Has Following the Box Office Lost Its Appeal and Luster?

[CloneWars]

Geez, I've been around forever. 2002 got me into the box office. I felt even before Covid BO was in a decline. Sure there were mega hits. I do think real surprises will be hard to come by, though we shouldn't downplay NWHs run if even it's a Marvel movie. Anyway, this year will be very telling as to whether or not BO is in a death spiral or not. Who knows, maybe some non-Marvel movies will break out.

 

Now has BO lost its appeal and luster? Sort of, but at the time its surprising there is a recovery going on. I really thought AMC would bite the bullet before its stock squeezed. If that had happen, the BO environment would be very different today.

[excel1]

3 hours ago, Ozymandias said:

My favorite, or at least most memorable year was definitely 2012, the summer of 2012 was a wild time.  You had The Avengers unexpectedly breakout big time and TDKR under perform a bit both critically and domestically which created forums enemies where uber Marvel stan BKB with his bold text and overuse of the popcorn/wtf emojis reigned supreme.  

 

 

How did TDKR underperform critically??  87% on RT is amazing..It would have easily set admissions record without the horrendous massacre that was an epic buzzkill..the film is still awesome and TDK 4 circa 2015-2016 would have done FORCE AWAKENS money no doubt..

Edited April 16, 2022 by excel1

[excel1]

1 hour ago, CloneWars said:

Geez, I've been around forever. 2002 got me into the box office.

 

Shocked to read how many people here are basically late teens/early 20s. I am here remembering vividly the lead up to summer 2001 😂 That was the ultimate thrilling time. No year ever really compared to this. 

 

I will say this: I can feel it in the air, we were overdue for a pop culture revolution similar to what we went through in 1998-1999 and 2008-2009. Some years truly due leave much larger, long-term foot prints in media than others. There is a generational change coming sooner than later.

 

Studios - and major directors - need to keep taking creative risks. They need to make the DUNEs of the world. The TENETS. Even if they fail, they are failing creatively and that is beyond important. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by excel1

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

Nah, TDKR did underperform critically. RT critics literally received death threats.

 

Ironically, the reviews were good but expectations were inflated following TDK and Inception.

 

78 MC compared to TDK’s 84. 
 

On CriticsTop10 which compiles all critic lists for year, it finished 14th. In 08, Dark Knight was 2nd

[watcher1232]

'Underperforming' critically is literally impossible because this isn't something numbers can determine. Good lord. 2001: A Space Odyssey sure underperformed critically back in the 60s only to then accurately perform upon being re-examined I guess.

[lorddemaxus]

Yeah, it has. Last time I did doing shit like looking at daily drops and what not was maybe GvK. I also stopped using r/boxoffice (which has done so much for my mental health) last year. A lot also has to do with me being in college (espescially moving to campus) and not even having time to watch movies these days. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by lorddemaxus

[excel1]

Reflective Excel:

 

Every young box office follower goes through it. Following and discussing starts an interesting hobby through high school. You actively root for certain films to do well, predict and learn. College and beyond, life takes over and interest wanes. The ghost town that worldofkj.com is beyond depressing, though I love the people who are still there. It is akin to visiting the once vibrant, bustling mall that was so full of energy back in 2005 and yet is 90% empty today. It is a sad reminder that what once was is no more, of how times change, of how the world has progressed. Prime WorldofkJ possessed people and analysis that could have made/saved major studios true fortunes, the content was that strong and to me, it was exhilarating to follow the assessments of the industry. It is, no doubt, depressing - even to an ever optimist like myself - to know the golden days of film business convo at WorldofKJ are more than decade past now. I lurk these forums half seriously spewing predictions for fun, but damn do I miss the real thing that was the 2006-2010 run. It was fantastic, and frankly, the knowledge and lessons gained from that time frame have served me extremely well in the real world to the point where it is astonishing. 

 

I have accepted that I will always be a film buff, it is simply in my blood, part of my DNA, and though successful in all phases of my life, I fully regret not going that direction and following that passion 15-20 years ago when the opportunity presented itself, and I could not have more respect for the users here who had the guts that I did not to take that passion/interest and chase the ultimate dream of living their life fully within the industry. 

