Bosco685 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 10:21 AM, paperheart said: Why China Has Lost Interest in Hollywood Movies By Claire Fu, Brooks Barnes and Daisuke Wakabayashi Claire Fu and Daisuke Wakabayashi reported from Seoul, and Brooks Barnes from Los Angeles. Jan. 23, 2024 Before the sequel to “Aquaman” was released in China last month, Warner Bros. did everything it could to sustain the original movie’s success. The Hollywood studio blanketed Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, with movie clips, behind-the-scenes footage and a video of an Aquaman ice sculpture at a winter festival in Harbin, a city in China’s northeast. It sent the franchise’s star, Jason Momoa, and director, James Wan, on a publicity tour in China — the type of barnstorming that had disappeared since the Covid pandemic. Mr. Momoa said China’s fondness for the first “Aquaman” was why the sequel was debuting in China two days before the U.S. release. “I’m very proud that China loved it, so that’s why we brought it to you, and you guys are going to see it before the whole world,” he said in an interview with CCTV 6, China’s state-run film channel. The big push didn’t work. “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” has collected only about $60 million in China after a few weeks of release. That was nowhere near the 2018 original’s $90 million opening weekend in China on its way to a $293 million haul, accounting for a quarter of that movie’s $1.2 billion box office success. China has definitely been an interesting box office market as of late for 2023 comic book films. Especially when you consider where some of these individual solo franchises started and where they landed. GotG Vol. 3 was the biggest achievement in the region, yet when compared to GotG Vol. 1 it is hardly even a major bump in results. When it wraps up mid-February, Aquaman 2 will be the second highest China box office for 2023. By the way, how did you like the movie personally? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatsby77 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Is it just China-specific, though? Haven't the U.S. results have seen similar declines in those sequels as well, barring perhaps "Across the Spider-verse?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 12:21 PM, Gatsby77 said: Is it just China-specific, though? Haven't the U.S. results have seen similar declines in those sequels as well, barring perhaps "Across the Spider-verse?" Let's not fall into the trap of "Whataboutism" when the original article posted was concerning China box office results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatsby77 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 BS. Context matters. Benchmarks matter. For instance, it looks catastrophic that Aquaman 2's China box office is running 80% below that of Aquaman's. Until you realize that Aquaman 2's U.S. box office is running 62%+ below that of Aquaman's. Rinse and repeat for the bulk of the other films listed, and the data likely show it's not just a China problem. That's like saying "Leonardo DiCaprio should have won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for What's Eating Gilbert Grape." - A perfectly fine sentiment on its own, but it lacks context. That he was up that year against: Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List John Malkovich in In the Line of Fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 1:12 PM, Gatsby77 said: BS. Context matters. Benchmarks matter. For instance, it looks catastrophic that Aquaman 2's China box office is running 80% below that of Aquaman's. Until you realize that Aquaman 2's U.S. box office is running 62%+ below that of Aquaman's. Rinse and repeat for the bulk of the other films listed, and the data likely show it's not just a China problem. That's like saying "Leonardo DiCaprio should have won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for What's Eating Gilbert Grape." - A perfectly fine sentiment on its own, but it lacks context. That he was up that year against: Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List John Malkovich in In the Line of Fire BS? You two have been peppering this thread with angst over this movie yet having never posted a review in advance to provide a discussion about your experiences. And then acting like some are defending the film as the next big superhero thing when after studio changes and it shifted from lining up Crisis On Infinite Earths to the end of the DCEU any major excitement winds were pulled from the sails. It's incredible the film has gotten this far with that lack of general audience motivation to take interest. Go see the film for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatsby77 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 ? My subjective views of the film don't matter. That's simply my opinion. But the film's box office failure is an objective fact. Your repeatedly posting nearly daily updates praising this film's supposed "legs" and "surprising success" when it bombed out of the gate doesn't change that it is, in fact, a box office bomb. Fact vs. opinion. And that I continue to post additional context around my facts - because context matters - doesn't change what is objectively true (its commercial failure) vs. what is an irrelevant subjective judgment (how I personally feel about the film). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 (edited) On 1/29/2024 at 2:19 PM, Gatsby77 said: ? My subjective views of the film don't matter. That's simply my opinion. But the film's box office failure is an objective fact. Your repeatedly posting nearly daily updates praising this film's supposed "legs" and "surprising success" when it bombed out of the gate doesn't change that it is, in fact, a box office bomb. Fact vs. opinion. And that I continue to post additional context around my facts - because context matters - doesn't change what is objectively true (its commercial failure) vs. what is an irrelevant subjective judgment (how I personally feel about the film). If you say so. Meanwhile, someone that actually works in the industry at tracking results and gets paid for it is the one saying it has legs compared to the utter failure that was expected. And they are right at times when the % jump up unexpectedly. As international has been the real category driving the bigger results here compared to domestic. But if you have no view into the film personally, other than just a lot of negative to throw around. And worry less about how often and what I post. It's none of your business. Edited January 29 by Bosco685 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatsby77 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 2:42 PM, Bosco685 said: worry less about how often and what I post. It's none of your business. Exactly. Right back at you, good sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 On 1/29/2024 at 6:26 PM, Gatsby77 said: Exactly. Right back at you, good sir! Yeah, when you assume your role here is to degrade mine that ain't even-handed. Like misrepresenting I implied this movie was successful. Meanwhile, reality is this film has gone the distance for something that was supposed to completely bomb beyond belief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 Meanwhile, actuals came in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator