Weekday numbers July 10-13

[Souther]

1 minute ago, The GOAT said:

One of the greatest action series in cinema history is going to get smashed by a Barbie Commercial next week. I’m going to blame TikTok, Twitter, Seed Oils, Red 40, MSG, and High Fructose Corn Syrup on this one.

Make fun of it as much as you want. Your profile picture shows why you are so pissed..

[Krissykins]

Consensus from people I’ve spoken to seems to be they enjoyed it, but not as much as the previous film. 

[Maggie]

12 minutes ago, Souther said:

Cruise is a miss when it comes to original films. In this climate, it would be foolish to embark on a 200 million original film. Cruise should avoid it. 

Doesn't have to be a 200M film. Keep budget in check, but at least try doing something different. No more sequel, spinoffs (yeah, no Les Grossman either pls)

[LegionWrex]

Just now, Krissykins said:

Consensus from people I’ve spoken to seems to be they enjoyed it, but not as much as the previous film. 

Same here. Nobody seems to dislike it in my circles though, it's basically "yeah it's really good but not Fallout good".

[WorkingonaName]

DR -> Fallout

[Souther]

The notion that theatrical is going to return is over. A film that does literally everything right in both quality and marketing getting a cold opening number is bad news. The Pandemic and the turn towards small theatrical windows and permanently dampened how much money might be made from theatrical, unless some outside forces (social media virality)  turn this into an event or films produced by the GOAT, Kevin Feige.

[The GOAT]

Just now, Souther said:

The notion that theatrical is going to return is over. A film that does literally everything right in both quality and marketing getting a cold opening number is bad news. The Pandemic and the turn towards small theatrical windows and permanently dampened how much money might be made from theatrical, unless some outside forces (social media virality)  turn this into an event or films produced by the GOAT, Kevin Feige.

TikTok is apparently the new Kingmaker for what explodes in the boxoffice.

[ZattMurdock]

1 hour ago, Eric Stickell said:

Old white guys don’t go to the theaters anymore. Top Gun is the exception, not the rule. And those that are already spent their money on Indy and/or Sound of Freedom, or will spend it on Oppenheimer. And the box office is so terrible that it can’t support multiple hits.

 

This all spells bad news when a huge audience sector is watching these at home now.

It’s an interesting phenomena. And while the use of the figure of "old white guys" is very much valid, I’d argue it goes deeper than that. I wasn’t going to watch Super Mario Bros at movies, but my brother convinced me on that. In return, I was able to convince him and his wife to tag along for my second viewing of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. But I couldn’t convince them to watch any other film after that, simply because despite not being white, he’s older than me and him and his wife would much rather binge watch Black Mirror or whatever at home.

 

I feel like MCU, Star Wars and hopefully DCU films actual true strength is how there is an actual brand fidelity going on there, a sensation that you can’t miss it before you get spoiled and most of all the whole magic of watching these films with a group of unknown people that care as much as you do about this nerdiest stuff. 
 

I don’t know what is the solution, or if there is a solution at all. When you stop and think, Super Mario Bros isn’t an original film either, it’s an animation with a licensed videogame character, the most famous one at that. That’s also brand loyalty, it runs kinda deeper than simply nostalgia. 
 

What these blockbusters need is a sense of urgency, something that makes you compelled to go out of your way to drive to a multiplex, leave the car at parking lot, eat some junk food because you need to be there and watch it as soon as possible. How to achieve that with the insane competition they now have with streaming? I don’t know. Clearly it isn’t about performing obscenely crazy stunts or being a good film by itself. It takes more than that.

 

Hence why I’m so intrigued by the whole cinematic universes experience, and I mean this beyond being a comic book nerd. It makes the ritual of going to watch a film from your favorite franchises and characters hit different. Hence why every single studio pursued that and why so many of them failed. 
 

I was watching Delayed Input the other day, it’s kinda of a podcast / comedy show about videogame news. Kyle Boseman from the Easy Allies fame created and presents it, and while he was trashing Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny and the fact that XBox has an Indiana Jones exclusive, something hit me:

 

Star Wars is everywhere. Same for Marvel. And same for DC. Do you know what these dying and aging franchises need maybe even more than reboots? Multimedia presence. Real multimedia presence, that’s how Star Wars, Marvel and DC perpetuate and keeps their grip in the cultural relevance. It isn’t just really the films. It’s literally everything else. And everything else adds up and snowballs into these big films. We don’t have Mission: Impossible videogames, comics or cartoons. Hell, I’m pretty sure that unlike Bond, we don’t even have books either.
 

If you want to "matter" in the cultural landscape with the current box office scenario that we are going through, if you want to compete with the ever growing presence of Stranger Things, streaming services adapting famous games like The Last of Us and etc., you need to think far beyond the films, and I feel like that’s why the odds of Marvel, Star Wars and DC  being always incredibly powerful are so high: sure, they came from comics, or came from a film almost 50 years old now in the case of Star Wars, but their brand is cultivated and carefully construed to be an all encompassing multimedia presence. So that’s why most of the times it’s also hard to say "well, why don’t you just simply "adapt" a videogame or a manga and makes the magic to turn Avengers or Star Wars profit?" Because their mainstream presence is very scarce, and culturally adapting western concepts is a lot easier than doing justice to say a manga or an anime.
 

