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

[charlie Jatinder]

3 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

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.

Give us the numbers, we will even track parking lot collection or popcorn sold.

[von Kenni]

1 hour 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.

For the CEO comment, mostly likely it means that they are not as 100% behind this as Villeneuve has told and there was still "let's wait and see", or the decision process with Legendary is slow (or something else we don't know), or just pure marketing incompetence. Either way, speaks volume of their capabilities compared to Marvel & Disney.

 

For the "excite the fanbase to support more" tactic, no. The logic is there but that doesn't work for a movie with a scale of Dune and intended franchise starter. Their goal is to excite the base but that's easy with Villeneuve and showing that they are faithful for the source material. The only balancing act for that was the misleading trailers (more action packed and familiar style to GA) that run the risk of alienating those who know what Dune is.

 

Their main goal is to bring new people and GA in the mix, and they've tried to do some effort for that with T&Z, those misleading trailers, Fortnite, but without knowing real details of their marketing efforts I would bet it's pretty archaic, and not up to date. MCU makes a much better job on that.

 

If they would have had the internal, official greenlight, they would have announced the Part 2 before domestic opening. I don't believe that they would have been so incompetent as not to.

[AJG]

2 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

If they would have had the internal, official greenlight, they would have announced the Part 2 before domestic opening. I don't believe that they would have been so incompetent as not to.

Nope.

It’s not incompetency. Warner likes to do these ‘damage control’ announcements after the Opening Weekend of their HBO movies. They’ll announce the movie on Monday alongside the films “record breaking” HBO viewership.

[excel1]

3 hours ago, charlie Jatinder said:

I am over cine going altogether. I went to cinema earlier this month after 550+ day, found it very underwhelming and expensive. For context, it cost me same to watch a movie and my 1 year Amazon Prime subscription in India. Coincidentally, the movie dragged so hard in 2nd half, if I was watching it at home, would have liked it better with forward option at my hand. Only reason I am going to cinema is for FOMO affect for MCU films which are hard to avoid spoilers, though I am still to watch Shang Chi.

 

For rest of stuff, I am gonna love 45 days window for Hollywood & 4 weeks window for most Indian content.

 

Watching a film at home is akin to watching a concert of sporting event at home. Is it cool? Sure. Is it 100x better to be there with the crowd? Yes.

 

3 hours ago, Valonqar said:

 

92% from over 1000 verified accounts on RT, 8.3 from 133K on IMDB, 8.4 from 253 audience ratings. Not polarizing in the slightest but overwhelmingly positive. Numbers are likely going down the more people see it but they won't go drastically down.

 

I would say without hesitation that as a film, Dune is extremely high quality. As a piece of entertainment, it is shockingly boring.  it is BL49 all over again.

[von Kenni]

8 minutes ago, AJG said:

Nope.

It’s not incompetency. Warner likes to do these ‘damage control’ announcements after the Opening Weekend of their HBO movies. They’ll announce the movie on Monday alongside the films “record breaking” HBO viewership.

Plausible. That way they would market HBO and drive more subscribers for it. This would answer the question, why wouldn't they have greenlight it already based on the data that we have (international box office, etc.) unless they are so incompetent/cautious (doesn't really fit the bill based on there comms during last couple months) or if there is another X factor that we don't know. This would fit their HBO comms during Dune's release. Still, quite a gamble and sacrifice regarding the OW and the ambiguity it creates for the actor interviews and potential audiences.

 

Plausible but not 100% behind it... now I'm intrigued to solve this.

[famicommander]

It could be that there are specific targets they need to hit before it becomes official, and even if hitting them is a foregone conclusion at this point, it hasn't officially happened yet. Possibly something to do with the deal(s) WB had to strike with Legendary and DV when they announced the HBO Max release.

[Elessar]

14 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

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.

 

 

 

I'm not following those discussions but i can certainly see where they are coming from. There's no denying that Hollywood tends to largely cater to one type of audience when it comes to blockbusters. Dismissing those voices as dudes who just wanna pick a fight would be too easy.

[ThomasNicole]

27 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

For the CEO comment, mostly likely it means that they are not as 100% behind this as Villeneuve has told and there was still "let's wait and see", or the decision process with Legendary is slow (or something else we don't know), or just pure marketing incompetence. Either way, speaks volume of their capabilities compared to Marvel & Disney.

