Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

I had problems not because I couldn't find books I liked (I did, very much so)... just the fact that school forced you to read certain books and take tests to make sure you remember the minutia. Not that there weren't those that weren't enjoyable on their own, but when you take the fun out of reading, you take the desire to read away as well. And I was a very good reader. I can't fault all children's/younger audience books, as most of them are quite good. I have to admit, I do not like Harry Potter, but have huge respect for it. I feel similar to Hunger Games (I do dig the concept), out of an endless see of tween lit, it's certainly not the worst and the movies look genuinely good if you're into that sort of thing. Just the imitators are imitations, and by the halfway mark the Twilight fans were ironic.

 

[mimitchi33]

While I don't believe in painting all books over with a single brush, I just don't get why the concept of bringing not that great books (and sometimes even good books, but ruined by the studio) to film because Twilight and Hunger Games were the only real money makers. They even turned Ender's Game (reserving any comments about the nutjob that wrote it, he wasn't certifiably insane when it was written) into a cheap tween lit film. The Giver too.

Some of these films do make money because of their low budgets, but none of them have really held the success of Hunger Games or "Vampire Movie that's worse than the Tomb of Dracula anime movie" (which is a feat... that thing's terrible... and full of eye gleams). Vampire Academy died a quick and merciful death, as did The Mortal Instruments (which was one of those "I stole characters from another book and changed the names" deals). Divergent isn't as successful as everyone says it is, and the second disappeared after the first week. And even the "Oh, this is so not a ripoff of the Hunger Games" denial case fanbase think the movies suck.

That said, there are genuinely great books out there. I'm glad kids are reading and all.. Reading Rainbow, Levarr Burton and all that...but can't they read something...I dunno...good? Though Hunger Games isn't actually that bad. Certainly the crown jewel of a very bad genre.

As far as overdone movie genres go, the one I'm even more sick of is "Old British Lady goes to India to find Love." Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dc Cinematic Universe, Star Wars Cinematic Universe... fine. Judy Dench and Indian Guys Cinematic Universe? NO!

I guess the reason all these teen literature films exist is to motivate teenagers to be bookworms rather than be social media junkies all day, the same thing Reading Rainbow did years ago when other methods failed-anyone remember that music video "Read A Book", which failed because parents thought it was aimed at kids and not teens just because it was animated? I also watched Reading Rainbow in elementary school, complete with retro PTV ads, and I love reading books and telling stories thanks to that amazing show. In my opinion, getting teens to read via movies is a great idea-in fact, a lot of schools tend to show movie adaptations of films after they've finished reading the book it was based on.

Speaking of Sponge Out Of Water on DVD (since the release is coming in nearly a month from now and someone asked about it), I was getting home from Tanger Outlets when I see two children (a female toddler and a boy who appeared to be early elementary school age) in a car in front of me watching a bootleg copy of the film. What's worse, it was filmed in the theater...and it was in the the shittiest quality I've ever seen! The screen was very small (as if filmed from the back of the theater) and the camera moved a bit every few minutes (I was in a traffic jam due to the train coming and got to see ten minutes of it. I nearly puked with all that camera movement). However, the kids didn't seem to mind (keep in mind that they were not old enough to notice this). I couldn't hear the audio of the film, but I'm betting that the audio was terrible quality and that people were laughing every few minutes as if it were The Big Bang Theory! Ironically, earlier in the day, I worked at a soup kitchen and saw quite a few bootleg DVDs as donations, including a copy of Hop which had a PG-13 rating (Bootlegger's thoughts: "Wait a minute, bunnies pooping jellybeans? Kids shouldn't see this!") Just another reason why piracy is bad and that waiting for the DVD release is the way to get the best experience.

 

[Drtooth]

Books have always been made into movies, and film trends have always existed as well. I can't blame them for being made but woof, the quality of the lesser ones. On the plus side, the weaker ones are getting weeded out. Though some are declared successful because their budgets were tiny to begin with (cough cough, Maze Runner). And while I do agree that we need more great female heroes in film, nay in general, we shouldn't be so hungry that we cling to ones that are weak, or worse... terrible role models like the Twilight dunce (and the 50 Shades clone). I mean, yeah. Let a man write about an abusive relationship and there's torches and pitchforks.

Speaking of Sponge Out Of Water on DVD (since the release is coming in nearly a month from now and someone asked about it), I was getting home from Tanger Outlets when I see two children (a female toddler and a boy who appeared to be early elementary school age) in a car in front of me watching a bootleg copy of the film. What's worse, it was filmed in the theater...and it was in the the shittiest quality I've ever seen! The screen was very small (as if filmed from the back of the theater) and the camera moved a bit every few minutes (I was in a traffic jam due to the train coming and got to see ten minutes of it. I nearly puked with all that camera movement). However, the kids didn't seem to mind (keep in mind that they were not old enough to notice this). I couldn't hear the audio of the film, but I'm betting that the audio was terrible quality and that people were laughing every few minutes as if it were The Big Bang Theory! Ironically, earlier in the day, I worked at a soup kitchen and saw quite a few bootleg DVDs as donations, including a copy of Hop which had a PG-13 rating (Bootlegger's thoughts: "Wait a minute, bunnies pooping jellybeans? Kids shouldn't see this!") Just another reason why piracy is bad and that waiting for the DVD release is the way to get the best experience.