 

No doubt that industry is less creative, less hopeful, and full of less imaginative dreamers than it once was, but one has to know that will change. There are so many platforms now that create opportunities for painting on the cinematic canvas for people that absolutely would have never existed 20 years ago. The game keeps evolving, best thing true fans can do is evolve with it.

Edited April 16, 2022 by excel1

[Noctis]

@excel1 I'm beginning to think you and Josh Hartnett were lovers.

[Cap]

I think we are all collectively still experiencing PTSD from the pandemic. I mean look at it this way:

 

movie theaters were one of the hardest hit industries during the pandemic, because they basically had to shut completely down. And so we had something that people here hold very near and dear to their hearts suddenly taken away from them. And it has yet to return back to the robust numbers of before the pandemic.

 

And I think all of us are reacting to that in our own way. Maybe you’re losing interest in tracking numbers? Maybe you’re looking to Place blame somewhere or on some entity?

But I think you can kind of feel the collective trauma around here. And I think Some people are handling that better than others, because people react to stress and hardship differently.

But I would not lose hope. I went and saw everything everywhere all at once today. And it was delightful. There was only about 10-12 of us in the movie theater But everyone was laughing and thoroughly enjoying themselves. So there’s still signs of hope out there. It’s just not gonna be an instant return to the past, and it might never return. And maybe that’s not a bad thing. I think people who tend to glorify the past are missing out on the present.

[Plain Old Tele]

I’ve lost my interest in it awhile ago (various reasons), but the pandemic certainly accelerated things. It does feel weird actively not caring about stuff that I used to follow closely for like 30 years. 

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

Nothing will ever (personally) come to the shock of reading Deadline on Saturday morning and seeing the 200m estimate for Avengers in 2012.

 

It's just not exciting anymore. Personally. I don't really care how much the new MCU makes because it'll be huge. I don't care that Batman is doing 300million. Doesn't interest me. What interests me are the breakouts, but like I said, they're very few now. And, not to diminish its amazing success, even something like Everything Everywhere isn't a huge surprise. Now, if it holds on and becomes A24's biggest film, then yeah--that would be fun to track. 

[charlie Jatinder]

I think you guys (the one's who joined it in 2000s) are just getting old and growing out of it. Fairly common thing to happen. Will happen to those of us joined in 2010s as well.

[Legion Again]

36 minutes ago, charlie Jatinder said:

I think you guys (the one's who joined it in 2000s) are just getting old and growing out of it. Fairly common thing to happen. Will happen to those of us joined in 2010s as well.

I think my interest in box office might last longer than the box office does tbh

[CloneWars]

1 hour ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

Nothing will ever (personally) come to the shock of reading Deadline on Saturday morning and seeing the 200m estimate for Avengers in 2012.

 

It's just not exciting anymore. Personally. I don't really care how much the new MCU makes because it'll be huge. I don't care that Batman is doing 300million. Doesn't interest me. What interests me are the breakouts, but like I said, they're very few now. And, not to diminish its amazing success, even something like Everything Everywhere isn't a huge surprise. Now, if it holds on and becomes A24's biggest film, then yeah--that would be fun to track. 

Avengers OW was quite a shock. I did not see that coming. I think I predicted like $140M. My god. What an awful prediction.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

10 minutes ago, CloneWars said:

Avengers OW was quite a shock. I did not see that coming. I think I predicted like $140M. My god. What an awful prediction.

Found the article: https://deadline.com/2012/05/avengers-now-260-5m-overseas-could-reach-585m-worldwide-through-sunday-with-u-s-canada-russia-china-openings-265455/

 

This is an incredible read. The updates alone..

 

My sources estimate the global juggernaut that is Marvel’s The Avengers from Disney could close in on $160M when it opens in North America this weekend and $425M when it debuts in Russia and China for a possible total near $585M through Sunday. Even very conservative estimates put the worldwide total at $500M through Sunday when Joss Whedon’s actioner will be open in every movie territory except Japan. “May Day holiday gave them huge lift so will definitely get to $500 million this weekend,” a rival studio exec tells me today. “Probably closer to $550M.” The Avengers made $42.3M overseas from 41 territories, bringing the total through Tuesday to $260.5M.