 

For the "excite the fanbase to support more" tactic, no. The logic is there but that doesn't work for a movie with a scale of Dune and intended franchise starter. Their goal is to excite the base but that's easy with Villeneuve and showing that they are faithful for the source material. The only balancing act for that was the misleading trailers (more action packed and familiar style to GA) that run the risk of alienating those who know what Dune is.

 

Their main goal is to bring new people and GA in the mix, and they've tried to do some effort for that with T&Z, those misleading trailers, Fortnite, but without knowing real details of their marketing efforts I would bet it's pretty archaic, and not up to date. MCU makes a much better job on that.

 

If they would have had the internal, official greenlight, they would have announced the Part 2 before domestic opening. I don't believe that they would have been so incompetent as not to.

Nah, Warner did that before with their HBO Max movies, announcing after the OW.

 

And the CEO make it very clear it will have a sequence, i don't see anything suspicious about her words.

 

And even if it wasn't a certain thing, now it is, the numbers are good for them, especially the WW number. They spin way worse numbers as a huge success. Now it's only wait when they will announce.

[famicommander]

Maybe they're trying to decide whether to just film Dune Part Two or let Villeneuve film Messiah along with it?

[Elessar]

Some users here are VERY certain that Dune gets the sequel, it's almost as if they are trying to will it into existence. I truly hope they are right.

Edited October 23, 2021 by Elessar

[famicommander]

1 minute ago, Elessar said:

Some users here are VERY certain that Dune gets the sequel, it's almost as if they are trying to will it into existence. I hope they are right.

WW1984 is getting a theatrical sequel and an HBO Max spin-off and it did horribly in comparison to Dune (different market conditions, but still).

 

Mortal Kombat did like 1.4X its budget and it's getting multiple sequels.

 

They've already ordered 10 episodes of a Dune prequel series.

 

Deadline reported that 300M was the target for Dune worldwide. It's going to easily blow past that; 330-370M seems possible.

[ViewerAnon]

Remember that Legendary (and partners) financed around 75% of DUNE’s budget. There are a lot of ducks to get in a row.

[Porthos]

2 minutes ago, Elessar said:

 

I'm not following those discussions but i can certainly see where they are coming from. There's no denying that Hollywood tends to largely cater to one type of audience when it comes to blockbusters. Dismissing those voices as dudes who just wanna pick a fight would be too easy.

 

I'm drawing a distinction between the two groups. There is a decent chunk of people out there who are, let's say, "put out" by the trends in the entertainment industry.  There are also plenty of people out there in the world who are just itching for fights and it really doesn't mater what the trigger is.

 

Social media tends to amplify folks looking for fights.  Just the nature of algorithms pushing things into people's feeds.

 

Remember, I was commenting on @Menor's post who wondered why Dune was being championed as an "anti-superhero movie" when its marketing never broached that subject and there's only the thinnest of connection there to latch on to.

 

If one wants, I'll simply say that because there are a decent segment of folks put out by some current entertainment trends, that makes it all too easy for the folks who do like to pick fights to try to start trouble.  If there wasn't a level of background dissatisfaction from a large enough group, it'd be harder for it to take root.  

 

I think I can speak as something of an armchair expert on this phenomenon, both as a SW fan (chuckles bitterly) and as a political observer.

[Old Spice]

7 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

Plausible. That way they would market HBO and drive more subscribers for it. This would answer the question, why wouldn't they have greenlight it already based on the data that we have (international box office, etc.) unless they are so incompetent/cautious (doesn't really fit the bill based on there comms during last couple months) or if there is another X factor that we don't know. This would fit their HBO comms during Dune's release. Still, quite a gamble and sacrifice regarding the OW and the ambiguity it creates for the actor interviews and potential audiences.

 

Plausible but not 100% behind it... now I'm intrigued to solve this.

 

They are probably still trying to line up the actors' schedules, arrive at a budget, and set a formal release date (I'm guessing Oct '23) before they make any sort of public pronouncement. And I don't think the lack of that announcement is having ANY effect on moviegoing right now. Most people, even those interested in this property, aren't nearly as 'inside baseball' as those of us on these forums are. They aren't worried about whether or not there's going to be a part 2 because the casuals who just want a cool experience are naturally assuming there will be, and the hardcores who already know the story, and *maybe* some of the financial considerations we talk about here at BOT, aren't going to pass on seeing a critically praised version of the book's first half just because they haven't received assurance that they'll also get the second half.

