Top 5 Movies at the Boxoffice - Winter 2023

[YmoBeThere]

Hunger Games looks like it may come in at the low end of a projected $50-60 million for its opening weekend.

[PackMan97]

Hunger Games looks like it may come in at the low end of a projected $50-60 million for its opening weekend.

So... Ahead of the Marvels? Excellent.

[YmoBeThere]

So... Ahead of the Marvels? Excellent.

Looks like it may end up behind The Marvels. Trolls at $30 million.

Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Opening to $45M-$50M, ‘The Marvels’ Suffers Historic Drop


https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/mo...235663158/amp/

[JasonEvans]

Looks like it may end up behind The Marvels. Trolls at $30 million.

The big story of the weekend is Marvels absolutely tanking in its second weekend. A $10 mil haul is a epic drop, one of the worst ever by a large, mainstream movie. This is a scream in the face of Kevin Feigie and Marvel that what they are doing is not work at all. I now think Marvels may only earn around $100 mill total.

It would not be at all surprising for Marvel to go back to the drawing board and re-think everything... in fact, there are reports they are doing that already.

[Udaman]

I saw the Marvels last week. Had immensely low expectations, so it was a low bar for the movie to exceed them, which it did, but not by much.

One of the real problems is that I had not seen Ms. Marvel on Disney. And so I had no idea her back story. It's a bad decision to have a major movie where you needed to have seen something on a streaming platform to fully understand it. I actually kind of liked her, but the "oh you're my hero" stick got old quick, and it's already been done (much better) with the Spiderman remake. And her parents were funny for about 5 minutes, and then I just wanted them off the screen completely.

Also, the villain was a massive YAWN and you never understood how she would even have a chance against Captain Marvel, who is one of the strongest super heroes ever.

And don't get me started on the mid credit scenes. No spoilers, but man oh man are they beating a dead horse with this kind of stuff.

Up until Infinity Wars and Endgame, Marvel could barely miss. They made some fantastic movies, including numerous ones that brought in tons of characters and story arcs and were engaging, funny and an absolute blast. Since then? Yuck.

Black Widow - bad/borderline terrible
Ten Rings - I kind of liked. Saved by the humor.
Eternals - bad/borderline terrible (saved only by a cool concept of how you beat someone like a Superman)
No Way Home - good.
Dr Strange - bad. Would be borderline terrible except for one part, which was then ruined for me by how quickly everyone was killed.
Thor: terrible
Black Panther - pretty bad (I liked it a lot less than most - dumb back story, unbelievable villain)
Ant Man - bad/borderline terrible
Guardians - easily the best of the bunch
Marvels - bad/borderline terrible

That's 7 swings and misses, with 1 really good movie, 1 pretty good movie and 1 that was decent.

Honestly, at this point they may be better served starting over with reboots of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.

[YmoBeThere]

So, is this turning into the least bad 5 movies of the winter?

[CameronBornAndBred]

So, is this turning into the least bad 5 movies of the winter?

That do better than better movies.

[pfrduke]

So, is this turning into the least bad 5 movies of the winter?

We took the kids to see both kids’ movies out this weekend (Trolls and Wish) - Trolls was ok and Wish was absolutely abominable. One of the worst movies I’ve seen in a long time.

[YmoBeThere]

I'm beginning to wonder about the retirement of Bob Iger, the short but potentially impactful stint of Bob Chapek as CEO, and the pandemic have done to Disney's ability to produce content. Plus, the potential impact of the streaming pkatform, Disney +, on all of the above.

Was something like Wish greenlighted during Chapek's time or does it pre-date his tenure?

[JasonEvans]

Was something like Wish greenlighted during Chapek's time or does it pre-date his tenure?

Development on Wish began in 2018, but it is not clear how fast the film moved from concept to script writing to animation production. It is also not clear where along that timeline the wheels began to come off. Iger left the CEO chair in Feb of 2020. I think it is pretty reasonable to cast Wish as a film made primarily under Chapek's tenure.

That said, I am far from convinced that the CEO of Disney has all that much to say about the production efforts of Walt Disney Animation Studio. I guess they might get updates and likely see early cuts of the film, but this isn't a level of control like Kevin Feigie or other prominent Hollywood EPs.

[YmoBeThere]

Development on Wish began in 2018, but it is not clear how fast the film moved from concept to script writing to animation production. It is also not clear where along that timeline the wheels began to come off. Iger left the CEO chair in Feb of 2020. I think it is pretty reasonable to cast Wish as a film made primarily under Chapek's tenure.

That said, I am far from convinced that the CEO of Disney has all that much to say about the production efforts of Walt Disney Animation Studio. I guess they might get updates and likely see early cuts of the film, but this isn't a level of control like Kevin Feigie or other prominent Hollywood EPs.

In this case, I'm thinking less of Chapek than of Kareem Daniel, whom he placed in charge of Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution.

