paperheart

why is this getting made? (is this getting made?)

hey, watch Aquaflop2 pass Black Adam easily on its way to $1.4B

I believe we've plumbed the box office depths and reached the bottom of the Mariana trench

On 1/1/2024 at 6:10 AM, Gatsby77 said:

This Variety piece is worth reading.

It goes to what I wrote above, about Aquaman's failure not being specific to the film (or Warner Bros.) itself, but rather superhero fatigue more generally.

Although this author's point can be summarized as "Bring back the A-list characters," he does a good job of reviewing the evolution and cultural impact of comic book TV shows and movies from the 1960s (Batman TV show) to present.

https://variety.com/2023/film/columns/fall-of-comic-book-movie-culture-inevitable-superman-batman-deadpool-1235858728/ 

 

NYT had a similar piece yesterday. Paywall

we are in for an awful 2024 at the movies

On 12/31/2023 at 6:40 AM, Gatsby77 said:

How to Lie With Statistics, an example.

Pretend the calendar doesn't exist.

Publish international results for a film released during Christmas / New Year's week - and compare those seemingly robust weekday results to those of films that were released outside the holiday season, and then brag about how the former film is outpacing the others.

Put another way, basically no chance the international take for this ultimately matches Black Adam's $225 million.

the vast majority of these box office 'gurus' are cheerleaders not reporters. the deadline guy may be the worst. he's trumpeting X-Mas week being above last year ignoring that US BO in December will be below December 2000 when average ticket prices were 60% lower.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which had $225 million. It could nevertheless pull ahead of Ant-Man, which had the worst week 2 drop of the entire franchise before The Marvels broke its record later in the year.

after New Year's Day it will be 60% behind Aquaman over the same time frame, no math on earth can get this anywhere near $225M US #mathishard

down >75% second weekend in China, will end with >80% less than Aquaman ($292M) in the Middle Kingdom; that's a chilly reception, man

recently read there have been 11 movies tied around Children of the Corn; seen none but you can probably add all 11 to the terrible list

common sense dictates that A2 might fall short of A1 by a skosh

On 12/27/2023 at 3:07 PM, Gatsby77 said:

Not a great sign that it fell below Wonka yesterday, despite Wonka's having been out a full week longer.

and the next day

the gift that keeps on giving

Masochist Conventioneers Polled by Variety

#474-494

American Vampire 1976 #1-10

Nowhere Men #1-11

and the DCEU ends not with a bang but a whimper

*Aquaman 2 estimates

Congrats to CGC for sidestepping promoting what was obvious to everyone with common sense going to be another critical and financial bomb.

sinking further

If estimates hold, 85% below Aquaman in China; common sense says $1.4B WW may be a tad optimistic

an average holiday corridor multiple of 3.5x would get this to $150M US

On 12/23/2023 at 7:14 AM, Gatsby77 said:

No f---kn way this is worse than BvS - also a B.

But the critics seemingly prefer this one - 36% positive on RT (vs. BvS's 29%).

may need to wait for mail in ballots to be counted, top critics on RT are 26% positive

On 12/23/2023 at 3:53 AM, Bosco685 said:

tied for DCEU worst with The Flash

better than Shazam:FOG , also vs $13.7M for Aquaman (including Wed sneak previews) at 2018 ticket prices

Who could have guessed that a decade of film making mediocrity would end with another dud? 

On 12/19/2023 at 8:21 PM, paperheart said:

I'll guess: $400M WW; Metacritic score in the low to mid 40's