187]

43 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Sure. All things in a commerce-oriented society can have the exact same argument, from painting and sculptures to sports to the clothes you wear and food you eat. You start thinking that "realistically" about everything, and it takes alot of the beauty and culture out of life, man.

It is very funny to see all the diversity and inclusion in the film industry only cover racial diversity, forgetting the fact that product diversity is also very important health indicator. 

[filmlover]

FWIW The Last Duel isn't the only movie featuring some of its big name talent that has been sitting on Disney's shelves for a while due to COVID. Affleck still has that movie he made (and briefly had an off-screen romance) with Ana de Armas that would have been out this time last year and is currently set for January with them.

[BadOlCatSylvester]

Time for Dune to join the pile of would-be fantasy film series that never got a proper chance. A shame, really.

 

We're probably going to lose Daddy Denis to the Netflix machine too at this rate.

[Ethan Hunt]

Idk, I don't have it in me to be all doom and gloom. There are movies on the schedule that I'm looking foreword to and i have hope that they can do solid and more movies like them will be made in the future.

 

(btw having seen The Last Duel I wouldn't exactly say that it's a film that I would recommend to anybody. i think it's handling of the more sensitive subject matter is borderline tasteless and cruel. )

[Legion Again]

11 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Sure, when Disney buys a chain and only shows their movies, and the other studios switch entirely to streaming then our collective 120 year experiment is over. 

As long as they show the D+ shows in the Disney chain

[Plain Old Tele]

1 minute ago, Porthos said:

 

Pretty sure that's just an extreme rephrasing of "nothing is eternal".

[Plain Old Tele]

2 minutes ago, Let There Be Legion said:

As long as they show the D+ shows in the Disney chain

Karma is not without a sense of humor. 

[wildphantom]

14 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

 

I think the movie was rejected, cause under 5M is flat out rejection, because it isn't a kind of movie people have a habit to watch. Rape movies are not people's habit. You can habitually watch horror in the month leading to Halloween, or a sequel to your favorite movie series, or a family movie with the family, but this is not a habit type nor is something that creates a new habit. So it didn't bomb because reviews were bad (they are very good) or because WOM is bad (audience scores on IMDB, Meta and RT from the handful that saw it is fine), but because people are not interested. Perhaps, as many suggested, streaming would have been a better platform for this, and that's where similarly topical show like Unbelievable did well, but this was not a cinema affair cause it targeted no one. 

I wouldn’t give its target audience that much credit that they even looked into it that deeply. I would say it was more “Last Duel? Never heard of it” as they looked for brands, sequels, prequels and children’s films to see instead.  

[Ethan Hunt]

i will say anecdotally that my movie theatre was packed on Friday night in a way that I had not seen since the pandemic.  (Granted my Last Duel showing was also decently full, 20 or 30 people) so idk how representative  that is

Edited October 17, 2021 by Ethan Hunt

[cookie]

2 hours ago, elcaballero said:

I'm being kinda flippant here, but I thought I heard this was more for the "sophisticated" European markets anyway. Uh... apparently it wasn't for anyone.

From everything I've seen they dumped it over here too. I didn't even know it opened this week.

[Starphanluke]

12 minutes ago, BadOlCatSylvester said:

Time for Dune to join the pile of would-be fantasy film series that never got a proper chance. A shame, really.

 

We're probably going to lose Daddy Denis to the Netflix machine too at this rate.

It's weird that this sentiment is so common when it seems like Dune will at least do "fine."

 

It straight-up bombing at this point seems unlikely (except in China, which isn't all that surprising).

[YM!]

Besides while I think the shifting in viewing habits like @Porthos isn’t just due to box office trends that has been set up for decades arguably but a combination of a pandemic taking away the older demographics, the noticeable shift to PLFs screenings, a cascade of multiple streaming options with some more successful than others and bad experience with theaters/pricing making home more luxurious has made the shift more apparent. Not to mention with physical media dying kind of hurt longevity.

 

However, I don’t think it’s the end. While if it wasn’t obvious in 2017, that Disney basically used Fox for just more IP and to absorb a competitor, not to survive in a streaming world, there’s still a lot of studios commited to both the theatrical experience and mid budgeted films like Universal as evidenced with not F9 being the sole savior but mid sized hits like Old, Candyman, and Halloween Kills for instance still generating strong revenue, as well as investing big in names like M. Night Shamalyan, Jordan Peele and now Christoper Nolan and it’s clear they’re continuing investing in mid budget films as they know it helps separate them.
 

