Weekend Thread (11/17-19) | Early Deadline #s - Songbirds 5.75-6M Previews, Trolls 2M

[Kon]

21 minutes ago, Dreadnought said:

 

Cynical corporate bullshit like the whole Barbenheimer marketing phenomenon?

 

I thought Barbie was exhilarating when I first watched in theatres but a re-watch at home was less than kind. IMO, it was lucky to have such pervasive marketing from the studio as well as the Barbie brand behind it.

 

Exactly.

 

I think Barbie has an interesting story, but the reason why it turns into a box office juggernaut is due to the way it was promoted. The marketing really knew what aspects of the movie sell.

 

Another thing, although Barbie has cast promotion until one week before the premiere, the hype for this movie started with the trailers (before actors started to promote).

Edited November 18, 2023 by Kon

[filmlover]

Thanksgiving is looking to be the only true success story of the weekend thanks to the budget being so small. What a bleak November.

[Kon]

19 minutes ago, MovieMan89 said:

Mario is exactly what people wanted from a Mario movie. If they made something with a more intricate plot that didn’t feel true to Mario, it probably would have been a critical hit and a box office drop in the bucket tbh.
 

Marvels on the other hand is exactly what no one wants from MCU. People do expect compelling stories and meaningful stakes from that franchise, and The Marvels ain’t it. So that’s the difference when we’re talking appealing blockbusters. Do right by your franchise/audience. 

 

This is true. The blockbusters need to give their audience what they want (although this isn't always so clear).

 

In the case of The Marvels, there seems to be a really lack of interest on the concept. So, it will be difficult to appeal a bigger audience even with a better story.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Kon

[ringedmortality]

14 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Thanksgiving is looking to be the only true success story of the weekend thanks to the budget being so small. What a bleak November.

 

What's the budget for trolls anyway

[Grebacio]

13 hours ago, Blue35 said:

RT audience score for the hunger games is 90%, and 4.5/5 stars.

 

Maybe positive WOM will help it

 Audience Score now at 92%

[filmlover]

4 minutes ago, ringedmortality said:

 

What's the budget for trolls anyway

$95M 

 

Hunger Games Prequel Box Office Opening Weekend Estimates (variety.com)

[MovieMan89]

DWA are honestly S tier with responsible budgets in modern times, love them or hate them. Trolls can actually be a break even save face for them even with such blah box office numbers. 

[The Wild Eric]

I said this before, but Hunger Games as a concept and aesthetic felt instantly dated in a post-Trump/Bolsonaro world, so having something that has no stars and is pretty seeped in the 2010s and hasn’t really maintained as much relevance compared to other franchises that dropped around that time…posting solidly respectable numbers…yeah, I legit think it’s fine. No coping at all here, at least for me.

[ringedmortality]

1 minute ago, Eric Gray Baird said:

I said this before, but Hunger Games as a concept and aesthetic felt instantly dated in a post-Trump/Bolsonaro world, so having something that has no stars and is pretty seeped in the 2010s and hasn’t really maintained as much relevance compared to other franchises that dropped around that time…posting solidly respectable numbers…yeah, I legit think it’s fine. No coping at all here, at least for me.

 

I also don't see it as being a disaster compared to it's budget like some people are claiming? It seems like okay numbers for that budget does it not?

[MovieMan89]

I didn’t think the budget was as low as it is for THG until finding out recently, so that certainly makes a lot more sense why LG greenlit it in the first place now. I think 450 WW was like your hard ceiling for this regardless, so cheap was the only way. 

[filmlover]

Just now, Eric Gray Baird said:

I said this before, but Hunger Games as a concept and aesthetic felt instantly dated in a post-Trump/Bolsonaro world, so having something that has no stars and is pretty seeped in the 2010s and hasn’t really maintained as much relevance compared to other franchises that dropped around that time…posting solidly respectable numbers…yeah, I legit think it’s fine. No coping at all here, at least for me.

It's not an awful launch for the reasons you mentioned (especially when reviving book franchises long past their point of popularity can result in implosion, see: Inferno or The Girl in the Spider's Web), but I don't think Lionsgate is celebrating a $40M-ish opening considering this did have quite the cast promo tour behind it, unlike pretty much every movie in recent months. The fact they started running ads that highlighted clips from the JLaw movies was an indication tracking wasn't where they wanted it to be. But hey, it's a prequel that wasn't getting a sequel regardless, so the humiliation for this franchise's fall is less embarrassing than others that sputtered this year.

[Issac Newton]

11 hours ago, Ezen Baklattan said:

Any Next Goal Wins numbers?

Quote

Outside the top 5 is Searchlight's Next Goal Wins which is seeing $817K, and a $2.2M very low opening at 2,240 theaters.

 

Seems like Previews weren't reported. Deadline Projection For Friday/OW.

[filmlover]

Next Goal Wins has to be one of the more blatant examples of a This Had Oscar Buzz in quite some time, though perhaps the only appropriate ending to its strange journey to release. Taika going from seemingly being on the brink of taking over Hollywood to "nobody really cares anymore" status within just a few years is reminiscent of folks with similar "big name today, no longer an A-lister tomorrow" trajectories like Judd Apatow and Seth MacFarlane (who maintain active careers today of course, but are hardly the dominant forces that they seemed once destined to be at one point).

[keysersoze123]

What was the Marvels number again?

[Zakiyyah6]

I don't believe that 3.5M number for The Marvels but I acknowledge that I could be wrong and Deadline could be dead on. 

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, keysersoze123 said:

What was the Marvels number again?

$3.5M from Deadline. Considering the theaters near me seemed to be selling well during peak hours tonight with the limited space/very much reduced showtimes they had from last weekend's oversaturation, it checks out.

[DAJK]

16 minutes ago, Eric Gray Baird said:

I said this before, but Hunger Games as a concept and aesthetic felt instantly dated in a post-Trump/Bolsonaro world, so having something that has no stars and is pretty seeped in the 2010s and hasn’t really maintained as much relevance compared to other franchises that dropped around that time…posting solidly respectable numbers…yeah, I legit think it’s fine. No coping at all here, at least for me.

Perhaps it’s just me being Canadian and not having lived in America, but this feels like a weird take. YA dystopia being “dated” nowadays really doesn’t seem to be the root of the issue at all as to why the genre fell off.

[Mulder]

Just now, DAJK said:

Perhaps it’s just me being Canadian and not having lived in America, but this feels like a weird take. YA dystopia being “dated” nowadays really doesn’t seem to be the root of the issue at all as to why the genre fell off.

I've seen it said from other people besides Eric in analysis of why the genre started to collapse. 

[keysersoze123]

Just now, filmlover said:

$3.5M from Deadline. Considering the theaters near me seemed to be selling well during peak hours tonight with the limited space/very much reduced showtimes they had from last weekend's oversaturation, it checks out.

[Blue35]

1 minute ago, DAJK said:

Perhaps it’s just me being Canadian and not having lived in America, but this feels like a weird take. YA dystopia being “dated” nowadays really doesn’t seem to be the root of the issue at all as to why the genre fell off.

YA fell off because the hunger games books and movies were legitimately good, and then a bunch of mediocre knockoffs came and turned people off of YA.