Amph The 2024 Box Office Blood Replenishment

QUALITY DOES NOT EXIST IN THIS DOJO

 

B- makes sense. Civil War is not a lot of fun to watch and then afterwards you have to assemble whatever you think the point of it might have been from loose spare parts. You definitely feel that the movie might well have been preaching at you, but you're not quite sure what about.

 

Civil War is supposed to win the weekend, followed by Abigail which performed just below the low estimates, so not great, then zillakong. Overall the weekend was bad. Box office malaise is leaking into peak season.

 

“We saw the coming political ad hellscape and thought to ourselves, how can we make extra sure there are no other ads?”

 

I'm also wondering why Deadpool & Wolverine is opening the day before the summer olympics start. Maybe it's good counterprogramming? Do the summer olympics typically cause a box office slump? AMC is so desperate that 160 theaters will be showing NBC Olympic daytime coverage.

 

@The2ndQuest Ironically, interest in the upcoming presidential election is at a 20-year low. If anything, IMHO, people will want to hit the theaters, perhaps to get away from the coverage, especially if you live in a swing state.

@Rylo Ken I do not count the 2021 Summer Olympics as a comparison since that was an anomaly for various reasons. The last Summer Olympics opening weekend was in 2016, and that year, the big movie opening that weekend at the box office was Suicide Squad. It did almost $180 million that weekend despite not being that good of a movie, to say the least. So, there is a historical precedent that movies can do great against the Summer Olympics. But that was pre-COVID, so obviously, the box office has changed mightily since then. Then again, so has the Olympics, at least since I was little. Back then, it was considered must-see TV, and athletes like Mary Lou Retton and Carl Lewis became household names. Now? Not so much unless there is a real hook to it, like when Michael Phelps for 8 gold meals at the '08 Olympics.

Perhaps the games back in Los Angeles in '28 will see the draw being bigger than in recent games. Side note? Ironically, the coverage has gotten to the point that thanks to cable TV + streaming, there isn't any event you cannot watch live, but again, interest has dwindled despite that. The days of tape-delayed Olympic Games coverage had a much better interest, which, to this day, I still cannot believe the Miracle on Ice game was tape-delayed. Fun fact? My uncle was there as he was a sports cameraman/TV director for forty years and was at every single Olympic game from 1964-2004. What was he doing during the greatest upset in sports history? Helping set up the Finland-Sweden game, which would take place right after the US-Soviet game, and much of it would be seen live. He did get to shoot the Gold Medal Game, which the US won, but nobody remembers that game.

 

Good call, Suicide Squad is probably the model they're leaning on to justify it. It closes out the summer season and has a good shot at being the second biggest movie of 2024. It needs $750 million in theaters to turn a profit. Furiosa and Deadpool 4 will be two of the most expensive movies of the year, but I think Furiosa is the most likely to flop. Despite the critical raves, Mad Max Fury Road didn't perform very well in theaters relative to its budget. It's hard to believe that movie is already nearly a decade old.

 

It’s going to be a little weird when they have to stop in the middle of the kids’ movie to advertise Aviation Dry Gin.

 

Was looking up show times to take my nephew to TPM 25th Anniversary next week...and saw a surprising title.

Mars Express

Looks interesting. A french filmmaker's take of Ghost in the Shell, is what my friend and I concluded.

Probably will come and go in a week. But still. Interesting. A little more advertising could help there.

 

“Oh no.”

I wonder how much schedule shuffling we’re in for with how rotten the inflation and interest rate situations keep getting.

 

It’s difficult to overstate just how bleak April box office has been.

 

Also, i bet, Sony is expecting that Venom 3 clear the Madame Webb stench, Being the first movie after that disaster was always a bad idea, because, let's get real, why anyone would go see it after MW and Morbius fiasco?

 

DC inadvertently proved that you have a bit of time before the audience decides all of your **** stinks in advance, so maybe they’re hoping Venom 3 being as acceptably mid as the first two will reset the clock entirely.

 

The Morbius $40 million opening in April 22 now looks comparatively like a stunning achievement. I know some movies this summer will make good money, but the box office season has likely compressed to May-July and Nov-Dec. April is dead zone and August may be as well.

 

Challengers was fantastic, and I'm hoping it has a healthy box office run. Buuut based on the next few weeks slate of movies, I very much doubt it

 

Challengers cost too much to make. The Fall Guy may not have as big an opening as Morbius - looks well poised to continue the trend of basically every movie underperforming since the Ghosbuster sequel’s opening weekend.

 

@I Are The Internets Can obviously explain this way better than I can since he saw the film, but from what I read,

Spoiler

apparently there were some really cool shots of tennis playing in Challengers, as they were shots down in the final match from underneath the players like you were watching them underneath a glass box

. That sounds like a really cool shot, but obviously, it must have helped push the budget to over $50 million for a movie that, let's be honest. People will see it to watch Zendaya, who is becoming a massive star, be a man-eater. Not tennis.

That all said? I think Amazon will be happy if it comes close to breaking even. They need content for MGM+ and Amazon Prime, along with its getting insanely early award show buzz, something the studio wants to get its hands on so they can be seen as being more 'legit" in the industry.

 

I fell asleep 17 minutes into Challengers. Hard.

Spoiler

I did wake up at the end though, and there was some kind of shot about the camera having that ball's perspective. That was interesting at least.

 

Challengers is almost certainly not going to break even in theaters. It made back half its budget, worldwide in its opening weekend, which puts it in roughly the same condition as Civil War, which is also, definitely, not going to break even in theaters and possibly not ever. Given that the really big movies start rolling out this weekend, I don't think there's much room for Challengers.