WONKA WEEKEND THREAD | $39 million OW for WONKA | Timothee supremacy has arrived!

[Bumblebee]

Hiding the music for the trailers and marketing seems silly to me. If you don't want to show a musical for fear of it bombing, don't make a musical! 

 

I know the Gene Wilder movie is famous for its very earwormy songs but there are plenty of stories e.g. Oliver Twist which have been both musicals and plain films/TV. They're not being forced.

[grim22]

5 minutes ago, Skim Beeble said:

I'm kind of surprised by the idea people would go into this movie not expecting a musical. It's Willy Wonka, plus there were a couple of shots in the trailers that hinted at it being a musical, but I guess they were blink and you'll miss it type shots.

The most recent Willy Wonka movie wasn't a musical, so it's not surprising that people aren't expecting this to be one. Johnny Depp was in a musical which hid it was a musical in the trailer as well with Sweeney Todd where the only clue it might be a musical was one line where Depp says "I will have my vengeance" in a sing song manner but that can be written off as Depp being Depp.

[filmlover]

Pretty good start, though that 52% male/48% female demographic breakdown  is a bit of a surprise considering how much the marketing for this has been targeting the latter demo. Let's see if that changes over the rest of the weekend + the holidays.

[grim22]

7 minutes ago, marveldcfox said:

It is garbage just like Hollywood musicals. Worst genre invented by Hollywood/western folks. Bollywood does song and dance eons better than stupid Hollywood. They should stick to giant movies with tons of CGI.

I think about this missed opportunity a lot

 

 

 

There was a genuine opportunity for a viral moment with a good full on Bollywood style song and dance. Instead we got whatever that nonsense is in the clip. Kumail looks like he hasn't danced a day in his life.

 

From what I gather, The Marvels has a similar missed opportunity with K-pop.

[marveldcfox]

11 minutes ago, grim22 said:

I think about this missed opportunity a lot

 

 

 

There was a genuine opportunity for a viral moment with a good full on Bollywood style song and dance. Instead we got whatever that nonsense is in the clip. Kumail looks like he hasn't danced a day in his life.

 

From what I gather, The Marvels has a similar missed opportunity with K-pop.

Like I said musicals/dance numbers are not Hollywood's forte. They look so lame in comparison. Marvel has been sucking balls for quite sometime so that kumail number doesn't surprise me. They anyways have always shown India and Indian things in their movies poorly. It is funny how India always laps up the movies, but just watch all movies with anything Indian in it. It is always caricaturish and poorly done. 

On the other hand they have a hard on for everything Pakistani. It brings smile that Ms. Marvel is a giant flop on streaming and big screen numbers wise. 

[Eric Loves Rey]

31 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

The real question to me is, why the fuck are they even greenlighting musicals at that point? If they think audiences hate them would it not be easier to just, uh...greenlight something else? Boggles my mind.

I mean I kind of get it, if only because Wonka and Color Purple and Mean Girls all exist as exercises in nostalgia pandering (alas, Color Purple and Mean Girls aren't selling toys so I can't use the NTC term...unless they are making Celie and Regina George Funko Pops), plus the latter two are based off already established and successful stage shows. But I'm not really sure minimizing the musical aspect of these movies in their advertising does anything to bring people in. And even if it does give you a bigger opening, it just means worse WOM.

 

Plus putting out one or two of the songs from your movie in advance is an easy marketing tactic. Like obviously Wish bombed, but I certainly doubt it was because they kept advertising a new song each week. If anything, that was the one thing keeping awareness alive for the movie.

[Sckathian]

Musicals rely on legs and make revenue longer term. Why are people shouting and screaming like most big animation films are not also musicals?

[JustLurking]

12 minutes ago, Eric Wonka said:

I mean I kind of get it, if only because Wonka and Color Purple and Mean Girls all exist as exercises in nostalgia pandering (alas, Color Purple and Mean Girls aren't selling toys so I can't use the NTC term...unless they are making Celie and Regina George Funko Pops), plus the latter two are based off already established and successful stage shows. But I'm not really sure minimizing the musical aspect of these movies in their advertising does anything to bring people in. And even if it does give you a bigger opening, it just means worse WOM.

 

Plus putting out one or two of the songs from your movie in advance is an easy marketing tactic. Like obviously Wish bombed, but I certainly doubt it was because they kept advertising a new song each week. If anything, that was the one thing keeping awareness alive for the movie.

