Weekend Numbers | actuals | 80.01M G×K: THE NEW EMPIRE | 11.35M DUNE II

[charlie Jatinder]

SUN around 49% down from SAT at same time. Could improve to 45% by evening I guess. 80 seems tough.

[reddevil19]

Ouch. That's a hell of a drop.

[Kon]

35 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Nah I don’t buy this at all. Sorry! 
 

The controversy/outrage was purely online and, as shown in the legs, wasn’t reflected in any sort of ongoing interest. 
 

I just find it funny, all that moaning for months and months on end, and then less people went to the “ones they wanted” 🤣🤣. 

 

So, you were trying to be sarcastic with your question.

 

Still, I don't think GB 2016 was really popular between audience. After all, if the hate for GB 2016 was just online, I'm pretty sure we would have a sequel for that (but we didn't).

 

I agree that people believing the original characters were the key for success were wrong, but GB 2016 wasn't a popular direction either.

Edited March 31 by Kon

[Brainbug]

13 minutes ago, reddevil19 said:

Ouch. That's a hell of a drop.

 

Makes sense though since GxK main demo is familys.

[Spidey Freak]

34 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

I seriously cannot understand what is there to worship for 2016 version Ghostbuster. They are equally blah and meh like GB:A and I don't even bother watching GB: FE. 

 

That's not what @Krissykins is saying though? If you had been following social media discussions in 2016 (you're incredibly fortunate if you missed it), the swirl leading up to GB 16 was incredibly toxic for months on end before it even opened and anybody could possibly know the quality of the actual film. The numbers that the film put up were used as some kind of justification that this is what happens when "women steal men's franchise/when grown male fans are disrespected" blah blah. Basically a precursor to "Go woke, go broke".

 

So it's funny that when they brought back the OG cast now as those Lady Ghosbuster hating ppl demanded, it's doing worse than the 2016 film despite near 8 years of inflation. To be fair this is not a good release date but you'd think people who cried for months demanding for this cast would turn up in huge droves? Instead, Frozen Empire is behaving almost identically like The Marvels, a movie that the same crowd would uphold as the pinnacle of floppage without mentioning that it was the only MCU flick that the cast couldn't promote due to the strikes. So convenient and this is why regular people should never pay attention to such spinning, much less studio execs and CEOs 🥱  

 

Edited March 31 by Spidey Freak

[Kon]

9 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

That's not what @Krissykins is saying though? If you had been following social media discussions in 2016 (you're incredibly fortunate if you missed it), the swirl leading up to GB 16 was incredibly toxic for months on end before it even opened and anybody could possibly know the quality of the actual film. The numbers that the film put up were used as some kind of justification that this is what happens when "women steal men's franchise/when grown male fans are disrespected" blah blah. Basically a precursor to "Go woke, go broke".

 

So it's funny that when they brought back the OG cast now as those Lady Ghosbuster hating ppl demanded, it's doing worse than the 2016 film despite near 8 years of inflation. To be fair this is not a good release date but you'd think people who cried for months demanding for this cast would turn up in huge droves? Instead, Frozen Empire is behaving almost identically like The Marvels, a movie that the same crowd would uphold as the pinnacle of floppage without mentioning that it was the only MCU flick that the cast couldn't promote due to the strikes. So convenient and this is why regular people should never pay attention to such spinning, much less studio execs and CEOs 🥱  

 

I mean, it isn't so weird that people ignore cast promotion when Five Nights at Freddy makes almost 80M without cast promotion. If The Marvels was a strong brand, it wouldn't need cast promotion to make more than 50M.

 

It's always possible The Marvels will have exactly the same result with cast promotion. I mean, Disney doesn't seem to believe the lack of cast promotion was really responsible.

 

When we see Captain America 4 box office, we could know if cast promotion would help or not.

Edited March 31 by Kon

[reddevil19]

11 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

 

Makes sense though since GxK main demo is familys.

Ya, but I was hoping it would actually hit 80. Still, nothing to complain about in the end. Hopefully the legs are good from here.

[Bob Train]

1 hour ago, dallas said:

 

disney:

 

 

[titanic2187]

20 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

That's not what @Krissykins is saying though? If you had been following social media discussions in 2016 (you're incredibly fortunate if you missed it), the swirl leading up to GB 16 was incredibly toxic for months on end before it even opened and anybody could possibly know the quality of the actual film. The numbers that the film put up were used as some kind of justification that this is what happens when "women steal men's franchise/when grown male fans are disrespected" blah blah. Basically a precursor to "Go woke, go broke".

