Weekend Numbers | actuals | 15.54M GODZILLA×KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE

[Brainbug]

21 minutes ago, Eric Atreides said:

@Jake Gittes brought up an interesting point where the Monsterverse movies are arguably like Fast and Furious where people will likely go once for some goofy dumb fun, but they aren't really all that rewatchable (for certain people. Hold your horses @Brainbug, I know you're special). F&F aren't the leggiest films out there.

 

The Fast and Furious comparison fits imo and one thing thats also playing a role here i think is the fact that the MonsterVerse/Godzilla actually has quite a big fanbase nowadays. 10 years ago there were like 187 Godzilla fans worldwide (the 2014 movie was extremely hyped among the whole GA, it wasnt pushed by a massive fanbase), but now in 2024 Godzilla is more mainstream than ever and the fanbase gut much bigger, so logically that would mean frontloading for the movies.

[MrFanaticGuy34]

How’s the $200M+ DOM goal looking for GxK? 😬🥶

Will WB try their best and push it to that mark? 🥺🙏🏻

[Mango]

56 minutes ago, wildphantom said:

Oh I know. I anticipated the reaction. 
 

Anything I write about PVOD/streaming being rushed out and Eric bites every time for some reason. 
 

I agree on the PVOD element of what you’re saying by the way. Despite it being utterly pointless to rush a film like Dune out in my opinion. 

It is a little pointless to rush out movies like that when they already hit streaming services within three months anyway. It seems like an odd business tactic at first. And anyone who says it isn’t a factor in box office is being a bit nearsighted, it does have an impact on legs overall. Maybe a marginal one, but you can’t just assume it doesn’t factor into the picture, even if in a minor way. Everything is a factor at some level.

I get the idea that POVD might be, in a way, studios “answer” to dollar theaters these days. More or less a thing of the past (maybe there are still a few around, most started dwindling out in the early 2010s after the mass switch to digital)

 

Movies used to could make a significant chunk of change in that secondary release, many a films were pushed over the arbitrary “$50m, 100m, 150m, etc” marks through those. $20 on demand isn’t necessarily the same steal as a $1-2 ticket but for a family or group of teens looking for a cheapish movie night, it’s a solid get. 

 

 

 

[AniNate]

I feel like most people who pony up for PVOD weren't gonna otherwise be spending that money seeing the movie in theaters. My impression is the appeal is mostly for large families where going out to a theater is prohibitively expensive both financially and logistically and just a one click payment to watch a movie on your home theater and start it, pause it, mute it and turn it off whenever you want is a pretty damn good bargain by comparison, honestly even compared to rounding everyone up to drive to a dollar theater it probably has more appeal.

 

 

 

Edited April 13 by AniNate

[TwoMisfits]

13 minutes ago, AniNate said:

I feel like most people who pony up for PVOD weren't gonna otherwise be spending that money seeing the movie in theaters. My impression is the appeal is mostly for large families where going out to a theater is prohibitively expensive both financially and logistically and just a one click payment to watch a movie on your home theater and start it, pause it, mute it and turn it off whenever you want is a pretty damn good bargain by comparison, honestly even compared to rounding everyone up to drive to a dollar theater it probably has more appeal.

 

 

 

 

I think the biggest appeal is for elderly members with family visiting.  When you're on a weekly caretaker visit and want something new to do with them for conversation and just happy fun.

 

Like my spouse's parents no longer really go anywhere (one is completely shut in and the other is a full time caretaker).  I know if there was a movie they wanted, they'd buy it on PVOD now.  And when we visit and my kids want to watch something they didn't have on streaming, they'd buy it to have something to do together.

[Merkel]

One of the possible effects of PVOD availability for movies still in theaters is that it makes Hi-res torrents of those movies much more widely available and easier to illegally download. To what extent exactly, I couldn't say

[Cookson]

GxK needs to get to 180m. After that let’s see how it legs out. Pretty bare box office so the drops could potentially stabilize enough to push it to 200m. 

[Speedorito]

The CinemaScore and PostTrak numbers don’t look very good for Civil War, which was trying to emulate more traditional blockbusters and reach the general audience. B-, 76% positive, and only 53% definite recommend. As well nearly half of the gross coming from IMAX.

 

There’s nothing with any remotely palpable buzz until Challengers in two weeks and no blockbusters until The Fall Guy in three weeks, but if it fails to outgross Everything Everywhere All At Once, that would be super disappointing since it has a much larger production budget and likely much more marketing.

[AniNate]

Eh, I mean if it comes at least close I think A24 would be fine with that. I'm sure they're aware it's not really the crowdpleaser EEAAO is. Not that I think money is always the primary object with them anyway, they're already funding Garland/Mendoza's next project.

[Scubasteve716]

GxK seems to be heading towards $185ish - I’m not sure it’s possible to push it to $200.

[ringedmortality]

2 hours ago, Eric Atreides said:

@Jake Gittes brought up an interesting point where the Monsterverse movies are arguably like Fast and Furious where people will likely go once for some goofy dumb fun, but they aren't really all that rewatchable (for certain people. Hold your horses @Brainbug, I know you're special). F&F aren't the leggiest films out there.

 

Also, I feel like online film communities memed F&F in the late 2010s to death. With the consensus being "they're dumb but fun and good." That was going on until F9 and Fast X kind of killed that.

 

The mosnterverse movies are also being memed to death with people going "monke v lizard" and unironically stanning them. So I wonder when that bubble is gonna burst.

