Box Office Thread

Exactly. Instead it will just send a message to the "Why isn't the Nutcracker the main character" whiners that they are right about "forced diversity". And don't get me wrong, you shouldn't have to watch the movie just to proof them wrong, watch it if you are interested and no other reason. But if you want to skip it to send a social message, be aware that this is one of those movies the "female leads kill box office" crowd has targeted. So skipping it might actually send the wrong message.

(also, it will hardly give Freeman a push, because the movie was barely marketed and the marketing skips over Freeman pretty fast).

Edited by Swanpride on Nov 11th 2018 at 12:48:18 PM

Eh, we didn't hear anything like that when Alice Through the Looking Glass bombed, starring a woman protagonist and featuring likewise unsavory actor Johnny Depp. There's been 4 out of 6 Disney live-action remakes starring women and succeeding at the box office; Through The Looking Glass's failure was barely a speed bump.

Haven't you noticed the recent trend of trolling against movies in which franchises which are perceived as male dominated are starting to display female characters? The first time I noticed was during the whole Mad Max / Furiosa discussion. Alice in Wonderland wasn't targeted because Alice in Wonderland is obviously about Alice and if anything her role got reduced by making the Mad Hatter more important. Star Wars is naturally currently targeted, Captain Marvel is and for some reason someone decided that "The Nutcracker" should have the The Nutcracker as main character (and yes, I read the story and know what a pile of nonsense it is). Look into the comment section under ever Nutcracker trailer and you will immediately stumble over comments along the this line.

Obviously, yes. But in the case of Disney live-action remakes it's doubtful it would have much effect because plenty more are already well into production. Disney Princess films starring white women are nearly a century old. Fanboy bullies are significantly more dangerous and effective at gatekeeping newer franchises like science-fiction ones.

I'd prefer to, and see more healthy change coming from, support women in Hollywood through activisim in belief of their testimonies against toxic workplaces, than by paying those workplaces to continue their practices because they put a woman on their cover. That latter is a very "Fearless Girl" way of business, in my opinion.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Nov 11th 2018 at 6:02:33 AM

The first Alice in Wonderland movie made huge bank, though, so in looking at the sequel's failure, they're gonna be looking more at what changed between when the first and second came out.

As for The Nutcracker, if it flops, the most likely conclusion to be drawn is that most people just aren't fans of ballet.

I'm just not gonna watch it because I heard it's boring.

I heard that the story is nothing to write home about but the visuals and the music is fantastic...which is kind of the Nutcracker in a nutshell (no pun intended). So I am leaning towards watching it, but then I am an absolute Nutcracker fan. I have seen the balled four times in three different versions already.

I'm not going to the movie because the reviews are bad and it's only moderately more expensive to go to a real ballet performance of The Nutcracker.

Ralph Breaks The Internet might be well-received by critics (albeit not with a higher Rotten Tomatoes rating than the first film), but even if it does well financially, it certainly won't break any box office records, not even the biggest November opening nor the biggest Thanksgiving opening ever.

Why not?

I think I agree. Catching Fire (the current record-holder for November and Thanksgiving) has set the bar too high, at over $150 million. Only one Pixar movie has ever posted an opening weekend above that (Incredibles 2), and that was a movie people had been asking for for over a decade.

It should still pass the first one though, right?

Yes, WIR 2 had a larger opening weekend than the original WIR. It's the only big Nov-Dec movie yet that has panned out; Nutcracker and Fantastic Beasts have not done well.

Also, 4 of the 5 highest-grossing movies this year are superhero movies, making it possibly the most superhero-y year yet. Fifth is Venom, which now has an amazing $800+ million on a budget of $100 million. (It's made $241 million in China, compared to $211 million domestically.) For comparison: it has a worldwide gross higher than half the MCU and higher than all the X-Men films (including Deadpool).

Edited by Galadriel on Nov 30th 2018 at 7:52:53 AM

The Grinch seems to be doing fine.

Fantastic Beast will make its money, just less than hoped.

A lot less than they hoped.

On another note Crazy Rich Asian just opened in China and is doing just as badly as predicted. No surprise there.

I’m forgetting - why is there the unsurprised reaction to the bad China performance for Crazy Rich Asians?

Probably because in China and other East Asian countries, a film with the central conceit of "most of the cast is Asian, the title even says so" isn't revolutionary the way it is in America.

In Japan, it was simply titled "Crazy Rich".

I was wondering, too. Though..maybe it's not a bad reaction and more a case of "eh, don't care"? It's not like the people in China don't get more than enough comedies featuring Asians from their home market.

kind of

Edited by Swanpride on Dec 1st 2018 at 1:10:07 AM

Yeah, it's apathy, no animosity.

I read earlier that it was doing great business in other East Asian countries, like Singapore where it's set.

Part of it comes from an acknowledgement that nearly all the push for diversity in Hollywood comes from inside Hollywood ie inside the United States, not from foreign markets. The reason is simple, most foreign markets have local film productions that use local talent. They don't care much about seeing minorities (or a Race Lift from source materials) in the US Hollywood blockbusters because in their country they are the majority and seen in the media all the time. To them seeing a production with a primarily white cast IS the rarity. The sole exception seems to be where a particular actor has some degree of foreign controversy which results in Banned in China stuff.

Besides Singapore and The Philippines (for obvious reasons), it have middling (at best) response from pretty much all Asian markets. Heck, "Paul, Apostle Of Christ" made more money than Crazy Rich Asians in South Korea .

KJ Mackley ,Swanpride and Tuckerscreator pretty much hits the nail on the head on why that's the case.

Edit note: Why is KJ Mackley's name is in red?

Edited by Rodongmu on Dec 2nd 2018 at 3:37:01 AM

Any word with a capitalization of anything other than the first letter reads as a trope/media link, and as a result shows up in red if there isn't a page it links to.

The overcrowded December has given its first bomb: Mortal Engines opens to 7.5M on a 100M budget.