 

So it's funny that when they brought back the OG cast now as those Lady Ghosbuster hating ppl demanded, it's doing worse than the 2016 film despite near 8 years of inflation. To be fair this is not a good release date but you'd think people who cried for months demanding for this cast would turn up in huge droves? Instead, Frozen Empire is behaving almost identically like The Marvels, a movie that the same crowd would uphold as the pinnacle of floppage without mentioning that it was the only MCU flick that the cast couldn't promote due to the strikes. So convenient and this is why regular people should never pay attention to such spinning, much less studio execs and CEOs 🥱  

 

Actually a movie having less people watching in post-covid era compared to 2016-19 is a very low bar to clear for “celebration”. Pretty much every follow-ups to the movies released in 2016-19 ended up having less attendance. And isn’t GBA has significant less budget compared to GB 2016 too? Must be a success for Sony to greenlit another sequel. 

[dallas]

Why do movies do so well on Christmas but not Easter?

[John Marston]

59 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

That's not what @Krissykins is saying though? If you had been following social media discussions in 2016 (you're incredibly fortunate if you missed it), the swirl leading up to GB 16 was incredibly toxic for months on end before it even opened and anybody could possibly know the quality of the actual film. The numbers that the film put up were used as some kind of justification that this is what happens when "women steal men's franchise/when grown male fans are disrespected" blah blah. Basically a precursor to "Go woke, go broke".

 

So it's funny that when they brought back the OG cast now as those Lady Ghosbuster hating ppl demanded, it's doing worse than the 2016 film despite near 8 years of inflation. To be fair this is not a good release date but you'd think people who cried for months demanding for this cast would turn up in huge droves? Instead, Frozen Empire is behaving almost identically like The Marvels, a movie that the same crowd would uphold as the pinnacle of floppage without mentioning that it was the only MCU flick that the cast couldn't promote due to the strikes. So convenient and this is why regular people should never pay attention to such spinning, much less studio execs and CEOs 🥱  

 

are you saying somehow The Marvels would have been successful without the strikes? Lolz 

 

Also Frozen Empire as weak as it is doing might still get over The Marvels domestic gross (a sequel to a 1 billion movie) on a much much lower budget 

Edited March 31 by John Marston

[wildphantom]

16 minutes ago, John Marston said:

are you saying somehow The Marvels would have been successful without the strikes? Lolz 

 

Also Frozen Empire as weak as it is doing might still get over The Marvels domestic gross (a sequel to a 1 billion movie) on a much much lower budget 

It’ll cruise past it domestically. By the end of next Sunday, if not Saturday 

Edited March 31 by wildphantom

[Brainbug]

1 hour ago, Spidey Freak said:

 Instead, Frozen Empire is behaving almost identically like The Marvels, a movie that the same crowd would uphold as the pinnacle of floppage without mentioning that it was the only MCU flick that the cast couldn't promote due to the strikes. So convenient and this is why regular people should never pay attention to such spinning, much less studio execs and CEOs 🥱  

 

 

The Marvels would have bombed as hard as it did even if the whole of Hollywood would have promoted it. Promotion and (positive) advertisement (see as well: The Flash with all its celebrity buzz) dont save a movie that is inherently doomed to fail like The Marvels.

[dallas]

https://www.threads.net/@jamesgunn/post/C5Lp9iegCcv/?xmt=AQGz9JLfrmePoepD-jlCyTeQJhoLGnqOwL2tg1lluQPwMA

 

James Gunn congratulating the GxK team on its opening weekend box office.

Edited March 31 by dallas

[Mojoguy]

2 hours ago, reddevil19 said:

Here's the thing...that's probably going to be a disaster. There's a reason Kong works as a protagonist - it's an ape. Giant, yes, but especially within the context of huge chunks of the runtime without any humans, that size is almost irrelevant. It's a very human performance. It's the same reason the new Planet of the Apes movies work so well. You can do a lot of actual emotion and non-verbal communication and expression with such a character. With Godzilla, it's not going to work.

 

Which means that "by delving deeper into the character", they're gonna end up having to rely a lot on some human characters doing the heavy-lifting. And they've clearly been unable to do good human characters in this series. I think that's a direction that might end up putting the breaks on the series again. It's Kong, not Godzilla that's carrying this franchise.

G-1 got it right. Make a great human drama, and have Godzilla show up every once in a while with each time making a huge impact. Also have the same budget as a typical Hollywood catering job for one movie.

[ChipDerby]

2 hours ago, Kon said:

 

So, you were trying to be sarcastic with your question.

 

Still, I don't think GB 2016 was really popular between audience. After all, if the hate for GB 2016 was just online, I'm pretty sure we would have a sequel for that (but we didn't).

 

I agree that people believing the original characters were the key for success were wrong, but GB 2016 wasn't a popular direction either.

 

If you think studios greenlight sequels because the first was well liked, I have a bridge to sell you.

[von Kenni]

Just anecdotally how I feel about Ghostbusters and why I didn't go to see GBFE even though I'm a fan of the original and their cast.

