Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[jvcarroll]

My issue with the Rhino is that he came at the wrong time for the movie. That should have been the stinger instead of the X-Men trailer. Rhino was a little over the top, I'll admit, but for me it wasn't so much the character as the timing. It gave the film some ending fatigue when the film really ended a scene or two ago. I know the set up for the Sinister Six was supposed to be the stinger and shoved into the film because of the X-Men trailer.

But I do agree completely with Electro. There should have been more of Goblin and less of Electro. Goblin should have risen before Electro turned into Electro, probably even edging him into becoming that or double teaming earlier on in the movie. Seems they wanted to Goblin up as the big bad of the next film, and that's why he was dealt with near the end of the film. But his story was more interesting than obsessive awkward nerd being awkward.

That said, rumor or not, Sony did push the next film to 2017 at the earliest, and there are internal problems, the writer got angry at the fan reaction and left. While I don't fully believe Sony will relinquish the franchise completely, they are overreacting to the 60 Million dollar difference between this film and the first one. The entire box office was down, yet movies that have barely broke even stateside (because that's the only time it counts unless it doesn't) have been considered good enough and are getting no question sequels. It really seems either way, and it all hinges on Sinister Six. No wonder why the next Spider-Man film is delayed.

The domestic box office is no longer the priority it used to be particularly when you're talking a movie from Sony. Heck, not really with any company these days. Transformers 4 is the number one film of the year worldwide and it didn't even have an American premiere.

Sony's definitely re-configuring its gameplan. I mean, why even insert an X-Men bumper from Fox at the end of their movie? I think they were intending to merge their Spidey universe with the X-Men and Fantastic Four from Fox. Maybe they're thinking bigger with Disney's Marvel properties. As for another Spidey reboot, well his current world can't overlap the Avengers. The two New Yorks don't match up. The Avengers was the world's first glimpse at superheroes in Disney's Marvel universe so Garfield's Spider-man would have happened after that film and would have lessened the impact of Spidey on the city.

I still think the Rhino works just fine as he was and I liked the closing scene with the kid. I don't think that was a toss-away credits bumper. It's exactly where it was supposed to be. The problem is that the film was reshaped in production. Garfield mentioned a much more robust script and that's probably why the writer left. It's as if they took his gourmet ingredients, tossed out half of them and added cheezwiz on top. It was bright and colorful with a lot of cool stuff, but it was uneven and odd. I actually agree with both sides of the argument. This film should have been split into two pictures. As it stands, they should probably at least give this Spidey one more movie to tie up his story and I'm not sure if they should totally scrap this telling. Personally, I think they should keep going.

Sony pushed things back because their initial plan was overly ambitious to begin with. The sky isn't falling. It's okay. And really, the problems didn't start with the sequel. They began with the Lizard in the first film. His story was odd and truncated and his visual design was terrible. The chemistry between Garfield and Stone is the engine both films ran on and that's now gone. It will be interesting to see what they decide.

 

[Drtooth]

The domestic box office is no longer the priority it used to be particularly when you're talking a movie from Sony. Heck, not really with any company these days. Transformers 4 is the number one film of the year worldwide and it didn't even have an American premiere.

Funny thing about TF4... it didn't even have many tie ins. Every movie had a series of comics (adaptions, prequels, in universe side stories) from IDW, a BK kid's meal tie in, and various other little side things. Except this one. There was an Oreo tie in. Everything else released was essentially just the standard movie toys. At least over here. My sister got me a British magazine she thought was Transformers, but was actually a Dinosaur magazine that had a TF4 tie in. And I'm sure there was a lot of stuff for China because the film was essentially made for them. I just find that weird. Like the US run of TF4 was a formality to sell the toyline. I'm actually a little disappointed. I was meh on the film, but excited to see a swath of merchandise to collect, only to just see the standard actual Transformers. Even then, the easiest to find ones were kid friendly action gimmicks and one step changers.

I still think the Rhino works just fine as he was and I liked the closing scene with the kid. I don't think that was a toss-away credits bumper. It's exactly where it was supposed to be. The problem is that the film was reshaped in production. Garfield mentioned a much more robust script and that's probably why the writer left. It's as if they took his gourmet ingredients, tossed out half of them and added cheezwiz on top. It was bright and colorful with a lot of cool stuff, but it was uneven and odd. I actually agree with both sides of the argument. This film should have been split into two pictures. As it stands, they should probably at least give this Spidey one more movie to tie up his story and I'm not sure if they should totally scrap this telling. Personally, I think they should keep going.

The writer left after the bad reviews came in. This is the same guy who went nuts when fanboys were poking holes in Star Trek: Into Darkness (especially the scene where the character was in her underwear which I still don't get the outrage over). I don't blame him from walking away after the lashing he probably took. The studio wants to follow Marvel's phase films, and I agree that's where things went wrong. Maybe if a little more work was done to this movie instead of plans for movies they're probably not going to do now, this film would have been a bit more solid. Then again, I swear the cartoonier elements and the change to a more generic looking Spider-Man suit was trying to pander to the audience, and it didn't take. Personally, I liked Spidey's yellow eyes.

But I agree that they're probably overreacting. The box office picture overall wasn't that great this year, and Spidey 2 did make money.

