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

[brideck]

And yet more stylish than anything Marvel has done in 30+ features. Wild isn’t it

Oh, man. Don't mistake me as thinking that the MCU has much in the way of craft either. I want there to be something in them for me to like, but... it's few and far between.

I was always a DC kid when it came to superhero comics, so I don't have the nostalgia/love for the characters that others do.

 

[brideck]

I have also agreed with a lot of your takes… including up post which you talked about A Complete Unknown… I had been putting it off as I am not a huge Bob Dylan fan and figured I would find it overrated as it is probably a standard biopic… it is in many ways, but one that is well made… it deserves all the awards attention it is getting … and as you mentioned all of the actors in the film are phenomenal

Agreed, I think we're fairly simpatico in our taste. And believe me, it was a shock to find that I enjoyed the F&F movies, too. Straight action tends to do very little for me, but they have a kind of winking charm and silliness to them. I think it juxtaposes well with how deadpan serious Vin Diesel plays his character.

 

[Casper Gutman]

And yet more stylish than anything Marvel has done in 30+ features. Wild isn’t it

I’m very accepting of action schlock. I like the later, dumber F&F movies quite a lot. I enjoy The Rock and Armageddon. But I’ve seen the Bad Boy films (two of them in theaters) and they are utterly irredeemable. The dialogue is atrocious, the performances are embarrassing, and the camerawork and editing works to obscure the mediocre action scenes. The first film is essentially a sub-broadcast sit-com.

Obsessive auterists are terribly tiresome. The fact that it’s comically easy to determine who directed Bad Boys based solely on the visual flourishes does not mean the films are well-made. The MCU films generally (not universally) lean heavily on the invisible director philosophy, with every aesthetic choice, from mise en scene to editing, in service to telling the story clearly and understandably. Yes, the production-line elements of the Marvel formula, from color grading to sound balance, can very occasionally become overwhelming, but in general the MCU does what it wants to do extraordinarily well - defining characters and their relationships with clear, often clever scripting and excellent casting and performance and creating action scenes that emphasize clarity, character-based gags, and intercharacter relationships. There is a reason Marvel is so historically good at creating characters audiences care about and follow from film to film.

I’ll admit that I sometimes miss the playful auteurism of the 90s and early 2000s, the Coens and Raimis and such, who made films that were as much about themselves as films as they were about anything else. But the widespread idea among certain film fans (and Martin Scorsese) that the only thing standing between modern moviemaking and a return to the (rose-tinted memories) of 60s and 70s New Hollywood is that darn MCU is childish. The MCU didn’t destroy Hollywood, it saved it, and it did so by being incredibly good at what it set out to do.

 

[Tha Realest]

I’ll take the visual flourish of a Bay film - for all its flaws and over the top excess - over most of the MCU films which seem to have lobotomied any attempt at a unique visual style by its directors other than Coogler, Gunn, and Waititi.

 

[DKampy]

most of the MCU films which seem to have lobotomied any attempt at a unique visual style by its directors other than Coogler, Gunn, and Waititi.

Doctor Strange MOM was more Sam Rami then Marvel

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

The weird thing is I usually love this type of “grab some popcorn, turn your brain off, and just enjoy the ride” movie… the Jurassic Park movies (after the amazing original) have all been fairly bad but I love them, same with the first several Transformers movies, they aren’t good but they are super fun.

For whatever reason I’ve just never found the FF series fun, I’ve seen bits and pieces of most of them on TV, streaming, airplanes, etc but never seem to make it beyond 10-20 minutes before I’m bored and looking for something else to watch, just not my cup of tea.

The Transformers movies would be so much better if they weren't so long.

I should walk out after two hours of robots fighting each other and at least feel like it was somewhat fun. There's so much filler in those movies that isn't good, that it becomes tedious with their 150+ minute runtimes.

I end up feeling bored and frustrated. A movie has to have pretty good content to justify anything beyond two hours.

Most of Michael Bay's movies are tight and fun, I don't know why the Transformers movies are so pointlessly bloated.

Fast & Furious is hard to judge because they're intentionally cartoonish. I guess one either accepts it or they don't. They arguably jump the shark when they go from being at least a little serious to completely absurd. Taking the film into outer space because it was something people joked about is a bit too self referential.

 

[BrianLo]

So if we take the B- Cinemascore as gospel, what does that normally mean for opener multiplier? Between 2.5x and 3x?

2.9x would get it somewhere around $550m world-wide. Not too shabby.

@MisterPenguin ’s number struck me as high… but no I actually get a slightly bigger one from a huge Reddit analysis of 3.1X.



It’s interesting that there really isn’t a statistical difference between B/B+ and A-/A. Really A+ dictates the biggest jump. The difference between a B- and an A is really only 0.8X. Which is less than I’d figure. It’s the extremes that really made the difference. C’s or A+.

Though it is a multiple of a 3, not 4 day opening. So your final tally is likely more or less in tact at a bit over 500.

 

[MagicMouseFan]

I hate the growing animosity between our always friendly relationship but can’t wait for this game and hope it mirrors the intensity of the first.

I’m torn on what should happen during the Canadian national anthem, I hope the crowd is respectful and stays silent but it’s Boston so I’m not counting on it, boos during a national Anthem are super tacky but they also amp up the intensity so I kind of hope it happens, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more fights to start the game and some more huge hits.

Drop Your Gloves! Are Team USA and Canada Delivering the Hockey Showdown of the Decade?​

https://archive.is/2025.02.19-191803/https://www.wsj.com/sports/hockey/usa-canada-4-nations-face-off-hockey-20172c66

 

[brideck]

@MisterPenguin ’s number struck me as high… but no I actually get a slightly bigger one from a huge Reddit analysis of 3.1X.



It’s interesting that there really isn’t a statistical difference between B/B+ and A-/A. Really A+ dictates the biggest jump. The difference between a B- and an A is really only 0.8X. Which is less than I’d figure. It’s the extremes that really made the difference. C’s or A+.

Though it is a multiple of a 3, not 4 day opening. So your final tally is likely more or less in tact at a bit over 500.

Nice analysis there. I knew I'd seen something like that before somewhere.

I think I used the 3-day weekend count in my reckoning at the time (though that obviously includes Thursday previews, too -- don't know if that matters at all). The Sunday evening Wikipedia BO amount was $192.4 WW, so if you use that and 3.1x you actually get pretty darn close to the $600m that Irish has been touting as a possibility. We'll see what happens.