Father’s Day/Juneteenth Weekend Thread | Flash implodes with 55M, Elemental bombs with 29M, holdovers hold atrociously | Theaters are dead, streaming is dead. Everything is dead really.

[XXRDJisDoctorDoom]

6 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Hence why the OW was huge and the legs were horrendous after people saw how lame it was. 

 

Horrendous? Nearly 2.9x is horrendous now?

[misterpepp]

I don't feel like starting long-winded arguments on this thread, so I'll say that I strongly disagree with some of the narratives presented here and leave it at this post. I've seen more evidence that things will work out OK for theaters eventually than that which points to the contrary. Overall revenue is still ticking upwards year-over-year post-reopening, the arthouse/specialty scene is showing signs of life (Past Lives is expanding nicely, Asteroid City's PTA this weekend was terrific), talent working in the industry continue to back movie theaters, the theatrical revenue stream still generates the most direct revenue for a single title out of all the windows (Yes, including PVOD/TVOD/EST, based on the numbers I've come across), and the theatrical model still gives movies more attention when they hit those later windows. I'm a firm believer that the quality and marketability are what's going downhill, along with costs that have ballooned far too high, and those are issues on the studio end, not theaters or consumers abandoning the model.

Edited June 18, 2023 by datpepper

[Torontofan]

12 minutes ago, Eric Prime said:

The whole “these movies are unappealing” stuff doesn’t track IMO. The Lion King remake is the lamest, most shameful “we only made this to make money” movie ever, and it still opened higher than the first Spider-Verse’s entire run. If anything, the only movies that breakout are almost all of the same action spectacle ilk and audiences have the least diverse taste and interest in movies ever.

The lion king remake would have grossed more likely if it wasn't so lame.

[WorkingonaName]

1 minute ago, XXRkham Asylum said:

 

Horrendous? Nearly 2.9x is horrendous now?

Pretty weak for a kids movie. 

[Jonwo]

2 minutes ago, cookie said:

Netflix has conditioned people that mid-budget movies can easily be seen at home. Why put the effort and the $ to go out and see stuff like Knock at the Cabin, Air, Book Club 2, etc. when movies of similar caliber (though not necessarily the same quality) are a few clicks away on your telly? The same decline hasn't happened to big tentpoles because the studios have the big brands and Netflix doesn't, nor has Netflix/Amazon/Apple's attempts at producing Hollywood-level blockbusters yielded many memorable original products.

 

Horror has been mostly immune to the decline but that genre seems to get away on similar grounds that big VFX blockbusters do.

Horror has the advantage that it is a cheap genre so if it flops, it's no skin off the studios' nose but if it's a hit, it can be very lucrative. 

 

 

[AMC Theaters Enjoyer]

I mentioned in the Air weekend thread a few months ago that there is still a place for movies like it, but it’s gotta have some high profile stars and fit all the boxes for a crowd pleaser, and be smartly positioned by studios in their release schedules.

 

One film I’m really interested in seeing there performance is The Creator, cause that’s a big budget original idea with a good release date but no big stars and is being pushed with its director more. 

[MovieMan89]

4 minutes ago, XXRkham Asylum said:

 

Horrendous? Nearly 2.9x is horrendous now?

For a summer family film tentpole? When did those ever miss 3x pre covid? 

[Cmasterclay]

I don't really buy that "the product is unappealing" because you used to be able to drop a totally mediocre ass What Women Want or Mr. Deeds and it would cruise past 120m because of people looking for a Friday night out and saying "hey, you wanna see the new (Big Star) movie?" Now people can watch Netflix or go axe throwing. That old way of just defaulting to the big new movie of the weekend is not a consumer habit anymore, and the combination of COVID and the death of star power killed it.

[Cmasterclay]

I refuse to accept the narrative that Air was a "success." It was a well-reviewed, heavily marketed crowdpleaser about Michael Jordan that starred several above-the-title names that used to headline hits by themselves. And it crawled to 50 million. If that's a success then that is very, very depressing.

[M37]

1 minute ago, Jonwo said:

I'm not sure how it is in the US but in the UK, the market for the more premium cinema experience with comfortable chairs, great food and a curated film selection has seen growth and those are 3-6 screens. 

 

There will always be room for the PLF experience but I think you can draw audiences especially those who aren't into blockbusters back to see the smaller and mid scale stuff like Asteroid City, you just need to make the experience better.

Problem is that US is very big, population spread out, and there are only so many places where demand for a premium - and costly - experience is such that it’s worth the investment to upgrade or build 

 

It used to be a cheap form of entertainment, now it’s moving away from that, and leaving some people and swaths of the country behind 

 

 

[Grebacio]

2 hours ago, Spidey Freak said:

Flash needing multiple Batmen, Supergirl and more just to sneak by Green Lantern's 12 year old unadjusted OW by 2M 🥲

And with previews staring 10 hours earlier.

[baumer]

1 hour ago, Maggie said:

There are also too many movies playing at the same time. Instead of one doing stellar business, the box office is spread, so it looks like all are underwhelming

 

Absolutely not true. This is summer there's always a potential blockbuster or at the very least a tent pole opening every weekend from the beginning of May until the end of the summer. It's the most competitive and lucrative time of the year. The summer box office has always been crowded at least since I've been following it in the '80s.

[Cmasterclay]

It doesn't help that movies are a very expensive luxury instead of a five dollar experience to sit in some sticky seats anymore. Now for a night out at a decent theater you can go to a Paint and Sip or an escape room or something else instead.

[titanic2187]

A disaster weekend but aggregately all movies still making $165m this weekend. 

But thanks to Flash disaster, this upcoming weekend June 22-25 may sinks below $100m, in the freaking summer! All hope is now No hard feelings and Asteriod City expansion can offset the deficit from Flash, as well as the good hold from holdovers to make 100m possible. 

[CJohn]

3 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I refuse to accept the narrative that Air was a "success." It was a well-reviewed, heavily marketed crowdpleaser about Michael Jordan that starred several above-the-title names that used to headline hits by themselves. And it crawled to 50 million. If that's a success then that is very, very depressing.

Air is a flop. I think it would have done 100M (or close to it) in the marketplace in 2019.

[CoolioD1]

i don't think there's ever a year where Air the shoe movie was gonna be a $150mil hit or whatever. it's budget was big because of the artist equity thing/was supposed to be a streaming movie but otherwise yeah it's numbers are encouraging i think.

[excel1]

31 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

Inexplicably shoving Turning Red to Disney+, giving Encanto a very shortened theatrical window, the mishandling of the parks + the donations to DeSantis which forced his LGBT employees to object in the first place was all Chapek.

 

I'm not caping for Iger and I know he left several cracks in the foundation for Chapek, but c'mon. It was a whole other level of inefficiency.

 

 

 

Iger obviously had no idea that Covid would come and kill theatrical right at Disney+ was really taking off. Disney+ should have been supplemental but the situation forced them to use it as very convenient crutch that created some troubling long term habits. That is not on Iger at all.

[Torontofan]

Who wants to spend 20 bucks to watch a movie a about a shoe

[Flopped]

11 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I refuse to accept the narrative that Air was a "success." It was a well-reviewed, heavily marketed crowdpleaser about Michael Jordan that starred several above-the-title names that used to headline hits by themselves. And it crawled to 50 million. If that's a success then that is very, very depressing.

 

It's a flop. It cost like 150M to make and market. 

 

It's also thoroughly mediocre. All those incessant, obnoxious needle drops for 20 seconds each...did they just  burn though every hit of that era just cuz they had the money to license them? 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Flopped

[Austin]

2 hours ago, JustLurking said:

nop

Ah nvr mnd then