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Rottenwatch: The American Society Of Magical Negroes (March 2024)

Wildebeest

Member
Shawshank Redemption is like Great Gatsby in that it is a story told by Red and is from his perspective but Andy is the main character of the story. The character of Red was originally written as being of Irish descent, hence the name Red, so it wasn't something where race was seen as an essential part of the character.
 
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Sonik

Member
And if your characters are dumbass racial stereotypes then?


Ah yes, the dumbass black stereotype of the wise God, or the black stereotype of the smart old man. When will this Hollywood oppression stop?

Like I said, you're just projecting your insecurities and obsessions onto "tropes" that are deliberately vague so that the oppression grift can continue
 

Trilobit

Member
I'm a well spoken black man who isn't tall and muscular or looks "stereotypically" like movies like to portray as being from the hood... I'm from the hood and education was pushed when I was growing up...

Even I have had trouble navigating around white people... Been given dirty looks in stores or just around in the park, white women clutching their purses tighter when I am not even near them... I fear a Karen more than I fear a white man.

Edit: I've seen light skinned black men who experienced the same things I have. Despite being a nerdy black guy.

If I was a black man in USA(instead of a Scandinavian) I think I'd dress like Urkle to be safe.

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Trilobit

Member
I don't dress like that BUT I do dress kinda nerdy.

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And I still have those same looks thrown at me. Not just in the South. Happened in Southern California too.

Crazy how you could transform from Notorious B.I.G. into a small asian woman in the second picture. The red bull fridge-costume in the third one is bananas! Your cosplay game is on a completely different level. Nice to see you have a friend with you everywhere. :)

Jokes aside some people really suck
 
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DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
Crazy how you could transform from Notorious B.I.G. into a small asian woman in the second picture. The red bull fridge-costume in the third one is bananas! Your cosplay game is on a completely different level. Nice to see you have a friend with you everywhere. :)

Jokes aside some people really suck

Oh! That's not Biggie... LoL! It's Rick Ross.
 

Soodanim

Member
Fuck Doom... Bring Mephisto and Galactus!
I think Galactus might have to be the last hurrah for the MCU. The final big bad. Twice as bad as removing half of all life (from Earth's perspective), unless it's played as poorly as other adaptations where he's a pushover. Depending on how the MCU goes in the next few years, that final hurrah might be sooner rather than later.
 
Think Scatman Crothers from The Shining, or Michael Clark Duncan from The Green Mile. Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption. Probably some others that aren't written by Stephen King.
So you mentioned 3 characters from King movies, one of which is actually white in the book. This is only a trope because people don’t pay attention to the white equivalent. Like Christopher Walken from Click or The Stranger from Long Story Short (just watched this recently).
 
So you mentioned 3 characters from King movies, one of which is actually white in the book. This is only a trope because people don’t pay attention to the white equivalent. Like Christopher Walken from Click or The Stranger from Long Story Short (just watched this recently).
That maybe true, but that Key and Peele skit still works really well because of the handful of movies where this does happen.
 

Jaybe

Member

iu

The film’s director Kobi Libii also made it abundantly clear the entire goal of the film was to lecture people and use it as a bludgeon to achieve political power.

The-Numbers reports the film only grossed $1.25 million this past weekend after it screened in 1,147 theaters. Its per theater gross was a meager $1,090

Clearly it wasn’t to make money or garner critical acclaim lol
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
No need to kick it while it is down, I don't think it had any real chance. Now Color Purple tanking, that was probably a surprise.

I think there will be a LOT of rethinking marketing strategies and what the audience REALLY is in the next few years, social media has spun a bit of a false narrative methinks or studios tried to chase a trend that only lasted a few months, not the years they thought.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
No need to kick it while it is down, I don't think it had any real chance. Now Color Purple tanking, that was probably a surprise.

I think there will be a LOT of rethinking marketing strategies and what the audience REALLY is in the next few years, social media has spun a bit of a false narrative methinks or studios tried to chase a trend that only lasted a few months, not the years they thought.
This movie had no chance to begin with since it only opened in 1,147 domestic theatres. It shows most theatres didn't want to touch it. Big movies open in 3-4x that amount. The top 5 movies are in the 3,000-4,000 range.

