Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[fuzzygobo]

The tricky thing is where Disney draws the line. How many times do you milk the cow before the milk turns sour? How many sequels/spinoffs/merchandiding deals can you churn out before you run into the same overkill as "Frozen"?

I was very pleased with Zootopia. I'd be just as pleased, when we go back to Disney World next year, to pose on Main Street with Nick and Judy. My only hope is that they don't spoil it for everybody by trying to squeeze every last buck out of it. Greed can ruin a good thing.

 

[Drtooth]

Either a movie's a cash cow or a one time thing that gets put away quickly until an anniversary or sequel. I'm disappointed that Wreck it Ralph disappeared after the film hit video, but am delighted that Big Hero 6 is getting a cartoon series. Frozen is overkill, and I have to make the "Disney doesn't realize that no one likes Planes" observation again, but thankfully they got the hint and they buried it under the Cars merchandise. Then you have Lion King that was a massive success and manages to have slightly more staying power than most of their other movies.

But I totally get how over exposure kills a character. Disney had theirs in the 90's with Pooh. Now, I do like Pooh and the original shorts, 80's cartoon series, and recent films. But when you walked in the Disney Store from the late 90's to the mid 00's you would be far more likely to see Pooh and Tigger than even the Mouse himself (and as a Goofy and Donald fan, I was disappointed that they were even more scarce). Still, they have been overly cautious with merchandise some times, while overkill others. I remember Treasure planet and Home on the Range stuff going at steep discount because they actually had so much unsellable merch of both.

 

[Mynameisdean]

Either a movie's a cash cow or a one time thing that gets put away quickly until an anniversary or sequel. I'm disappointed that Wreck it Ralph disappeared after the film hit video, but am delighted that Big Hero 6 is getting a cartoon series. Frozen is overkill, and I have to make the "Disney doesn't realize that no one likes Planes" observation again, but thankfully they got the hint and they buried it under the Cars merchandise. Then you have Lion King that was a massive success and manages to have slightly more staying power than most of their other movies.

But I totally get how over exposure kills a character. Disney had theirs in the 90's with Pooh. Now, I do like Pooh and the original shorts, 80's cartoon series, and recent films. But when you walked in the Disney Store from the late 90's to the mid 00's you would be far more likely to see Pooh and Tigger than even the Mouse himself (and as a Goofy and Donald fan, I was disappointed that they were even more scarce). Still, they have been overly cautious with merchandise some times, while overkill others. I remember Treasure planet and Home on the Range stuff going at steep discount because they actually had so much unsellable merch of both.

Speaking of burying Planes, the planned third film that would've came out last year didn't happen. Cars 3 is a thing instead, and that's beacause they need SOMETHING to sell merchandise off of in the highly profitable World of Cars, as Disney calls it.

Now, I consider the original Cars one of the Best Pixar and CGI animation movies ever, but Cars 2 was dissapointing, and obviously rushed, because Newt couldn't have happened because of Rio and that HORRIBLE faux-franchise starter Alpha and Omega. Planes, I've only watched the first 20 minutes or so, and I was fairly dissapointed. I chose not to see its sequel. Speaking of Planes: Fire and Rescue, I saw at Target the other day a children's bike sitting in the shelf alongside bikes from successful kids franchises. Does the Target in my town really not care that much? It HAD to have been there for a while, because I almost never see Planes merchandise of any kind, especially of the second one. That's what I call expecting too much from a Franchise. Someone might've already said this before, but one of the reasons I think The Planes subfranchise failed was that kids aren't going to want to have die cast planes as much as cars. I can tell you that right now. I LOVED playing with Hot Wheels and stuff like that as a kid, and I'm sure millions still do.

 

[D'Snowth]

I honestly don't even know how to react to KEANU. It's clearly a Key & Peele movie, so it seems like it would be funny, but looking at the trailers and listening to the premise, it seems really dumb.

 

[Drtooth]

Speaking of burying Planes, the planned third film that would've came out last year didn't happen. Cars 3 is a thing instead, and that's beacause they need SOMETHING to sell merchandise off of in the highly profitable World of Cars, as Disney calls it.

Now, I consider the original Cars one of the Best Pixar and CGI animation movies ever, but Cars 2 was dissapointing, and obviously rushed, because Newt couldn't have happened because of Rio and that HORRIBLE faux-franchise starter Alpha and Omega.

