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

[filmlover]

3 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

$3.1M for Eternals.

 

Huh. Didn't expect that. Can it get some NWH spillover over the holidays and make $10M. Is over F9 still possible. 

Only one wide opener (that debuted soft) this weekend. Next two weeks it's gonna bleed theaters and showtimes fast.

[Valonqar]

WSS absolutely tanked OS.  4.4M from 37 markets is a disaster. Its hopes lie with dom legs and dom streaming since it doesn't have global streaming appeal a la The Last Duel, a movie that would have been Squid Game-size hit had it been a Netflix streaming event instead of Fox leftover under Disney umbrella.  People's viewing habits are changing rapidly and there are a lot of movies that don't have audience in theaters but absolutely have audience on streaming. Because people watch that kind of thing (in Duel case - Medieval setting, brutal graphic action, non-con sex) on small screens (GOT, Vikings, The Last Kingdom, etc) but not in theaters. So I think that studios will be more selective going forward especially once the Oscars beat their streaming bias and give Best Picture to a streaming movie. 

 

1 hour ago, Flopped said:

Lady Gaga is without a doubt a global box office draw. The fact that the movie only got middling reviews underscores this fact even further. 

 

 

She has charisma in spades which cannot be said for a number of actresses hailed as stars that cannot open a door let alone a movie (minus franchise that sells by itself ). This is the second movie she opened so definitely not a fluke. Oh and speaking of remakes and their lack of appeal to younger audience, ASIB, anyone? 

[grim22]

2 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Only one wide opener (that debuted soft) this weekend. Next two weeks it's gonna bleed theaters and showtimes fast.

The obvious comparison is Thor The Dark World, which isn't quite perfect because that had Hobbit release this weekend for it. Should even out for both over the next month with the lower quantum of numbers.

[grim22]

That WSS OS number is horrible. Don't think there's any other way to describe that. 

 

Wonder if China will troll Hollywood and give a release date to WSS instead of any of the Marvel movies.

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, Valonqar said:

WSS absolutely tanked OS.  4.4M from 37 markets is a disaster.

Did anyone really expect this to do well overseas? Into the Woods also fizzled outside the US despite being a Disney fantasy with big stars. Sondheim's appeal is likely limited to only this country.

[charlie Jatinder]

1 minute ago, grim22 said:

The obvious comparison is Thor The Dark World, which isn't quite perfect because that had Hobbit release this weekend for it. Should even out for both over the next month with the lower quantum of numbers.

DS had $4.5M weekend, added $10.4M after that.

Ragnarok $6.3M weekend, added $14M after that.

 

Same legs will get to $168M. Need to do slightly better.

 

nvm. Checked F9 is $173M. I thought it was $171M.

[narniadis]

There was a comment in the tracking thread about Eternals show times increased like 30%, this weekend. So couple that with the lack of any new demographic appreciate films and it has a good hold before dying next weekend. 

[filmlover]

Quote

 

One insider close to the film tells me that the reason why Disney executed this distribution strategy was because they looked at the sleeper trajectories of Spielberg’s adult films and figured their plan off that. A rival studio boss remarks that West Side Story will be fine in the long run, that it’s just having two weeks of paid previews in the run-up to Christmas before it really takes off.

 

More specific from another studio insider is that Disney chose this date for West Side Story so they could smartly get the PLF and Imax auditoriums, which they’ll lose for Spider-Man: No Way Home next weekend, and get out ahead and build momentum, versus getting buried among the MCU movie, Matrix Resurrections, Sing 2, etc.

 

‘West Side Story’ Posts Paltry $10M Box Office Opening: What That Means – Deadline

 

No wonder Disney apparently made theaters sign contracts that it would be shown throughout the holidays lol.

[Valonqar]

10 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Did anyone really expect this to do well overseas?

 

Musicals do well OS. Not all of them but many do. This is not one of them but you gotta admit that 4.4M from 37 markets is worse than the least optimistic expectations and that's without any direct or heavy competition.  Eternals already fizzled, Encanto and Afterlife aren't doing well OS either, and Gucci is its own niche that doesn't impact other movies. So unlike stacked October, there's no excuse for WSS to tank this badly. 

 

It now solely depends on dom legs so fingers crossed for that.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Valonqar

[wildphantom]

The omicron variant is the reason for the lackluster OS debut. Simple as that. 
 

target audience for WSS are older people who are less likely to go out and see it with the new variant fears. U.K. to announce a tier 4 status tonight, with a huge emphasis on people getting their boosters to avoid further restrictions coming in a few weeks. 

