Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Muppet fan 123]

Nah. Not expecting much from Noah. It's one of those movies that no one is rushing out to see, and it will face so many issues from the religious groups. Noah won't make too much money.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually that'd be real sad if Disney decides to shut the gates on the muppets only after they became popular again. I mean I son't think this'll be the last muppet movie ever, I mean that's what we said back when MFS came out and that was a MUCH more severe case what with being a box office bomb and getting mixed to negative reviews. On a lighter note for Muppets Most Wanted, the weekend actuals came out and MMW actually got $17,005,126 on opening weekend instead of the estimate of $16,514,000, that's not a huge difference, but at least it gained 3% instead of losing anything, which is really quite good plus it got a modest $1.5 million in the foriegn market from an unknown place giving it a current worldwide total of $18,505,126, but it's still way too early in the game, and it has yet to be released in foriegn markets in April, so MMW isn't looking so bad after all. Meanwhile Divergent slipped 2.5% from its $56 million total to $54,607,747 losing over a million dollars, see it's already plummeting, and it's not even weekend 2. I'm pretty sure by week 2 Divergent will plummet grusomely like the likes of Twilight and Prometheus.

Getting barely a million more doesn't sound to promising. The only real silver lining is that we actually got this movie and the last film didn't pull a Looney Tunes Back in Action and end the franchise on the big comeback feature. And trust me... I'm pretty crestfallen that audiences didn't take to this film. This deserved a stronger opening and didn't get it because we didn't get a genuinely energized public. Even after the complete media blitz Disney started.

Yeah, it would be great if Divergent dropped off sharply (it hopefully will) and Noah is dismissed as some dogmatic eye sore that fails to even get a diehard Christian audience... but this was the week for MMW to make money. It barely did, it's a shame, and unless Disney's very generous about this and waits for the home video performance to make a decision, I just see Muppet fandom going back underground and Disney sitting on the franchise and doing nothing with it. Even if it only missed 2 million shy of it's "20 million is good enough" mark.

 

[Muppet Master]

Getting barely a million more doesn't sound to promising. The only real silver lining is that we actually got this movie and the last film didn't pull a Looney Tunes Back in Action and end the franchise on the big comeback feature. And trust me... I'm pretty crestfallen that audiences didn't take to this film. This deserved a stronger opening and didn't get it because we didn't get a genuinely energized public. Even after the complete media blitz Disney started.

Yeah, it would be great if Divergent dropped off sharply (it hopefully will) and Noah is dismissed as some dogmatic eye sore that fails to even get a diehard Christian audience... but this was the week for MMW to make money. It barely did, it's a shame, and unless Disney's very generous about this and waits for the home video performance to make a decision, I just see Muppet fandom going back underground and Disney sitting on the franchise and doing nothing with it. Even if it only missed 2 million shy of it's "20 million is good enough" mark.

But the $1.5 million is just from a market that's not even listed, so it doesn't really matter, because the real foreign market begins on April 11. This is so sad for MMW, just think how much effort Jason Siegel, James Bobin, Nick, and everyone at Disney not to mention the muppet performers put in to get the muppets back in the spotlight and now, are we back to the 2000s? After all the effort are we back to no one knowing the muppets? The young audience doesn't seem aware, all the teens at my school just sing about that Disney princese film that came out in 2013 which was clearly overrated and for little kids. At this point the only thing we can do is ask, is this a nightmare?

 

[CensoredAlso]

The original Muppet films were popular because audiences enjoyed The Muppet Show, they saw it every week. It was only natural to attempt to break into film. And of course it helped that they were well written movies. With Muppets (2011) and MMW they're just coming from out of nowhere. I don't blame kids for not being instantly interested.The attention really hasn't been earned.

Whatever hope I have for the Muppets lies in The Hub's frequent airings of the Muppet films and occasionally Fraggle Rock. And Sesame Street on PBS of course. The repetition and familiarity of Television is the key. And frankly always has been for the Muppets.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes, but by that logic the first one should have done even worse, and we wouldn't have had this second one. The only thing I'll fault Disney on is not bothering to release the rest of the show on DVD. They tried much harder to make a presence. It lost to a film that was only marketed 2 weeks before the film happened based on this "highly successful new novel series" that I've never heard of until news of it being released same day. All on the fumes of it being another low quality fan-fic quality teenybopper trash that girls ate up because it has a flat female protagonist a woman came up with. One that if a guy wrote, would be considered awful.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yeah but while Muppets (2011) did fine, its success may not have been that long lasting, especially now that Segal is gone.

And all the marketing in the world won't mean much to kids who haven't been given a good reason to be interested.

But yeah I agree about the frustration over Frozen/Divergent type films that teenagers just instantly eat up, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes, but Frozen was a huge thing beloved by girls and boys alike. It got great reviews and managed to break out of the princess ghetto that kept Princess and the Frog and Tangled from getting the massive family audience they were going for. I mean, Princess and the Frog was losing to Chipmunks 2. I haven't seen Frozen, but have heard nothing but the best of things of it. Clearly there is something to that. The only reason I don't completely regret missing it is that I really enjoyed Anchorman 2 and couldn't have seen both at the time.

It's more or less stuff like Twilight, Hunger Games... these exactly the same series of novels that appeal to tweenage-20 year old girls with little going for them other than them having a female protagonist created by a woman writer. There's this whole thing where it doesn't matter how strong a female character is if it was created by a guy, because in some aspect the character's offensive or stereotypical on some level.... but if it's created by a woman, and it has no personality or something that should be shockingly offensive it's perfectly okay. Seriously... if some guy came up with Bella, there would be a huge crapstorm. That's how offensive and vapid that character is. But because a woman wrote it and it's about romance (an abusive relationship, mind you) it's perfectly fine. Then they whine about how female super heroes created by a guy like Wonder Woman have to be attractive. Talk about double standard.

Now, Hunger Games I can't complain about. It looks good. Divergent is a clone. A soulless fan fic clone where the girl just happens to be some goofy worded kind of "chosen one." Hey, didn't everyone hate the Star Wars prequels because of the chosen one subplot?

 

[CensoredAlso]

No one ever accused the general audience of being geniuses, hehe.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Yes, but Frozen was a huge thing beloved by girls and boys alike. It got great reviews and managed to break out of the princess ghetto that kept Princess and the Frog and Tangled from getting the massive family audience they were going for. I mean, Princess and the Frog was losing to Chipmunks 2. I haven't seen Frozen, but have heard nothing but the best of things of it. Clearly there is something to that. The only reason I don't completely regret missing it is that I really enjoyed Anchorman 2 and couldn't have seen both at the time.

The weirdly ironic thing is that it's still playing in many theaters across North America, even though it's already on DVD.

 

[Drtooth]

That's a distinction made only for films that do really good. Or just happen to be at cineplexes longer than they should and get released to DVD fast.