Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

That has it's audience, and I'll give it that. It's good at what it does. But really... for that big budget (that doesn't look it) Sci-Fi epic to get spanked that bad that even Free Birds managed to sneak in front of it is amazing. I guess I was right. The Sci-Fi and Comic nerds were waiting until Thor.

I mentioned this on another thread. Free Birds pretty much sums up why there haven't been any Thanksgiving movies before it (not including movies that happen to take place on Thanksgiving). To build up a movie's premise on an American only holiday and have it the main plot factor kinda alienates any kind of foreign market. And those foreign markets have been known to salvage films that were flops over here. Turbo actually made money overseas (it doubled it's budget at least) and Smurfs 2 was a huge hit in Europe (apparently they're not phased too much by the crass pop culture of the Smurfs movies.. the live action Asterix films are supposedly terrible, and maybe worse). But I don't see much of an international return on something that other countries can relate to.

 

[jvcarroll]

The sort of sad, sort of cool thing is, Hugh Jackman actually called for Fox and Sony to co-opperate with Disney and combine the scattered MCU's into one, even if for just one movie. That was well over the summer, and I can't find that article now. Now, there's no way any of that will happen, but even Wolverine himself wants to see it happen.

Meanwhile, DC still refuses to make every character available in case there's a project that won't happen. They refused to put Sinestro in the Green Lantern cartoon (until near the end) because of the second GL movie that was never made. JLU couldn't have Aquaman in its cartoon at one point due to a failed TV pilot (hilariously having to repurpose an obvious Aquaman episode with Wonder Woman), and they wouldn't even put PlasticMan in the show for some vague project that never even went to the conceptual period. They used Elongated Man who actually whined about how underused he was compared to Plastic Man, the character who was never seen in the show ever even in a crowd shot. Of course, they at least got to mention him. I still think SHIELD can get off with a one off mention.

X-Men cross-over:
I'd like to see that too, but Fox's X-Men franchise simply cannot coexist with Disney's Marvel Universe after the Avengers. It was made very clear that was the first time the entire world witnessed the existence of superheroes. I'm not sure if the Fox deal is the same as Sony's with Spider-Man. Basically, Sony owns movie Spidey forever if they continue to spit out a new movie every 5 years. If the cinematic rights of the X-Men property ever do revert back to Disney, that's when they'll create new origins with new actors and fold them into whatever continuity is happening at the time. Jackman's plan was a great one, but it has been lost to time. I am glad his Wolverine is getting another movie. Seriously, he doesn't need a team of Avengers. That last film was completely solid on his shoulders. The fact is, the Marvel universe is so vast that I think Disney is trying to cultivate the characters that they own across the board. Whedon is known for playful dialog, so if the Spidey or the X-Men were ever to appear on SHIELD it would be in the form of a pun. That's all. Disney is notoriously careful of these things. They did slip up and create packaging out of a trademarked briefcase design for their Phase One Blu-ray pack last year and they had to pay dearly for it. That was just a retail item. If anything, they're being more careful than ever. Just my two cents.

End-Game:
As for Ender, some media sources are still holding out hope for a franchise. Heck, Mortal Instruments performed badly and it's getting a sequel. However, the foreign market was solid enough to surpass the modest budget. Ender's Game won't and it also has the added controversy attached. They'd also need to renegotiate Card's fee and that's probably too much trouble. There are sources citing Ender as a possible television series, but that holds the same problem. I think there are a lot of media executives trying to make Ender happen. Studio politics I guess. This $110M film ($170+ when considering advertising) will probably top-out at $65M domestic and under $90M worldwide. That's a stinker any way you look at it. It's just strange when there are plenty of other viable properties to franchise. For example, Anne Rice has begun a popular new series of werewolf books. I'm sure plenty of studios are trying to pick those up. For better or worse, she was definitely a driving force behind the resurgence of vampires. We'll see what happens.

Thor:
Thor was surprisingly good. A little heavy on the sci-fi side, but a fun ride.

Frozen:
Geez, I want to like this film, but the ads and music just leave me flat. They almost play like an SNL parody of a Disney film. I'll see it the week it comes out and will be hoping for the best.

 

[Drtooth]

Frozen, I'd kinda want to see if I wasn't more patient and desperately drooling over Anchorman 2. The marketing is screwed up, no doubt about it. Same problems they had with Tangled. They have a female leaning fairytale that they have to market to boys, and there's quite a bit too much emphasis on the comic relief. And while I'd admit to being the guy who only sees Disney films for comic relief, it does seem a bit much. I mean, I barely even know what the heck the story is about. I haven't seen a single trailer that deals with the plot. I had to learn the plot of The Snow Queen from some Fairy Tale Detective cartoon on qubo. And it does not look like it even follows that plot (par for the course of a Disney movie).

 

[jvcarroll]

Frozen finally topped Hunger Games this week for number one. Both films are pretty good.

I guess this will be the final Ender update. In 35 days it's made $60M domestically, $25 overseas to give it a worldwide total of $85M. The studio was hoping for the overseas markets to pick up the slack like they did for After Earth, but that didn't happen. The budget was $110M and the advertising must have been 50-80. There's not much more it can make before leaving theaters. Even with home video sales, that makes this film a money loser. Poke a homophobic fork in it, this film is D.O.A..

 

[Drtooth]

I'd love to say the controversy was the reason the movie flopped, but I'd rather tend to believe it was because the film looked unremarkable and those who actually liked the book actually disliked the film greatly. Apparently, the deal made with Card happened years before, so he already got his money. But thankfully, there's no reason to renegotiate rights to future films.

But seriously, it looked like an unremarkable waste of Ford and Kingsley... especially since Kingsley was the life of the summer movie party in Iron Man 3.

Aside from that, they're putting too many movies out at the same time over Christmas again. And they actually all look pretty good. I'm already looking forward to Anchorman 2 (too bad I don't have a copy of the first one to rewatch), but Saving Mr. Banks and Grudge Match (where technically they made a Raging Bull/Rocky crossover, even if they just play lawyer friendly expies of their respective characters) look pretty interesting as well.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

I'm so glad Frozen topped over the Hunger Games. It deserves the money a lot more than the H.G. series if you ask me.

The fact that Frozen topped Catching Fire might just be enough for Disney to make a sequel right there. It's the highest-grossing animated film for Disney ever. I smell a sequel brewing at Disney Animation.

 

[Oscarfan]

Frozen was pretty good. "Let it Go" is a beautiful piece of song and movie making. "Fixer Upper" is on opposite end of the spectrum, kinda; it's a catchy song, but it sounds way too Broadway and didn't seem to fit in the movie. I also don't really think IM's voice fit the design of her character.

 

[Drtooth]

I'd need to see Frozen, but I don't think it would need a sequel. Disney hasn't had much luck with fairy tale based movie sequels (though I did like the Aladdin Trilogy). I'd hope to see one of Wreck-it Ralph (the filmmakers want to do one), as it is an original character story, and there's a lot of potential for a story about Fix it Felix Sr.

 

[mr3urious]

I'd hope to see one of Wreck-it Ralph (the filmmakers want to do one), as it is an original character story, and there's a lot of potential for a story about Fix it Felix Sr.

There's also a lot of opportunity to explore console, PC, and online games. Maybe they could revisit that Sims/GTA parody they scrapped from the first.

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

I'm so glad Frozen topped over the Hunger Games. It deserves the money a lot more than the H.G. series if you ask me.

Let's agree to disagree on that one…