Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

So, Angry Birds had a disappointing 39 Mil opening, but managed to be in the top spot

With the nonstop marketing, it really sucks this didn't even crack a full modest 40 mil or even 45 mil opening in the US. I'm not broken up about it, it's a fun film, not a great one, but I had a ball at it. Must've been a slow week, such a shame that all that marketing was for nothing. Did manage to make 150 Mil worldwide, though. Just not the big opening animated film to kick the season off, and it'll probably disappear behind X-Men and that completely needless Alice in Wonderland movie next week.

 

[mr3urious]

X-Men is the victor for this Memorial Day weekend, while Alice didn't open nearly as high as its predecessor and Angry Birds comes close to breaking even domestically.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2016&wknd=22&p=.htm

 

[Drtooth]

It's kinda disappointing AB isn't doing as well as it should. It's not the greatest movie, it's doing fairly okay overseas where it pretty much double its production budget last weekend. It's just that huge amount of money they threw at marketing. It'll probably wind up making a small profit when it's all done and be considered sorta successful.

And honestly, I'm mixed about the Alice movie. I do want it to bomb, but I feel terrible about Johnny Depp and Sacha Baron Cohen being box office poison. I honestly think Disney willfully planned on having Alice compete with X-Men as a passive aggressive attempt to snipe Fox's ownership of the film rights to a Marvel production. There's no way they're going to turn over the actually profitable and liked Fox Marvel Movie Universe, especially since Deadpool amazed. Still, the Alice movie is essentially a Hot Topic product line. I'm sure it's actually slightly better with someone besides Burton in the director's chair.

That said, I'm still completely dumbfounded they call the Weekend box office on Sunday Morning, especially of a three day weekend. There's the entirety of today and tomorrow for films to get a full call.

 

[D'Snowth]

Dear lord! FINDING DORY is going to feature a character that has . . . two mommies!!! I guess we'll have to ban this Satanic film from theaters to protect our tender, innocent children from all of this evil, evil, liberal, forward-thinking, progressive cult!!!

 

[Drtooth]

Gonna be banned in Russia by the guy who's usually shirtless and has an odd obsession with children.

I love Pixar and all, and I give them all the credit in the world for this. But frankly, I just want them to do a movie that would have humans in it that stars someone that isn't Caucasian. Sure, we had Frozone in The Incredibles (and he seriously should have a spinoff movie), but I'd like to see more diversity in Pixar films. Say what you will about Home, but Dreamworks had a film star a Hatian or something girl and kinda beat Pixar to the punch with that one.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I love Pixar and all, and I give them all the credit in the world for this. But frankly, I just want them to do a movie that would have humans in it that stars someone that isn't Caucasian. Sure, we had Frozone in The Incredibles (and he seriously should have a spinoff movie), but I'd like to see more diversity in Pixar films. Say what you will about Home, but Dreamworks had a film star a Hatian or something girl and kinda beat Pixar to the punch with that one.

Hhmm, I never really thought of it that way. People complain about Disney always having white protagonists but at least they have Lilo and Stitch, Princess/Frog, Mulan, Pocahontas and Atlantis which had a very diverse cast and very soon Moana will be coming out. But Pixar has never had a film starring a person of color, and beside The Incredibles none of their major characters has been of color. Granted, I will give them the benefit of the doubt because a majority of Pixar's films haven't even been about humans.

 

[D'Snowth]

Granted, I will give them the benefit of the doubt because a majority of Pixar's films haven't even been about humans.

That's what I was getting ready to say, most Pixar movies are focused on sentient things such as toys, bugs, monsters, fish, cars, etc. But I suppose Drtooth does have a point, when you stop and think about what few human characters we have seen in Pixar movies, Frozone does seem to be the only person of color we've seen. It's not something I've ever stopped to think about, but then again, I've never really been one to go along with shoe-horning ethnic characters into something for the sake of including one. I'm not saying there doesn't need to be diversity among casts and such, but when you have an unwritten rule (such as most networks do) that your cast has to include at least one ethnic character to avoid seeming racist, more often than not, said ethnic character usually ends up becoming nothing more than the token minority. Even with SNL, I feel like the only reason they keep Kenan on is specifically for whenever they just happen to need a black guy in a skit - it's not very common to see him in a skit where he feels like just another regular guy (or when he's not relagated to crowd scenes).

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Oh and I almost forgot about Russell from UP who was of eastern Asian descent.

That's what I was getting ready to say, most Pixar movies are focused on sentient things such as toys, bugs, monsters, fish, cars, etc. But I suppose Drtooth does have a point, when you stop and think about what few human characters we have seen in Pixar movies, Frozone does seem to be the only person of color we've seen. It's not something I've ever stopped to think about, but then again, I've never really been one to go along with shoe-horning ethnic characters into something for the sake of including one. I'm not saying there doesn't need to be diversity among casts and such, but when you have an unwritten rule (such as most networks do) that your cast has to include at least one ethnic character to avoid seeming racist, more often than not, said ethnic character usually ends up becoming nothing more than the token minority. Even with SNL, I feel like the only reason they keep Kenan on is specifically for whenever they just happen to need a black guy in a skit - it's not very common to see him in a skit where he feels like just another regular guy (or when he's not relagated to crowd scenes).

While I don't really hold this against them at all, many of their stories could've had people of color. For instance, Andy and his family on Toy Story or Riley's family on Inside Out could have been asian, latino, black or whatever, it wouldn't have really changed the story.
I really wish we could get a good movie starring a non white person that isn't all about that ethnic groups' traditional culture.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

I really wish we could get a good movie starring a non white person that isn't all about that ethnic groups' traditional culture.

Lilo and Stitch.

Remember, light skin does not automatically mean that the person is 'white.' And this misconception is why so many people complain about too many 'white' people being in movies.

 

[Drtooth]

Hhmm, I never really thought of it that way. People complain about Disney always having white protagonists but at least they have Lilo and Stitch, Princess/Frog, Mulan, Pocahontas and Atlantis which had a very diverse cast and very soon Moana will be coming out. But Pixar has never had a film starring a person of color, and beside The Incredibles none of their major characters has been of color. Granted, I will give them the benefit of the doubt because a majority of Pixar's films haven't even been about humans.

They do tend to feature humans, though with the exception of Cars and A Bug's Life. And...ehhh... the casting in Cars is sort of diverse, if you don't tend to look at the characters as slightly stereotypical. That said, I loved how Combat Carl was the first black guy toy in the movie series, even though he's just in one of the specials.

Meanwhile Disney's Big Hero Six had a diverse cast and the main character was Asian. It didn't need to take much to get that cast to work, and work beautifully it did.

But I'm glad that Princess and the Frog was brought up. The fact it was the first black Princess in the line up meant the film was under heavy scrutiny by everyone possible and it still wasn't the draw Chipmunks 2 was. I kinda blame that more on Girl's Show Ghetto than Minority Show Ghetto. I give them lots of credit for that film, but it seemed more that they wanted to add a black Princess than to make a more competent movie. I like that film fine, but it feels that it either was one rewrite short or one rewrite too many. Maybe if they didn't worry over it it would have been better. But like I said, Disney doesn't have to make Princess movies for representation. Lilo and Stitch was beautifully done and it didn't need fashion dolls to sell it. And seriously 3 sequels, a TV show, and 2 anime. Heck, Lion King only got 2 sequels and 2 TV shows. 3 if you count the Lion Guard special as a "movie."