Weekend Thread (10/22-24) | Dune 41M OW. French Dispatch 1.35M. Timothee can't be stopped!

[AdrianL]

WB really should've not put Dune on HBO Max. A $50m opening for Dune would be a great headline. Tbh I don't really see how Dune would do much more than that if pandemic never happened. This opening is very good tbh as long as it doesn't drop below $35m for the weekend. 

[Maggie]

Quote

After a month of rolling great opening weekends, Dune is a great cushion for exhibition to land on as October winds down and we hand off to Disney/Marvel’s Eternals which we’re hearing is expected to open to around $80M.

 

[babz06]

7 minutes ago, AdrianL said:

WB really should've not put Dune on HBO Max. A $50m opening for Dune would be a great headline. Tbh I don't really see how Dune would do much more than that if pandemic never happened. This opening is very good tbh as long as it doesn't drop below $35m for the weekend. 

They need some content for HBOmax, that's the only reason they stayed with the day & date release. 

[Starphanluke]

10 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

I think Dune may be least impacted HBO Max release due to HBO Max release. The target audience are cine-buffs, who care about stuff like watching it in IMAX for technical reasons. Of course there is impact but not as much as TSS.

 

The most impacted are GvK & TSS IMO. Both would have done double what they did IMO.

Yeah, I honestly think we're near the ceiling of what Dune would've done anyway. maybe outside of a pandemic it could've hit $50m opening, but the marketing of "see it on the biggest screen possible" seems to have worked for its target audience of cinephiles. Zendaya+Timothee stans probably drive the Max viewership.

[ThomasNicole]

Part 2 probably is locked already, i mean, Warner CEO make it very clear yesterday in a interview.

 

I think they didn't announced to maybe make fans feel the need of fully supporting it and going to theater a lot to help the box office? Hard to say.

[Menor the Destroyer]

Well if Deadline is expecting 80 million for Eternals, guess 100 is locked.

[Krissykins]

$100m is the least I'm expecting for Eternals.

[Inceptionzq]

14 minutes ago, Menor said:

Well if Deadline is expecting 80 million for Eternals, guess 100 is locked.

Exactly what I was thinking 

[thedast]

17 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

I think they didn't announced to maybe make fans feel the need of fully supporting it and going to theater a lot to help the box office? Hard to say.

This is how I've felt for a while. There was a lot of manipulative messaging for this too ('more Zendaya in part 2 we promise!', 'it needs to be seen in IMAX for you to be really WOWED!', 'superheroes bad for cinema, watch this if you're cooler than that!'). I guess it worked out sort of for them cos it didn't bomb TSS style. 

[AJG]

29 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

Part 2 probably is locked already, i mean, Warner CEO make it very clear yesterday in a interview.

 

I think they didn't announced to maybe make fans feel the need of fully supporting it and going to theater a lot to help the box office? Hard to say.

Its being announced on Monday.

[Menor the Destroyer]

4 minutes ago, thedast said:

This is how I've felt for a while. There was a lot of manipulative messaging for this too ('more Zendaya in part 2 we promise!', 'it needs to be seen in IMAX for you to be really WOWED!', 'superheroes bad for cinema, watch this if you're cooler than that!'). I guess it worked out sort of for them cos it didn't bomb TSS style. 

Manipulative is such a strong word lol. It's just marketing like any other movie, sometimes it's misleading. Also what's this fan war thing about Dune being anti superhero? That was never part of the marketing. Villeneuve gave a (imo dumb) take on the MCU in an interview but the marketing never was about that. 

[Last Man Standing]

5 minutes ago, thedast said:

This is how I've felt for a while. There was a lot of manipulative messaging for this too ('more Zendaya in part 2 we promise!', 'it needs to be seen in IMAX for you to be really WOWED!', 'superheroes bad for cinema, watch this if you're cooler than that!'). I guess it worked out sort of for them cos it didn't bomb TSS style. 

A director who wants his movie seen in theaters is manipulative now.

[titanic2187]

Boring number across the board.

 

Maybe it is time to invent some switchable auditorium that capable to convert from PLF to standard screen, according to demand and product mix.  

[Blankments]

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, charlie Jatinder said:

I think Dune may be least impacted HBO Max release due to HBO Max release. The target audience are cine-buffs, who care about stuff like watching it in IMAX for technical reasons. Of course there is impact but not as much as TSS.

 

The most impacted are GvK & TSS IMO. Both would have done double what they did IMO.

 

One impact that could apply even to cinephiles is repeat viewings:

 

 

It is true that far more people can afford to watch it on Max (or whatever) than plop down for a second viewing, which can get expensive fast depending on how many people are in the party. So given the choice between "wait" and "second viewing" a lot of folks will just wait.  But it ain't nothing either, as Black Widow showed.

Edited October 23, 2021 by Porthos

[Porthos]

26 minutes ago, Menor said:

Manipulative is such a strong word lol. It's just marketing like any other movie, sometimes it's misleading. Also what's this fan war thing about Dune being anti superhero? That was never part of the marketing. Villeneuve gave a (imo dumb) take on the MCU in an interview but the marketing never was about that. 

 

Just some dumb segments* of Film Twitter (and elsewhere) which decided long ago to make Dune the "adult" blockbuster as part of their anti-popular art crusade.  If SW was having multiple films a year, it'd be in the crosshairs of these folks instead (the copy would be sooooooo easy to write that it bled in even without SW being quite the Big Kahuna it once was).

* I say "segments" because Film Twitter ain't a monolith by any means.

 

If some other property was dominating like Cape films?  Same.

 

Some dudes just like to pick fights.

 

 

[Cap]

2 hours ago, Eric Atreides said:

Honestly for me I...don't get the PLF hype?

I saw Shang Chi in both PLF (Regal RPX) and regular screen. The difference in screen quality for the picture was remarkable. It was so much brighter and richer. 
 

I would never willing skip a PLF. Ever. 

[famicommander]

33 minutes ago, Menor said:

Manipulative is such a strong word lol. It's just marketing like any other movie, sometimes it's misleading. Also what's this fan war thing about Dune being anti superhero? That was never part of the marketing. Villeneuve gave a (imo dumb) take on the MCU in an interview but the marketing never was about that. 

All he really said was that a ton of MCU movies have the same plot. Which, despite the fact that I'm a big nerd who enjoyed most of them, is absolutely true. If I told you an MCU movie had a villain with a similar powerset, a disposable army of non-humans to slaughter at their leisure, and a gigantic CGI skybeam in the third act, that could literally be any of a dozen movies.

[Eric the Ape]

 

[Krissykins]

Let’s not forget this is a box office forum.
 

These numbers and figures are from audiences paying to see a film in the cinema.