THE LITTLE MERMAID WEEKEND THREAD

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

My niece and nephew were super antsy during the last half of TLM. That 2h15m runtime is a mistake IMO, it’ll cut into smaller kids going as well as repeat viewings. 

[JimmyB]

19 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Also not to pre-debate something three weeks in advance and off-topic, but I went to lunch with people today then saw some of my brother's friends. In both groups, the Flash came up, and several people brought up Ezra Miller and all the negative shit about him and not wanting to see the movie because of it. I have no reason to hate on that movie, given Sasha Calle is a former good friend of mine. I'm just saying. I think that story may be a little less online and a little more relevant than we thought. Just putting it out in the ether.

If someone did a man on the street type interview and asked a 100 random people do you know who Ezra Miller is?  How many say yes? 5? 10? 

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

Just now, JimmyB said:

If someone did a man on the street type interview and asked a 100 random people do you know who Ezra Miller is?  How many say yes? 5? 10? 

I’d say 20

[Kon]

9 minutes ago, JohnCarterofEarth said:

Don’t studios get a larger share of the gross in the domestic market than the foreign market? 

Studios receive a larger share of the gross in the domestic market. That's why the domestic is more the most relevant for studios.

 

That said, it should still be worrisome that the overseas box office will be small. It means the share for the studio will be really small.

[ogkalu]

26 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

I think lots or domestic minorities have shown that they are committed to showing up for representation in blockbusters these days. It’s not about it having strong black culture, it’s about the fact that the community now has more representation in the Disney princess canon. Especially since it’s happening with who was already one of the most iconic and well known Disney princesses ever.
 

Little black girls can now say/feel things like “Ariel looks like me” etc, so I think that’s a draw for the community. 

 

I'm not saying representation can't boost titles.

 

If most of the white audience in the US who were going to see the little mermaid decided not to because of the race swap then the weekend would be nowhere near what it is shaping up to currently. Is the black population in the US sizable ? Sure. Is it big enough to charge this kind of opening if most white people said "No thanks" ? Not even close. 

 

The problem now is that what i've just said about the US, I can't say about a big chunk of international territories(not all). In some territories, the majority of people who would have gone if she were white are not showing up. and you can't really pile this on just over/under indexing either. Why would territories that don't have notable white or black populations under index strongly (compared to white leads) ?

Edited May 26, 2023 by ogkalu

[YM!]

2 minutes ago, ListenHunnyUrOver said:

My niece and nephew were super antsy during the last half of TLM. That 2h15m runtime is a mistake IMO, it’ll cut into smaller kids going as well as repeat viewings. 

Interestingly enough the runtime for Across is the same.

 

I am curious if Elemental, Gillman and Ninja Turtles can benefit from shorter runtimes.

[Claire of Themyscira]

I hope this movie has strong legs.

Cannot wait to see it, and, I am hoping all those who oppose it and are anti-Black choke. ❤️

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

1 minute ago, YM! said:

Interestingly enough the runtime for Across is the same.

 

I am curious if Elemental, Gillman and Ninja Turtles can benefit from shorter runtimes.

Across the Spider-Verse skews older though doesn’t it? I also think the pacing and overall bland direction don’t help TLM, whereas Across seems much more dynamic visually. 

[PrinceRico]

3 minutes ago, Claire of Themyscira said:

I hope this movie has strong legs.

Cannot wait to see it, and, I am hoping all those who oppose it and are anti-Black choke. ❤️

Look at WOM it will 

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

40 minutes ago, Michael Gary Scott said:

Maybe people are just tired of live action remakes. Also when Disney put everything on D+ so fast it showed people they could just wait less than 2 months and it will be on their streaming service.

Early on the live action remakes were a bit more spaced apart, whereas we got multiple in 2019, 2020 and already had both Peter Pan and Wendy and TLM in 2023. Fatigue is real, especially when the quality of the films themselves is not that high. 

[Brainbug]

One thing that is very important about some international markets (especially Europe):

 

This weekend is one of the first of the year with really nice weather. The first real summer weekend so to speak. In places like Germany, Italy or Austria this kind of weather (especially so if the spring weather was lacking) means literal death for all movies.

[Eric the IF]

13 minutes ago, ListenHunnyUrOver said:

My niece and nephew were super antsy during the last half of TLM. That 2h15m runtime is a mistake IMO, it’ll cut into smaller kids going as well as repeat viewings. 

Aren’t all these remakes 2 hours plus? And typically their legs are fine.

[MovieMan89]

25 minutes ago, KP1025 said:

 

Aladdin has its own land at Tokyo DisneySea too. Tokyo Disneyland also added a Beauty and the Beast land a few years ago (though technically that one is a subsection of Fantasyland if we're splitting hairs).

The Arabian Coast land just has some Aladdin stuff, but the main attraction isn’t based on Aladdin at all. But yes, splitting hairs I guess but still TLM is technically the only land in either park that is a whole land for one IP. Kind of a big indicator of its popularity there imo. 
 