 

I think the IP has been mismanaged by timing and lousy storytelling. There's no reason why GB III wouldn't have been a huge success with the original cast at the end of the 90s or early 2000s IF it would have had a story worth telling, a story found and not created.

 

Then we got a 2016 reboot that threw the original cast out of the window (literally). When I watched it I thought it was in the same "universe" but during the movie, I realized no (I missed the online chatter). I was just wondering why they did this? Reboot the whole thing? Don't they have the creativity to do something new with the original cast? GB2016 had some moments I liked but overall the slapstick comedy didn't work for me and especially the ending made the whole thing feel mediocre at best. As a side note, I've watched almost all of Melissa McCarthy's films but this is at the bottom end for me.

 

Okay, so that's it for GB I thought until I found out about the GBA and possibly seeing the old gang there one FINAL time. Trailers and promotions made me feel that they had captured some of the original DNA and my expectations got high. Saw it and walked out okayish...but deep down I felt mixed. It had potential, and the ingredients were there, but again the story was more created as with 2016 and not found. The original crew appeared mostly just at the very end and almost wheeled on the stage for some arbitrary reason at the very end. Okay, not the best, but at least some closure with the original gang, and now they can go and make stranger things versions with the kids that I probably don't care much seeing (unless the story is there, but what are the chances of that happening...).

 

Then GBFE came and suddenly the old gang is prominently shown in the promotions and the trailer. Based on the trailer and seeing again redone scenes (the mayor's office!) my feelings for this were just apathy at best and mostly indifference. I wasn't expecting a great story and any new original angle to GB so even $5 T-mobile tickets didn't get me to see it. Too little, too late. Maybe if there weren't GB2016 and GBA I would have gone to see this movie, at least 20 years ago, but not now.

 

To sum it up, of course, it's not about just the old characters but for the people that grew up with GB 1 & 2 and loved them, they are a multiplier. I.e. story x execution x characters/original DNA. I don't doubt that the execution is there for GBFE but if the story is just a mixed bag of memberberries, redoing old scenes, a weak baddie, and a million characters without space for character arcs, it's going to be 30% * 80% * 90% = 22% -> rotten for me.

 

In hindsight, they should have done GB III in 2016 with the old gang doing one final appearance and passing the torch to a younger generation (if the franchise money must flow) but with a great script and story and not with weak ones like with GB2016, GBA, GBFE (likely because haven't seen it), or even GB 2. You can't recreate the OG lightning in the bottle. You don't need to, but there's no excuse that with a quarter of a century, you can't make better scripts than the last three have had!?

[Johnny Tran]

2 hours ago, dallas said:

Why do movies do so well on Christmas but not Easter?

 

I would think the weather has something to do with it.  It's not bad in most of the country and it's the first real opportunity to do something outside with the family most years. 

[Kon]

34 minutes ago, ChipDerby said:

 

If you think studios greenlight sequels because the first was well liked, I have a bridge to sell you.

I mean, it would be weird to greenlitt a sequel if a movie isn't liked.

 

After all, if a movie is pretty disliked, it's unlikely its sequel would make a bigger box office.

[Porthos]

3 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

In hindsight, they should have done GB III in 2016 with the old gang doing one final appearance and passing the torch to a younger generation (if the franchise money must flow)

 

Cutting out a lot of the above, but... the main problem with the thesis here is... "they".

 

Who are the "they"?  Paul Feig, who wanted to make GB2016?  The suits who greenlit it?  Producers along the line?  

 

Like the central problem to all of this is, the folks who were most integral in the success of the OG GB didn't really want to make a third GB/agree how to make it.  And then the person who did want to make a new one and convinced Sony to shell out the money for it wasn't interested in the above scenario.

 

In the end, nearly all of the "problems" with the GB franchise can be laid at the feet of the folks involved in the first not really wanting to do more. That really is a near unsurmountable problem. The rest of the problems can be laid at the feet of folks who just can not let Culture War Catnip go by untouched. 

 

(I'd note that it's been nearly EIGHT YEARS since GB2016 and folks are still fighting over it, but then again SW fandom is still feuding about the special editions/prequels so just this is kinda nothing in the grand scheme of things)

 

3 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

but with a great script and story and not with weak ones like with GB2016, GBA, GBFE (likely because haven't seen it), or even GB 2. You can't recreate the OG lightning in the bottle. You don't need to, but there's no excuse that with a quarter of a century, you can't make better scripts than the last three have had!?

 

 

You're begging me to post the "Tell 'im Wash" clip, aren't you? 😉 

 

I mean, hell, you're not even asking for a "good" script but a "great" one.  

 

I get what you're saying, but at the same time projects tend to wind up in development hell for a reason and it's far easier said than done to escape it.  Barbie and Andor have proven you can escape development hell.  A whole long list of projects also show that time is only one part of the equation.  Plus it's not exactly like GBFE (or GBA) could count on 25 years worth of tinkered scripts.