Even in limited theatres, the dollar ring per theatre has been awful even on day one which is bad. Sometimes a sleeper hit can come about in limited numbers theatres but have giant sales per theatre as they all got to funnel their sales to a small number of locations. But in this case, there is none of that scenario


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NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
I think the creators of this movie underestimated how familiar people who are not terminally online are with tropes and especially trope names.

Some of my black coworkers were bitching about the movie when they saw the trailer. They were legit furious and didn't realize it was satirizing a storytelling convention. They hated everything about it from its name to the plot.
 

nush

Member
I think the creators of this movie underestimated how familiar people who are not terminally online are with tropes and especially trope names.

Some of my black coworkers were bitching about the movie when they saw the trailer. They were legit furious and didn't realize it was satirizing a storytelling convention. They hated everything about it from its name to the plot.
Satire not landing has the reverse effect.
 

Sonik

Member
People will watch race satire when they're good though. Get Out did gangbusters, Sorry to Bother You is a cult classic. But this only works when it's good.

I seriously doubt the vast majority of people watched Get Out because it was race satire, they heard it was a good horror movie and went to watch it
 

GeekyDad

Member
200.gif


Ugh...

That movie title is some silly-ass clickbait if there ever was none. Dayum.

Now...<tries to compose one's self> Not sure how I feel about the premise (which seems to have pretty much nothing to do with the actual theme of the movie -- another simple love story), but it's an interesting topic to contemplate. But the movie itself looks silly, decent but unremarkable.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Don't worry. It won't take long until a person goes here saying "hey it didn't flop because it's woke, it flop because it's a bad movie. Being woke have nothing to do with it, actually people don't even know its meaning".
You'd have to make the EXACT same film, except cast a buncha twee speaking Irish and some bombshell redhead lass and call.it "Magical Society of Leprechauns" or someshit.to see if the title really kept people away.
 

Fake

Member

Full List of Box Office Results: March 15-17, 2024




bffe0ff0-d359-11ea-b2c2-d92a57d89c3a--fresh.png
72% Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)


  • $30 million ($107.7 million total)




c6672520-d359-11ea-a15f-bdf29fa24277--certified-fresh.png
92% Dune: Part Two (2024)


  • $29.1 million ($205.3 million total)




bffe0ff0-d359-11ea-b2c2-d92a57d89c3a--fresh.png
67% Arthur the King (2024)


  • $7.5 million ($7.5 million total)




b3909ad0-d359-11ea-b2c2-d92a57d89c3a--rotten.png
25% Imaginary (2024)


  • $5.6 million ($19.1 million total)




bffe0ff0-d359-11ea-b2c2-d92a57d89c3a--fresh.png
90% Cabrini (2024)


  • $2.8 million ($13 million total)




c6672520-d359-11ea-a15f-bdf29fa24277--certified-fresh.png
92% Love Lies Bleeding (2024)


  • $2.4 million ($2.7 million total)




b3909ad0-d359-11ea-b2c2-d92a57d89c3a--rotten.png
43% Bob Marley: One Love (2024)


  • $2.3 million ($93.3 million total)




c6672520-d359-11ea-a15f-bdf29fa24277--certified-fresh.png
89% One Life (2023)


  • $1.7 million ($1.7 million total)




b3909ad0-d359-11ea-b2c2-d92a57d89c3a--rotten.png
31% The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024)


  • $1.2 million ($1.2 million total)




c6672520-d359-11ea-a15f-bdf29fa24277--certified-fresh.png
86% Ordinary Angels (2024)


  • $1 million ($18 million total)
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
From what little I've read about it, it just seems to be a poorly written film, so regardless of it's "message", it didn't deliver. I also think it didn't really know who it's audience should be. White people sympathetic to BLM? Black people in general? White people that need "a talkin' to"? The first category is just internet driven smoke n'mirrors, the second is a legit audience but you gotta know your stuff to reach them and this film clearly did not, and the last category....well, who wants to PAY to be lectured to?

If anything, this was a low budget flick designed to boost some studios ESG score or get them diversity merit points to offset some big budget "white people" project. But 15 mill on a wacky concept film is something I want to ENCOURAGE, Hollywood has been playing it way too safe lately and these massive budgets is mostly the reason why. Shrink the spend and you don't have to hammer the film into a four quadrant blah experience.
 