"Financial executives, not those who developed the programming, were in the driver’s seat."

https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...bob-chapek-era

[luburch]

Hunger Games - Nov 17 - $98,373,951
The Marvels - Nov 10 - $76,853,446
Trolls Band Together - Nov 17 - $63,298,460
Napoleon - Nov 22 - $32,500,000
Wish - Nov 22 - $31,700,000

What movie has had the lowest total and still managed to make the top 5? Have a feeling this contest will be breaking that record.

[YmoBeThere]

I can't speak for everyone, but Oppenheimer sucked me into thinking Napoleon had a chance.

[PackMan97]

I can't speak for everyone, but Oppenheimer sucked me into thinking Napoleon had a chance.

Ridley Scott vs Christopher Nolan.

All the other bad options had me thinking Napoleon had a chance.

[YmoBeThere]

"Financial executives, not those who developed the programming, were in the driver’s seat.

Many say this was a large cause of the failure of GM during the Great Recession. Supposedly, they were too enamored with packaging loans originated through Ditech.

[JasonEvans]

Interest in this contest is dull because the boxoffice performance of the movies this winter has been dull as well.

Here are the current lackluster standings --

1. Hunger Games: Songbirds - $135.5 mil (made $9.2 mil over the weekend)
2. Trolls Band Together - $82.97 mil (made $6.0 mil over the weekend and certain to remain ahead of Marvels)
3. The Marvels - $82.96 mil (made just $1.3 mil over the weekend, stick a fork in this turkey)
4. Naploeon - $53.0 mil (made $4.1 mil over the weekend)
5. Wish - $49.4 mil (made $5.3 mil over the weekend, another animated bomb from Disney)

This weekend brings Wonka, which is going to be huge (relative to these other stinkers), I think. Aquaman, Migration, and Color Purple come Christmas week. I think this is going to be a race to $100... if you can get to 9 digits, I think you will make the top 5 this winter.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Interest in this contest is dull because the boxoffice performance of the movies this winter has been dull as well.

Here are the current lackluster standings --

1. Hunger Games: Songbirds - $135.5 mil (made $9.2 mil over the weekend)
2. Trolls Band Together - $82.97 mil (made $6.0 mil over the weekend and certain to remain ahead of Marvels)
3. The Marvels - $82.96 mil (made just $1.3 mil over the weekend, stick a fork in this turkey)
4. Naploeon - $53.0 mil (made $4.1 mil over the weekend)
5. Wish - $49.4 mil (made $5.3 mil over the weekend, another animated bomb from Disney)

This weekend brings Wonka, which is going to be huge (relative to these other stinkers), I think. Aquaman, Migration, and Color Purple come Christmas week. I think this is going to be a race to $100... if you can get to 9 digits, I think you will make the top 5 this winter.

With both Marvel and Disney under the same umbrella, someone isn't getting a Christmas bonus this year at the house of mouse.

[pcal6vb]

Interest in this contest is dull because the boxoffice performance of the movies this winter has been dull as well.

Here are the current lackluster standings --

1. Hunger Games: Songbirds - $135.5 mil (made $9.2 mil over the weekend)
2. Trolls Band Together - $82.97 mil (made $6.0 mil over the weekend and certain to remain ahead of Marvels)
3. The Marvels - $82.96 mil (made just $1.3 mil over the weekend, stick a fork in this turkey)
4. Naploeon - $53.0 mil (made $4.1 mil over the weekend)
5. Wish - $49.4 mil (made $5.3 mil over the weekend, another animated bomb from Disney)

This weekend brings Wonka, which is going to be huge (relative to these other stinkers), I think. Aquaman, Migration, and Color Purple come Christmas week. I think this is going to be a race to $100... if you can get to 9 digits, I think you will make the top 5 this winter.

I'm surprised Hunger Games did this (relatively) well. I didn't think it had the type of dedicated following that would be interested in a prequel released multiple years after the last film was released, and without the Q-rating bump from constant tie-in merchandise (video games, cartoons, action figures, etc.) that keeps other franchises like Star Wars front of mind in the years between movies. As a comparison point, The Marvels is a sequel, which typically draws more interest (what happens next?), even in a genre/franchise that has hit a point of fatigue, but performed much worse. To me, Hunger Games was out of sight, out of mind. I figured it would be for most of the viewing public, too, but I guess I was wrong?

[JasonEvans]

I'm surprised Hunger Games did this (relatively) well. I didn't think it had the type of dedicated following that would be interested in a prequel released multiple years after the last film was released, and without the Q-rating bump from constant tie-in merchandise (video games, cartoons, action figures, etc.) that keeps other franchises like Star Wars front of mind in the years between movies. As a comparison point, The Marvels is a sequel, which typically draws more interest (what happens next?), even in a genre/franchise that has hit a point of fatigue, but performed much worse. To me, Hunger Games was out of sight, out of mind. I figured it would be for most of the viewing public, too, but I guess I was wrong?

I mean, it is pretty likely to end up worse than all but a small few films that have reached the top 5 in this contest in the past... it is just that this winter is shaping up as the worst "blockbuster" winter we have ever seen at theaters.

[Phredd3]

Argylle is looking better and better, despite the February release date. Which is a bummer, since I didn't actually pick it.