[John Marston]

30 years ago another Spielberg film opened. It got panned by critics and while it did well at the box office its gross was actually considered disappointing as it apparently was expected to maybe even be the highest grossing movie of the year. Seems people who watched it as kids seems to fondly remember it though

 

 

[titanic2187]

Terrible Sat growth for WSS while LP pull off another good hold at -27% with 44k PTA. Maybe only " anderson" name can save small-mid adult drama now.  

[juni78ukr]

1 hour ago, Valonqar said:

 

Musicals do well OS. Not all of them but many do. This is not one of them but you gotta admit that 4.4M from 37 markets is worse than the least optimistic expectations and that's without any direct or heavy competition.  Eternals already fizzled, Encanto and Afterlife aren't doing well OS either, and Gucci is its own niche that doesn't impact other movies. So unlike stacked October, there's no excuse for WSS to tank this badly. 

 

It now solely depends on dom legs so fingers crossed for that.

 

Musicals might do well overseas with big stars in the cast.  West Side Story, In The Heights and Dear Evan Hansen all have mostly no-names. Zero appeal in the result, No one here is interested in seeing singing and dancing unknown teenagers and young adults. 

Edited December 12, 2021 by juni78ukr

[TiagoRodrigues]

Eternals is at $395M WW. In a week it'll finally cross the $400M.

 

Domestically the movie surpassed A Quiet Place II and No Time To Die this weekend and its now the #5 movie of the year.

The movie did do better than Shang Chi internationally, even though it was banned in more places. And it surpassed Black Widow WW although this one debuted on Disney Plus at the same time. 

 

It'll end up doing a bit over 2x its budget...not a huge hit but its sequel and whatever they have planned for those characters won't be in danger considering this is the MCU. 

 

I was expecting the movie to debut on Disney + this month...but oddly they announced its release for January.

[Cmasterclay]

I'm mad at the IP wank stuff but that's not why adult movies are struggling - adult movies are struggling very simply because people are used to watching movies at home and movies need big special effects or horror stuff to get people to theaters. 

 

These arguments can go on forever because you can make excuses for any adult movie released this year - HBO Max for Richard, too dark for Last Duel, too little starpower for a WSS remake, too rough of reviews for Gucci. But next year has Bullet Train, AmbuLAnce, Elvis, Nope, Killers of Flower Moon, and Babylon all loaded with star power, high concepts, and no streaming releases. There will be no more excuses next year, and it will have a real impact on the future of these kind of films.

[cookie]

4 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

These arguments can go on forever because you can make excuses for any adult movie released this year - HBO Max for Richard, too dark for Last Duel, too little starpower for a WSS remake, too rough of reviews for Gucci. But next year has Bullet Train, AmbuLAnce, Elvis, Nope, Killers of Flower Moon, and Babylon all loaded with star power, high concepts, and no streaming releases. There will be no more excuses next year, and it will have a real impact on the future of these kind of films.

Did I miss some news? I thought that was going straight to Apple.

[Cmasterclay]

1 minute ago, cookie said:

Did I miss some news? I thought that was going straight to Apple.

My understanding when the deal was struck was that Apple would release to streaming after a theatrical release by Paramount. Obviously this could have changed since May 2020.

[filmlover]

3 minutes ago, cookie said:

Did I miss some news? I thought that was going straight to Apple.

I believe it's getting a theatrical release through Paramount first, then going to Apple.

[Firepower]

5 hours ago, Menor said:

Who's to say you can't sell toys, market a cinematic universe, and have artistic intention? 

Because it doesn't work in most cases. I can't think of a single movie that sells toys, markets a cinematic universe and at the same has any real artistic merit, at best you can find an example that does only one thing (sells toys or markets cinematic universe) and has some artistic merit, but not both at the same time, no good filmmaker would want to do something so restricted by producers and studio.

[Menor the Destroyer]

Just now, Firepower said:

Because it doesn't work in most cases. I can't think of a single movie that sells toys, markets a cinematic universe and at the same has any real artistic merit, at best you can find an example that does only one thing (sells toys or markets cinematic universe) and has some artistic merit, but not both at the same time, no good filmmaker would want to do something so restricted by producers and studio.

I'm not sure which movies you're thinking of that are marketing cinematic universes and not selling toys, the latter is just a subset of the former.