Weekend Thread 7/28-7/30 - Barbenheimer Week 2; Barbie 93M/Oppy 46.2M - Haunted Mansion & Talk to Me OW; Mansion 24.2M, Talk 10M

[Hildagarde25]

4 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

124 million tickets sold in America for Doctor Zhivago. That will never happen again, certainly not for a drama movie featuring very little action. Titanic had a solid 90 minutes of major action/spectacle, which helps explain massive ticket sales in modern times. 

 

Zhivago is a really interestig case to me. I watch a lot of old movies. Usually, with the big ones, I can understand why they were successful, regardless whether I like or don't like them personally. However, I don't get the domestic success for Zhivago  Gone with the Wind, yes. Ben Hur, yes. Love Story, yes. Titanic, yes. But Zhivago drags as a film, and the love story isn't that romantic, imo. I feel like it's one of those films that hasn't held up like the others, but again, just my perspective.  

[MovieMan89]

Killers not easily crossing 100 would be shocking given the history of DiScorsese and the reviews. If people are this here for Opp, maybe 200 is possible? 

[Brainbug]

One thing that definetly helps Barbie, Oppenheimer and all other movies in central and western europe right now is the incredibly shitty weather. Its raining consistently in many parts of Germany for days now for example. Europeans flock to theaters when its rainy and coupled with the great WOM, this can skyrocket holds.

 

Oh btw the weather atleast in Germany looks very shitty for the next 7 Days as well.

[Joel M]

25 minutes ago, baumer said:

My knowledge of the box office is pretty vague before jaws. I know the Exorcist was a huge grossing film as was The Godfather what if I had to put money on it I would say probably the sound of freedom was the biggest grossing film worldwide before The Godfather but I could be wrong.

 

Data are iffy before Jaws but the line-up of record breakers from what I remember goes:

-Gone with the Wind was #1 for over 2 decades through various re-releases

-Sound of Music broke the record.

-GWTW retook the record in late 60s from another massive re-release

-Godfather took the record from GWTW and was later beaten by Jaws

-The Exorcist and The Sting that released in late '73 and have bigger final totals than the Godfather I've never seen anywhere a claim that they actually ever took the record. So If/when they passed the Godfather, Jaws most likely had already passed them all so there was no record to be broken. 

[MovieMan89]

4 minutes ago, Hildagarde25 said:

 

Zhivago is a really interestig case to me. I watch a lot of old movies. Usually, with the big ones, I can understand why they were successful, regardless whether I like or don't like them personally. However, I don't get the domestic success for Zhivago  Gone with the Wind, yes. Ben Hur, yes. Love Story, yes. Titanic, yes. But Zhivago drags as a film, and the love story isn't that romantic, imo. I feel like it's one of those films that hasn't held up like the others, but again, just my perspective.  

Idk, my mom has always gone on and on about that one so it doesn’t shock me as much that it was huge. Obviously it really resonated with older gens (weird to think she woulda been a teen, but teens are seeing Opp rn). 

Edited July 31, 2023 by MovieMan89

[IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son]

 

BRUH 💀💀💀

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/haunted-mansion-flops-disney-halloween-release-1235683293/

[Celedhring]

1 minute ago, Hildagarde25 said:

 

Zhivago is a really interestig case to me. I watch a lot of old movies. Usually, with the big ones, I can understand why they were successful, regardless whether I like or don't like them personally. However, I don't get the domestic success for Zhivago  Gone with the Wind, yes. Ben Hur, yes. Love Story, yes. Titanic, yes. But Zhivago drags as a film, and the love story isn't that romantic, imo. I feel like it's one of those films that hasn't held up like the others, but again, just my perspective.  

 

The book was hugely popular when the film came out, and Pasternak became a bit of a symbol of the Cold War. I agree the movie is one of Lean's lesser works, but its success is not surprising.

[MovieMan89]

Screaming from the mountain top again that THM marketing was abysmal and the release date is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like releasing The Grinch a few weeks before Halloween instead of a month later. 

[1Robert1]

if barbie will be on hbo max 45 days after release wouldnt it kill dreams about 1.5 bln ?

Edited July 31, 2023 by 1Robert1

[redfirebird2008]

8 minutes ago, Hildagarde25 said:

 

Zhivago is a really interestig case to me. I watch a lot of old movies. Usually, with the big ones, I can understand why they were successful, regardless whether I like or don't like them personally. However, I don't get the domestic success for Zhivago  Gone with the Wind, yes. Ben Hur, yes. Love Story, yes. Titanic, yes. But Zhivago drags as a film, and the love story isn't that romantic, imo. I feel like it's one of those films that hasn't held up like the others, but again, just my perspective.  

