Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

Yeah. Annie... I just have a general dislike for entirely. The guy that wrote the comics was a far right nut, the musical's awful. Both Peanuts musicals were far better and had much better music. There's a reason why "Just one Person" seems to follow the Jim Henson legacy and not "Tomorrow." Okay, well... maybe To Morrow," but that's another story.

But it seems this remake completely changes the story to something more... and I hate to say this... genuine than the cloying rags to riches story. At least from what I read. Still refuse to touch that one.

Meanwhile, Sony now insists they are going to release The Interview somehow. Personally, I want them to still put this in theaters since North Korea has been threatening the heck out of everyone lately. For South Korea daring to put up a Christmas Tree as a symbol of peace to America again for daring to call them out on their hypocrisy and outright lying that it wasn't their fault in the first place for the hacks. So yeah. They're an empty threat. Now if it was Russia I'd say torpedo the friggin movie to Smithereens. That guy's a different, less Daffy Duck crazy.

 

[jvcarroll]

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.




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.







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.



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.

It's not the nuclear weapons or the fact that they bullied an entertainment company that's disturbing. It's the hacking and the blackmail in order to get what they want. That should frighten the heck out of people - that they can so easily bend others to their will. However, their Internet just went down and it doesn't seem to be going back up any time soon. Wonder how that happened? hehe

 

[Drtooth]

I'm sure their internet outages are just like their power outages. Routine. Hacking is now just as routine, and shopping at a store or online can put personal credit at risk. Someone's going to have to come up with some sort of unbreakable fire wall or internet security that catches these guys in the act a lot sooner.

Anyway, Disney's still marketing Big Hero 6, and that makes me very happy. The film's still around, even with the supposed Blockbuster family films that aren't opening so well. Nice to see that Disney expects some more business over the hoilday break. Seems they are pleased with their success indeed.

 

[charlietheowl]

So some theaters are going to screen The Interview now this weekend. No major chains have made announcements yet, but some independent ones have decided to show it. Hope after all this controversy and trouble the movie turns out to actually be good.

 

[Drtooth]

Critics that actually saw it say it's meh.

Personally I'm sick of those that say "aaww, this was a stupid idea. Hollywood ran out of ideas..." when it comes to this film. Nevermind the plotline is the most original one I've heard of in a while (or rather the least completely overused) or the fact that everyone over the age of 60 wants them to just make Roman Holiday over and over as an indie film with aging stars they relate to.

America is as entitled to negative propaganda as much as any country. Heck, our yellow journalism channels run on negative propaganda. NK made films about nuking us fictitiously, we can have comedians attempt to pretend kill their guy.

The ONLY thing good about this situation was that Mike Myers reprised Dr. Evil in what was otherwise a terrible episode of SNL.

Seriously... Girlfriend's Talkshow is the worst recurring skit they ever had.

 

[mr3urious]

Well, Paddington has performed a modest $25 mil. at the box office in the quiet month of January, finishing at the #3 rank. It's another case of a film getting lucky thanks to no competition. It made a lot more money internationally, though, at over $120 mil.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=paddington.htm

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Paddington looks awful, but the reviews aren't nearly as bad. Has anyone seen the movie yet? Is it any good?

 

[WalterLinz]

Paddington looks awful, but the reviews aren't nearly as bad. Has anyone seen the movie yet? Is it any good?

I haven't seen it yet either, but I have a feeling the previews just mostly show the awful parts so they won't spoil the more cute and heartwarming scenes, according to the little non-spoilery reviews I read on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, Paddington has performed a modest $25 mil. at the box office in the quiet month of January, finishing at the #3 rank. It's another case of a film getting lucky thanks to no competition. It made a lot more money internationally, though, at over $120 mil.

Because, internationally, audiences actually know what Paddington Bear is.

Meanwhile, props to American Sniper. Thing made Guardians money. Good for Bradley Cooper, eh? Not really the kind of film I'd go see, anyway. I'm sort of interested in Strange Magic, but would rather save that money for Spongebob's second theatrical outing.

I haven't seen it yet either, but I have a feeling the previews just mostly show the awful parts so they won't spoil the more cute and heartwarming scenes, according to the little non-spoilery reviews I read on Rotten Tomatoes.

That's how trailers are made. They're trying to cater to the lowest common denominator for kids, and most potty joke sequences in a movie are added in to get a PG rating as a G rating without the Pixar Label is film suicide somehow. Even if it's as heartwarming and not as raucous as the previews show, I still wouldn't like to see it. Props if its genuinely good, but the premise of a taxidermist sounds pretty offputting.

 

[mr3urious]

Boy, has Strange Magic flopped, debuting at the box office at 7th place with only a puny $5.5 mil. gross. Not even The Nut Job opened that poorly in the same month!

Meanwhile, its only competition, Paddington, continues to hold a steady 2nd place spot in its 2nd week with a $40 mil. gross in total, which is not bad for a movie based on a character most Americans are unfamiliar with. American Sniper still remains at the top spot, though, and still making tons of bucks (around $200 mil. as if this post). Very impressive for a January movie.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2015-01-25&track=strangemagic.htm