Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[jvcarroll]

Looks like GOTG had an impressive late night Thursday opening... EVEN better than Captain America: The Winter Soldier! Somehow, this film was originally tracked for a 60 million weekend, but now they're confident that they'll get 70 million. And these aren't just numbers that are appearing out of no where. I just hope they get that much. It's said if it does get that much, it would be a record breaking opening for August.

Heck, most movies that open that month barely get what it got on Thursday.

Well, I saw Guardians of the Galaxy last night. It's great how films are now released at 8 and 10pm on Thursday nights, at least in this city, instead of midnight. Anyway, here's my brief, non-spoiler review.

Fun, action packed and authentically irreverent without trying too hard to be hip. A few moments may linger a beat longer than they should, but nothing gets in the way of the race to the end. This dark horse is the best Marvel film to date and probably the best film this year. 4.75/5 stars

 

[Drtooth]

The film's really getting great reviews. I remember when the project was announced and Rocket was going to be in it, murmurs of "Howard the Duck" were being tossed around by old comic geek cynics. Disney has really taken chances with this film, bizarre concepts and risky release date, and this may just pay off big. I'd say I already wanna grab up as much Groot and Rocket stuff as possible, but then again I felt that way since their debut on Ultimate Spider-Man.

Anyway, if this Cracked Article is true Sony's looking to reboot Men in Black over giving it a fourth movie. It's clear it's a salary thing, and because the third movie did so-so. But after a meh second outing, they rescued the concept with the time travel plotline (though the cartoon did it better). I'm mixed about this. Then again, it's a perfect time to add some concepts that worked in the cartoon series (cough cough ALPHA cough), or at least make it slightly truer to the comic book.

Wonder if J's still going to be a black guy. He wasn't in the original comics, but I do prefer Will Smith/Keith Diamond's J to the comic one.

 

[Muppet Master]

Clifford The Big Red DogUniversal4/8/16New

Seriously, first another power rangers film, and now another clifford film, what is up with studios these days making movies thinking nostalgic factor will save it!

 

[Mynameisdean]

Wow. They are taking a HUGE risk with turning a series of Books, and a 13 year old tv show (Which got a movie in theatres) and bringing it to the big screen. I guarantee this will fail, just as Barney 's Great Adventure, Elmo In Grouchland, that Thomas The Tank Engine movie, Oogieloves, and the other Clifford movie failed. No one wants to take little kids to the movie theater! Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy got of to a great start with an estimated 37.8 Million, which puts it in position to open with over $90 M, which will easily be the August Opening weekend record.

 

[charlietheowl]

I think one of the problems with the Thomas the Tank Engine movie was that they were trying to take a series that ran in 5-minute segments and turn it into a 80-minute movie. It just wasn't possible without over plotting.

 

[mr3urious]

Wow. They are taking a HUGE risk with turning a series of Books, and a 13 year old tv show (Which got a movie in theatres) and bringing it to the big screen. I guarantee this will fail, just as Barney 's Great Adventure, Elmo In Grouchland, that Thomas The Tank Engine movie, Oogieloves, and the other Clifford movie failed. No one wants to take little kids to the movie theater!

Hollywood is just too blinded by money to think straight.

I think one of the problems with the Thomas the Tank Engine movie was that they were trying to take a series that ran in 5-minute segments and turn it into a 80-minute movie. It just wasn't possible without over plotting.

Not to mention the severe edits made in post-production, to the point where they cut out a major human villain from the film. Even I, a grown man, felt confused by the plot.

 

[Muppet Master]

Wow. They are taking a HUGE risk with turning a series of Books, and a 13 year old tv show (Which got a movie in theatres) and bringing it to the big screen. I guarantee this will fail, just as Barney 's Great Adventure, Elmo In Grouchland, that Thomas The Tank Engine movie, Oogieloves, and the other Clifford movie failed. No one wants to take little kids to the movie theater! Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy got of to a great start with an estimated 37.8 Million, which puts it in position to open with over $90 M, which will easily be the August Opening weekend record.

I have fond memories of watching that show while eating goldfish in my toy car, kids right . Even with that, I will not even take a look at that film. If it's like the more than-a-decade old series than, it won't work at all. If popular kid shows like SS, Barney, and Thomas can make feature-lenght films and bomb badly, than this film is like you said a guarenteed flop. Though, if they try to make this a family film then it'll BOMB EVEN WORSE. This simply will never work. Also GOTG deserves all the $$$$ it's getting, because it's a wonderful film. Also, did you read the Boxofficmojo article about July at the Box office. It's the worse in a long time. Wow, and I have to agree this year is failing, no film has even made $300 million, and it's more than half the month. Films that were supposed to be hits (MMW, dragon, transformers) were either ok or disappointed. It's also quite insane that I'm going to blatently state that August at the box office could end up with more money than July!

 

[Mynameisdean]

Yeah, it's going to fail. There's a 98% Percent chance it will. The 2% is if there is some weird happening and parents bring their toddlers to see it. But we ALL still doubt it. Seriously, NOBODY and I mean nobody who knows about it is confident it will suceed. Hopefully, it never happens, and will never be heard of again.

 

[mr3urious]

I'd hate to see a freaky CGI version of Clifford with real dog-like facial features like Scooby-Doo was.

 

[Drtooth]

Films that were supposed to be hits (MMW, dragon, transformers) were either ok or disappointed. It's also quite insane that I'm going to blatently state that August at the box office could end up with more money than July!

Transformers made about 900 million world wide. Not exactly a disappointment.

Clifford The Big Red DogUniversal4/8/16New

Seriously, first another power rangers film, and now another clifford film, what is up with studios these days making movies thinking nostalgic factor will save it!

Hehe... Power Rangers having a nostalgia factor. Freakin' thing's still on the air. And we got the thing 20 years into the Super Sentai series. I don't see anything wrong with them doing a big budget film instead of the two 90 minute toy commercials they made in the 90's.

Anyway, saw GOTG yesterday and it was freaking amazing. They took some real risks in making a film based on such an obscure and off beat comic, and it totally paid off. I'd venture to say this is probably the most fun I've had at a Marvel movie... even more so than Avengers. Even without the Marvel tie in, they actually made a good sci-fi action comedy. Something that Hollywood's been struggling with since forever (cough cough Pluto Nash). Theater was pretty crowded when I saw it. That's a good sign. Is Friday's opening in addition to Thursday's 11 million? Seriously, between this and TMNT (say what you will about it, it don't look cheap), movie studios are really looking to turn August around this year.

Now, my only complaint is that before this amazing film I had to sit through that awful trailer for the in name only adaption of Alexander and the blah blah blah et cetera Day. I owe Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs an apology (at least they got the building boats out of stale bread sandwiches part right). Seriously. STOP making movies based on single kid's books. There's not enough story to begin with. Now Clifford, at least that's a series of books with an established set of characters (for the sake of argument, forget the TV show...which already had a movie). There's room for a story to happen without turning the book into something else. Alexander, however... seems that everyone but Alexander is having the bad day.