 

I watched Zhivago yesterday with my Dad. It's a good movie, well-made by a great director. Very nice visuals & photography. The music is pretty catchy. Epic scale dealing with Russian historical stuff that was probably interesting to people in 1965, the peak of the Cold War.

 

Also seems Zhivago benefited from earlier movies by David Lean such as Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Thunderball was a bigger movie than Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, and Dr. No. Similar deal here with Zhivago compared to David Lean's earlier movies. He gained more and more audience over time and it peaked with Zhivago. 

[keysersoze123]

Wait Haunted Mansion did 9.1m in 35 markets internationally. That is a spectacular bomb. I am not expecting legs to be good as well. It still has few markets but probably will bomb everywhere. This could take the crown of being the biggest bomb of the year !!! Why on earth did they release this in the summer. 

 

Quote

Iceland August 2, 2023
Hong Kong August 3, 2023
Estonia August 4, 2023
Singapore August 9, 2023
Denmark August 10, 2023
Taiwan August 10, 2023
Cameroon August 11, 2023
Finland August 11, 2023
United Kingdom August 11, 2023
Ireland August 11, 2023
India August 11, 2023
Sweden August 11, 2023
Turkey August 11, 2023
Italy August 23, 2023
Australia August 31, 2023
Japan September 1, 2023

 

[MovieMan89]

it is truly exciting this year has seen 3 non-sequels (one non-ip), none of which are part of a popular blockbuster genre like cbms or an existing film franchise, be the 3 biggest movies of the year. And not even biggest with an asterisk, simply the top 3 grossers period. If the strike situation wasn’t happening, this could be the most exciting time for the future of blockbusters since the trends we’ve ridden this whole century up until now started in the early 00s. 

[vale9001]

Just Imagine if today Hollywood would cast an egyptian and muslim actor like Sharif to make a pure Russian White character. 

The fact social media made the public conversation more regressive than 60 years ago 🙃

 

[ringedmortality]

2 minutes ago, keysersoze123 said:

Wait Haunted Mansion did 9.1m in 35 markets internationally. That is a spectacular bomb. I am not expecting legs to be good as well. It still has few markets but probably will bomb everywhere. This could take the crown of being the biggest bomb of the year !!! Why on earth did they release this in the summer. 

 

 

 

Bigger than Indie and Flash?

[abracadabra1998]

2 hours ago, IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son said:

All of a sudden Barbenheimer > TWOW is looking like a possibility

Thought you were talking about The Winds of Winter for a sec, goddammit G.R.R.Martin finish your damn boom

[IronJimbo & Sheldon's Son]

10 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Screaming from the mountain top again that THM marketing was abysmal and the release date is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like releasing The Grinch a few weeks before Halloween instead of a month later. 

While the DOM OW is terrible, it seems they left it out to die overseas, in Korea for example it grossed just $73k from 10k admissions over the entire 5-day opening weekend lol

[dudalb]

29 minutes ago, Arlborn said:

It’s incredibly frustrating how fake news like that still spreads and manipulates people so easily. Anecdotal as well but I’ve seen the exact same narrative being spread in Brazil in some conservative circles before Sony had even thought about seeking international distribution for this.

People just swallow nonsense like this right up.

With terrible consequences. See Germany, 1933-1945 for details.

[Hildagarde25]

4 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

I watched Zhivago yesterday with my Dad. It's a good movie, well-made by a great director. Very nice visuals & photography. The music is pretty catchy. Epic scale dealing with Russian historical stuff that was probably interesting to people in 1965, the peak of the Cold War.

 

Also seems Zhivago benefited from earlier movies by David Lean such as Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Thunderball was a bigger movie than Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, and Dr. No. Similar deal here with Zhivago compared to David Lean's earlier movies. He gained more and more audience over time and it peaked with Zhivago. 

 

That makes sense with what you and other posters said about the historical context and the book. I also agree about the probable goodwill for Lean. I like his Great Expectations, Lawrence of Arabia (even if its history is suspect), Oliver Twist (tho I like Oliver! better), and Madeleine, so kind of like Nolan, peope just saw his movies by Zhivago. The music is very nice.   

[MovieMan89]

Like think about Barbie, Mario, and Opp beating stuff like two MCU sequels, Spidey, The Little Mermaid, Indy, Mission Impossible, Fast and Furious, etc… every single studio exec in existence would have laughed you out of the building a mere few years ago. Hell, probably just a few months ago. 

[Joel M]

Zhivago was a humongous hit in its time and possibly second ony to Sound of Music in the 60s but those admissions are probably bogus like all the old jaggernauts admissions numbers. We'll never know when and at what prices they made all their money. Movies kept returning to theatres before the creation of home video because it was the only way to see them. Zhivago didn't made 110m in 1965, so I highly doubt it sold tickets on par with Titanic.