Weekend Thread (12/10-12) | WSS 800K Previews

[Porthos]

People HATE hearing this, but much like how the tide is sucked out as a tsunami approaches, ticket sales for other movies are gonna nose dive as a film as gigantic as NWH approaches.  Since NHW is in fact 4 quad, by definition it is gonna attract some of the crowd that would normally go to WSS.

 

Modern day movie plans like Cinemark's just accentuate this trend.  Yes, there are the occasional exceptions (Jumanji comes to mind). Aside from those rare examples though, this is about as close to a death slot as one can get.  

 

If NWH was only a monster in the making instead of what looks like a mega monster, it probably would have been fine.  Or fine-r as the case may be.  But right now?  Just a terrible spot for it. 

 

(and, yes, I do think @TwoMisfits is on to something when it comes to subject matter, as well)

 

Doesn't mean it'll have terrible legs. We know it's playing throughout the holiday corridor and it'll probably rake on weekdays like most adult skewing films have been doing.  But the actual OW?  Not too much of a surprise when things are looked in totality, even if it is still ultra disappointing. 

[Torontofan]

2 minutes ago, Porthos said:

People HATE hearing this, but much like how the tide is sucked out as a tsunami approaches, ticket sales for other movies are gonna nose dive as a film as gigantic as NWH approaches.  Since NHW is in fact 4 quad, by definition it is gonna attract some of the crowd that would normally go to WSS.

 

Modern day movie plans like Cinemark's just accentuate this trend.  Yes, there are the occasional exceptions (Jumanji comes to mind). Aside from those rare examples though, this is about as close to a death slot as one can get.  

 

If NWH was only a monster in the making instead of what looks like a mega monster, it probably would have been fine.  Or fine-r as the case may be.  But right now?  Just a terrible spot for it. 

 

(and, yes, I do think @TwoMisfits is on to something when it comes to subject matter, as well)

 

Doesn't mean it'll have terrible legs. We know it's playing throughout the holiday corridor and it'll probably rake on weekdays like most adult skewing films have been doing.  But the actual OW?  Not too much of a surprise when things are looked in totality, even if it is still ultra disappointing. 

 

Also No Way Home will be the return of many people to the theater after 2 years as well.

[Menor the Destroyer]

1 hour ago, Ozymandias said:

 

 

Nobody should be getting hung up on Marvel not getting any Oscar attention, Marvel is what it is, populist factory work.  Nothing necessarily wrong with that in of itself, but don't pretend that a bunch of highly focus group'd and market researched up the wazoo movies are high art.  A lot of those movies even have their fully CGI action scenes rendered before the cameras are rolling or even a completed script is turned in, lol, like come on, its an assembly line.  Just compare the weightless action scenes in any of those movies to the bone crushing heaviness of something like the Duel in The Last Duel, its night and day.  There was no CGI used in that, not even for the horseback jousting parts.  Its an amazing showcase of what actors + real stunts + amazing sound design can do.

 

This is by no means an overall defense of the Oscars though, in the last decade or so they've been veering off course into irrelevancy and given credence to a lot of questionable films IMO.  For example, you couldn't pay me money to watch a silent film like The Artist and I'd gladly watch Thor 2 or any other Marvel movie over that crap.  Hell or High Water is a much better movie than Moonlight IMO.  And Greenbook? lul.  Also, one genre that is long overdue to be recognized is science fiction.  Mad Max: Fury Road and Bladerunner 2049(not even nominated!) should've won BP in their respective years.

 

 

I don't really care about the Oscars but there is no "pretend" here. There is no condition that a movie that is focus grouped or market researched can't be art. This definition of art is something I take issue with, it prioritizes process over result. If I like the result better, I don't care what process is used to make it. Especially this idea that "weight" is something that always needs to be prioritized in an action scene. It depends on the point of the action. The purpose of action scenes isn't always to be "brutal" or "realistic."  Point me to what definition of art says it can't have CGI. 

 

Also, what's wrong with silent films? Why can't they be art? Are you saying that all silent films from back in that time aren't art? Again, this seems like a completely arbitrary standard. 

 

If you ask me, any movie is art. It's better to use terms like good or bad art than this weird gatekeeping. 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Menor

[Coldbird]

15 minutes ago, Torontofan said:

I remember before a best picture would get so much attention, now no one cares or knows who won best pic last year. 

  The only reason i know what Nomadland won is because marvel fans couldnt shut up about that a oscar winner is making their next mediocrity.

 

1 hour ago, CrashBandicoot81 said:

The Oscars is so out of touch. Maybe that is why they get fewer views every year.

 

Meanwhile the Game Awards are outpacing the Oscars like 84 percent last year.