Sure, but like...if they want to pretend Wonka isn't a musical, why didn't they just greenlight a Wonka film that actually wasn't a musical? It's stupid.

[Agafin]

1 hour ago, Giorno said:

Wonka is 83% certified fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Early audience exits on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak are solid at 84% positive and 63% definite recommend with 5 stars from parents and kids under 12. Last night’s audience leaned 52% men, 48% women with 33% guys over 25, 30% women over 25, 22% women under 25, and 16% men under 25.

Deadline seems to have mixed up something there. Those demos add up to 52% women, not men. Either way, the movie has a pretty even gender split.

[vafrow]

On the question to why the studio would make a musical, and not market it as such, it's worth noting that this was greenlit under a different regime that is in place now, and, Zaslav certainly hasn't shown himself committed to the decisions that were made before he got there.

 

That doesn't speak to the broader trend though, as it's definitely not the only case.

[Morieris]

1 hour ago, grim22 said:

I watched a Hindi movie on Netflix (an adaptation of Archie comics)

 

...This sounds interesting.

1 hour ago, CJohn said:

Smallfoot is a musical?!

 

I liked Zendaya and Common's songs.

[Joel M]

53 minutes ago, grim22 said:

Johnny Depp was in a musical which hid it was a musical in the trailer as well with Sweeney Todd where the only clue it might be a musical was one line where Depp says "I will have my vengeance" in a sing song manner but that can be written off as Depp being Depp.

 

That was a wild one. It was pretty much a sang through musical and they cherry picked all the scenes they don't sing in for the trailer. Even more ridiculous that the recent trend of musicals that just have a bunch of songs in them.

[ChipDerby]

1 hour ago, CoolioD1 said:

Yeah, I guess i know too much about movies i see beforehand that I've never been surprised like that but I know I'd like it. If i saw Aquaman 2 next week and it was a musical, i think that'd be nice!

 

I would DIE if Oceanmaster broke out into his Freddie Mercury impression.

[lorddemaxus]

1 hour ago, marveldcfox said:

Like I said musicals/dance numbers are not Hollywood's forte.

I mean Im guessing youre only talking about the last 40 years or so (I mean I'm guessing when you're calling it the worst genre Hollywood invented, you're talking about like Cats or Into the Woods)

Edited December 15, 2023 by lorddemaxus

[KC7]

2 hours ago, grim22 said:

The most recent Willy Wonka movie wasn't a musical, so it's not surprising that people aren't expecting this to be one. Johnny Depp was in a musical which hid it was a musical in the trailer as well with Sweeney Todd where the only clue it might be a musical was one line where Depp says "I will have my vengeance" in a sing song manner but that can be written off as Depp being Depp.

 

Was there a more recent Willy Wonka movie than the Depp one, because that was a musical.

 

 

 

 

 

[Spidey Freak]

2 hours ago, Morieris said:

...This sounds interesting.

 

The Archie Comics account has been tweeting up a storm about it. Been intending to check it out over the weekend.

[MovieMan89]

Musical but don’t market musical isn’t a terrible idea. It means that “I don’t like musical” people aren’t put off by it in the marketing, and if it’s a crowd pleaser, they probably will still end up liking it regardless of the music. Meanwhile, there’s no expectations for the songs, but if the ST takes off, then WOM and legs go even higher. This movie has always been in an unusual spot where the songs can potentially help it, but I don’t think they will hurt it. Unlike say a WDAS musical, where weak music is usually gonna hurt it. 

[cannastop]

[filmlover]

Studios are continuing to make musicals for the same reasons they're making movies across other genres: the hope that something will stick in this particular post-COVID environment that unfortunately doesn't seem to favor a trip to the movies these days, outside of the occasional movie that catches "certified event" status.

 

Why they're not marketing them as such? Who knows, maybe they're just hoping the IP alone in the case of some of these movies will carry the day. Which could backfire in the case of something like Mean Girls (whose current marketing campaign is hiding its musical numbers and is otherwise promising what looks like a fairly literal remake of a movie that's not that old).

[joselowe]

FYI for those complaining WB is clearly marketing The Color Purple as a musical and it’s likely going to either win December or be a close 2nd domestically. Musicals sell it’s just a matter of marketing to the audience they are trying to reach.