The Watchers | June 7, 2024 | Ishana Night Shyamalan directs | New Line Cinema

[Insomnia]

5 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

Don´t think so, horror is strong every year even after pandemic. This year has been an exceptional but truth being told, most movies just sucked hard. And still they´re not huge flops because of low budgets.

 

There´s a lot of horror movies in the next months, some expected to be very good, let´s see how it goes.

 

 

I hope you're right. I'm really interested to see how the next Conjuring movie does. I feel like that would be a major litmus test, as will A Quiet Place: Day One.

[ThomasNicole]

12 minutes ago, Insomnia said:

I hope you're right. I'm really interested to see how the next Conjuring movie does. I feel like that would be a major litmus test, as will A Quiet Place: Day One.

Definitely, i feel both can be big hits, they just need to be actually good. 

 

Alien Romulus and Trap also did some noise online with their trailers, maybe with decent marketing campaigns and reviews they can succeed as well. Maxxxine and Longlegs can be very big as well, for ´´indie´´ releases. 

[Insomnia]

9 minutes ago, ThomasNicole said:

Definitely, i feel both can be big hits, they just need to be actually good. 

 

Alien Romulus and Trap also did some noise online with their trailers, maybe with decent marketing campaigns and reviews they can succeed as well. Maxxxine and Longlegs can be very big as well, for ´´indie´´ releases. 

Long legs looks amazing! I really like what the smaller studios like Neon are doing with horror lately. They won't make a ton of money but their projects are mostly interesting and memorable.

[dudalb]

18 hours ago, Insomnia said:

Guess this is going to be another sub $10 million horror opener.

 

Man the horror genre has just imploded. I chalk it up to the habits of the main audience for horror (teens to early 20's) changing. It used to be that teens would get together with their boyfriends and girlfriends or a group of friends and go see pretty much whatever horror movie was out. The floor for these horror movies was pretty high. Now they don't do that anymore for any movies but horror was the genre that most relied on that habit and that genre I think.

 

The wealth of entertainment options and massive inflation play huge roles in this, but a more specific factor I suspect is at play here is that horror these days seems to be really reliant on and based around body horror and slashers. Slashers have always been a thing but it seems like most horror movies are getting pretty brutal in this regard and I think less and less people have an appetite for that. Spooky horror is what really sold well almost every time. It's my preferred brand of horror anyway.

 

That's my essay on the horror genre conundrum lol.

The thing about the Horror genre is i thas such a loyal hardcore group of fans that if you keep the budget low enough, you are almost certain to break even,  and probably make a modest profit from the fans alone. If it can break out to the GA..they way the Conjuring films did....that is where you make your big bucks.

Horror films providing you keep the budget down is just about the safest investment there is in  film nowdays.

Question with this film is Ishanna another Sofia Coppola?

But I agree with comments about M Night as a writer. He is good at coming up with a plot..what in Hollywood id called a "Structure Man" but his dialogue is often lousy. he really should just write the plots for his films, and let somebody else do the dialogue.

Dirty Little Secret: Most Hollywood writing teams function like that One is good with plots, and other with dialogue and charecters.

 

 

[Insomnia]

16 minutes ago, dudalb said:

The thing about the Horror genre is i thas such a loyal hardcore group of fans that if you keep the budget low enough, you are almost certain to break even,  and probably make a modest profit from the fans alone. If it can break out to the GA..they way the Conjuring films did....that is where you make your big bucks.

Horror films providing you keep the budget down is just about the safest investment there is in  film nowdays.

Question with this film is Ishanna another Sofia Coppola?

But I agree with comments about M Night as a writer. He is good at coming up with a plot..what in Hollywood id called a "Structure Man" but his dialogue is often lousy. he really should just write the plots for his films, and let somebody else do the dialogue.

Dirty Little Secret: Most Hollywood writing teams function like that One is good with plots, and other with dialogue and charecters.

 

 

Oh yeah this is definitely still true. It just feels like the floor for horror has lowered a lot. Most horror is still so cheap that profits can easily be had, but the raw numbers are smaller.

 

Like someone else said though, it could just be an off year so I won't worry too much about it.

