Weekend Numbers | estimates | 15.01M CHALLENGERS | 7.73M UNSUNG HERO | 7.22M GODZILLA×KONG: TNE

[Mojoguy]

8 minutes ago, mikeymichael said:

Per Twitter Charlie Jat reporting 4.8M Saturday for Challengers. 

Seems like a really frontloaded Fri for a nonfanboy movie. 

[Ledmonkey96]

2 minutes ago, Mojoguy said:

Seems like a really frontloaded Fri for a nonfanboy movie. 

That's the issue with banking on a single actor/actress really.

[DAJK]

Watching How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days for the first time. God I want the rom-com to come back, this is good stuff.

[AMC Theaters Enjoyer]

I joked last month about April being constant disappointments. I think I accidentally willed this into existence. Sorry everyone.

[Ryan Reynolds]

surprised anyone is disappointed with Challengers cause Zendaya is the star , i'm  also confused why they promoted this with a world tour like a 4 quad blockbuster gets , we saw this play out with Twilight actors , fans will only show up for certain things, not niche movies

[Flopped]

Holy hell did Speed play like gangbusters in the theatre - constant laughs, cheers and claps. Wild how it doesn't look dated at all because all the stunts and effects are in camera. 

[LonePirate]

I don’t think ticket prices are the problem with movie attendance and grosses. People don’t mind paying more for IMAX and PLFs and prices for the regular screens are tolerable, especially with the Tuesday discounts, the rewards programs for most chains and a lot of the re-issue or anniversary or special showings which are reasonably priced.

The concession prices, however, are completely out of control and probably the larger driver of reduced attendance. A medium popcorn and medium drink at AMC cost me over $17 bucks yesterday for what probably cost the theater less than 25 cents to make. Theaters had to raise concession prices because studios kept taking a larger and larger share of ticket sales leaving theaters with little choice but to mark up concessions in order to eke out a profit. You can get soda, popcorn and candy for a family of 6 for maybe $10 or so for a home movie night. Between that and a 65” TV to watch it on, people are fine with staying home and not having to deal with other moviegoers.

Edited April 28 by LonePirate

[grim22]

3 minutes ago, Flopped said:

Holy hell did Speed play like gangbusters in the theatre - constant laughs, cheers and claps. Wild how it doesn't look dated at all because all the stunts and effects are in camera. 

 

I remember going into the 1994 summer movie season, True Lies was supposed to be the big action movie. Speed came from nowhere to be the surprise. It earned almost as much as True Lies WW without any name stars. Earned a bit less but was definitely the big water cooler movie of the summer. Similar thing happened with The Matrix and Star Wars in 1999 as well as the big sci-fi movie event.

[MysteryMovieMogul]

1 minute ago, LonePirate said:

Theaters had to raise concession prices because studios kept taking a larger and larger share of ticket sales leaving theaters with little choice but to mark up concessions in order to eke out a profit.

Or they had to raise concessions because of things like AMC Stubs A-List. I haven't heard anything about studios asking for a larger piece of the ticket costs.

[Ryan Reynolds]

6 minutes ago, LonePirate said:

I don’t think ticket prices are the problem with movie attendance and grosses. People don’t mind paying more for IMAX and PLFs and prices for the regular screens are tolerable, especially with the Tuesday discounts, the rewards programs for most chains and a lot of the re-issue or anniversary or special showings which are reasonably priced.

The concession prices, however, are completely out of control and probably the larger driver of reduced attendance. A medium popcorn and medium drink at AMC cost me over $17 bucks yesterday for what probably cost the theater less than 25 cents to make. Theaters had to raise concession prices because studios kept taking a larger and larger share of ticket sales leaving theaters with little choice but to mark up concessions in order to eke out a profit. You can get soda, popcorn and candy for a family of 6 for maybe $10 or so for a home movie night. Between that and a 65” TV to watch it on, people are fine with staying home and not having to deal with other moviegoers.

kids combo is cheaper. bring in a water bottle sometimes

[Spidey Freak]

14 minutes ago, Ryan Reynolds said:

surprised anyone is disappointed with Challengers cause Zendaya is the star , i'm  also confused why they promoted this with a world tour like a 4 quad blockbuster gets , we saw this play out with Twilight actors , fans will only show up for certain things, not niche movies

 

The frontloading shows Zendaya is the only reason it's staying afloat. Otherwise it would've been DOA.