Fake

Member
Poorly written or not, the premisse is fucking terrible. This is 100% the 'fucking around and find out' case.
 
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SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
From what little I've read about it, it just seems to be a poorly written film, so regardless of it's "message", it didn't deliver. I also think it didn't really know who it's audience should be. White people sympathetic to BLM? Black people in general? White people that need "a talkin' to"? The first category is just internet driven smoke n'mirrors, the second is a legit audience but you gotta know your stuff to reach them and this film clearly did not, and the last category....well, who wants to PAY to be lectured to?

If anything, this was a low budget flick designed to boost some studios ESG score or get them diversity merit points to offset some big budget "white people" project. But 15 mill on a wacky concept film is something I want to ENCOURAGE, Hollywood has been playing it way too safe lately and these massive budgets is mostly the reason why. Shrink the spend and you don't have to hammer the film into a four quadrant blah experience.
After the success of Get Out, studios have been trying to figure out the next buzzy racial satire movie. We've seen some smaller successes like Candyman and Sorry to Bother You, but also some major fails like this movie and Karen.

And to be perfectly fair, it seems like the difference is in the execution. While this movie probably had a lot of things working against it, including a title that makes people bristle and references a trope most people aren't familiar with outside of film nerds, but at the end of the day it's a bad movie and audiences saw that.

If this was an acclaimed movie with cutting and resonant social commentary, we could sit here and have a conversation about all the reasons it couldn't find it's audience, but it's not so we don't have to.
 

thefool

Member


Its funny because its white people that have to walk on eggshells to not offend other races.

Another classical case of cinema as a tool of propaganda to distort reality. This time nobody really wanted to watch this but the hustle never stops.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
From what little I've read about it, it just seems to be a poorly written film, so regardless of it's "message", it didn't deliver. I also think it didn't really know who it's audience should be. White people sympathetic to BLM? Black people in general? White people that need "a talkin' to"? The first category is just internet driven smoke n'mirrors, the second is a legit audience but you gotta know your stuff to reach them and this film clearly did not, and the last category....well, who wants to PAY to be lectured to?

If anything, this was a low budget flick designed to boost some studios ESG score or get them diversity merit points to offset some big budget "white people" project. But 15 mill on a wacky concept film is something I want to ENCOURAGE, Hollywood has been playing it way too safe lately and these massive budgets is mostly the reason why. Shrink the spend and you don't have to hammer the film into a four quadrant blah experience.
The movie did so bad in box office money almost nobody watched it. Even all the race focused weirdos with a chip in their shoulder didn’t bother. What’s the final take on this money? Like $2M?

You’d think all the people amped up on race wars looking for laughs would be watching. Nope.

But if you guys wanna watch a hilarious movie with whites and blacks watch White Chicks with the Wayan brothers. That’s the way to do it. You can have laughs at each people’s expense in lighthearted ways without blatant DEI kind of messaging wrapped into a comedy.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
The movie did so bad in box office money almost nobody watched it. Even all the race focused weirdos with a chip in their shoulder didn’t bother. What’s the final take on this money? Like $2M?

You’d think all the people amped up on race wars looking for laughs would be watching. Nope.

But if you guys wanna watch a hilarious movie with whites and blacks watch White Chicks with the Wayan brothers. That’s the way to do it. You can have laughs at each people’s expense in lighthearted ways without blatant DEI kind of messaging wrapped into a comedy.
Thats my point. Almost NO ONE is actually willing to engage in race stuff outside of the internet and definitely unwilling to spend any money on it. It's all social media bot driven bullshit and a MASSIVE grift. There is just a tiny percentage of folks that really engage in this stuff but they get a yuge signal boost from the internet in ways never before possible.

All the companies chasing ESG crap are finding that there isn't a market for it. Those cheap loans can't fuel them forever, not with interest rates skyrocketing.

Write good, authentic stories about a diverse range of topics, understand your likely audience and budget accordingly, have a solid marketing strategy that reaches the folks you think will actually put up money for your product.

It ain't rocket science, folks.
 

Billbofet

Member
It looks like this movie was just a pisspoor, generic romance movie that they threw this racist shit on top to make people either hate watch or watch it out of morbid curiosity.
Glad it didn't work.
 
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