Weekend 4/19-21: ABIGAIL 1 mil previews

[Brainbug]

1 minute ago, Cmasterclay said:

There's just too many options in the world now for movies to be a time and cost-effective option for most people to spend three hours. By the way, I also think that most sectors of entertainment, art, and culture have the same problem - not just complaining about movies. The sheer amount of options and content is creating a circular firing squad where nothing can thrive. And "Option excess" isn't just a cultural issue - it's also drained our public schools of students as they go to charter and online options, it's drained our storefronts of shoppers, it's drained our public spaces of the community and investment needed, which is why virtually every downtown in America is flirting with becoming giant outdoor shuttered homeless shelters right now (that's not designed as an attack on the unhoused, to be clear). We weren't meant to be this glug glug glug with options to stay home and live online. It is breaking our politics, commerce, and cultural institutions. It's a pandora's box that got opened too far. Anyway, this is only tangentially about box office anymore. I think after 30 years of no smoking and drinking I need to start getting high. Shit is too bleak baby.

 

Hey i would agree with you. I also think that the invention of the Internet and all other technologies that came and come with it will one day doom us all.

 

After all, we are (mostly) hairless monkeys that are a bit more intelligent than our chimpanzee cousins. We are essentially group animals that thrive in social environments where you can speak with, interact with and ultimately of course F** others of our species for the overall health of the whole species. In the Internet world where more and more people consider their online life more essential than their real world-life, thats all slowly crumbling.

 

The Internet is one of the biggest social experiments in the history of the human race and were all a part of it, not knowing how its gonna unfold in 5, 10, 20 years time. But i for one am not that optimistic that the positives outweigh the negatives.

[emoviefan]

4 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

I think the answer is that I work too deeply in structural politics and institutions and each day I'm confronted by the lasting impacts of these changes, so my mood can flip very quickly, which it did based on a couple of conversations this week. That's the honest answer.

Fair enough.  I am going to stay out of the politics discussion on this thread because that will really be a depressing conversation.

[Cmasterclay]

7 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

 

Hey i would agree with you. I also think that the invention of the Internet and all other technologies that came and come with it will one day doom us all.

 

After all, we are (mostly) hairless monkeys that are a bit more intelligent than our chimpanzee cousins. We are essentially group animals that thrive in social environments where you can speak with, interact with and ultimately of course F** others of our species for the overall health of the whole species. In the Internet world where more and more people consider their online life more essential than their real world-life, thats all slowly crumbling.

 

The Internet is one of the biggest social experiments in the history of the human race and were all a part of it, not knowing how its gonna unfold in 5, 10, 20 years time. But i for one am not that optimistic that the positives outweigh the negatives.

In the classic nostalgia fallacy, I think that technology peaked in terms of "enhancing lives" in 2000-2005 timeframe before smartphones and streaming ruined everything. Isn't it funny that things were the best when I happened to be a kid?

[Unfitclock]

Man horror movies have done really well post-pandemic not sure why this year they’re struggling so far I mean the black phone which was not marketed well at all opened over 20 million in 2022 I though abagail with the great reviews could at the very least open to 15 million but the trailer views were very weak on the film so I can’t say I’m super surprised 

[Maggie]

2 minutes ago, Unfitclock said:

Man horror movies have done really well post-pandemic

I'm honestly surprised about this. Horror movies are attended mostly by young people and they have so many alternatives to movie theaters these days

[titanic2187]

7 hours ago, Legion Again said:

For most of history you had low/mid budget success, nonfranchise blockbuster success, and other mega franchise success ensuring financial viability. If one of those replaced MCU then of course you could be continue to be fine (or at least, continue scraping by better — would really like at least 2-3/4 to actually be doing well), but if you’ve got 0/4…

Yeah, if the golden age of MCU didn't kill nonfranchise blockbusters the industry won't be in this state either. Also, the industry is still capable to generate four 600m grossers and so the 0/4 claim is an exaggeration.      

[Cmasterclay]

6 minutes ago, Maggie said:

I'm honestly surprised about this. Horror movies are attended mostly by young people and they have so many alternatives to movie theaters these days

That's who goes to movies anymore. I have about as much chance as getting my 38 year old coworkers with kids to go to a movie theater as I have getting them to jump off the Empire State Building, but my 15 year old niece goes all the time with her little friends.

[JimmyB]

Are horror fans getting more picky too? 

 

Last weekend the overall marketplace around $77.4M....this weekend with 3 new wide releases per Deadline 65.8M weekend.

 

[emoviefan]

9 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

Yeah, if the golden age of MCU didn't kill nonfranchise blockbusters the industry won't be in this state either. Also, the industry is still capable to generate four 600m grossers and so the 0/4 claim is an exaggeration.      

