Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[D'Snowth]

How does anything with Melissa McCarthy beat anything at the box office? Is the mass public that braindead that they're so desensitized to bad movies?

 

[Drtooth]

How does anything with Melissa McCarthy beat anything at the box office?

Because it didn't have a molesty Lex Luthor in it?

It opened a modest 24 mil. Just barely a million more than a third week Super hero film that opened high, but couldn't maintain. Either because of bad word of mouth, that everyone that wanted to see it wanted to see it opening weekend to not get that bad word of mouth, or it just became a victim of slower following weeks. Though it should be noted that second week BVS was about what Ant-Man made in its opening weekend and was considered a modest success. BVS just has that big a freaking honking budget.

Opening number one on a slow weekend doesn't necessarily mean massive success. It's all about budget. The Boss must've been relatively low budget, don't know what percentage it made back in sales so far. It's not going to get much of an international release as it's impossible to translate because comedies usually are, while BVS and Zootopia are far easier to localize and as a result are making their money overseas. I'd expect the boss to disappear quickly, even with a number one opening, unless Jungle Book is that much of a flop. Cuz that's next week and it's also less than a month before the blockbuster season.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Shame Zootopia probably won't quite catch up to Frozen, but considering the mint it's been making and the fact it opened bigger (plus Frozen had the months of December and January to make "kids out of school for vacation" money), I'd say that this is a comfortably large amount of money to be one of their bigger successes.

It won't make quite as much as Frozen, but they still have a little time to catch up a bit, Zootopia has at least another month left in theaters.
Moana could probably surpass Zootopia as it'll be another musical princess movie and fresh off of Zootopia's success.

 

[Mynameisdean]

Oh, there was Ratatouille merchandise. It just was cleared out quite rapidly when the movie only did so so at the box office. Wall*E Also had stuff, but it wasn't the easiest to find. Of course, Wal*Mart carried Wall*E merch, and clearly with absolutely no sense of irony about the film's message.

The only Pixar film to not have a real merchandising presence anywhere was Up. There was stuff at Disney Store, but they stupidly sunk it all into large plush toys of the not Dug dogs. There was a figure set that was so rare it was going for insane amounts of money on line. There would be some collector's merchandise, but well after the movie was on home video. Then they had Dug and Kevin beanbags at Disney as well.

Anyway, actual Box Office discussion. The Boss manages top beat Batman V Superman but only by a modest $900 million in a slow week, and both SVB and Zootopia have made just a few million shy of 300 million domestically. Yep. Zootopia in its just about a month is still clinging hard at third place. Meanwhile, Hardcore Henry didn't make a dent. It looks like this one's doomed to cult status, but I'm sure the words "motion sickness" will be tossed around.

I happen to have 1 Wall-E mini figure. I got it at a toy store in a mall that no longer has that store. I don't recall Ratatouille merchandise for some reason. But yeah, I think I can remember Bugs Life stuff being advertised.

 

[Mynameisdean]

Also, the more I see commercials for The Jungle Book remake, the more it seems to be good. Thoughts?​

 

[Drtooth]

Jungle Book does legitimately look good. Probably won't see it, though. I hear it's getting positive buzz, and frankly I never thought it looked like it would be a disaster. It looks a lot more intriguing than Maleficent and Cinderella did. If I can manage to get a cheap matinee of this thing, I'd give it a go.

 

[Drtooth]

Looks like the Grinch Movie has officially been announced.

The 2000 era film was a mixed bag and only watchable if you like Jim Carrey (which I did at the time). I give them all the credit in the world for the settings, effects, and make up. And I kinda dug the alternate character interpretation that the Grinch was bullied until he was a social outcast, and only hates the Whos at Christmastime because they're a bunch of hypocrites and doesn't think they deserve a shallow representation of the holidays to bring them happiness. Other than that, no, man.... the Chuck Jones one is a classic that didn't need to be remade or reimagined. But I'm keeping an open eye on this new film. The silver lining being that the fakey cartoon version of The Grinch representing the live action film on merchandising will now be replaced by the CGI version. Warner Bros owning the Chuck Jones likeness, that is.

Also of note, I'm a fan of the franchise and was excited for it anyway, but Despicable Me 3 seems pretty interesting. In so much that the villain will be portrayed by South Park's Trey Parker. Kinda hope Matt Stone has a role in this. I'm surprised that we haven't seen many appearances by either outside their own projects. Somehow it sounds like they wanted balance for having Seth MacFarline in Sing.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I honestly don't mind them redoing The Jungle Book. The Disney version...has it's moments...but it's far from perfect. Disney started losing it around that time. That said, I'll probably wait to see this on TV or something.

Jim Carrey was great as the Grinch, but I can't enjoy the rest of the movie because the lesson was so completely corrupted. The Grinch is supposed to be impressed and inspired by the Who's faith in Christmas. Having the Who's be all shallow just felt like Hollywood saying, "Eh, we don't want to glorify people of faith." Maybe that's not fair, I'm sure it was mostly that they had to stretch out the story for feature length. But then, maybe you don't make it into a movie in the first place!

I'll have to hear more about this new attempt before judging.

 

[Drtooth]

I honestly don't mind them redoing The Jungle Book. The Disney version...has it's moments...but it's far from perfect. Disney started losing it around that time. That said, I'll probably wait to see this on TV or something.

From what I understand, the original Jungle Book story was supposed to be closer to the book (but deviated in its own way), but the original treatment was dark. Disney really didn't like the direction the film was taking, and the film's original story editor left. When Walt put together a new team, he gave the new team copies of the book with the express directions "the first thing to do is to not read it." Thus the movie trailed off once there and a second time when it was written around Phil Harris and Louis Prima's roles of Baloo and Louie (respectively, Baloo was grumpier and more like how Baghera was in the film, and Louie wasn't even in the book and a complete invention of the Disney story team). Now, I've never gotten around to reading the original book and when it comes to these things it's usually a mixed bag when they deviate from the book. All things considered, Jungle Book is my favorite Walt Disney era Disney movie right up there with Pinocchio (also deviated a fair amount). Yeah, sure, I like Snow White, Cinderella, and stuff like that. Sleeping Beauty I don't much care for storywise, but love the look of. But there's something about The Jungle Book I always felt was special. Even when I remove it from Talespin, my easy second or third favorite Disney Afternoon show. That said, the second animated movie sucked, except for maybe John Goodman being a darn good Baloo.

Obviously, this is going to be a live action version of the Disney retelling. Supposedly the surviving Sherman brother wrote new songs for it, so I'm a little excited about that. There is going to be another Jungle Book film produced by someone else (I want to say Warner Bros), and obviously that's going to be closer to the original Kipling novel.

 

[CensoredAlso]

But there's something about The Jungle Book I always felt was special.

Oh for sure I mean Baloo's a lovely character (amazing how well he and Louie worked together on Talespin, who knew?). And I've gotta love the mop top vultures, lol.

Btw, have you ever encountered fans of Kaa online? Very weird...lol.