CGC Mike Posted January 30 Administrator Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 6:26 PM, Gatsby77 said: Exactly. Right back at you, good sir! On 1/29/2024 at 6:32 PM, Bosco685 said: Yeah, when you assume your role here is to degrade mine that ain't even-handed. Like misrepresenting I implied this movie was successful. Meanwhile, reality is this film has gone the distance for something that was supposed to completely bomb beyond belief. I recommend you put each other on ignore. There's way too many posts to support this. Opinions may differ. I am not going to tolerate this type of back and forth to continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChillMan Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/27/2024 at 10:10 AM, Gatsby77 said: The reality is, Aquaman 2 failed - just as The Marvels, The Flash, Black Adam, Justice League Part 1 and BvS all failed as well. This reminds me of how the media was always lumping in Shazam 1 with Aquaman 1....referring to them as resounding successes. Even though A1 tripled S1's box office. Now you're lumping in A2 with movies it beat, even doubled....despite all the others getting media hype, advertising, grand opening premieres, and 90% positive reviews during the first week to help them along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperheart Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 only $987M more to reach the common sense goal of $1.4B Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 10:56 PM, paperheart said: only $987M more to reach the common sense goal of $1.4B Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 10:28 PM, ChillMan said: This reminds me of how the media was always lumping in Shazam 1 with Aquaman 1....referring to them as resounding successes. Even though A1 tripled S1's box office. Now you're lumping in A2 with movies it beat, even doubled....despite all the others getting media hype, advertising, grand opening premieres, and 90% positive reviews during the first week to help them along. BVS made over $105M profit even after all the media, critics and bloggers attacks. And it landed at $500M worldwide in all of 6 days of release. Bad reviews be damned, Batman v Superman makes $500 million in just a few days "Failure" is their counter-claim it should have made a $1B in the end to ignore it did make money and BVS Ultimate Edition paved the way for Digital Copy releases prior to physical disc distribution due to the sales it achieved. Don't listen to me on that. How about from the former WB President? Zack Snyder’s Snyderverse films made hefty money, former WB President reveals Quote Silverman replied to a critic who said Snyder's films were not profitable for the studio by stating that this was only true for Legends of the Guardians and Sucker Punch. Silverman said that “the rest of his films at WB were very profitable. Very.” Don't listen to those "sharing their opinions" when instead it is about who can drop the most ugly Zack Snyder hate or just general detracting statement about something they dislike. And most probably films they have not even seen beforehand. @CGC Mike sorry for any disruption. These are the intents you may miss with two regulars trashing a film they didn't even watch beforehand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatsby77 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 10:28 PM, ChillMan said: This reminds me of how the media was always lumping in Shazam 1 with Aquaman 1....referring to them as resounding successes. Even though A1 tripled S1's box office. Now you're lumping in A2 with movies it beat, even doubled....despite all the others getting media hype, advertising, grand opening premieres, and 90% positive reviews during the first week to help them along. ? Weird flex given that A2 is on-track to lose Warner Bros. $60 million - $100 million. All of the films I mentioned failed commercially - even the one that yes, technically made the studio money. Because in its wake, the studio drastically changed direction on Justice League Part 1, and subsequently cancelled 3 announced projects. And I know A2's not, you know, *solely* responsible, but Warner Bros. stock is down nearly 13% YTD. Which (because context matters) is significantly worse than the U.S. stock market as a whole - up nearly 4% YTD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip Cataldo Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/29/2024 at 2:42 PM, Bosco685 said: If you say so. Meanwhile, someone that actually works in the industry at tracking results and gets paid for it is the one saying it has legs compared to the utter failure that was expected. That doesn't mean they can't be wrong. This guy is wrong. This film has never had "legs" and is a failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 On 1/30/2024 at 2:40 PM, Chip Cataldo said: That doesn't mean they can't be wrong. This guy is wrong. This film has never had "legs" and is a failure. He's actually not wrong. For a film that had a horrible critic score... And a weak Cinemascore from first week viewers... Suprisely on days when it should have gone flat in the follow-on weeks after all that negative reaction to the film more than a few weekdays leaped up - not down. And I am not even pointing out the larger weekend reactions because you just assume those would increase. But not in the 90% (+) range after it coming across as an opening weekend bomb. Is it still failing? Of course it is. But not the massive failure that the recent DCEU films have become leading to little or no tracking afterwards because reporting sites were not even going out of their way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimik Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 On 1/30/2024 at 12:04 PM, Gatsby77 said: ? Weird flex given that A2 is on-track to lose Warner Bros. $60 million - $100 million. All of the films I mentioned failed commercially - even the one that yes, technically made the studio money. Because in its wake, the studio drastically changed direction on Justice League Part 1, and subsequently cancelled 3 announced projects. And I know A2's not, you know, *solely* responsible, but Warner Bros. stock is down nearly 13% YTD. Which (because context matters) is significantly worse than the U.S. stock market as a whole - up nearly 4% YTD. Sorry, but it is an incorrect assumption linking A2 to the share price performance of WBD at all. WBD is tanking because AT&T dumped a bunch of debt into the spinoff (smart move by AT&T), and with interest rates rising they are going to struggle to cover the payments. If I recall correctly they had $40-$50B in debt when the companies were merged. It was a smart/dirty play by AT&T depending on your perspective (i.e. do you own WBD or not). Crossing $400M WW in the current superhero film environment is win for A2. Anyone who seriously expected it to hit A1 numbers must be smoking whatever Zaslav did before agreeing to AT&Ts terms. Bosco685 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip Cataldo Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Small failure, large failure...all still means failure. If a film has a budget of $200 million and makes $150 million total yet had "legs" in theaters for 10+ weeks, who cares? It's a failure.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
