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

[easyrowrdw]

I think you missed Casper's sarcasm.

His point was that you CAN make a good movie based on the flimsy premise of a board game.

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

I thought that movie was a blast! It's totally underrated

 

[celluloid]

The biggest crime of The Battleship movie was marketing never having a single preview or promotional piece featuring:

See the HIT B4 you MISS it.

 

[Casper Gutman]

You can tell any story you want with lego, by design. A space story? Yup. A fantasy story? Yup. A ninja story? Yup. Any story you want.

Why not? It was just a murder mystery. They've been telling those for a long time.

So there's no way to tell a meaningful police drama about undercover cops?

The plethora of novels and stories going back decades would say differently.

I'll amend my statement that it's not "there's no way". But in my opinion there's very little there to work with outside of the very distinct look of the world and some mobs. So there's a whole lot less to work with than those other films. So they gave us the basic aspects of the game with a basic story over top. It was never ment or billed as high art.

The reason I questioned Moana was I expected more from Disney than Minecraft. I didn't question it's success like you implied.

They didn’t make a mystery film or a fantasy film or a whatever film. They made a Clue film and a D&D film and a Lego film. They made films that not only used the surface trappings of the IP but explored why they were special and why and how people engaged with them. Look at how many reviews of D&D discussed how the film managed to capture the sense of playing a game with your particular set of friends. They did this while also making films that told stories with humor and substance. The point is that, if you have creators that are good enough and care enough to actually try, you can make meaningful stories about almost anything. The Minecraft Movie didn’t try.

There is just as much to work with in Minecraft as in Lego. Both are about building. Your dismissive comments about Lego can be just as easily applied to Minecraft.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Minecraft will rake in tons of cash as a fan service film. Just like Mario Bros did. It doesn't need to be a good film and could even have negative feedback. Fans of the game will still want to see it.

I've never played it so it's a pass for me even on streaming.

 

[celluloid]

They didn’t make a mystery film or a fantasy film or a whatever film. They made a Clue film and a D&D film and a Lego film. They made films that not only used the surface trappings of the IP but explored why they were special and why and how people engaged with them. Look at how many reviews of D&D discussed how the film managed to capture the sense of playing a game with your particular set of friends. They did this while also making films that told stories with humor and substance. The point is that, if you have creators that are good enough and care enough to actually try, you can make meaningful stories about almost anything. The Minecraft Movie didn’t try.

There is just as much to work with in Minecraft as in Lego. Both are about building. Your dismissive comments about Lego can be just as easily applied to Minecraft.

And more specifically, at the core, they would have just been an entertaining well produced time even without the Intellectual Property attached.


That is what Michael Mckean said best with what he said about Clue years ago "You can make a great or bad movie about anything"

Great storytelling is great storytelling.

 

[Phroobar]

I thought that movie was a blast! It's totally underrated

I preferred American Warships to Battleship.

 

[TP2000]

I'm not sure you did. He was listing movies that had care put into a meaningful story despite originating as shallow merchandising tie-ins as opposed to just compiling together a series of gags from Zoomer/Alpha spaces online, like Minecraft does.

Indeed, none of those listed were War and Peace, but they all had coherent stories with meaningful stakes or messages at their core.

Ah, okay. Got it!

And I still really liked Clue and Barbie.

 

[celluloid]

Minecraft will rake in tons of cash as a fan service film. Just like Mario Bros did. It doesn't need to be a good film and could even have negative feedback. Fans of the game will still want to see it.

I've never played it so it's a pass for me even on streaming.

I never played it, and I have kids, one who has only played it once.

We all enjoyed it decently, and they liked it as well as any other recent kids movie that has been out lately for the family demo. There are certainly millions of people seeing the movie who have never played it or know as much about it.

 

[Phroobar]

Ah, okay. Got it!

And I still really liked Clue and Barbie.

There is a new Clue movie coming out.
Also a Monopoly movie, Play-Doh, Furby, M.A.S.K. and ROM the Space Knight movie.

ROM the Space Knight might be part of the MCU.
M.A.S.K. goes along with GI Joe and Transformers.

 

[Disney Irish]

There is a new Clue movie coming out.
Also a Monopoly movie, Play-Doh, Furby, M.A.S.K. and ROM the Space Knight movie.

ROM the Space Knight might be part of the MCU.
M.A.S.K. goes along with GI Joe and Transformers.

And they say Hollywood has no more original ideas….

 

[Baloo124]

There's no real way to tell a meaningful Dungeons & Dragons story.

vague memories of playing Clue as a kid. But I thought it was great fun, and a great movie!

