Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[WalterLinz]

The Annie remake looks adorable, it looks as adorable as the original. I don't know if I want to see it or not.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

How is no one talking about The Interview release. Do you guys think this will be a box office disaster now? There goes $44 million dollars down the drain. Do you think it'll ever be released now?

 

[Drtooth]

We have in other threads.

You know what the worst part of this is? I agree with blowhards like Limbaugh and trump. We're letting foreign terrorists dictate what we can and can't watch, and that's deeply UnAmerican. Even the actual terrorists from the last decade didn't sink as low as to threaten to kill citizens going to see Team America or any of those pro-war type films. Yeah, they threatened the South park guys for depicting Mohammed, but that's completely different.

But I give props to a Texas theater chain for replacing the film's slot with Team America. Remember the big frenzy North Korea had when they had that film where they kill their leader? No. Because there wasn't one. Supposedly, Kim Jung Il actually liked the film. Il had a sense of humor at least.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

According to every theater and movie PR department I have called, Sony has demanded that every last poster and banner for ‪#‎TheInterview‬ be returned immediately, so virtually no theater would be willing to sell one to me.

Man, I wish I had got my hands on one of them last week. Anyone near a movie theater and can grab one for me?

 

[Muppet Master]

The whole matter is not good since it shows that we are letting hackers get away. The movie would have made a lot of money, and now we will never see the film.

 

[Drtooth]

Seriously? Even the President agrees that this was cowardly. North Korea wasn't going to fund and train terrorists. They probably blew the budget on the hackers. And yeah, maybe it was a stupid idea to mock an insane dictator surrounded by yes men that don't think he's a Ken Jeong character. But that's never stopped us before, and we haven't been threatened by a single outside interest when making fun of a brutal jerkwad.

Anyone know the real story of Captain America? Back in the day when he was created, he was the first fictitious character to take on the Nazis before the Nazis were well known, let alone before we were at war with Germany. American Nazi groups gathered in droves and sent death threats to the creators. Those creators didn't back down, and neither should Sony have. Barbara Streisand effect is in full blast as those who wouldn't touch this movie with a 39 1/2 foot pole want to see it out of spite. We cannot let foreign dictators quell our freedom of expression. They do enough of that on their home turf.

 

[jvcarroll]

About Sony

Not only do I find their decision to be spineless, I believe their solution puts our country at greater risk. They've given the North Koreans the impression that they can blackmail the private companies in other countries to bend to their will. That is a dangerous precedent. One that could easily come back to haunt us and other nations too. I understand why Sony would want to keep moviegoers safe after 911 and also the movie theater attacks by that whackjob a few years ago. But this wasn't the way to do it. Even the President has said we have nothing to fear by going to the movies. This leads me to believe that the North Koreans had more damaging information they planned to drop if The Interview had been released. They kind of turned what would have likely been a forgettable movie into a sought-after film. I almost thought all of this was a marketing ploy until witnessing Sony's swift removal of all advertising that included rescinding all of their posters and marketing materials. Seriously, check out the prices of that movie poster on Ebay. It's insane! (BTW, it is a sharp looking poster...just not worth $200.)

About Spider-Man

One of the interesting things to come from the leaks is the behind the scenes wrangling about what to do with Spider-Man. Sony will likely own the cinematic rights to Spidey in perpetuity. Even this year's lowest performing sequel earned over $700 million worldwide. I wish people would stop pretending that it was a terrible film or some sort of financial blunder. It was neither of those. It is an easily salvageable franchise. They have one heck of a lead actor in Garfield and all of the story elements are there. They were presented in quite a sloppy fashion. I admit that. But unlike Sam Raimi's Spidey films, they haven't painted the characters or the villains into a corner. In fact, the greatest possibilities are to come. Reportedly, Andrew Garfield was so displeased with what they did with the film in post production that he was rude to the top Sony brass and is now rumored to be booted from the franchise.

The Re-Reboot

So what's happening now with the property? Well, it seems that they're going for another reboot. Geez, I know. It sounds stupid and it really kind of is. However, it sounds like they're doing what they should have done in the first place - negotiating with Disney/Marvel. It has been said that Disney/Marvel wanted a clean slate to weave the character into their Civil War story lines spread out over multiple films, and that seems to be what they're doing.

Peter Parker

The plan is to have a new actor for Peter Parker and stick him back in high school in a world where the Avengers have already been assembled and have Tony Stark recruit him to the team. The actor who plays Percy Jackson seems to be the front-runner, but I'd rather have them cast the guy who plays Styles on MTV's Teen Wolf series. Logan Lerman is kind of bland compared to Dylan O'Brien. Whomever they pick will be signed into a multi-picture deal.

The Cross-overs

Sony and Disney/Marvel will share a percentage of each other's budget and box office take in this quasi-merger. The figure being reported is about 25%. Sony will have design approval over Spider-Man's costume and will also have access to some cross-over characters for their films that are not currently covered in their contract. If this comes to be, it would make me very pleased with Disney for giving the fans the Avengers films they deserve instead of playing hardball with Sony.

The not-so-Fantastic Four

Sony was rumored to be in talks with Fox for Fantastic Four crossovers with Spidey, but that seems to have died. That film has been plagued with bad press since day one. Disney really wanted them back in the fold too. Fox decided to continue to hold onto their rights in the 11th hour. Now Marvel has stopped playing nice with the Fantastic Four and X-Men comic book properties. No new characters are being introduced because they don't want to create new ideas for a film property they don't own and I completely agree with that. But what's good news about Fantastic Four's shut-out is bad news for the X-Men. No crossovers for them either. I'm not sure if they'd fit into Marvel's world, but the end of the recent film pointed to an opportunity for something like that to happen.