I find it hilarious the Planes franchise was always meant to be a DTV series, and I wouldn't mind it as something lower scale like that. Personally, I'd think that Planes would be far better as a preschool TV series, where it would have at least held some relevance and probably would have at least been cute instead of obnoxious. But the thing was never meant to be released theatrically, but someone said "hey, why not" and gave the first movie an August release where somehow it made money and the first film was actually profitable, but not nearly in a way a big Pixar film would be, but it was relatively lower a budget than a standard Pixar film. The second film was essentially released because The Good Dinosaur ran into production problems. Didn't do nearly as good and only made more money than MMW because it was released in more international territories. Then the merchandise sat on shelves before Disney actually got the hint that it wasn't the big toyetic masterpiece they thought it would be.

Cars, I do understand and at least the films and shorts have a charm to them. The first movie's die cast toys were impossible to keep on shelves (I actually liked the film to want some, but couldn't find them), so keeping that franchise up makes sense. Especially since they couldn't give Ratatouille merchandise away. You know, cuz kids love movies that are about French Cuisine jokes and lectures on criticism (but adults do). Now I actually liked the Cars movies, both of them, because I didn't expect much out of either. The second film's plot always seemed like a Saturday Morning cartoon spinoff episode, but I give them credit for trying to get it to work. Plus at least it was visually stunning with all the international architecture.

I honestly don't even know how to react to KEANU. It's clearly a Key & Peele movie, so it seems like it would be funny, but looking at the trailers and listening to the premise, it seems really dumb.

It seems like Key and Peele's standard absurdist humor, and I really would like to see it myself, but it opens opposite Ratchet and Clank, so I'm conflicted.

 

[Mynameisdean]

I find it hilarious the Planes franchise was always meant to be a DTV series, and I wouldn't mind it as something lower scale like that. Personally, I'd think that Planes would be far better as a preschool TV series, where it would have at least held some relevance and probably would have at least been cute instead of obnoxious. But the thing was never meant to be released theatrically, but someone said "hey, why not" and gave the first movie an August release where somehow it made money and the first film was actually profitable, but not nearly in a way a big Pixar film would be, but it was relatively lower a budget than a standard Pixar film. The second film was essentially released because The Good Dinosaur ran into production problems. Didn't do nearly as good and only made more money than MMW because it was released in more international territories. Then the merchandise sat on shelves before Disney actually got the hint that it wasn't the big toyetic masterpiece they thought it would be.

Cars, I do understand and at least the films and shorts have a charm to them. The first movie's die cast toys were impossible to keep on shelves (I actually liked the film to want some, but couldn't find them), so keeping that franchise up makes sense. Especially since they couldn't give Ratatouille merchandise away. You know, cuz kids love movies that are about French Cuisine jokes and lectures on criticism (but adults do). Now I actually liked the Cars movies, both of them, because I didn't expect much out of either. The second film's plot always seemed like a Saturday Morning cartoon spinoff episode, but I give them credit for trying to get it to work. Plus at least it was visually stunning with all the international architecture.



It seems like Key and Peele's standard absurdist humor, and I really would like to see it myself, but it opens opposite Ratchet and Clank, so I'm conflicted.

Ratatouille was one of those Pixar movies that just wasn't going to sell merchandise, alongside Up, Wall-E (which could've, but Cars stuff was still selling like hotcakes in 2008), and A Bugs Life.

If I had to decide between Keanu and Rachet & Clank, I would see Keanu, for I don't know much about the R&C games, that movie doesn't look good enough for me to see it, and I'm a fan of Key and Peele. It's a shame their show ended.

 

[D'Snowth]

Ratatouille was one of those Pixar movies that just wasn't going to sell merchandise, alongside Up, Wall-E (which could've, but Cars stuff was still selling like hotcakes in 2008), and A Bugs Life.

Actually, A BUG'S LIFE merchandise was plentiful back in the day, as I recall. In fact, wasn't it like the first movie that came out with collectible VHS/DVD covers of each character? I never understood why someone would want multiple copies of the same tape/DVD just to collect the different covers.

But yeah. I can recall seeing commercials for A BUG'S LIFE merchandise on TV every morning before school like up till Christmas in 1998.

 

[Drtooth]

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.

 

[mr3urious]

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.

Zootopia still has a long ways to go before topping Frozen in the worldwide box office.

 

[Drtooth]

Whoops. I just realized my mistake I can't believe I made. The Boss beat Batman V Superman by 900 thousand. I absentmindedly typed million. No movie could ever open with a 900 mil bounty, especially not a modest comedy film that opened just over 25 mil.

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.