I mean  yeah the last 4 movies to do 500 m DOM were not MCU or CBM's. TG Maverick, Avatar:WOW, Mario,and Barbie. I mean none of them were originals but a Original non franchise movie is never probably going 300+ DOM again and it was going that way pre COVID.

[JustLurking]

Fwiw, the problem is that to create a replacement for the MCU you need a new franchise, and to get a new franchise you need a first installment to be successful

 

The fact that people say "yeah but you can't expect more than x from an original film" is kind of the root of the problem because if people are tired of the old names but also don't want to show up for the new ones, then what exactly is left?

 

Hollywood is either trying to mine nostalgia on very old franchises (which worked for top gun), or going outside of the usual sources for name recognition (video game movies or just well-known brands a la Barbie), but eventually they will run out of those as well

 

Like, yeah, it's not fair to place those expectations on those movies, but Hollywood DOES need atleast some of them to break out in a sizable way

Edited April 20 by JustLurking

[Eric the IF]

← Previous Chart

Chart Index

		Movie Title	Distributor	Gross	%YD	%LW	Theaters	Per Theater	Total Gross	Days In Release
1	N	Abigail	Universal	$4,000,000			3,384	$1,182	$4,000,000	1
-	(1)	Civil War	A24	$3,254,490	+99%	-70%	3,929	$828	$37,011,151	8
-	(2)	Godzilla x Kong: The New …	Warner Bros.	$2,330,000	+165%	-40%	3,658	$637	$164,491,510	22
-	N	Spy x Family Code: White	Crunchyroll	$2,225,000			2,009	$1,108	$2,225,000	1
-	(3)	Kung Fu Panda 4	Universal	$1,110,000	+162%	-19%	2,955	$376	$176,492,475	43
-	(4)	Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire	Sony Pictures	$1,035,000	+180%	-27%	3,109	$333	$99,549,270	29
-	(5)	Dune: Part Two	Warner Bros.	$800,000	+120%	-33%	2,014	$397	$274,492,913	50
-	(6)	Monkey Man	Universal	$680,000	+90%	-46%	2,641	$257	$20,154,790	15
-	(7)	The First Omen	20th Century…	$530,000	+85%	-54%	2,430	$218	$16,595,038	15
-	(-)	Shrek 2	Universal	$130,000	+12%	-73%	819	$159	$438,830,656	7,276
-	(-)	Housekeeping for Beginners	Focus Features	$13,000	+262%	-43%	251	$52	$174,600	15
		11		$16,107,490

[Eric the IF]

Not to be mean, but the numbers have been up for a while. It’s fine to get your doom and gloom out, but it’s also good to actually discuss the numbers we have and share them.

[Flopped]

36 minutes ago, Unfitclock said:

Man horror movies have done really well post-pandemic not sure why this year they’re struggling so far I mean the black phone which was not marketed well at all opened over 20 million in 2022 I though abagail with the great reviews could at the very least open to 15 million but the trailer views were very weak on the film so I can’t say I’m super surprised 

 

Audiences don't want to see a heist/action horror. As soon as you put professional criminals with guns in a horror movie, you've lost your female audience who isn't scared because they can't relate. 

[emoviefan]

Going to see Civil War today. So I will be able to offer my opinion on it after. 

[cinema pal]

8 minutes ago, Flopped said:

 

Audiences don't want to see a heist/action horror. As soon as you put professional criminals with guns in a horror movie, you've lost your female audience who isn't scared because they can't relate. 

Ehmm.. what?

What about "Don't breathe"?

[filmlover]

Indie horror has done relatively well this year (Late Night with the Devil, Immaculate), it's just mainstream/studio horror that has been lacking (though there was only so much one could do with movies of garbage quality like Night Swim or Imaginary).

 

The franchise extensions for both A Quiet Place and Smile + the movies from the Shyamalan family are likely going to end up being the bright spots for multiplex-friendly scary fare this year.

Edited April 20 by filmlover

[Flopped]

2 minutes ago, cinema pal said:

Ehmm.. what?

What about "Don't breathe"?

 

The girl in Don't Breathe is relatable to a young, female audience. She's making one transgression. She's not a professional, career criminal. 

[Cmasterclay]

I actually really do think this September to December slate looks awesome and stacked, it's no longer a matter of this being a weak box office year and more a concern of whether box office is sustainable as an industry period. In a regular environment where theatrical can survive, I have zero problems with the slate from really mid-June on this year.

[CJohn]

At least Abigail is gonna do 10M+ I guess.

[Eric the IF]

And I guess if we want to go into numbers, holds are largely pretty solid. Civil War could drop to around 55%, maybe even less, depending on what the Saturday number is, which is quite impressive. KFP4 held worse than Home the same weekend, but the latter had Mother's Day to soften its hold, so it's still fine. Still on track for 195M or so.