Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Muppet fan 123]

Predicting that as a death sentence for Peanuts. When will studios learn? Whenever a family franchise goes up against a big blockbuster it always gets brutally murdered. Pooh vs Potter and Muppets vs Divergent are the first two to come to mind.

I'll be seeing both but not so positive everyone will be.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't think that's the case at all. Remember, the Muppet film before the last one went up against Hunger Games and like 3 other kid's films. Sure, it only made a modest amount at the box office (due to the release date...more on that in a minute), but it managed to edge out the weaker kid's movies and hold its own against HG. As far as Pooh vs. Potter, that's a little more complicated. Logically, it's a younger kids movie for those who are too young to sit through a Harry Potter without fidgeting or screaming and crying. However, there was a snag. Disney basically turned Pooh into a preschool franchise, and trying to break out of that with a movie when "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" was still on the air or fresh in the kids' minds (or at least still on the network) when the film came out. Poor timing did hurt the film, but the degradation of the franchise was what doomed it. And it's a real shame, since that movie could have brought Pooh back to what was great about it. Then there's the fact that kids young enough to be Pooh's fanbase would have been too young to take to the theaters, but would be perfect to watch on home video.

Now, with Peanuts, that's a sizable nostalgic audience. It's a well known franchise and it's coming out close enough to Christmas that you're essentially surrounded by Snoopy stuff anyway. Not to mention the fact Bond isn't going to be a movie to take the kids to see. This thing has been aggressively marketed, especially to kids. No doubt this will be a family film that the parents don't feel they're being dragged to. Not to mention the fact that...well... Snoopy's as big as Mickey Mouse (if not slightly bigger) internationally. I see this film exploding in Japan, maybe even China (that's where the Garfield movies made their money...imagine how a good film will go), if not other international areas. I think that Bond and Peanuts will have hard competition with each other, but there's enough of a younger demographic slant to give Peanuts the edge. Plus, as a family film, it's released in that sweet spot before Thanksgiving. Most family films do their business there. Wreck-it Ralph, Big Hero 6, Puss in Boots.... That said, the last few Bond films didn't exactly get a warm critical reception from moviegoers. They made money, but you'd think that they were the worst Bond films ever, except for the 90's one.

The film I'm worried about is Good Dinosaur. And only because the Thanksgiving release date is an all or nothing gamble. It's the real test of a film's popularity if it can hold up past the weekend following opening. There's a steep dropoff because there's a period between Thanksgiving and Christmas where there's a lull in movie attendance. That's what killed Penguins of Madagascar (which I swear was a sacrificial lamb, as Dreamworks swapped Home out for a March release). Big Hero was still in theaters, Hunger Games too, and the next week would have a painful dropoff for movie going. Hopefully the Pixar brand is strong enough to weather that.

 

[mr3urious]

Spectre was #1 this week, while The Peanuts Movie was a strong #2. Meanwhile, The Martian trails behind at a distant 3rd.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2015&wknd=45&p=.htm

 

[Drtooth]

I have to admit, I'm disappointed that Peanuts didn't get a 50 Mil-60 Mil open, but they're calling it a win and it performed slightly higher than expectations. I guess some were skeptical that this was the non-edgy, classic versions of the characters in a film that isn't as schizophrenic as most kids' movies are (including the film's animation studio!). It was quite the opposite, and was (at the very least) the best Peanuts project since the 80's. It really had a soul and heart that's usually only reserved for Pixar films. But something tells me that this thing will blow up overseas, where the franchise is (like most things) even more popular than its home country. But 45 Mil isn't bad at all. it's just under half the budget. I'd say Spectre has more of a dropoff rate, and Peanuts has some nice breathing room until Good Dinosaur comes out.

This film has performed worthy enough to get a sequel, but I say they should only have one if its as heavily scrutinized and kept in the family as this one.

 

[D'Snowth]

So I'm seeing trailers for this movie called THE 33, which is supposed to be the "untold story" of true events. Is this about those miners who were trapped in a collapsed mine? And when they finally made it to the surface, didn't one of the miners get in trouble because he was cheating on his wife and both his wife and mistress were there to see him but they didn't know about each other?

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

So I'm seeing trailers for this movie called THE 33, which is supposed to be the "untold story" of true events. Is this about those miners who were trapped in a collapsed mine? And when they finally made it to the surface, didn't one of the miners get in trouble because he was cheating on his wife and both his wife and mistress were there to see him but they didn't know about each other?

