WEEKEND THREAD | Wonka 14.4, Night Swim 12, Aqua 10.6, Migration 10.2, Anyone But You 9.5 (increased from last weekend!)

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

27 minutes ago, RichWS said:

American Fiction might have broken the record for amount of TV ads I've seen for a movie that isn't playing ANYWHERE near me. It's gotta be three weeks now. Having strong "this movie isn't real" syndrome kick in.

I think they are timing a wide(r) release to the Oscar nominations being announced, which would be rather old school and risky if the Academy snubs it. Outside of the Covid years I can't remember a TIFF winner that hadn't gotten to at least 600-800 theaters by the end of December.

 

American Fiction was surprisingly the Regal Mystery Movie/AMC Screen Unseen pick in late November, which is how I saw it. Maybe Amazon/MGM thinks that sort of counts towards a regular theatrical release?

[AniNate]

Looks like one local arthouse will be getting it next weekend

[filmlover]

1 hour ago, AniNate said:

Oz leaned into the same kind of kooky gothic aesthetic that the Burton Alice did three years earlier, and I imagine that was a factor in it getting greenlit and Sam Raimi being hired to direct it. Those have a better time when they're associated with the Disney brand than something like John Carter does.

It also leaned in on nostalgia for the Judy Garland movie (black and white prologue that turns to color once we're in Oz, etc.) in ways the earlier failed attempts by Hollywood to mine the IP did not (though pretty sure Disney tried upon release to convince the world that Return to Oz was an unofficial sequel to the 1939 classic despite being nothing like it in tone and ended up totally rejected with a stunningly terrible total even for Summer of '85, The Wiz on the other hand was probably just a crushing disappointment given the property + all the talent involved).

[MovieMan89]

39 minutes ago, AniNate said:

I don't recall it being that huge a surprise when it came out. It presented itself as another cog in the "big budget fantasy remake" machine and it went in and out like most of their big budget fantasies do.

Yeah, after Alice being in the top 5 all time grossers for a minute, Oz’s success was not seen as any kind of big surprise from what I remember. I think there were even more 300 predictions floating than outright flop predictions. 

[DAJK]

Beekeeper EA was selling well, but I missed the final number unfortunately. Strong gross though, there’s definitely interest here.

[Eric Furiosa]

2 minutes ago, DAJK said:

Beekeeper EA was selling well, but I missed the final number unfortunately. Strong gross though, there’s definitely interest here.

Sounds great. Very glad Jerry Seinfeld got that weird bee movie project he was working on off the ground and it's finding success.

[Kon]

 

It's still surprising how fast TCP has fallen.

 

[TRISTAN]

8 hours ago, Krissykins said:

Not much different I guess from Stallone and Schwarzenegger being leading men/draws for a while. Although neither of them are anywhere close to as attractive as Evans and Cavill. 

Schwarzenegger had tons of charisma which Evans clearly doesn't have. Schwarzenegger name was enough  for people to go to see the movie.

Edited January 7 by TRISTAN

[BadOlCatSylvester]

7 hours ago, Joel M said:

Night Swim was just garbage. Good on Blumhouse for still making money, but I feel they used to have better quality control even for their lower profile stuff. I also saw Poor Things which was amazing and it's kind of hilarious that here it plays like a blockbuster because of Lanthimos. Most packed theatre I've been in since Oppenheimer.

 

Also ABY does not even have a release date here yet. I assume some countries were waiting to see how it 'll play  in the anglosphere first where the stars are more well known, and now after the breakout they 'll probably set it for Valentine's Day.

Anyone But You was originally planned to be released on December 29th in my homeland, but its theatrical release got cancelled on the 4th of that month. After seeing how it's performing in America I also wonder if our distributor will change its mind, or simply wait for it to drop on Netflix in America and simultaneously have it there in my homeland as well. We have a big mandatory 5-month theatrical window here, and Disney cancelled the Bob's Burgers movie here in order to circumvent that and have it on Disney+ at the same time as it landed on Hulu in America. Sony could simply do that too.

[Spidey Freak]

6 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

 

I will never forget all the people at my Into the Woods screening who thought it was over after Act 1 and started getting up to leave lol. By the end they seemingly wished they had—a lot of grumbling out of the theater. It did not seem to be what people were expecting.

 

Into The Woods Act 2 walked so that Dune Messiah could run

[Hatebox]

12 hours ago, Krissykins said:

Not much different I guess from Stallone and Schwarzenegger being leading men/draws for a while. Although neither of them are anywhere close to as attractive as Evans and Cavill. 

I think difference is that in his prime  Schwarzenegger had a real knack for picking quality directors and it often paid off. Compare with his supposed descendant Dwayne Johnson who took two decades to realise that constantly picking trash eventually affects your star power

 

 

Edited January 7 by Hatebox

[Krissykins]

13 hours ago, TMP said:

Beyond rampant PED abuse, I’m not sure what else they have in common. Stallone is a great actor with the right material (his big break won Best Picture lol), and Schwarzenegger’s professional high will always be as one of the most influential men in body-building first & foremost; the fact that he starred in a handful of now-classic blockbusters is just another feather to his cap (like the time he was governor lol). Just feels weird to have so many “leading men” without any discernible charisma, which is why Powell feels like such a breath of fresh air

The thing they have in common is they were leading muscle men in very similar countless action films around about the same time. 
 

13 hours ago, Dreadnought said:

 

I'm curious if the people complaining about action leads were alive during the 80s & 90s... or is it just another excuse to complain about superhero movies?

I was, born in 1987. 

[Krissykins]

Anyone But You legs aren’t just specific to the US btw, here in the UK yesterday was its biggest day so far, it’s 12th day of release. 

[Boxofficerules]

The user reviews on Night Swim are bad, I'm expecting bad legs.

[SchumacherFTW]

1 hour ago, Krissykins said:

Anyone But You legs aren’t just specific to the US btw, here in the UK yesterday was its biggest day so far, it’s 12th day of release. 

Make sense, I finally contributed, though my screening only had one other person in 😅

BUT, it was 11am and a Parent & Baby only screening. Anyway, I want 100 more movies like this please. 

[JonathanMB]

2 hours ago, Boxofficerules said:

The user reviews on Night Swim are bad, I'm expecting bad legs.

 

45% verified on RT, damn that's Skinamarink levels. What was even the last 3,000+ theater release to go that low?

[reddevil19]

1 hour ago, SchumacherFTW said:

Make sense, I finally contributed, though my screening only had one other person in 😅

BUT, it was 11am and a Parent & Baby only screening. Anyway, I want 100 more movies like this please. 

Please tell me the one other person was an unaccompanied 2 year old.

[M37]

12 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

I will never forget all the people at my Into the Woods screening who thought it was over after Act 1 and started getting up to leave lol. By the end they seemingly wished they had—a lot of grumbling out of the theater. It did not seem to be what people were expecting.

Ngl, this was our ITW experience 
Went in essentially blind, did not come out a fan 

[Spidey Freak]

5 hours ago, Hatebox said:

I think difference is that in his prime  Schwarzenegger had a real knack for picking quality directors and it often paid off. Compare with his supposed descendant Dwayne Johnson who took two decades to realise that constantly picking trash eventually affects your star power

 

The hierarchy of box office changed

[Torontofan]

2 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

The hierarchy of box office changed

I think the rock is a draw he just in shit work

 

Put him into a quality action movie and it would be a big hit