So, anyway, I know people whine about the explosion of Batman and Spider-Man movies. There have been a lot of them, but that's because they are strong brands that make a lot of money. The best fans can hope for is quality in these films - and that seems to be what Sony and Marvel have been hammering out. Better late than never.

 

[Drtooth]

Not only do I find their decision to be spineless, I believe their solution puts our country at greater risk. They've given the North Koreans the impression that they can blackmail the private companies in other countries to bend to their will. That is a dangerous precedent. One that could easily come back to haunt us and other nations too. I understand why Sony would want to keep moviegoers safe after 911 and also the movie theater attacks by that whackjob a few years ago. But this wasn't the way to do it. Even the President has said we have nothing to fear by going to the movies. This leads me to believe that the North Koreans had more damaging information they planned to drop if The Interview had been released. They kind of turned what would have likely been a forgettable movie into a sought-after film. I almost thought all of this was a marketing ploy until witnessing Sony's swift removal of all advertising that included rescinding all of their posters and marketing materials. Seriously, check out the prices of that movie poster on Ebay. It's insane! (BTW, it is a sharp looking poster...just not worth $200.)

The only tiny fear that Sony has is that it's a company stationed in Japan, pretty close to NK's pathetically small reaching missiles. Other than that, it's complete and utter bull. NK has no problem making Birdemic production values propaganda about nukes blasting this country off the map. We make a comedy about their diabetic dictator, and then it's all "kill everything that moves, we can talk a good game but don't you dare call us out on it." Which is exactly what every bully I've ever encountered is like. So, yeah... that's where it ticks me off the most. Every country is entitled to their own idiotic propaganda, and as WW II showed, we milked that one from here to eternity.

Sony was spineless. And before someone says "this is all a conspiracy because the movie was actually terrible," if they wanted to hide a terrible movie, they should have done it with Jack and Jill. They made that one. That pokes all these holes in that logic.

One of the interesting things to come from the leaks is the behind the scenes wrangling about what to do with Spider-Man. Sony will likely own the cinematic rights to Spidey in perpetuity. Even this year's lowest performing sequel earned over $700 million worldwide. I wish people would stop pretending that it was a terrible film or some sort of financial blunder. It was neither of those. It is an easily salvageable franchise. They have one heck of a lead actor in Garfield and all of the story elements are there. They were presented in quite a sloppy fashion. I admit that. But unlike Sam Raimi's Spidey films, they haven't painted the characters or the villains into a corner. In fact, the greatest possibilities are to come. Reportedly, Andrew Garfield was so displeased with what they did with the film in post production that he was rude to the top Sony brass and is now rumored to be booted from the franchise.

Sony screwed up their own film. And yet, the thing made well back its budget before it even premiered in the US. I get that it had huge critical backlash, but for the love of Mike that was their own fault. No wonder they were so spineless with the interview. They're spineless here if they're dumping a goldmine yet refusing to give the rights back up to Disney. I'm sure a third reboot will tick everybody off as well, there's plenty of time to make a Spidey 3 to salvage the franchise. Iron Man 3 salvaged that one, so it can happen. Heck, after X-Men 3, Fox didn't give up and continued to hold onto the license and eventually made good X-Men movies again.

Sony was rumored to be in talks with Fox for Fantastic Four crossovers with Spidey, but that seems to have died. That film has been plagued with bad press since day one. Disney really wanted them back in the fold too. Fox decided to continue to hold onto their rights in the 11th hour. Now Marvel has stopped playing nice with the Fantastic Four and X-Men comic book properties. No new characters are being introduced because they don't want to create new ideas for a film property they don't own and I completely agree with that. But what's good news about Fantastic Four's shut-out is bad news for the X-Men. No crossovers for them either. I'm not sure if they'd fit into Marvel's world, but the end of the recent film pointed to an opportunity for something like that to happen.

You know what? I don't want to see any Fantastic Four crossovers if we're getting Internet Troll Dr. Doom. I usually try to keep an open mind, but the film runners think they're provocative geniuses by tossing in lame concepts and throwing the rich source material. Like I said, I see the same exact thing that usually happens to cartoons in live action adaptions happening here. Only people actually care this time. If they can't make a good Fantastic Four movie true to the insanity of the comic books, what makes them think they can make a good one by alienating the fanbase with such terrible concepts. And for the record, I don't count the race lift of Johnny Storm as one of them. That I have no problem with. But Internet Troll Dr. Doom is best left for a Robot Chicken sketch or Family Guy cutaway.

So, anyway, I know people whine about the explosion of Batman and Spider-Man movies. There have been a lot of them, but that's because they are strong brands that make a lot of money.

And yet, no one's complaining about the terrible tween/teen lit movies that came out of the woodwork. Bad enough most of them are fan fic ripoffs of other franchises. Every single one of them looks the same.

 

[mr3urious]

Well, the 3rd and final installment of The Hobbit was #1 at the box office, with Night at the Museum 3 and Annie at a distant 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Thank goodness for that.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2014-12-20&track=hobbit3.htm

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well, the 3rd and final installment of The Hobbit was #1 at the box office, with Night at the Museum 3 and Annie at a distant 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Thank goodness for that.

Eh, I'm just glad the "Hobbit" films are over. I've only seen the first one and that was enough.

I don't know about the whole Annie movie, but the child actress does at least seem endearing. Honestly, I don't mind a remake of Annie. It's always a musical I've been torn on, lol. Great music of course but the story's just kinda cloying.