Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[mr3urious]

Good to see SpongeBob is still at the top 3 and has finally turned a profit.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2015-02-14&track=spongebob2.htm&p=.htm

 

[Drtooth]

That's probably slightly more accurate than what I posted. That's the dangers of a family friendly website. Can't even give a minor cussword.

The Spongebob movie is doing nicely. Hopefully some regional vacation days help prop those numbers up.

Still...ugh. You'd think those housewives would at least dump some more kids to Spongebob. It's really no surprise Spongebob's doing well. He has a perennial popularity that really should have translated to 3 or 4 movies by now. It's well over a decade since the first one (and that one went up opposite a PIXAR movie), and the Rugrats had about three films well before then. One was a crossover, so technically 2 and a half. Nick's been making some nice money on all the films except Hey Arnold (their fault for using the wrong movie and releasing it opposite Star Wars ep 2 and Lilo and Stitch where PPG was struggling... and PPG was in its prime, too). I really really wish they could find a way to make a TMNT cartoon movie that doesn't interfere with the Bay produced ones. Kinda stinks that Spongebob 3-D didn't have a short cartoon from another Nick show before it. That would have been great.

Side note... the Sponge out of Water specific merchandise pretty much disappeared off the shelves within a week of the film's premiere. The general Spongebob stuff didn't move quite as much, it had a dent in it, but the movie based toys were almost completely gone, save for some blind packaged Mega Blocks figures. Even the Yogurt was lacking on a local grocery shelf. Seriously. There was a Plank-Ton Fisher Price figure. Surprised that was even left there.

 

[mr3urious]

Looks like Fifty Shades was being planned out as a trilogy even before the 1st came out, just like Planes. And no doubt the last one will be split into 2 parts considering the obnoxious trend of making two-part finales for extra cash.

http://www.ibtimes.com/fifty-shades...ifty-shades-darker-fifty-shades-freed-1807934

 

[Drtooth]

Fifty Shades for some reason has a trilogy of books. I'd liken it more to Divergent for crappy ripoff stories that get too much recognition. Planes was more along the lines of cheap DTV projects to sell a line of toys that somehow got theatrical screenings. I wouldn't doubt the shifting of Good Dinosaur and the lack of a Disney produced animated feature in Summer was the only reason Fire and Rescue got the theatrical treatment.

But way ahead of them on the other books getting film adaptions. I had a feeling that would be the case since they already knew it would have been a hit, with controversy being a large yet not entire portion of the film's success. Then again, audiences that actually saw it aren't thrilled with it. So I'm guessing that once the hype from this one dies down, the second and third (and probably fourth) films won't do quite as well. Unless they have unrated versions on DVD, and that props the sales up.

 

[Drtooth]

Eh, you don't mind me going on a short rant about McFarline, USA, do you?

Why do we have to constantly see these lame "based on a true story" sports movies about how caring Caucasian coaches taking in the backwards ethnic players/team/single guy with amazing talent that somehow comes out of nowhere? We all heard the tired rant of "Hollywood's running out of ideas" any time a movie someone doesn't like pops up. Super hero movie? Hollywood has run out of ideas. Sequel of a prequel of a remake? Hollywood has run out of ideas. Anything that isn't some imaginary indie film that no one's going to watch anyway? Hollywood has run out of ideas.

BUT you never hear "UGH! Another uninspired, exaggerated, barely based on a true story sports movie! Hollywood has run out of ideas." Not to say there aren't quality ones by any means. There are some great ones, they just aren't my thing. But this new crop of emotionally manipulative wannabe Oscar Bait is just sad. While most of these movies routinely toss aside the actual stories for movie storytelling (forgivable, as they're movies), these last ones just turned into "slightly based off an event to the point where we could have just made our own movie without any alterations, but then we'd probably get sued."

 

[charlietheowl]

I can't wait for an uninspirational sports movie to come out. There are so many stories from all sports that deserve the chance to become a film, and yet schlock like this and that one where Jon Hamm went to India to find baseball players become movies. Sports should be treated like other movie topics, where sometimes people don't overcome the odds and the little guy doesn't win.

I think the story of the 1973 Oakland A's would make a great movie, where a team overcomes their loathing of each other, their manager, and their owner to win the championship.

 

[mr3urious]

Unsurprisingly, Fifty Shades still stays on top, while SpongeBob and Kingsman round out the top 3. Meanwhile, new releases McFarland, USA and The Duff trail closely behind them.

But boy, did Hot Tub Time Machine 2 flop hard compared to the first one's opening. I expect it to at least turn a decent profit due to its much cheaper budget, though.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2015-02-22&track=spongebob2.htm

 

[Muppet Master]

Unsurprisingly, Fifty Shades still stays on top, while SpongeBob and Kingsman round out the top 3. Meanwhile, new releases McFarland, USA and The Duff trail closely behind them.

But boy, did Hot Tub Time Machine 2 flop hard compared to the first one's opening. I expect it to at least turn a decent profit due to its much cheaper budget, though.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2015-02-22&track=spongebob2.htm

Dang, pretty bad, does not really matter though since Hot Tub Time Machine only has a $14 million budget, still not that good.

 

[Drtooth]

I can't wait for an uninspirational sports movie to come out. There are so many stories from all sports that deserve the chance to become a film, and yet schlock like this and that one where Jon Hamm went to India to find baseball players become movies. Sports should be treated like other movie topics, where sometimes people don't overcome the odds and the little guy doesn't win.

There was a movie that was inspirational yet had the underdog lose in the end. And it was made in the 70's and is one of the most popular movies of all time. Care to guess which one that was?

Supposedly the Dodgeball movie was going to end with the good guys losing, but the studio wouldn't let them. It would be genuinely interesting to have a movie about a sports scandal or some other angle besides underdogs overcoming adversity. Friday Night Lights was more about how the town needed football, and that carried to the TV series. We need more sports movies like that. No more sort of trueish stories.

But my complaint is that A) aren't there any stories about non-Caucasian coaches that help out an ethnically diverse team to glory and B) they make these things with an obnoxious frequency. Like the most forced of all Oscar Baity films. Worse than Biopics. Especially since they manipulate the truth to make the coaches look like the real heroes. The Blind Side outright lied and made the family look like a bunch of buffoons that couldn't even wipe themselves competently, when in truth the son of the family was already adept at playing football. All to make it a Mighty Whitey saves the day movie.

Unsurprisingly, Fifty Shades still stays on top, while SpongeBob and Kingsman round out the top 3. Meanwhile, new releases McFarland, USA and The Duff trail closely behind them.

But boy, did Hot Tub Time Machine 2 flop hard compared to the first one's opening. I expect it to at least turn a decent profit due to its much cheaper budget, though.

Glad to see Spongebob's still making money. But yeah. Comedy sequels just aren't as lucky as 22 Jump Street was. This is a major blow. I haven't seen the original, but the time traveling hot tub seems to be much more of a time travel movie parody device than the prior film. The trailer makes it look like a loose bunch of time travel gags, and nothing really seems as authentic as the original did. It looks to me like this is going to be a "wait for Netflix" type deal.

 

[charlietheowl]

There was a movie that was inspirational yet had the underdog lose in the end. And it was made in the 70's and is one of the most popular movies of all time. Care to guess which one that was?

Rocky right? He split with Apollo Creed at the end I think.