TLM’s Atlantica is also one of the most prominently used Disney settings in the Kingdom Hearts games, which are Japanese made. 

Edited May 26, 2023 by MovieMan89

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

3 hours ago, grim22 said:

 

I genuinely don't know why playback singing and lip syncing is looked down upon in Hollywood musicals. There's a lot of people cast for their singing ability as opposed to acting abilities. Instead cast the best actors for the role and have them lipsync to better singers as needed. As long as they don't hide the fact, it shouldn't be an issue.

In the 1950s and earlier, Hollywood made a ton of musicals and dubbing the stars was pretty standard. It was kind of an open secret to the public.

 

Then, WB decided to adapt My Fair Lady from Broadway to film. It originally starred Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle on stage, who hadn't made any films yet, but had been seen on TV in the role (variety shows) and the Broadway cast album was a big seller. Still, the head of Warner Bros (one of the actual Warner brothers!) publicly said Julie Andrews  wasn't famous enough to star in the movie adaptation, a big outrage at the time. So, they got Audrey Hepburn (huge A-list star at this point, already an Oscar winner) as Eliza instead, let her think she was doing her own singing during the production, then dubbed her anyway.

 

Meanwhile, Walt Disney snagged Julie Andrews to star in Mary Poppins, where she did do the singing. It was released the same year as My Fair Lady, so the media gleefully pitted the movies and actresses against each other. Hepburn's acting got praised but the reviews called out the dubbing and considered it half a performance. People had seen/heard Julie in the exact same role already and judged her as better. Meanwhile, Mary Poppins was seen as a "complete" performance from Andrews and she won Best Actress. Audrey Hepburn, meanwhile, didn't even get nominated in the category despite My Fair Lady winning 8 Oscars (out of 12 total nominations), including Best Picture and Best Actor.

 

So, stars lip syncing musical performances in movies came to be frowned upon by American audiences, or seen as lesser in some way. Why not get someone who can sing and act? became the general attitude. Also, musicals overall declined domestically by the 1970s. There was a push for "realism" in film with Western critics and audiences that musicals don't often fit.

 

Now, a Hollywood musical gets a name actor and if they can sing, that's a bonus. If not, lots of autotune, but the studio has to be able to sell that the actor worked so hard and really sang! One exception to the informal "no lip syncing in movies" rule seems to be musician biopics, where the point is to hear the famous songs of a beloved singer. But even then, some will prefer when the actor does their own singing because they say that's more "authentic".

 

 

 

 

 

Harry Styles probably should have taken the Prince Eric role instead of doing Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman. Or maybe not done leading roles at all...

Edited May 26, 2023 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[JohnnyGossamer]

2 minutes ago, ListenHunnyUrOver said:

Early on the live action remakes were a bit more spaced apart, whereas we got multiple in 2019, 2020 and already had both Peter Pan and Wendy and TLM in 2023. Fatigue is real, especially when the quality of the films themselves is not that high. 

Fatigue? I'm confused... Doesn't Deadline have Little Mermaid doing 125M+ DOM over the holiday weekend? Isn't that pretty good? Were people expecting something much higher? If WoM is good, there's chance it gets close to 400M DOM. I don't think anyone gave a hoot about that new Pan. Didn't even get a theatrical release. 

[MovieMan89]

3 minutes ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

Fatigue? I'm confused... Doesn't Deadline have Little Mermaid doing 125M+ DOM over the holiday weekend? Isn't that pretty good? Were people expecting something much higher? If WoM is good, there's chance it gets close to 400M DOM. I don't think anyone gave a hoot about that new Pan. Didn't even get a theatrical release. 

Yeah, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with TLMs early domestic weekend projections. Great start. 

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

6 minutes ago, Prince Eric said:

Aren’t all these remakes 2 hours plus? And typically their legs are fine.

I think 2h15m might be the longest up until this point? The movie seemed to drag a lot after Ariel got her legs for me as well. 

[baumer]

24 minutes ago, JimmyB said:

If someone did a man on the street type interview and asked a 100 random people do you know who Ezra Miller is?  How many say yes? 5? 10? 

You could probably do interviews on the street with 100 regular diversified people and I'll bet you 75% of them don't know who Bradley Cooper is. There's a lot of us that go to the movies but not everybody knows who movie stars are. And I agree with you about the Ezra Miller thing. Nobody knows who the hell that guy is LOL

[PrinceRico]

3 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Yeah, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with TLMs early domestic weekend projections. Great start. 

It’s about to do 130 to 140 opening. Definitely could win the summer.

[MovieMan89]

1 minute ago, PrinceRico said:

It’s about to do 130 to 140 opening. Definitely could win the summer.

I have had it pegged for months with Spidey and Barbie as the most likely ones too. Spidey hype is seeming rather muted though admittedly, so I’m more inclined towards TLM or Barbie atm.