Weekend Thread | The Boy and The Heron $12.97M, Godzilla -1.0 $8.59M

[MightyDargon]

This wasn't a bad year overall but a horrible year for WB. Only Barbie worked. Literally everything else bombed. If Barbie wasn't the top film we'd be making "when does Zaslav get a helicopter flight" jokes.

 

And I say this because Zaslav can't capitalize off Barbie since no sequel has been greenlit and the cast hasn't been resigned AND the entire DC brand is in the toilet AND the animation community literally hates them because of Coyote vs. Acme's fate.

Edited December 10, 2023 by MightyDargon

[ZeroHour]

8 minutes ago, cannastop said:

hmm IDK. With Oppenheimer I was excited because so many other people were excited (and because it looked like a cool movie). But with Boy and the Heron I just knew Hayao Miyazaki's work from his other movies.

Yeah there are always going to be some huge event films that hit the zeitgeist and create a lot of FOMO but if you love animation (which I know you do) a new Miyazaki was always going to be an EVENT that you’re going to want to see in a theater (instead of waiting for streaming). Godzilla has a similar sort of following. 

[Bob Train]

5 minutes ago, filmlover said:

The writing was on the wall for all of these well before they opened heh.

 

This year really lacked a Smile or a The Lost City or a Bullet Train, etc. 

The tracking team makes it so that any surprise hit would be picked up on, and thus not be a surprise. Barbie/Oppenheimer having mega openings were not surprising because everyone knew they would happen due to tracking. Mario overperformed from ≈$150m 5-day opening projections to $200m+...But only because of the added volatility of a 5-day opening.

[Issac Newton]

Anselm

 

$43K (2 Theatres) at NYC

 

Expanding to LA next Weekend ~

[MightyDargon]

2 minutes ago, Bob Train said:

The tracking team makes it so that any surprise hit would be picked up on, and thus not be a surprise. Barbie/Oppenheimer having mega openings were not surprising because everyone knew they would happen due to tracking. Mario overperformed from ≈$150m 5-day opening projections to $200m+...But only because of the added volatility of a 5-day opening.

Oppenheimer doing well as it did was a surprise. A lot of the earlier discussion was MI vs Barbie and people didn't know which of those would open higher. Oppenheimer was seen as something that would be lucky to do about 200 mil or so.

[Brainbug]

4 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

This wasn't a bad year overall but a horrible year for WB. Only Barbie worked. Literally everything else bombed. If Barbie wasn't the top film we'd be making "when does Zaslav get a helicopter flight" jokes

 

Disneys year was even worse though. Literally the only movie that worked was GOTG Vol 3 and Elemental was a very mild success in the end too. Everything else was a disappointment if not a horrible bomb:

 

Ant-Man 3: A major underperformer and maybe responsible for sinking the entire MCU/Superhero genre
The Creator: A Flop.

The Little Mermaid: Against its giant budget, this has to be considered as a disappointment

Haunted Mansion: A horrible Bomb
Indiana Jones 5: A gigantic bomb
The Marvels: Maybe the biggest disaster of the decade so far
Wish: A colossal Bomb

 

This is probably the worst year for Disney in decades.

[cannastop]

7 minutes ago, ZeroHour said:

FOMO

Especially with the IMAX and the IMAX 70mm events.

[Issac Newton]

The Boy and The Heron

 

$12.836M

Edited December 10, 2023 by Issac Newton

[filmlover]

Both Barbie and Oppenheimer definitely beat original expectations, though I'd say the latter was ultimately much more of a surprise than the former (which had undeniable buzz from the moment the first photo of Robbie as Barbie was released and never lost it).

[filmlover]

17 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

This wasn't a bad year overall but a horrible year for WB. Only Barbie worked. Literally everything else bombed. If Barbie wasn't the top film we'd be making "when does Zaslav get a helicopter flight" jokes.

 

And I say this because Zaslav can't capitalize off Barbie since no sequel has been greenlit and the cast hasn't been resigned AND the entire DC brand is in the toilet AND the animation community literally hates them because of Coyote vs. Acme's fate.

Evil Dead and The Nun 2 did well as low-budget horror movies. And Meg 2 had solid overseas numbers to make up for its domestic flopping. Otherwise, yeah.

[ZeroHour]

16 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

This wasn't a bad year overall but a horrible year for WB. Only Barbie worked. Literally everything else bombed. If Barbie wasn't the top film we'd be making "when does Zaslav get a helicopter flight" jokes.

 

And I say this because Zaslav can't capitalize off Barbie since no sequel has been greenlit and the cast hasn't been resigned AND the entire DC brand is in the toilet AND the animation community literally hates them because of Coyote vs. Acme's fate.

