Weekend Thread | October 7-10th | Smile grins with a powerful $18.5m second weekend (18% drop!), Lyle hums a tune to $11.4m, Amsterdam gets karma'd with $6.4m

[Valonqar]

Yeah I still have no idea what it was about and what I was watching. I just wanted to punch all characters. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Valonqar

[Napoleon]

Disney forced Amsterdam playing in IMAX screens even internationally, that’s just cruel to the theater owners. A whole week with their IMAX screen empty 

[ringedmortality]

26 minutes ago, John Marston said:

I  don’t know anything about the DOR controversy but American Hustle is one of the most annoying and overrated movies ever made 

 

It can't be overrated anymore considering everyone hates it now

[Valonqar]

17 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

Disney forced Amsterdam playing in IMAX screens even internationally, that’s just cruel to the theater owners. A whole week with their IMAX screen empty 

 

should have been Avatar's. 

[CJohn]

Business is booming at the North America theaters. Another great weekend. Theaters are definitly here for a long long time.

 

Ultra legendary trash opening for Amsterdam, bad opening for Lyle.

 

Cool for Smile I guess. It deserves it all.

[CoolioD1]

i think o russell has made some good stuff, i probably would've gone to see amsterdam if it seemed half interesting but it had the most uniquely unappealing marketing of all time. i dunno what that movie's about, i dunno what about it was supposed to grab people's interest. just completely baffling.

[TwoMisfits]

3 minutes ago, CJohn said:

Business is booming at the North America theaters. Another great weekend. Theaters are definitly here for a long long time.

 

Ultra legendary trash opening for Amsterdam, bad opening for Lyle.

 

Cool for Smile I guess. It deserves it all.

 

Are we looking at a continuation of all the weekends in Sept/Oct for overall DOM BO?  With the openers splitting Smile's $22M (roughly - $13/11) and the rest coming in at $7M or lower, it seems like we should hit the same number as last weekend for all DOM - $63M or so...and that does suck...

 

Black Adam can't come soon enough!

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

I've seen the movie and still don't understand what Amsterdam is about

[Pinacolada]

I standby American Hustle 

[filmlover]

Getting a sense some folks here are really overestimating how many people who don't actively follow entertainment news know who DOR is. In fact one could argue the reason he hasn't been "cancelled" is because he's definitely not on the short list of directors who are also celebrities due to their undeniable contributions to cinema (ex: Spielberg or Scorsese). Can't lose the court of public opinion if you never had much of one to begin with, I suppose.

 

5 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

Why is Amsterdam in IMAX?

They probably figured it was going nowhere in terms of awards early on so they tried to salvage the situation as much as they could by attempting to tout it as an event of some sorts with how starry the cast is. Too bad that all the star power in the world doesn't mean much when the movie doesn't seem very appealing.

 

Anyway, no real surprise with Amsterdam, but Lyle's numbers are looking pretty weak given that it's the first family movie since the summer...I guess even closer attention will be paid to how Strange World and Puss in Boots perform re: the state of family movies at the multiplex post-COVID after every single one this summer that wasn't Minions (thanks, TikTok marketing?) underperformed. At least Smile is looking like another potential sleeper hit for 2022.

[Eric Prime]

1 hour ago, Pinacolada said:

The budget for this (pre-pandemic and post pandemic) is baffling. I said it in its own thread, there's like NO reason that this needed to cost THAT much more than American Hustle

Well how exactly do you make it cheaper? All those actors cost a pretty penny, and recreating the 1930s through your production design and costumes will cost a fair amount. The only way you could make a film like this cheaper is if you didn't make the movie. Which like...yeah, that probably was the solution.

[TwoMisfits]

Just now, filmlover said:

Getting a sense some folks here are really overestimating how many people who don't actively follow entertainment news know who DOR is. In fact one could argue the reason he hasn't been "cancelled" is because he's definitely not on the short list of directors who are also celebrities due to their undeniable contributions to cinema (ex: Spielberg or Scorsese). Can't lose the court of public opinion if you never had much of one to begin with, I suppose.

 

They probably figured it was going nowhere in terms of awards early on so they tried to salvage the situation as much as they could by attempting to tout it as an event of some sorts with how starry the cast is. Too bad that all the star power in the world doesn't mean much when the movie doesn't seem very appealing.

 

Anyway, no real surprise with Amsterdam, but Lyle's numbers are looking pretty weak given that it's the first family movie since the summer...I guess even closer attention will be paid to how Strange World and Puss in Boots perform re: the state of family movies at the multiplex post-COVID after every single one this summer that wasn't Minions (thanks, TikTok marketing?) underperformed. At least Smile is looking like another potential sleeper hit for 2022.

 

Puss in Boots has nostalgia and Xmas buys...like Minions positioning for the teens and the nostalgia and not needing the kids, I think Puss is the best shot for a good animated finish this year...