Films like Avatar, which doesn’t have a real cultural imprint other than the films themselves live in rarified air, uncharted territory. That’s why despite me not me being personally fond of them, I have major respect. It’s not easy to get the kind of recognition these films get. Claiming that it was a glorified tech demo for 3D tech is non sense I’ve said in the past, which now I see it was stupid and childish. 
 

So what I’m saying is, in order for these franchises to grow, they need to understand that you need to start thinking about rejuvenating your audience, and no, casting Zendaya, Holland or Chalamet won’t solve that issue either. These franchises need to expand, organically, beyond the 3-3 / 5-5 years theatrical release time frame.

 

This became a lot longer than I anticipated but I have nothing better to do while I await this fucking cyclone go away lol.

Edited July 13, 2023 by ZattMurdock

[WorkingonaName]

Just now, The GOAT said:

TikTok is apparently the new Kingmaker for what explodes in the boxoffice.

Joker 2 and DM4 probably gonna benefit hard from this next year, maybe Wicked/Beetlejuice 2.  

[Souther]

@across the Jat verseThere is no stardom left in Hollywood now. How does it work in India? I heard that the biggest star in India, Shahrukh Khan, broke box office records with his film that released in January. That guy also belongs to the generation of Tom Cruise. How has he managed to keep his stardom intact? How did he manage to entice the younger audience into cinemas for his film? 

[LegionWrex]

1 minute ago, ZattMurdock said:

Films like Avatar, which doesn’t have a real cultural imprint other than the films themselves live in rarified air, uncharted territory. That’s why despite me not me being personally fond of them, I have major respect. It’s not easy to get the kind of recognition these films get. Claiming that it was a glorified tech demo for 3D tech is non sense I’ve said in the past, which now I see it was stupid and childish. 

Genuinely wondering if Avatar's video game/multimedia push over the next couple of years is going to boost Avatar 3 even further, tbh.

[ZattMurdock]

9 minutes ago, The GOAT said:

TikTok is apparently the new Kingmaker for what explodes in the boxoffice.

Nah, it’s still multimedia presence. People wouldn’t care about Barbie if she wasn’t Barbie. They wouldn’t care about Super Mario Bros if they weren’t Super Mario Bros. It’s the decades long of cultural relevance, and that’s a game that streaming namely Netflix is playing far better than film studios when it comes to the sacred cows: Marvel Studios, Star Wars, Pixar, Avatar and hopefully in the near future, DC Studios.

Edited July 13, 2023 by ZattMurdock

[ZattMurdock]

2 minutes ago, LegionWrex said:

Genuinely wondering if Avatar's video game/multimedia push over the next couple of years is going to boost Avatar 3 even further, tbh.

It needs far more than that. And Avatar is a phenomenon that actually operates as this massive biggest franchise by films made and at same time, it has very little exploration of its lore. But it could be a good start.

[TomThomas]

28 minutes ago, Liiviig 1998 said:

-CIA team really should have been cut out of the film.

No, Shia Wigham is awesome and they provided some of the funniest moments in the film.

[LegionWrex]

Just now, TomThomas said:

No, Shia Wigham is awesome and they provided some of the funniest moments in the film.

His line to Kitteridge during the train sequence was hilarious.

[TomThomas]

If Mission bombs and Oppenheimer underperforms, but Barbie does something like 180 mln opening weekend in US alone, audiences have zero right to complain about Hollywood making garbage or use high ticket price excuse to ignore good stuff, you get exactly what you pay for, it's as simple as that.

[Maggie]

Oppenheimer won't underperform. And Barbie is good apparently. SO yeah...people crave original, fresh things

[ZattMurdock]

5 minutes ago, TomThomas said:

If Mission bombs and Oppenheimer underperforms, but Barbie does something like 180 mln opening weekend in US alone, audiences have zero right to complain about Hollywood making garbage or use high ticket price excuse to ignore good stuff, you get exactly what you pay for, it's as simple as that.

That’s… a take, I guess. Hating on Barbie because the films that you are anticipating might not perform as well as you are hoping for it’s not a good look. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by ZattMurdock

[TomThomas]

Just now, Maggie said:

Oppenheimer won't underperform. And Barbie is good apparently. SO yeah...people crave original, fresh things

We haven't seen actual reviews for Barbie yet, most of current reactions are from influencers and not actual critics. You do realize Barbie is not fresh or original, right? It's literally a silly toy commercial, we already have plenty of them, it's the same IP stuff.

[Maggie]

1 minute ago, ZattMurdock said:

That’s… a take, I guess. Hating on Barbie because your films that you are anticipating might not perform as well as you are hoping for it’s not a good look. 

Yeah, it's really lame