It would be really awkward to include that in the movie.

 

[Drtooth]

So I'm seeing trailers for this movie called THE 33, which is supposed to be the "untold story" of true events. Is this about those miners who were trapped in a collapsed mine? And when they finally made it to the surface, didn't one of the miners get in trouble because he was cheating on his wife and both his wife and mistress were there to see him but they didn't know about each other?

I ignore the heck out of these "based on a real story" prestige films. I just hate how they warp the facts to make the film more interesting. I think the film that pushed me off that edge was that horrible movie about football with Sandra Bullock as coach that she undeservedly won the award for. They basically turned the film into "White Man's Burden" (white woman, in this case) and made the family she helped out to be buffoonish for that extra manipulative heart tug. Especially when in real life the athlete she was saving already played football, but just needed the extra guidance. Now, the "Million Little Fibers" episode of South Park was on the other day, and while it's not a great episode it made a bold statement about how James Frey's lies were thrust upon him by the book publishing company. How come we go after that guy for lying about a book that actually helped people with those lies, but we eat up these big budget Oscar Bait disaster films?

Heck, Ant-Man basically had a movie that commented on how screwed up the justice system is and how because employers are reluctant if not outright refusing to let former criminals have employment, they head back to crime to make ends meet. And that's a freaking Super Hero movie. A freaking Super Hero movie made to free up characters for Avengers 3. It managed to make a surprisingly poignant statement in a movie that wouldn't have needed it. I think that's more powerful than "here's the story you've seen on the news, only with big name celebrities, and the ticket sales don't go near any semblance of a charity" type films they make just to get awards.

That said, if I wanted to see this story from the miners' perspective, I heard there's a bold thing called a (and I may get this name wrong) Dog-que-mentality. But I've been told no one pays to see those. Apparently, they're quite popular on PBS.

 

[DARTH MUPPET]

I love that we get two Pixars in one year, I loved Inside Out and this looks Spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[D'Snowth]

I ignore the heck out of these "based on a real story" prestige films. I just hate how they warp the facts to make the film more interesting.

Biopics are just as bad: matter of fact, there's a biopic about Bob Crane and his downfall into porn and sex addiction, and there was a scene that was thrown into the movie that Crane's family said never happened and that he never did such a thing, and it was the filmmaker/director who said, "Oh, yeah, that was actually something I did once, I just thought I'd throw that in there." Oh, and let us not forget that horrible (putting it mildly) Henson biopic that was scripted, involving a climax where Jim was going crazy, losing his mind, and hallucinating the Muppets were coming to life and tormenting him.

With that in mind, RADIO is a pretty good movie, I think - I think it tries to stay truer to fact than trying to tell a story; from what I gather from the featurettes and commentaries everything they got from research and spending time with the people went into the movie. The only thing they did admit to changing was that in reality, coaxing Radio out of his shell and becoming a part of the community took a span of several years - the movie condensed it that progression down into a year's worth of time.

 

[Drtooth]

Oh, and let us not forget that horrible (putting it mildly) Henson biopic that was scripted, involving a climax where Jim was going crazy, losing his mind, and hallucinating the Muppets were coming to life and tormenting him.

Actually, let us DO forget that.

Shudder....

Not saying all biopics are bad, but they all follow the same formula, and the Jim Henson one, even looking at it with an outside the fandom perspective, was a painfully manipulative and equally lip bitingly formulaic Oscar grab of a film. Things must be manipulative to deliver the hardest dramatic sting possible, because exaggerated depressingness wins awards. &^%$ comedy ghetto.

Moving on to another film. I keep seeing these TV Spots for Krampus, and it's hard to tell if it's supposed to be a comedic horror movie with how they're marketing it. The spots make it look like it's straight forward, but the cast of comedic actors suggests something tongue in cheek. I'm not interested in seeing the film myself, but I am interested in how this film plays out. Seems like something that's more playful than the trailers suggest, a high concept parody maybe. Like they knew this concept wouldn't work if played straight. Though the only thing suggesting it is, again, the cast (which includes David Kochener, Conchita Ferrel [sp?], and Adam Scott). I mean, Christmas horror films always have an air of "this is supposed to be stupid" to them, and the straightest forward one I can think of (heh heh) is Gremlins.