 

Stick a fork in Strange World - with no ticket deals, I'd put that one down to a DOM finish no better than Lightyear...which sounds like it should be a club, but I don't make clubs - I only join them!

[TwoMisfits]

And I'm gonna take the fail on Amsterdam...apparently, you can't overcome a bad movie that goes along with bad reviews.

 

Maybe the trailers couldn't sell the movie better b/c there was no good movie to sell.  Shocking with that cast, but I guess that's why you get an October opening with that cast...

 

Sigh...and I did so well all summer (save 1-2 movies).  I guess I should have stuck with the fall's "if you think it's not going high, go even lower than you think"...

[Krissykins]

25 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

 

Are we looking at a continuation of all the weekends in Sept/Oct for overall DOM BO?  With the openers splitting Smile's $22M (roughly - $13/11) and the rest coming in at $7M or lower, it seems like we should hit the same number as last weekend for all DOM - $63M or so...and that does suck...

 

Black Adam can't come soon enough!

The top 10 here in the UK last weekend was the equivalent of a $95m weekend for the top 10. That includes a foreign film and a re-release of a 10+ year old film. 
 

What’s America’s problem? 
 

Amsterdam flopped because it looks boring, visually ugly and the plot is unclear. If there even is one. Add in bad reviews and it’s a recipe for disaster. Nothing quite worse than bad Oscar bait. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Krissykins

[filmlover]

Also I know its floppage isn't her fault but it's really kind of funny how Taylor Swift seems to have no box office pull after we've seen Gaga and Styles manage to get people interested on some level in movies that were generally greeted with shrugs otherwise over the past year. Or perhaps it's just that these obviously glorified cameos in projects no one is here for to begin with just aren't going to cut it.

Edited October 7, 2022 by filmlover

[Cooper Legion]

Last Duel 3.0 (4.0? 5.0? You know, whatever)

[filmlover]

4 minutes ago, Legion By Night said:

Last Duel 3.0 (4.0? 5.0? You know, whatever)

For a movie to pull a The Last Duel, it needs to be a well-reviewed movie that's unfairly ignored upon release. No one's going to remember this exists in a month.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

1 hour ago, filmlover said:

Getting a sense some folks here are really overestimating how many people who don't actively follow entertainment news know who DOR is. In fact one could argue the reason he hasn't been "cancelled" is because he's definitely not on the short list of directors who are also celebrities due to their undeniable contributions to cinema (ex: Spielberg or Scorsese). Can't lose the court of public opinion if you never had much of one to begin with, I suppose.

 

I agree, general audiences don't know who David O Russell is and aren't boycotting him in large numbers. It's that his 2010s movies succeeded financially (or not) based almost entirely on the amount of critical acclaim and awards nominations they received.

 

Now, he's made a Depression-era crime caper screwball comedy(?). In 2022, that kind of movie absolutely needs critics on its side in a big way, to be a financial success. And critics (who actually are aware of #MeToo controversies and care about their impact) were never going to give DOR's first movie since the Fall of Weinstein overall positive reviews, regardless of its quality.

 

So, the studio has a not-great movie with a murky premise in a genre that's a tough sell to today's moviegoers. They can still try to lure audiences with the star power of the cast, but the stars and the PR team have to waste energy coming up with media responses for the "DOR problem". Do they refuse to answer questions about his controversies or working with him, do they limit promotion to "friendly" media, or do they give honest answers and risk the focus turning to that over the new movie?

 

Over multiple days this week, my feed showed links about Bale confirming that he intervened on the American Hustle set when DOR was abusive to Amy Adams. Even if you're a "separate the art from the artist" type, those headlines take up space that could be going to Amsterdam and why people should see it now. For the sorts of movies that don't need good Metacritic scores to succeed, the director's toxic reputation matters a lot less.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, filmlover said:

Also I know its floppage isn't her fault but it's really kind of funny how Taylor Swift seems to have no box office pull after we've seen Gaga and Styles manage to get people interested on some level in movies that were generally greeted with shrugs otherwise over the past year. Or perhaps it's just that these obviously glorified cameos in projects no one is here for to begin with just aren't going to cut it.

Taylor wants to be in respectable movies but doesn't trust her acting experience, so she sticks to supporting roles/cameos? Which would be fine if there weren't so much This Had Oscar Buzz fodder.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[Grebacio]

1 hour ago, Legion By Night said:

Last Duel 3.0 (4.0? 5.0? You know, whatever)

What's Last Duel 2.0? West Side Story?

[ringedmortality]

7 minutes ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

Taylor wants to be in respectable movies but doesn't trust her acting experience, so she sticks to supporting roles/cameos? Which would be fine if there weren't so much This Had Oscar Buzz fodder.

 

Is she even in stuff that warrants Oscar buzz? I only know of her roles in Valentine's Day and Lorax