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

Also a Monopoly movie

Twister was an odd choice to make a movie about. I'm guessing about halfway through production, they figured it would be inappropriate for family audiences, and decided to change the entire premise to revolve around tornados.
It worked. It made big $. And thankfully we didn't have to witness Helen Hunt & Bill Paxton doing this for two hours.

 

[celluloid]

Twister was an odd choice to make a movie about. I'm guessing about halfway through production, they figured it would be inappropriate for family audiences, and decided to change the entire premise to revolve around tornados.
It worked. It made big $. And thankfully we didn't have to witness Helen Hunt & Bill Paxton doing this for two hours.
View attachment 852493

That LIFE-based movie with Eddie Murphy was not that great though.

 

[Baloo124]

That LIFE-based movie with Eddie Murphy was not that great though.

Never saw that one. I have a love it or hate it relationship with his movie catalog.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

I never played it, and I have kids, one who has only played it once.

We all enjoyed it decently, and they liked it as well as any other recent kids movie that has been out lately for the family demo. There are certainly millions of people seeing the movie who have never played it or know as much about it.

I would question "There are certainly millions of people seeing the movie who have never played it or know as much about it." I have no proof but I just don't believe that to be true.

 

[WorldExplorer]

I think Minecraft could work very well to tell a (animated!) story about a man who wakes up in the woods with nothing and progressively learns how to make more and more elaborate things, use the resources of the lands he explores, and fights a bunch of enemies until he can take down something as impressive as dragon (which is in the game but not the movie).

Which wasn't really the story of Minecraft, but is taking what happens/can happen and putting it into a narrative structure.

But instead we got this and tons of positive enforcement that it was the right decision, which is sad.

 

[celluloid]

I would question "There are certainly millions of people seeing the movie who have never played it or know as much about it." I have no proof but I just don't believe that to be true.

Interesting. I mean with our party there were six adults who have never played it. (we know of it for sure and was even out I believe when I was in HS) but either way, we did not see it for the novelty of being tied into the property. We saw it to see a decent family flick, and for the most part, it was ok.

By the end of its theatrical run worldwide I imagine it is reasonable to presume that over 2 million people that went to theaters to see it never played the game?

Kind of like Transformers, Barbie or any other tie in property.

 

[celluloid]

I think Minecraft could work very well to tell a (animated!) story about a man who wakes up in the woods with nothing and progressively learns how to make more and more elaborate things, use the resources of the lands he explores, and fights a bunch of enemies until he can take down something as impressive as dragon (which is in the game but not the movie).

Which wasn't really the story of Minecraft, but is taking what happens/can happen and putting it into a narrative structure.

But instead we got this and tons of positive enforcement that it was the right decision, which is sad.

Imagine being a Disney park purist fan and seeing what has been done to Pirates or multiple time to HM(when you realize that Muppets have treated it with the most respect post The Osmonds)

 

[Disney Irish]

Interesting. I mean with our party there were six adults who have never played it. (we know of it for sure and was even out I believe when I was in HS) but either way, we did not see it for the novelty of being tied into the property. We saw it to see a decent family flick, and for the most part, it was ok.

By the end of its theatrical run worldwide I imagine it is reasonable to presume that over 2 million people that went to theaters to see it never played the game?

Kind of like Transformers, Barbie or any other tie in property.

With currently ~32M tickets sold WW, that 2M still seems a bit high. We're just talking opinions here, but I can't imagine that many people knowingly going to a movie about a video game that they know nothing about, especially when its ~185M players of the game WW.

 

[celluloid]

With currently ~32M tickets sold WW, that 2M still seems a bit high. We're just talking opinions here, but I can't imagine that many people knowingly going to a movie about a video game that they know nothing about, especially when its ~185M players of the game WW.

Not knowing about it vs playing it are two totally different things.

You also don't account for the plenty of people(probably also millions) who play the game who won't go see the movie.

 

[Disney Irish]

Not knowing about it vs playing it are two totally different things.

You also don't account for the plenty of people(probably also millions) who play the game who won't go see the movie.

Actually I do account for those players that won't see it, right now the amount of ~32M tickets sold WW only represents ~17% of players that could have potentially saw it, which is very low engagement for that group.

Again I can't imagine that many people going to a modern video game movie who don't know or haven't played the game. And of those that don't know or haven't played the game, I imagine most of those are parents going with their kids who do actually play.

Anyways we're just talking opinions here, so you have a valid opinion even if I disagree with it.