[dudalb]

1 hour ago, Insomnia said:

Oh yeah this is definitely still true. It just feels like the floor for horror has lowered a lot. Most horror is still so cheap that profits can easily be had, but the raw numbers are smaller.

 

Like someone else said though, it could just be an off year so I won't worry too much about it.

Actually this year proves the basic rule "if you keep costs down enough". The studios did not do that for "The Exorcist" and 'The Omen" films. They spent a lot more then usual for a horror movie on thise films, expecting the name value of the frachsise would bring in the GA bucks, and it did not happen.

"Exorcist" has a problem because the Conjuring films have, ironically enough, stolen it';s exact niche , Omen problem has the basic prpblem the franchise had since the first; Once we know who is the Antichrist, it's osrt of hard to generate any real shock or horror.

I coud get into a argument about the Quite Palce films. thogh they have a horror element, I think think they are more of a Sci Fi action film then Horror. bu tthat is another debate.

 

 

Edited June 5 by dudalb

[Boxofficerules]

Seeing reviews appear on letterboxd, they're not bad but not really glowing, very average.

[Napoleon]

34% on Rotten Tomatoes after 29 reviews

[Insomnia]

Brutal, but not really surprising (as far as 2024 horror goes). I'm still going to buy a ticket for Tuesday and see for myself.

[Mojoguy]

5 hours ago, Napoleon said:

34% on Rotten Tomatoes after 29 reviews

At least the budget was low, right?

 

Terrible for horror this year.

[Eric is Quiet]

Was vibing with a lot of the tension and suspense, even if it's clearly no M. Night. But then the third act comes in and...yeah, things get really clunky by the end. I can say I still liked it, but this was some serious wasted potential.

[Flopped]

boy what a stinker. and it looked like they spent at least 20M on it. 

[marveldcfox]

Horror flopping this year is making me happy. No more make a cheap horror movie and get the buzz going to get a good opening weekend to cover the budget. 

 

Go back to the drawing boards lazy ass horror directors. 

[cinema pal]

Quote

the PostTrak exits were really bad at 1 1/2 stars, and 52% positive

jesus christ almighty in heaven

and the trailer looked fine to me

Edited June 7 by cinema pal

[PlatnumRoyce]

17 hours ago, Flopped said:

boy what a stinker. and it looked like they spent at least 20M on it. 

How much VFX is in the film? They apparently filmed it in Ireland and got a "2-5M euro tax credit" from it. That means the "Irish portion of the production budget" is somewhere between 5.8M and 14.5M. euros so 20M seems closer to ceiling than the floor. 

 

Looks like the trades claim this film was purchased for 30M so all signs point to 15-20M range.

Edited June 7 by PlatnumRoyce

[JimmyB]

Crashing in fourth place is New Line‘s Ishana Shyamalan directed thriller, The Watchers, with $3M today, including $1M previews, for what’s looking like a $6M-$7M start at 3,351 theaters. M. Night Shyamalan, who produced his daughter’s movies, also self finances them and then sells them to the studio. In the wake of working with Universal, Warner Bros. attracted him over to their lot. I’m told that the studio shelled out $30M before P&A for The Watchers alone. This movie is not a Lionsgate genre thrifty price-profit special.

[Ryan Reynolds]

this wasn't horrible , 2.5/5 , though the ending was kind of crap

[Insomnia]

10 hours ago, marveldcfox said:

Horror flopping this year is making me happy. No more make a cheap horror movie and get the buzz going to get a good opening weekend to cover the budget. 

 

Go back to the drawing boards lazy ass horror directors. 

I know what you mean, but it doesn't make me happy when something like The First Omen flops. That was actually so well made and deserved a much better fate. Hopefully Arkasha Stevenson does something super low budget next time that ends up making a decent profit.

[Insomnia]

8 hours ago, cinema pal said:

jesus christ almighty in heaven

and the trailer looked fine to me

For those who've seen it, what drove that horrific post trak number? Was the third act really that bad @Eric Burnett?

[Scubasteve716]

There’s a good movie in there somewhere but the acting is horrible and the way characters react to situations is comical. Maybe like a 5.5 / 10