First off, Hop was directed by Tim Hill, who has a serious poo eating fetish. Okay, serious if it's in Hop and the first Chipmunks movie.

But yeah, Bootlegs are generally terrible and I love how those manage to slide past the radar (along with lead paint covered "Spader-Man" type toys) but at the same time they'd go nuclear all over bittorrent sites that have the same things. I still never get that. But I have to say, if you're buying a bootleg, watching a bittorrent, or sneaking into a theater, you wouldn't actually have been looking to support the film in the first place. A true fan supports their franchise, even buying the T-shirts and snack cakes with the characters on it as much as they are able. If you pay 2 bucks for a crappy copy of a movie, you're going to get a crappy version of the movie. You essentially get what you deserve.

 

[mimitchi33]

But yeah, Bootlegs are generally terrible and I love how those manage to slide past the radar (along with lead paint covered "Spader-Man" type toys) but at the same time they'd go nuclear all over bittorrent sites that have the same things. I still never get that. But I have to say, if you're buying a bootleg, watching a bittorrent, or sneaking into a theater, you wouldn't actually have been looking to support the film in the first place. A true fan supports their franchise, even buying the T-shirts and snack cakes with the characters on it as much as they are able. If you pay 2 bucks for a crappy copy of a movie, you're going to get a crappy version of the movie. You essentially get what you deserve.

About fans supporting the official release, kids watching SOOW were both younger than 7 years old. Their parents probably couldn't tell the difference between the film, but the kids still enjoyed it (even when the screen was smaller than a Magic Adventures of Mumfie VHS tape I had converted and burned to DVD). The only bootlegs I ever got were from Mitsuwa, which were actually good. The first was a DVD of the Suite Pretty Cure movie which was ripped from the official DVD release of the movie, menus and all. The second was the complete series of Smile Pretty Cure!, which to my utmost surprise, had the ads from their original airing (from the actual start of the show to the "Tune in next time" bumper). Both times I thought they were official, especially the first.
Anyshoe, according to this, Furious 7 might lead the charts again this weekend. Paul Blart is doing surprisingly good, though, while Monkey Kingdom isn't. I guess kids aren't interested in nature documentaries. I first saw Earth when it came out, and honestly, it was terrible.

 

[Drtooth]

Disney has a long tradition of nature films. Thing is, no one really remembers them. Can't recall if they were actually theatrically released or just part of Disney's Wonderful World of Color TV Advertising. But yeah. The nature docs are throwaway PR for the company, something blatantly obvious. They throw in charitable stuff for tax purposes and stuff... but lemme tell you this. It may seem like a cynical move and all, but I give them credit. At least it isn't as half^%%ed as NBC's annual "Green Week" or any other pretending to care about the environment in front of the camera that most major companies pretend to do.

That said... yeah...kids don't like nature documentaries.



hold it together...


WHY THE HECK IS THAT WHAT SATURDAY MORNING IS NOW?!?!?!?

...sorry, couldn't.

 

[mr3urious]

Last weekend was a real quiet one, with newly-released romantic fantasy The Age of Adaline taking third. Gotta give kudos to Home for hanging on to the 4th spot and bringing in an extra $8 mil., too.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2015&wknd=17&p=.htm

 

[Drtooth]

What's with all these films with the words "Age of" in the title. Age of Ultron, Age of Extinction... now that?

 

[Drtooth]

Hate double posting on the same day, but this is some movie news I can get behind.

A film about the disastrous launch of New Coke. And done by Zombieland's writers as well.

 

[mr3urious]

So Adventure Time will be getting an actual theatrical movie, and the first CN movie since the unfortunate failure of The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Seems like after The SpongeBob Movie was a rousing success, WB decided to announce this a couple of months ago.

I'm excited, but also cautiously optimistic about this. It will be all animated, which I hope will mean the same 2D animation of the show, only higher quality, like SpongeBob. But I don't know how much creative input Pen Ward will have, or any of the other writers for that matter. We'll just have to wait and see.

A film about the disastrous launch of New Coke. And done by Zombieland's writers as well.

Zombieland was a really funny movie that helped to bring some new life into the tired zombie fad. I could see a story about the launch of New Coke work in a sort of comedic tone.

 

[Drtooth]

So Adventure Time will be getting an actual theatrical movie, and the first CN movie since the unfortunate failure of The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Seems like after The SpongeBob Movie was a rousing success, WB decided to announce this a couple of months ago.

The Powerpuff Girl movie "failing" was all on them. The movie did make back its low budget, but because they didn't feel like advertising it for an overseas market, they didn't even bother with an overseas release which would have made money on top of the already made back its budget domestic release. Not to mention that they brilliantly dumped it while Lilo and Stitch and Star Wars episode 2 came out, instead of the cushy only family movie during a seasonal break like Spongebob Out of Water did. Of course, the critics were incredibly catty about the film too, so that didn't help. They really either actually like the cartoon in small bits, or unfairly compare it to more professional big studio films that aren't TV shows.

I was ticked that at one point KND was going to be theatrical, but they wussed out and dumped it as a telefilm. I really hope Adventure Time's strong brand manages to break this cycle. Hopefully the film will be released at a good time and doesn't take down the show's popularity if it isn't. And unlike PPG, at least if this movie's dark, the show manages to be dark as a bottomless pit most of the time.