Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

Pan, simply put, looks like crap. And not the cheaply farted out kind of crap either. The "Look at how much of an artist I am" crap that comes out as a busy, expensive, overdramatic joke. Everything I hear about the film sounds dreadful. Neverland is where time collides? Really!? I get that they can't show Native Americans in dated roles as cartoony stereotypes of themselves, and I get they want white people in their roles because that's somehow more politically correct (the answer is, no. Not at all. Not by a long shot). But why does Tigerlilly look like Queen Amidala from Phantom Menace designed by a crazy cat woman with too much yarn? Seriously, with all the complaints that Tonto in The Lone Ranger wearing a dead bird on his head, at least his excuse was that in the movie Tonto was a crazy person. What's their excuse?

This looks like conceptual art puked up Dadaism all over folk art. If there's any complaints to the movie, like it being an unnecessary prequel that actually takes away the magic of the original story, that they don't even follow up on plot potential to show you how many loud, garish things they can shove into the runtime, that Blackbeard is more like Hook than the wooden Hook they had... whatever. THIS is the sign the movie was going to suck. It's even more embarrassing to do to Native Americans than the fine in its day, but cringeworthy now "What made the Red Man Red?" song from the Disney version.

Just OUCH!

Nice to see that the Martian and Hotel Transylvania 2 are more of a draw than something so... this...

 

[MuppetSpot]

Has anyone seen that scout and zombie trailer? Looks stupid.

 

[Drtooth]

Warner Bros is looking to lose a substantial amount of money off of Pan.

That's where it hit me.

The only successful version of Peter Pan from the last decade or so was Jake and the Neverland Pirates. And that's a spinoff type deal.

I swear there were at least 2 other Peter Pan movies that came out before this one that I can't even put my finger on. I know one had a Wendy's Kid's Meal promo, and that's it.

Anyway, while I probably won't see it in theaters, I'd love to see Rock the Kashbah someday. Looks like some great Bill Murray stuff there.

 

[D'Snowth]

PAN was pretty good - better than I expected it to be. It certainly had an interesting cast, to say the least: I can see where Drtooth is coming from - Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily wasn't convincing as an indian/Native American character, however, she embodied a character that served a purpose in the story. Hugh Jackman was an interesting choice as Blackbeard, but it was really Garrett Hedlund as James Hook who kind of stole the show.

There was an inconsistency with the special and visual effects, I'll admit: while half of it did look like the typical kind of cheap CGI that saturations cinema today, the rest of it did look rather breathtaking and mesmerizing.

While I recognize there's a congestion in Hollywood today of shutting out originality in favor of rehashing, sequeling, prequeling, modernizing, and updating already-existing stories, I think this is at least worth checking out.

 

[mr3urious]

Goosebumps made it to #1, of course, thanks to no competition from similar movies like it. The Martian still clings to the #2 spot, while newcomers Bridge of Spies and Crimson Peak trail behind.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

 

[Drtooth]

While I recognize there's a congestion in Hollywood today of shutting out originality in favor of rehashing, sequeling, prequeling, modernizing, and updating already-existing stories, I think this is at least worth checking out.

While I certainly try not to be one of those people, I have some favoritism when it comes to Peter Pan adaptions. To me, the best Hooks out there were Hans Conried (and by extension, Corey Burton as his recast), Dustin Hoffman, and Tim Curry (who played him in the short lived Fox cartoon). If this movie is better than it sounds (and looks), the trailers certainly hide it very well. But I really don't think we've seen a successful Peter Pan project that doesn't involve preschool television in a long time. And that's probably some of what's hampering this film. I mean, there was one about the writer of the Pan play or book or whatever it was that was somehow cult enough to get a musical produced of that version of the movie. Think the film had Johnny Depp in it.

Certain characters carry a stigma that they just can't seem to break out of or be successful with. Everyone loves laughing at the last Lone Ranger movie, but there was actually one before it in the 80's (or something) that had the same bad critical and commercial response. And it really seems anything with the classic movie monsters either becomes successful like the 90's Mummy franchise or a miserable failure like...uh...wasn't there some Frankenstein movie no one liked recently?

Maybe Pan will find a cult audience when it hits the smaller screen.

Goosebumps made it to #1, of course, thanks to no competition from similar movies like it. The Martian still clings to the #2 spot, while newcomers Bridge of Spies and Crimson Peak trail behind.

HT2 has been out a few weeks now, so I'm guessing it doesn't have any direct competition. I still wonder who this movie is for. I'm sure the fans of the books would have rather a straight up adaption rather than the (for lack of better examples) Roger Rabbit meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, only they're the bad guys format, and the younger audiences probably didn't read any of these unless they were hand me downs from their parents or something. It opened number 1, but at a soft 20 something Mil. Maybe it will fair better closer to Halloween? I was never really a fan of the books or TV show, so I don't have much to go on in terms of childhood ruination or not. But I really feel bad for Jack Black. He did that one stupid prehistoric film and it ruined his (and Michael Cera's outside of Arrested Development) career. And he hasn't bounced back, even with an Oscar-minded think piece. A soft opening like this isn't that good.