In an April survey on Fandango, the majority of moviegoers picked The Avengers as the most anticipated film of the summer. Some 66% of fans said they plan to see the pic on the big screen more than once. About 31% chose Iron Man as the film’s biggest draw, followed by The Hulk (23%); Thor (15%), and Captain America (12%). And 52% said Black Widow is the next Avengers character they’d like to see in a solo vehicle, followed by 35% for Hawkeye, and 13% for Nick Fury.

 

[SchumacherFTW]

2 hours ago, Plain Old Tele said:

I’ve lost my interest in it awhile ago (various reasons), but the pandemic certainly accelerated things. It does feel weird actively not caring about stuff that I used to follow closely for like 30 years. 

God you're old 😉

[titanic2187]

The lack of diversity and surprise hit certainly turn me off. I wish there could be more run like KO, wonder, parasite, Jumanji, blind side, Greatest showman, hangover, black panther, American sniper, frozen, Wonder Woman, SLOP. 
 

Nowadays you can just slam a 2.4x to 2.7x legs to a big opening, and 90% of the chance you are there already, making the excitement  only lies with the opening weekend.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

Yeah I don’t even think it’s an age issue. A great box office story is a surprising headline with appeal to anyone. I mean, Passion of the Christ was an EVENT to anyone regardless of movie knowledge or age.

[misterpepp]

Haven't participated in this forum much. I mostly lurked around on various other movie-related forums and kept box office observations to myself and to friends and colleagues.

 

I forget what initially got me interested in all of this, but I started following around 2009/2010 I think? Some fun years there, but I'll echo what some have said in that 2015 was a pretty wild year. Jurassic World pulling in the biggest OW of all time was a massive surprise, but American Sniper's $89m+ debut was the biggest head-turner for me that year. Absolutely didn't see it coming, thought it would do more along the lines of Lone Survivor from the year before.

 

Maybe there aren't as many of those nowadays, but I can't help but still find it fun to track this stuff rigorously. For whatever reason, it just doesn't get old. Besides, there's still some minor surprises for me. I wasn't expecting Lost City to do $30m+ until closer to its release, or for GB: Afterlife to nearly match the debut of '16. Certainly didn't expect Demon Slayer's $22m+ opening despite the strong numbers in Japan (Shows how little I know about anime, which I think the growth of is another fascinating box office development). I thought for sure Dog would open in the single-digits, yet it did almost $15m. I always try to find new ways of looking at this stuff, there's usually something interesting going on.

 

... Or I'm just easily impressed? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[eddyxx]

3 hours ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

Found the article: https://deadline.com/2012/05/avengers-now-260-5m-overseas-could-reach-585m-worldwide-through-sunday-with-u-s-canada-russia-china-openings-265455/

 

This is an incredible read. The updates alone..

 

My sources estimate the global juggernaut that is Marvel’s The Avengers from Disney could close in on $160M when it opens in North America this weekend and $425M when it debuts in Russia and China for a possible total near $585M through Sunday. Even very conservative estimates put the worldwide total at $500M through Sunday when Joss Whedon’s actioner will be open in every movie territory except Japan. “May Day holiday gave them huge lift so will definitely get to $500 million this weekend,” a rival studio exec tells me today. “Probably closer to $550M.” The Avengers made $42.3M overseas from 41 territories, bringing the total through Tuesday to $260.5M.

In an April survey on Fandango, the majority of moviegoers picked The Avengers as the most anticipated film of the summer. Some 66% of fans said they plan to see the pic on the big screen more than once. About 31% chose Iron Man as the film’s biggest draw, followed by The Hulk (23%); Thor (15%), and Captain America (12%). And 52% said Black Widow is the next Avengers character they’d like to see in a solo vehicle, followed by 35% for Hawkeye, and 13% for Nick Fury.

 

Did they edit “not a record” out of the update?

 

also 52% wanted a black widow movie in 2012 but if you listen to Twitter then they’ll say no one cared about Nat til TWS. Oh well. Better late than never.(the solo film)

Edited April 16, 2022 by eddyxx