 

[jvcarroll]

Funny thing about TF4... it didn't even have many tie ins. Every movie had a series of comics (adaptions, prequels, in universe side stories) from IDW, a BK kid's meal tie in, and various other little side things. Except this one. There was an Oreo tie in. Everything else released was essentially just the standard movie toys. At least over here. My sister got me a British magazine she thought was Transformers, but was actually a Dinosaur magazine that had a TF4 tie in. And I'm sure there was a lot of stuff for China because the film was essentially made for them. I just find that weird. Like the US run of TF4 was a formality to sell the toyline. I'm actually a little disappointed. I was meh on the film, but excited to see a swath of merchandise to collect, only to just see the standard actual Transformers. Even then, the easiest to find ones were kid friendly action gimmicks and one step changers.




The writer left after the bad reviews came in. This is the same guy who went nuts when fanboys were poking holes in Star Trek: Into Darkness (especially the scene where the character was in her underwear which I still don't get the outrage over). I don't blame him from walking away after the lashing he probably took. The studio wants to follow Marvel's phase films, and I agree that's where things went wrong. Maybe if a little more work was done to this movie instead of plans for movies they're probably not going to do now, this film would have been a bit more solid. Then again, I swear the cartoonier elements and the change to a more generic looking Spider-Man suit was trying to pander to the audience, and it didn't take. Personally, I liked Spidey's yellow eyes.

But I agree that they're probably overreacting. The box office picture overall wasn't that great this year, and Spidey 2 did make money.

Andrew Garfield has stated the original script was fantastic before the story was hacked to bits. He was reportedly startled by the outcome. So I still don't think world building was the issue with the film. Corporate tinkering seemed to be at play. And with Sony, we know how that goes.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. Them, Marvel, and the toy companies supposedly were the ones behind the third movie being awful as well. I swear the film makers purposely sabotaged the script and along with the actors purposely priced themselves out because they know Spider-Man 4 would have been outrageously awful. I'm getting sick of these studios torpedoing their own scripts and movies and acting like it's everyone's fault but their own when the reviews come out.

 

[jvcarroll]

ATTN:

According to Variety, Box Office Mojo has now been truncated and absorbed into Amazon-owned IMDb. Yes, that's the clunky site rife with factual errors that never seem to get updated. This happened quietly and without fanfare over the last 48 hours. The Mojo that we knew is likely gone and getting anything near the content the site had will likely require a premium membership to IMDb. Eugh. I guess this is a sign of things to come. Free information on the interenet will no longer be free. It'll cost "a-buck-'O-five."

Where to go now? The Numbers. It's not that pretty but it gets the job done.

 

[Muppet Master]

ATTN:

According to Variety, Box Office Mojo has now been truncated and absorbed into Amazon-owned IMDb. Yes, that's the clunky site rife with factual errors that never seem to get updated. This happened quietly and without fanfare over the last 48 hours. The Mojo that we knew is likely gone and getting anything near the content the site had will likely require a premium membership to IMDb. Eugh. I guess this is a sign of things to come. Free information on the interenet will no longer be free. It'll cost "a-buck-'O-five."

Where to go now? The Numbers. It's not that pretty but it gets the job done.

Wow, that really does suck, it was one of the most comprehensive sites for box office data, and they also had really neat articles and all, I was just going to check if MMW had grossed anything more at the foriegn box office, yep I am still optimistic, and look at Friday's box office when this happened, really sad.

 

[jvcarroll]

Well, Mojo seems to be back up for now, but it's missing the numbers from the last few days.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, just our luck, I'd assume that Alexander and the Unremarkable, Overwrought, Cliche-ridden Raucous Family Comedy made a bundle over the weekend, and five sequels will be planned while Disney sits on the Muppets for failing to make a 100 million dollars opening second.

 

[mr3urious]

Well, just our luck, I'd assume that Alexander and the Unremarkable, Overwrought, Cliche-ridden Raucous Family Comedy made a bundle over the weekend, and five sequels will be planned while Disney sits on the Muppets for failing to make a 100 million dollars opening second.

So far, it ranks at #4 with around $5 mil, falling below even two other movies that have been out for a week. Worry no more.
http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Al...-Horrible-No-Good-Very-Bad-Day#tab=box-office

Meanwhile, The Boxtrolls made back its budget and then some. It actually earned more domestically so far.
http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Boxtrolls-The#tab=box-office

 

[Drtooth]

So far, it ranks at #4 with around $5 mil, falling below even two other movies that have been out for a week. Worry no more.
http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Al...-Horrible-No-Good-Very-Bad-Day#tab=box-office

That seems to be a one day, and this is a three day weekend. But hopefully it will make even less money in its first week than MMW. I'm not saying that's good enough proof for Disney to make another film right away, but just enough for A) the family box office overall has been terrible after Lego this year and B) for them to realize these sleeper family comedies aren't hugely profitable either, and they might as well use familiar characters who a movie can be made out of. They're not just going to release Frozen and Marvel movies, they have these throw away family comedies that only make money when the DVD's hit low price range. Maybe consider Muppet projects to fill that gap instead of buying the rights to a book to not actually use.

Optimistic, sure... but really, these kinds of movies are disposable.