 

R-rating won't let most of her young fanbase attend anyway. Maybe she should have gone with a more wholesome romcom for her first major non-blockbuster release. But I guess her team is expecting awards chatter for Challengers?

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

1 hour ago, ringedmortality said:

I don’t necessarily think this proves the “cost of living” hypothesis. It’s not “we’re struggling so much we can’t afford them” it’s more “we rather watch it at home.” 
 

During the recession in 08 movies we’re still the focal point of culture, but they’re not anymore. I feel like that has more to do with it rather than the vague cost of living thing. Which, by the way, people always at all times have said “people are struggling” regardless of whatever was happening. Even when the economy was booming in the 2010s people would say “people are trying to put food on their table.”

There were less cheap alternatives in 2008. A majority of Americans cannot afford a $1,000 emergency expense, so cost does factor in. 

[WorkingonaName]

3 hours ago, ringedmortality said:

For all the "theater sare terrible" moping people were doing here a while ago, I never agreed with it until very recently. Even in 2021, the experience wasn't bad. People were largely well behaved. But in the past year I've noticed so many more people straight up watch TikTok in a theater. When I watched Dune 2, some 30 year old looking guy would not stop using his phone. He recorded the first five minutes and then would periodically open his phone just to scroll random stuff. People will just talk to their seat partner in an outside voice.

 

It's madness. We need to reteach people everything about etiquette. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if people didn't call decorum a form classism and elitism.

The Singaporeans are right. 

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

If someone wants great writing, great characters and adult storytelling they turn to TV and miniseries today. The theatrical space was essentially overstuffed with familiar franchise IP that followed a hero’s journey template, action and comedy mix for the entire 2010s and now launching a movie like Challengers to audiences just won’t do. 

[Ryan Reynolds]

14 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

The frontloading shows Zendaya is the only reason it's staying afloat. Otherwise it would've been DOA.

 

R-rating won't let most of her young fanbase attend anyway. Maybe she should have gone with a more wholesome romcom for her first major non-blockbuster release. But I guess her team is expecting awards chatter for Challengers?

her team should not sign her up for overpriced movies, this should have been made at half the budget

[Mojoguy]

4 minutes ago, Ryan Reynolds said:

her team should not sign her up for overpriced movies, this should have been made at half the budget

Zendaya is producer and actor on this so she got paid twice for the movie. Without her I doubt this gets made. The only one that loses money are the ones that funded the movie. I guess Amazon is hoping to make their money back from streaming.

[eddyxx]

11 hours ago, emoviefan said:

It's human nature. People gaslight themselves into believing stuff. Yeah we want original stuff but when it comes they don't go and then come up with a million excuses why they didn't. I mean technically the Fall Guy is not original but for 95% of the audience it is.

Fall Guy isn’t original? What’s it based on?

[Ryan Reynolds]

3 minutes ago, eddyxx said:

Fall Guy isn’t original? What’s it based on?

its a 80s tv show like equalizer series 

[grumpythepenguin]

58 minutes ago, Ryan Reynolds said:

surprised anyone is disappointed with Challengers cause Zendaya is the star , i'm  also confused why they promoted this with a world tour like a 4 quad blockbuster gets , we saw this play out with Twilight actors , fans will only show up for certain things, not niche movies

 

It seemed like they were trying to recreate the Dune 2 marketing, which was also delayed until after the strike so their young actors could do a world tour to promote the movie. It's just that Dune 2 had an insane cast, with Timothée, Zendaya, Florence and Austin, all of whom were also coming off critically acclaimed movies/performances of their own, to say nothing of the veteran actors. The Dune 2 cast world tour for sure added tens of millions to the box office and it seemed like Challengers was trying to piggyback off that success.

 

Many also previously considered Dune to be pretty niche sci fi material (compared to Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) given the box office of the original film but a lot of elements clearly helped to make it more attractive to general audiences.

 

But I agree that Challengers was a tougher sell on many levels, even though I thought the movie was good.

Edited April 28 by grumpythepenguin

[ChipDerby]

Y'all are going through it