 

Fast Five, 6, and 7 were all good like Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island were good. But the rest of both franchises are so bad.

[AniNate]

Lbxd/IMDB for Civil War has remained remarkably stable at 3.8/5, 7.6/10 respectively. That coupled with the good by AG standards Cinemascore makes me think overall the consensus is reserved admiration.

[wildphantom]

1 hour ago, Mango said:

It is a little pointless to rush out movies like that when they already hit streaming services within three months anyway. It seems like an odd business tactic at first. And anyone who says it isn’t a factor in box office is being a bit nearsighted, it does have an impact on legs overall. Maybe a marginal one, but you can’t just assume it doesn’t factor into the picture, even if in a minor way. Everything is a factor at some level.

I get the idea that POVD might be, in a way, studios “answer” to dollar theaters these days. More or less a thing of the past (maybe there are still a few around, most started dwindling out in the early 2010s after the mass switch to digital)

 

Movies used to could make a significant chunk of change in that secondary release, many a films were pushed over the arbitrary “$50m, 100m, 150m, etc” marks through those. $20 on demand isn’t necessarily the same steal as a $1-2 ticket but for a family or group of teens looking for a cheapish movie night, it’s a solid get. 

 

 

 

PVOD is fine. Just needs to be further out, and then the streaming release further out again.  This movie came out on March 1st and was declared one of the greatest theatrical experiences in years. We’re not even halfway through April and people can buy it next week? 
 

I really just don’t understand the rush. It cheapens the theatrical window psychologically if you’re telling audiences ‘don’t worry, it’ll be at home next month’. 
 

Anyway, I’ve been arguing it forever the past couple of years. Whilst some studios are lengthening their windows, some aren’t. Is what it is. 

[emoviefan]

9 minutes ago, AniNate said:

Lbxd/IMDB for Civil War has remained remarkably stable at 3.8/5, 7.6/10 respectively. That coupled with the good by AG standards Cinemascore makes me think overall the consensus is reserved admiration.

Yeah seems like a pretty decent  reception considering how much worse it could have been. 

[cannastop]

1 hour ago, AniNate said:

honestly even compared to rounding everyone up to drive to a dollar theater it probably has more appeal.

Do Dollar theaters even still exist? There was once a $2.50 ticket movie theater near me but it closed. I think the whole rush to streaming killed a lot of them.

[Eric Lasagna]

Obviously one day and I can't prove anything just yet, but Civil War kinda feels like a Hereditary thing where it has bad audience scores, but there's also people who really love it and it gets hype as a "see it to believe it" kind of movie and legs out to a decent multi. Just has those vibes, and it helps that May isn't looking all that huge and competitive, so it has room to grow.

[AniNate]

1 minute ago, cannastop said:

Do Dollar theaters even still exist? There was once a $2.50 ticket movie theater near me but it closed. I think the whole rush to streaming killed a lot of them.

 

Yeah that's sorta what I'm getting at. There's no real market for that anymore because anyone who might want to save that money would probably just prefer to stay home now. That is to say they don't go to movie theaters at all.

 

You could probably make the argument that PVOD is depressing ticket sales as a whole, but that's the kind of thing I feel like the industry just has to accept and adapt to. I don't know if there's a whole lot theaters can do that can bring that specific audience back.

[AniNate]

4 minutes ago, Eric Atreides said:

Obviously one day and I can't prove anything just yet, Civil War kinda feels like a Hereditary thing where it has bad audience scores, but there's also people who really love it and it gets hype as a "see it to believe it" kind of movie and legs out to a decent multi. Just has those vibes, and it helps that May isn't looking all that huge and competitive, so it has room to grow.

 

Hereditary had a D+ Cinemascore. The fact it managed the kind of legs it did is pretty impressive in hindsight.

[Speedorito]

18 minutes ago, AniNate said:

Eh, I mean if it comes at least close I think A24 would be fine with that. I'm sure they're aware it's not really the crowdpleaser EEAAO is. Not that I think money is always the primary object with them anyway, they're already funding Garland/Mendoza's next project.

From what I’ve read prior to release, the goal was to move into making larger budget films and increase awareness for A24 among the general audience. Even if they don’t care about turning a profit, falling short of (or even not coming close)  EEAAO, a sci-fi movie with dildos and hot dog fingers, would kinda upend that narrative. Especially given the budget and marketing.

 

16 minutes ago, AniNate said:

Lbxd/IMDB for Civil War has remained remarkably stable at 3.8/5, 7.6/10 respectively. That coupled with the good by AG standards Cinemascore makes me think overall the consensus is reserved admiration.

I wouldn’t use Letterboxd or IMDB to really gauge the general audience. Letterboxd tends to skew towards different certain types of audiences. According to Letterboxd more people have seen Saltburn than Fast X. There was also no real chance of it getting a CinemaScore similar to Men, a film where a chain give birth to each other. Civil War was definitely geared towards the general audience like a more typical blockbuster.

[AniNate]

I would say Civil War's vibes are reasonably close to Annihilation, both in how it was marketed and the audience reception to it. I think a similar just under 3x multiplier is a realistic outcome.

 

Even though it had dildos and hot dog fingers (if they were even a liability), EEAAO had much more of a feel-good, heartwarming narrative with a lot of action and comedy. I don't think it's that difficult to understand why audiences would eat that up (figuratively) compared to a disturbing downer of a hypothetical war movie. 

 

 

Edited April 13 by AniNate