Same for Sony, while 2021 hasn’t had a major hit for them outside of Venom 2, is still clearly investing in the mid budget film, as evidenced by paying big for the J-Law’s comedy. I don’t think it’s necessarily the end for mid budget fare despite a gloomy outlook as there’s a lot of mid budget films in 2022 that are likely to be big hits.

Edited October 17, 2021 by YourMother

[Valonqar]

17 minutes ago, wildphantom said:

I wouldn’t give its target audience that much credit that they even looked into it that deeply. I would say it was more “Last Duel? Never heard of it” as they looked for brands, sequels, prequels and children’s films to see instead.  

 

True though eevry now and then a non-brand breaks out or at least does well. this was total NOPE. 

[ThomasNicole]

2 hours ago, wildphantom said:

how did they not give Last Duel a shot? Wide release. Great reviews.
Fact is that it’s audience are only coming out for IP movies, which is tragic.  Nothing to do with the studio or the film. It’s the audience’s fault. 

Wide release and great reviews guarantee a box office success since when?

 

Marketing for this has been absolutely atrocious, it doesn't matter if it's wide release if they didn't put effort to make people interested, and they don't.

 

This is a 100M movie, putting on +3000 screen is less than the minimum.

Edited October 17, 2021 by ThomasNicole

[YM!]

6 minutes ago, YourMother said:

Besides while I think the shifting in viewing habits like @Porthos isn’t just due to box office trends that has been set up for decades arguably but a combination of a pandemic taking away the older demographics, the noticeable shift to PLFs screenings, a cascade of multiple streaming options with some more successful than others and bad experience with theaters/pricing making home more luxurious has made the shift more apparent. Not to mention with physical media dying kind of hurt longevity.

 

However, I don’t think it’s the end. While if it wasn’t obvious in 2017, that Disney basically used Fox for just more IP and to absorb a competitor, not to survive in a streaming world, there’s still a lot of studios commited to both the theatrical experience and mid budgeted films like Universal as evidenced with not F9 being the sole savior but mid sized hits like Old, Candyman, and Halloween Kills for instance still generating strong revenue, as well as investing big in names like M. Night Shamalyan, Jordan Peele and now Christoper Nolan and it’s clear they’re continuing investing in mid budget films as they know it helps separate them.
 

Same for Sony, while 2021 hasn’t had a major hit for them outside of Venom 2, is still clearly investing in the mid budget film, as evidenced by paying big for the J-Law’s comedy. I don’t think it’s necessarily the end for mid budget fare despite a gloomy outlook as there’s a lot of mid budget films in 2022 that are likely to be big hits.

Besides tbh, when the mid budget movies truly die out, I think the tentpoles would only realistically have maybe 5-7 years left before they bleed out too.

[ThomasNicole]

1 hour ago, Ozymandias said:

 

 

yooouch for The Last Duel.  Variety says it cost 100m too.

 

It got screwed by a triple whammy of factors IMO with Disney dumping their Fox acquisitions because "hey we're a shitty conglomerate only catering to specific audiences" , older adults not returning to pre-COVID levels, and the subject matter.

 

I might see the movie this week late at night on a weekday(so I'll be the only one in the theater with no chuds breathing on me) but a buddy of mine saw it and said he couldn't believe that movie got made with a budget because of the Roshomon-like structure and the bleakness of it all.  He said its a movie deeply admirable more than it is enjoyable except for the epic duel itself which is an absolute banger.

 

 

 

Are there actual dates for Nightmare and Gucci at this Oscar Museum place?

Not yet, just the confirmation they all will premiere there. I suspect we're getting dates very soon.

[Maggie]

As shocked as i'm about The last Duel numbers, Bond's numbers are still more depressing. It's an adult familiar IP. To see it do this badly is crazy. Maybe the fact that it got delayed so much reduced the hype and they could never get it back

[grim22]

37 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

Pretty sure that's just an extreme rephrasing of "nothing is eternal".

 

Do think that particular doomsday scenario isn't on the near term horizon though.

With this Supreme Court, I don't expect the Paramount decree to last much longer. Monopolies for everyone.