 

[mr3urious]

The Martian bumps Goosebumps off the top spot, while none of the newcomers managed to crack the top 3, especially the latest entry in the cash cow Paranormal Activity franchise. It had the lowest opening in the series, continuing a trend of dwindling takes and showing just how sick people are of these tired-out found footage jump scare-fests.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=paranormalactivity.htm

And boy, did Jem and the Holograms tank, only managing to hit #15 in the charts! It seems that both millennials who grew up with the show as well as the tween girls this movie was intended for failed to see this. Don't know if foreigners would take to this more like they did with Battleship, but I'm sure a lot of them know more about Jem.

 

[Drtooth]

And boy, did Jem and the Holograms tank, only managing to hit #15 in the charts! It seems that both millennials who grew up with the show as well as the tween girls this movie was intended for failed to see this. Don't know if foreigners would take to this more like they did with Battleship, but I'm sure a lot of them know more about Jem.

The more I think about it, the more it's obvious that Hasbro and Universal (or whatever studio put it out) knew this movie wouldn't do well (though I can't imagine that poorly). The most glaringly obvious thing about this film's predetermined failure is there were no Jem toys or Jem based merchandise surrounding the film. And keep in mind, this is a film based on a toy line produced by a toy maker. Even Battleship had Kreon (Hasbro's Lego knockoff) sets. And even as a terrible movie, the brand is strong enough to keep afloat on the board game it was barely based off of. That's where the film's failure stands. Not in the fact it's a glorified Disney Channel movie. Not the fact it ticked of the 30 year olds who the film was never meant for in the first place. The fact this was the relaunch of a toy line that, let's face it, wasn't as successful as those who grew up with them would claim, but garnered no toy line is how this movie failed. And I think that's the reason the film had no budget and minimal advertising. The only people who knew about this film were ticked off fangirls and fanboys who wouldn't have seen the film anyway. Unless it was promoted around the clock on Disney channel or during Nick's the shows I'm always complaining about, there was no way the ideal audience of 12 year old girls was going to bother. And something tells me that's why the film turned out the way it did. They knew it would be a failure, and they gave the film a 5 million dollar budget. Even if it wound up with this much of a weekend take, they could stand to lose a lot less than a bigger budget film.

Now, it's debatable if the concept of heavily 80's Jem could have faithfully and unironically translated to a 2015 film for 12 year olds. But what's not debatable is at a 5 million dollar budget, I don't think there would have been a logical way to recreate the cartoon exactly. There wasn't going to be a Battleship/Transformers/G.I. Joe budget for Jem. And part of this has to do with what I said a while back... Transformers, MLP, G.I. Joe, and (ugh) LPS were always around. Other than small lulls in each franchise, they don't need much updating to remain relevant. In the case of G.I. Joe the big 1980's update made the franchise what it is today. But Jem never got another shot outside the 80's until now. It's not a relevant franchise even if the movie was an unironic recreation. And the dolls never really sold well. I can see why Hasbro greenlit the movie. Their boys lines of Transformers, Marvel, and Star Wars are making them a fortune, but their girl's lines are suffering. That's why we have Equestria Girls. I think they came to realize that the film will only play to girls who grew up too fast for dolls, and just threw their hands in the air and said "let's dump this in October when no one will care." Come on. Who was the film for? Not little girls who buy dolls, not 30 and 40 year olds who grew up with the cartoon. No toy line, who cares? As a result, I'd say Universal made the film every bit a failure they could to waste the license.

That said, the fact that the director is getting death threats is just absolutely pathetic. Very much behavior not becoming of a "Super Star."

As for Paranormal Activity.... HAW! The fact that a horror franchise can't make it big during the Halloween season is laughable. Even Oujia managed to squeak out a decent profit (for having a budget about as low as Jem, thus making that movie even more pathetic).

 

[mr3urious]

Here are the numbers this weekend, and what a weak Halloween weekend it was. None of the newcomers managed to crack the top 3. Not even Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, which made it at a lowly 12th place!

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Once Peanuts and James Bond arrive next weekend, I expect things to be better.

 

[Drtooth]

Most of the new comers were those (for lack of a better term) Oscar baity adult type films that don't really get a mainstream following until they're up for an award or hit home video and or cable. And even then, they didn't look interesting. Supposedly "Our Brand is Crisis" was based on a true story, but they gender flipped a real person. Burnt seemed like it was marketed as a chick flick when it probably wasn't. Those two felt like the weakest calls for an Oscar possible. There weren't any strong contenders this weak, and that Scout's Guide film just looked... incredibly stupid. I'd say that, if anything, this was made to be a cult movie house showing, but it looks like they tried to hard to make it a camp film (no pun intended, but welcome). And when you try too hard to make something so bad it's good, you often wind up with so stupid, it's hard to take seriously even as camp.

Though I expected a uptick in Hotel Transylvania (it got a minor one) and Paranormal Activity. But perhaps the failure of that installment will lead to no more milking of that franchise.

Then again, next week is the blockbuster franchise head to head. They're 2 of the biggest movies this month, and two well loved franchises that have never had a major lull in popularity since the 60's. Established legacies, if you will. All this week offered was an imitation midnight movie and 2 prestige films that weren't all that prestigious.