 

So much Hype for Sonic 2. You'll never get that for the Oscars.

Nobody gives a shit about the game awards ether its just about the trailer and new announcements, like if they would premier the next Avengers trailer in the oscars the ratings would be also higher. Honestly the game awards are even more disrespectful to the winners than most of other awards shows.

 

There are dozens of awards show for everything and the only reason people are watching is to get somekind of confirmation bias about the media they consume.

[Krissykins]

5 minutes ago, Torontofan said:

 

Also No Way Home will be the return of many people to the theater after 2 years as well.

Yeh, it’ll be America’s version of No Time To Die here in the UK. 
 

60% of its opening audience here hadn’t been to the cinema since pre-covid. 

[CJohn]

I watched Don't Look Up today. I can understand the RT score. No way this enters the BP race.

[CrashBandicoot81]

31 minutes ago, Coldbird said:

  The only reason i know what Nomadland won is because marvel fans couldnt shut up about that a oscar winner is making their next mediocrity.

 

Nobody gives a shit about the game awards ether its just about the trailer and new announcements, like if they would premier the next Avengers trailer in the oscars the ratings would be also higher. Honestly the game awards are even more disrespectful to the winners than most of other awards shows.

 

There are dozens of awards show for everything and the only reason people are watching is to get somekind of confirmation bias about the media they consume.

I think alot of these awards, especially the Oscars takes themselves far too seriously. I think the Game Awards knows what everyone is watching them for at least. Which is also why the best award was the one that hosted by Ricky Gervais where he just roasting everyone.

Edited December 11, 2021 by CrashBandicoot81

[CJohn]

26 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Yeh, it’ll be America’s version of No Time To Die here in the UK. 
 

60% of its opening audience here hadn’t been to the cinema since pre-covid. 

Did you felt like Bond helped the UK market overall? Because it was actually massive here as well (it will finish above all the Craig movies here) but November was right back to September level box office wise after a strong October carried by 007.

[ThomasNicole]

1 hour ago, Torontofan said:

I remember before a best picture would get so much attention, now no one cares or knows who won best pic last year. 

Which only shows how big is the problem of studios only selling franchise blockbusters.

 

There's no lack of quality, the last Oscar have 8 BP nominees and all of them are at least decent. Even the usual "the movies aren't for big audiences" isn't exactly true, movies like The Father, Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal aren't restrictive at all.

 

Still people doesn't care, and if the problem isn't the movies then it's the distribution. Streaming platforms have good movies for award seasons but they usually do a terrible job in making them relevant for their entire audience, and studios just doesn't care because it's better for them to spend 200M on Spider Man or Transformers that sells themselves instead of making something original and put real effort to convince people that they need to watch it.

[Krissykins]

16 minutes ago, CJohn said:

Did you felt like Bond helped the UK market overall? Because it was actually massive here as well (it will finish above all the Craig movies here) but November was right back to September level box office wise after a strong October carried by 007.

Yeh I’d say so. Certainly helps to have your trailer playing before the third biggest film of all time. 
 

For example, House of Gucci has done the equivelant of $60m here in two weeks. Dune has become the second biggest film of the year too. 

[CJohn]

9 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Yeh I’d say so. Certainly helps to have your trailer playing before the third biggest film of all time. 
 

For example, House of Gucci has done the equivelant of $60m here in two weeks. Dune has become the second biggest film of the year too. 

Well, not wrong in either thing here either. Dune is the 3rd biggest film of the year here (F9 is 2nd) and Gucci is gonna end at the equivalent of a 100M hit in America. November just had a very weak schedule here I guess, considering the main releases on the 2nd and 3rd weekends of the month were King Richard, Antlers, The Card Counter, The French Dispatch and a local action flop.

[lorddemaxus]

For what it's worth, local indie cinema here is doing quite decent (better and better every time I go there). Benedetta screening last weekend was 2/3rds full (way more people than Ghostbusters Afterlife screening I went to in nearby Regal a couple weekends before). Power of the Dog screening the day before it came out on Netflix also had way more people than I expected.

Edited December 12, 2021 by lorddemaxus

[Menor the Destroyer]

6 minutes ago, lorddemaxus said:

For what it's worth, local indie cinema here is doing quite decent (better and better every time I go there). Benedetta screening last weekend was 2/3rds full (way more people than Ghostbusters Afterlife screening I went to in nearby Regal a couple weekends before). Power of the Dog screening the day before it came out on Netflix also had way more people than I expected.

My Power of the Dog screening a couple of weeks ago was practically sold out.

[Legion Again]

46 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

Even the usual "the movies aren't for big audiences" isn't exactly true, movies like The Father, Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal aren't restrictive at all.

