Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[mr3urious]

The Lego Movie still holds strong this weekend, while the Robocop remake has dropped down to #3. And Frozen is amazingly still in the top 10.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/16/the-lego-movie-blocks-robocop-at-the-weekend-box-office

 

[Drtooth]

Winter's Tale flopped! HAHAHAHA! Score one for wacky kiddy fare and take that emotionally manipulative pretentious date flicks.

But really, Lego has hit pretty huge in a modest month. They have a nice regional winter break coming up, and it looks like Lego movie specific toys are flying off the shelves in a matter like the first Cars. And the film itself is amazing. It could have come across as a 90 minute infomercial, but didn't once. Not even when they rapid-fire mentioned various old Lego brands (nice to see Fabuland got a cameo).

 

[jvcarroll]

This new installment of RoboCop could have used more of the wit and charm from the original, but they honored the film's history and tapped into modern social themes of drones and preemptive military action. Joel Kinnaman was also impressive. Too bad it cost $100M and only took in $21M opening weekend. I would have welcomed a sequel. 3/5 stars.

 

[Drtooth]

The thing about the original Robocop, according to someone who wrote something on Cracked, is that it's a better Judge Dredd movie than Judge Dredd (the original Stallone one). I think too many fans of the original are going to be turned off by a remake out of fears it won't have that same feel. Other than that, I'm shocked the budget was only 100 mil. That's modest for that kind of film. Shockingly modest.

Then again, while February is kind to kid's movies, it's not too great for others. Something tells me it would make something if it was released next month.

 

[mr3urious]

Once again, The Lego Movie greatly benefited from having no new competition (i.e. other kids' movies), and Robocop is also benefiting from being an alternative to all those awful rom-coms dumped on us.

Also, from what I've heard online, the The Robocop reboot really isn't as bad as people were expecting, though is does lack much of the wit and tongue-in-cheek nature of the original.

 

[Drtooth]

"Liked" for awful Rom Com comment.

Also, from what I've heard online, the The Robocop reboot really isn't as bad as people were expecting, though is does lack much of the wit and tongue-in-cheek nature of the original.

The problem is, even if they did emulate the same kind of comedy, it would only be an emulation anyway.

Anyway, back to the Lego movie, it pulled a Hitchcock in its latest ad. Something I rarely see in television movie advertisements... an ad that says that if you did see the film, not to give away the film's ending (even though it showed some near the endish stuff that isn't really spoiler-y and out of context). WOW! The Despicable Me 2 ads pretty much showed Gru's Wedding, among other films, so I'm impressed their urging people for this film not to ruin it for everyone else. Great move.

 

[jvcarroll]

"Liked" for awful Rom Com comment.



The problem is, even if they did emulate the same kind of comedy, it would only be an emulation anyway.

Anyway, back to the Lego movie, it pulled a Hitchcock in its latest ad. Something I rarely see in television movie advertisements... an ad that says that if you did see the film, not to give away the film's ending (even though it showed some near the endish stuff that isn't really spoiler-y and out of context). WOW! The Despicable Me 2 ads pretty much showed Gru's Wedding, among other films, so I'm impressed their urging people for this film not to ruin it for everyone else. Great move.

I disagree. They played the politics differently, they could have also added the humor and pushed it past emulation.

 

[Drtooth]

I disagree. They played the politics differently, they could have also added the humor and pushed it past emulation.

Yeah. You know what? I take it back. It certainly could be done if they really got the humor of the last movie. There are writers that are completely simpatico with the source material and those who think they got it, but really don't. I've seen both kinds.

 

[jvcarroll]

Yeah. You know what? I take it back. It certainly could be done if they really got the humor of the last movie. There are writers that are completely simpatico with the source material and those who think they got it, but really don't. I've seen both kinds.

There was a wealth of things they should have done with the film. It just seems like they were saving to much for a sequel that it unlikely to happen.

 

[Drtooth]

Hey... what was that estimate of what the Lego movie would make over the three day weekend? Like 40 Mil? They made 50 mil on the two day. This film is exceeding expectations. They were right to plan a sequel before it was even released. I kinda just don't know how they'd do it given the..... well, if you saw it, you know.