 

Either way, the sequel is coming, Ann Sarnoff's comments make that clear (even as far back as Venice, Toby Emmerich said as much) and whether they announce it with grand hoopla on Tuesday, or through a trade story weeks from now, it's just a matter of when, not if.

[Elessar]

4 minutes ago, Porthos said:

Remember, I was commenting on @Menor's post who wondered why Dune was being championed as an "anti-superhero movie" when its marketing never broached that subject and there's only the thinnest of connection there to latch on to.

 

I mean, it's easy to see why. It is the latest example of a sci-fi blockbuster that doesn't cater to the "popcorn crowd", even though Villeneuve said he tried to but thankfully failed lol. Superheroes are the target because seemingly 80% of Hollywood blockbuster output is centered around superheroes. Although i suspect if all of them would be akin to Joker or the upcoming Batman i think the tenor would be a little bit different.

[Felandria]

1 hour ago, No Eternals Spoilers 4 Cap said:

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. 

I suspect 75%+ of PLFs at AMC are A List members, why would I ever pick a regular show when I could have a Dolby or a Dine In?

[Eduardo]

Dune real Friday was $12.4M, wich can extrapolate to a $14-15M Saturday (10-20%) and a Sunday of at least $10M.

I think can't miss $40M

 

[Ronin46]

4 minutes ago, Eduardo said:

Dune real Friday was $12.4M, wich can extrapolate to a $14-15M Saturday (10-20%) and a Sunday of at least $10M.

I think can't miss $40M

 

Maybe 13 to 14 and 8 is more likely so 38 to 40.

[titanic2187]

34 minutes ago, famicommander said:

WW1984 is getting a theatrical sequel and an HBO Max spin-off and it did horribly in comparison to Dune (different market conditions, but still).

 

Mortal Kombat did like 1.4X its budget and it's getting multiple sequels.

 

They've already ordered 10 episodes of a Dune prequel series.

 

Deadline reported that 300M was the target for Dune worldwide. It's going to easily blow past that; 330-370M seems possible.

Consider they put 23m as a victory target for SC, I can safely say they lose most of their ball cell to coronavirus. 

 

Still, Dune 2 is a more likely than not outcome. Even WB see little future for the franchise, I think there are other studio willing to pick this up but they have to decide fast before the buzz dying down again to no one care anymore status.  

[famicommander]

28 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

Consider they put 23m as a victory target for SC, I can safely say they lose most of their ball cell to coronavirus. 

 

Still, Dune 2 is a more likely than not outcome. Even WB see little future for the franchise, I think there are other studio willing to pick this up but they have to decide fast before the buzz dying down again to no one care anymore status.  

I think any notion of the second movie doing worse than the first is absurd.

 

The first movie has been very well received. The second one will no longer be an unfamiliar property to the masses, it presumably won't release in the middle of a global pandemic, it won't be a day one streaming release, it won't have 1080p leaks the week before and a 4K rip 11 minutes after the US premiere, and it presumably won't have an international release staggered between September and freaking December.

 

Plus the expanded media for the franchise is at an all time high. Even before the movie was a success we were getting the highest output of novels and short stories in the history of the franchise. From 1965-2019 the only comics were the adaptation of the Lynch movie; 2020-2022 alone we have three massive volumes covering the original novel, a 12 part monthly series covering the House Atreides prequel novel, a special one-shot adaptation of Blood of the Sardaukar short, and a one-shot adaptation of the Waters of Kanly short.

 

After no physical game releases since the 1997 trading card game, 2019-present has seen: a reissue of the classic board game expansion, a newly updated and streamlined version of the classic game with movie tie-ins, a two brand new board games, a reissue of a classic tabletop RPG, and a brand new tabletop RPG.

 

Dune characters are appearing in Fortnight and there are multiple different community updates/remakes going around of the classic real time strategy video games (Dune II, its remake Dune 2000 and the remake's expansion).

 

HBO has also ordered 10 episodes of Dune: The Sisterhood prequel series with Denis Villeneuve directing the first episode.

 

I'd bet right now that Dune: Part Two easily cracks 500M worldwide.