 

Still people doesn't care, and if the problem isn't the movies

They’re restrictive/not for big audiences because they don’t look exciting. It’s as simple as that.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

1 minute ago, Product Driven Legion said:

They’re restrictive/not for big audiences because they don’t look exciting. It’s as simple as that.

Have you seen Promising Young Woman? How does it not look exciting? The trailer went viral pre-COVID. It's literally a fast-cut thriller with zeitgeist appeal. Not that much different from Gone Girl or Girl on Train which did a solid 75m domestically

[Legion Again]

7 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

Have you seen Promising Young Woman? How does it not look exciting? The trailer went viral pre-COVID. It's literally a fast-cut thriller with zeitgeist appeal. Not that much different from Gone Girl or Girl on Train which did a solid 75m domestically

I haven’t seen any of these movies. They didn’t seem appealing to me 🤷‍♂️
 

You’re actually right about the Promising Young Woman trailer though — it did a pretty good job of seeming like a thriller and made me interested in seeing it (plus Bo). So did some of the synopses and such. It wasn’t until near it was coming out and I got a more full idea of the plot+ some (positive) reviews from friends that I realized it probably wasn’t going to be my cup of tea (it sounded kind of depressing with some heavyhanded social commentary — sort of similar to The Last Duel actually).

Edited December 12, 2021 by Product Driven Legion

[ThomasNicole]

3 minutes ago, Product Driven Legion said:

They’re restrictive/not for big audiences because they don’t look exciting. It’s as simple as that.

The only thing that looks exciting for audiences are heavy CGI action scenes? To me that's very simplistic and underestimate people intelligence, the movies doesn't look exciting because aside from some exceptions studios doesn't know how to sell them anymore (or doesn't care) even if the movies themselves aren't restrictive, that's the whole point.

 

The way things are going i bet if Silence of the Lambs came out today it would be another huge failure that everyone will presume isn't accessible.

[Menor the Destroyer]

2 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

The only thing that looks exciting for audiences are heavy CGI action scenes? To me that's very simplistic and underestimate people intelligence, the movies doesn't look exciting because aside from some exceptions studios doesn't know how to sell them anymore (or doesn't care) even if the movies themselves aren't restrictive, that's the whole point.

 

The way things are going i bet if Silence of the Lambs came out today it would be another huge failure that everyone will presume isn't accessible.

How do you think studios should sell them? It's not like studios are trying to lose money on these. I think audience behavior shifts (much of it related to streaming) are a much more likely explanation for the shifts in the composition of BO that we've seen than just "bad marketing." 

[Legion Again]

2 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

The only thing that looks exciting for audiences are heavy CGI action scenes?

I mean, kinda? Not like, the *only* thing that can get it done. I wouldn’t say that’s what excited people about TLK, or TS4, or F2, or BATB, or TGS. But hollywood has made enough Oscar aimed movie now that people can pick up that vibe, and some people like to watch all of those movies and for a lot of people it’s not for them.  
 

 

4 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

To me that's very simplistic and underestimate people intelligence,

It’s about taste, intelligence has nothing to do with it. Nobody is being under or overestimated, but if you look at what grosses stuff earned in 2021, 2019, 2018, even going further back the trends kind of speak for themselves.  
 

6 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

the movies doesn't look exciting because aside from some exceptions studios doesn't know how to sell them anymore (or doesn't care) even if the movies themselves aren't restrictive, that's the whole point.

This “they were marketed poorly” thing is like 90% of the time a fig leaf imo. How do you think they should have been marketed instead, concretely, and why would that have led to significantly higher grosses? 
 

7 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

The way things are going i bet if Silence of the Lambs came out today it would be another huge failure that everyone will presume isn't accessible.

Oh yeah, looks like a streamer (to be clear, I have seen this one and quite liked it). Silence of the lambs 1991 131M got a DOM 45th rank afaics, which nowadays is like 380M. I doubt it would hit 100M if released today, possibly quite lower.  
 

It’s been literally more than three decades since that came out — the environment has undergone a sea change and there’s no coming back however much people might be nostalgic for 1991 general audience behavior.

[ViktorLosAngeles]

I watched all the new ones. WSS is better than expected, but 10 million $ is really an underperformance. I think we’re looking at 55-65 million $ total now. Lower than what I predicted 80-90 million $.

 

”Don’t Look Up” is cheap and horrible. Humorless. I hope Academy ignores it.

 

”Re Rocket” is very good and hopefully gets some attention with the expansion.

 

”Being the Ricardos” is ok, better than what I prepared myself for, but still mediocre. Kidman and Nina are good.