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Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

Tha Realest

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
THE ISSUE ISN’T THAT MINECRAFT IS “BAD.” LOTS OF BAD MOVIES MAKE LOTS OF MONEY!!!
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I think you’re making too big a deal of this.

Minecraft had a ridiculous large built in and enduring fandom. On the spectrum of video games, it is far more creatively geared than most. The film is made by a good creative team with successful works under its belt, with ridiculously likeable stars that know how to market a film virally.

Claiming its success will usher in “meme movies” is highly reductive in terms of the popularity of this IP and diminishes how it has unique characteristics that are far from replicable.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Tha Realest said:
I think you’re making too big a deal of this.

Minecraft had a ridiculous large built in and enduring fandom. On the spectrum of video games, it is far more creatively geared than most. The film is made by a good creative team with successful works under its belt, with ridiculously likeable stars that know how to market a film virally.

Claiming its success will usher in “meme movies” is highly reductive in terms of the popularity of this IP and diminishes how it has unique characteristics that are far from replicable.
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Possibly. It’s entirely possible I’m being alarmist.

But I think you need to look at the reaction the way studio executives- who are very stupid sometimes - are going to look at it. We’ll see imitators. What they will look like and whether they will be a momentary blip or a substantive shift - those are fair questions.

You also have to consider the reaction in terms of larger trends in media consumption and how those often stupid execs themselves understand changes in media consumption.

It is at least possible that this is a turning point.
 
WorldExplorer

WorldExplorer

Well-Known Member
People are getting things backwards; I can find no evidence Chicken Jockey was a meme BEFORE the movie. Yes, there are baby dead creatures that you can rarely find riding chickens in the game, that's why it's in the movie, but it's not anything special other than being odd and rare (which is common for Minecraft), there's no mention online of it being a thing to freak out over it. Know Your Meme, specifically meant to chronicle memes, places its origins in the movie and the lead up to the movie. The same is true for "I am Steve" and "Flint and steel". People made them memes when the trailers and movie came out, they were already in the film without knowing that would be a reaction.

The only mention I can find of them including a meme that existed prior to the movie is that Jack Black saying he "yearned for the mines" as a kid is referencing a tweet joking we shouldn't have child labor laws because clearly Minecraft proves children like mining.

Also, this isn't a random film that struck gold based on being very memey, it's standing on the IP of one of the most successful video games of all time. I'm sure the memes boosted it, but what're companies supposed to get out of that? "Hey, if the movie is stupid, we can maybe possibly get 900 million instead of 850 million so long as we have an IP that's both already wildly successful and has a tone that doesn't blatantly clash with the idea, while risking turning people off because of the movie being bad"?

People are also missing something very, very important and that is that trying to predict/intentionally invoke the crap is largely impossible. Why the hell is the Chicken Jockey a meme? I don't know, you don't either, and the people who made it probably don't. It's amusingly stupid, yeah, but so is tons of other stuff in movies. Why did none of the stupid crap in Sonic 3 spark this crud? Edit: Further poking indicates it's meant to be ironic enjoyment of something stupid; again, good luck trying to invoke that.

This stuff is entirely up to the whims of a bunch of mind-fried teens and young adults. They're as predictable as toddlers. Movie companies can't pick it, so they can't follow it and so can't cash in on it.

Right now a bunch of executives are ordering a bunch of marketing people to try and engineer this crap and it's not going to work, just like the Dark Universe and Hanna Barbara Cinematic Universe didn't work (that trend had a logical base and they still failed), or like how none of the super bad movies the internet takes to mocking for a month stick around like The Room.


If there's any movie to worry about, it would be Shrek 5; Shrek has been a meme for a long time already and the franchise allows for that stupid tone. But if they lean on that they run the risk of ruining the joke, and frankly no one should be going in there expecting a halfway decent film anyway. Anyone going to see Shrek 5 deserves to get popcorn thrown at their heads by screaming crowds.
 
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TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Here's my contribution to all this Minecraft discussion... Pictures from my local Target toy aisle last night!

After two weekends in theaters, the Minecraft displays in the toy department were well picked over. What is notable however is that this is the same Target that two weeks after Snow White was in theaters had absolutely no Snow White merchandise or displays whatsoever; nothing in the girls toy aisles and nothing in the children's clothing department.

Snow White was apparently not marketed in Target stores, six years after Bob Chapek brought out the Target CEO and a stunt dog on stage at D23 Expo and announced a huge partnership with Target for merchandising and marketing. :rolleyes:

Attention Target Shoppers.jpg

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Agent H

Agent H

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Here's my contribution to all this Minecraft discussion... Pictures from my local Target toy aisle last night!

After two weekends in theaters, the Minecraft displays in the toy department were well picked over. What is notable however is that this is the same Target that two weeks after Snow White was in theaters had absolutely no Snow White merchandise or displays whatsoever; nothing in the girls toy aisles and nothing in the children's clothing department.

Snow White was apparently not marketed in Target stores, six years after Bob Chapek brought out the Target CEO and a stunt dog on stage at D23 Expo and announced a huge partnership with Target for merchandising and marketing. :rolleyes:

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Why would they put out merchandise for a movie that even Disney probably knew wouldn’t do super great for better or for worse?
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Here's my contribution to all this Minecraft discussion... Pictures from my local Target toy aisle last night!

After two weekends in theaters, the Minecraft displays in the toy department were well picked over. What is notable however is that this is the same Target that two weeks after Snow White was in theaters had absolutely no Snow White merchandise or displays whatsoever; nothing in the girls toy aisles and nothing in the children's clothing department.

Snow White was apparently not marketed in Target stores, six years after Bob Chapek brought out the Target CEO and a stunt dog on stage at D23 Expo and announced a huge partnership with Target for merchandising and marketing. :rolleyes:

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I guess that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

The company wasn’t confident either.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Agent H said:
Why would they put out merchandise for a movie that even Disney probably knew wouldn’t do super great for better or for worse?
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Why would Disney spend $270 Million to produce, and another $100 Million-ish to market, a movie they knew wouldn't do well at the box office and wouldn't sell toys and t-shirts at Target?

Who decided to spend over $350 Million to produce and distribute Snow White, and are they still employed in Burbank?
 
C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Why would Disney spend $270 Million to produce, and another $100 Million-ish to market, a movie they knew wouldn't do well at the box office and wouldn't sell toys and t-shirts at Target?

Who decided to spend over $350 Million to produce and distribute Snow White, and are they still employed in Burbank?
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Remember in 2023 and 2024 the blame was so often still "That is Chapek Leftover" and then HM movie was produced and it quieted down...and now years later we are here.
 

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