It was also a bad year for Disney, a bad year for Paramount…Universal had a good year, I think. This year looks better on paper than 2022 because there was a lot more product but we saw a ton of blockbusters crash and burn. 

[cannastop]

10 minutes ago, Issac Newton said:

The Boy and The Heron

 

$12.8M

Boy and the Heron is also the first 2D animated feature not based on existing IP to top the weekend box office since 2009’s The Princess and the Frog from Disney. ($24.2M wide opening).

So they don't count the 2011 Lion King re release or the other anime movies that could have done this...

[filmlover]

3 minutes ago, ZeroHour said:

It was also a bad year for Disney, a bad year for Paramount…Universal had a good year, I think. This year looks better on paper than 2022 because there was a lot more product but we saw a ton of blockbusters crash and burn. 

I think Universal's only notable misses this year were Renfield, Ruby Gillman, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Strays. Oh, and Exorcist was likely a massive disappointment considering how much they paid for the rights, even if its overall box office numbers were respectable enough. And they probably expected more from Trolls in its theatrical return (with Migration looking like it won't fare much better). None of these were nearly as expensive as the unprofitable product from other studios though so...

Edited December 10, 2023 by filmlover

[Brainbug]

23 minutes ago, ZeroHour said:

Yeah there are always going to be some huge event films that hit the zeitgeist and create a lot of FOMO but if you love animation (which I know you do) a new Miyazaki was always going to be an EVENT that you’re going to want to see in a theater (instead of waiting for streaming). Godzilla has a similar sort of following. 

 

I completely agree. I think one aspect that cant be underestimated is the power of YouTube hype these days. The best example for that is probably Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Practically every YouTube movie review channel raved about it and the same happened right now with Godzilla Minus One. Millions of people are watching these channels. If even a fraction of them go to the theater because of this online hype, thats already quite a big number of people.

[AniNate]

I suppose universal's model will be what the rest of the studios need to follow. I don't like to harp on budgets, but clearly Disney can't afford to spend $200 million on everything anymore, and I imagine whatever originals are in their pipeline will be seeing their resources slashed. Might not end up being a bad thing if it forces a revival of 2D features

[JustLurking]

32 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

This wasn't a bad year overall but a horrible year for WB. Only Barbie worked. Literally everything else bombed. If Barbie wasn't the top film we'd be making "when does Zaslav get a helicopter flight" jokes.

 

And I say this because Zaslav can't capitalize off Barbie since no sequel has been greenlit and the cast hasn't been resigned AND the entire DC brand is in the toilet AND the animation community literally hates them because of Coyote vs. Acme's fate.

Not really true? Evil dead rise, Nun 2, Meg 2 (since they're splitting the costs with a Chinese company), with very likely Wonka and perhaps TCP were modest hits for them

 

In fact if you exclude the absolute disaster that is the DCEU the year really was not bad for WB overall, it's really just their DCEU bombs that are so bad they make it look terrible

Edited December 10, 2023 by JustLurking

[Issac Newton]

The Boy and The Heron

 

$2,390,000 Previews

 

$5,588,202 Friday (incl. Previews)

$3,992,926 Saturday (-29%)

$3,255,185 Sunday (-18%)

 

$12,836,313 Total

 

All Breakdown via @The Numbers

Edited December 10, 2023 by Issac Newton

[Brainbug]

Just now, AniNate said:

I suppose universal's model will be what the rest of the studios need to follow. I don't like to harp on budgets, but clearly Disney can't afford to spend $200 million on everything anymore, and I imagine whatever originals are in their pipeline will be seeing their resources slashed. Might not end up being a bad thing if it forces a revival of 2D features

 

 

Thats my personal dream, that Disney (and other studios, why not) try 2D animation again. The anime boom of the last decade has in part something to do with people wanting this timeless style of animation back. 3D animation is great and all but i cant be the only one who thinks that something like The Lion King is as beloved as it is because of the 2D animation. This style is just so much more expressive and imaginitive.

[AniNate]

3 minutes ago, AniNate said:

I suppose universal's model will be what the rest of the studios need to follow. I don't like to harp on budgets, but clearly Disney can't afford to spend $200 million on everything anymore, and I imagine whatever originals are in their pipeline will be seeing their resources slashed. Might not end up being a bad thing if it forces a revival of 2D features

 

Although more likely is they'll just move all their animation work to cheaper countries like the other studios, which would suck

[abracadabra1998]

37 minutes ago, filmlover said:

The writing was on the wall for all of these well before they opened heh.

 

This year really lacked a Smile or a The Lost City or a Bullet Train, etc. 

 

M3gan but yeah other than that I agree