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Wkd BO 07•21-23•17 - Slam Dunk' for Nolan, Apes escape, not rough Girl's Trip, Luc

S

Starphanluke

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
I believe it flat-out bombed.
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As a die-hard fan of the franchise and not the movies, I seriously hope they shelf Transformers on the big screen for a little while and maybe, MAYBE revisit it in a decade. I think there might be potential there, but they need to give people time to forget this mess.
 
T

Toa TAK

Banned
Right, right, I keep forgetting that these threads are filled with:

giphy.gif
 
L

Lima

Member
Oh yeah right I saw that Tulip Fever movie yesterday. Looking up the credited writers, one of them wrote Shakespeare in Love. I imagine this is what they tried to go for with this movie but failed miserably. Mainly because the two leads, Alicia Vikander and Dane DeHann have almost zero on screen chemistry. I guess this is in part due to the terrible script and resulting dialogue but they don't work together st all.
Like this only made my belief that DeHann is absolutely terrible even stronger.

Christoph Waltz as the cheated on husband was awesome, doing you know his Waltz thing. Oh and Judi Dench as grumpy old woman.

After the movie I read about the premise with the Dutch being crazy about tulips in that time. Experts apparently don't really agree that any of this happened so it doesn't even work as a period piece.

If I had to rate it I'd probably give it a 3/10 for the scenes with Waltz and sex scenes with Vikander.
 
M

MHWilliams

Member
DarkLordMalik said:
The original Pacific Rim opened to $37 million and eventually passed $100 million. It was considered a cult hit and has garnered a fan base that still loves it today. Worldwide, the film was a different story, making $411 million. China alone added $111 million to it.

The sequel is now starring big names like John Boyega, Tian Jing and Scott fucking Eastwood. John and Scott both have starred in movies that have grossed more than a billion worldwide. Their combined star power should easily propel the movie to an opening of $50 million and a domestic total of $150 million. Tian Jing is a big name in China so her inclusion alone will result in the movie grossing $200 million and above in China. The rest of the worldwide gross should easily make the film end up with $550 million or above, making it a major success for the studio and green lighting a Pacific Rim x Monsterverse cross-over.
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I didn't get where you were going until I got to "combined star power".

Buster-Bluth-Confused-Then-Smile-Arrested-Development.gif
 
B

Biggest-Geek-Ever

Member
I just got invites for Detroit tomorrow and Annabelle on Thursday. As a huge Katherine Bigelow fan, I'm sure I'll love Detroit, so here's hoping Annabelle is as good as the early reviews suggest.
 
K

Kenzodielocke

Banned
Curious to see how Annabelle reviews. It has 11 and all fresh as of now. Also, that director has also made Lights Out and Kung Fury, now making Shazam.
 
L

Lima

Member
kswiston said:
All of these good sequels to shitty horror films are going against the natural law of the universe.
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Oh I also saw Wish Upon yesterday. Man what a horrible movie. I guess some of the death scenes were so bad that they became (intentionally?) funny because me and the whole theater was laughing when the old guy died in his bathtub.

Also Ryan Phillippe still got it. Damn both my girl and me commented on how good he looks still.
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
kswiston said:
All of these good sequels to shitty horror films are going against the natural law of the universe.
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Seriously. When Ouija: Origin of Evil ended up being pretty good, I knew we were living in a computer simulation.
 
S

Shauni

Member
Annebelle actually being good would be something else. A prequel to a prequel spin-off that was vastly inferior to the main series turning out solid. What a year it's been.
 
B

berzeli

Banned
So Valerian is fucked part 2:
uropaCorp’s Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets performed miserably here in the states, and in one of the 16 markets it released to internationally last weekend — Germany — it opened under Despicable Me 3’s third weekend with $2.9 million versus DM3‘s $3.6 million. Throughout last week and the weekend, we heard that STX, which distributed in the U.S., was on the hook for only about $5M, had a distribution fee of about 10%, and that the P&A was being shouldered by EuropaCorp. Then that was disputed. Others said the roughly $60M in P&A was being shouldered by STX. What’s true?
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Besson told Deadline in May, that if Valerian does as well as Lucy territory ($460M+), “then we’re fine.”
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In Germany, Lucy opened to $5M and to No. 1 in 2014. In Germany this time around, Valerian opened to $2.9M and under a movie that has already played three weekends in a row.
Lucy grabbed $126.6M in the U.S. and opened to $43.8M, or a 2.8 multiple. Valerian opened to $17M. If Valerian has a 2.8 multiple it will top out in the states at $47.6M. And that is the best-case scenario.
Lucy made a $336.6M total internationally, which accounted for 72.7% of its worldwide gross. Using the same multiples with the best-case scenario that would give Valerian only $126.8M internationally, or $174M globally.
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Around the world, each territory is said to be covering its own P&A. Lionsgate has the film in the UK and for home entertainment.
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Now, talk around town — which is being shouted very loudly — is about how STX will lose its shirt on Valerian to the tune of $60M. Nothing is really being said about another company: Missing from the mix of chatter is Fundamental Films in China which has upwards of $50M in equity in the picture. The company also had dropped an additional $65M-$70M (60M Euros) into EuropaCorp. That money was not allocated for P&A and was for an investment in the company
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So Deadline started digging, and we found out what the deal actually encompasses on P&A. According to one financier with direct knowledge of the deal, the bank lender is JP Morgan which, the lender said, is in business with both EuropaCorp and STX. The way this particular deal went down is that JP Morgan gave the money to STX for P&A and that is backstopped by EuropaCorp with STX have been given liens, positions and obligations as security to be paid back by EuropaCorp. In other words, EuropaCorp has made guarantees to STX for the P&A. Despite the statements on deep background and otherwise being spun out to journalists around town right now, that, he said is the actual deal. The amount that STX stands to lose, at most, is about $2.5M to $3M.
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“Everyone is going to lose money on this. It’s sad actually. This kind of failure actually hurts the business, not just the companies with a financial stake involved.”
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Kenzodielocke said:
Oh lol, my bad.
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Yeah, two Swedish filmmakers getting more popular at the same time. Both named David Sandberg. Nothing confusing about that. At all. And no one has ever mixed them up before. Especially not me.
 
L

Lima

Member
Everyone's going to lose money on this and it's sad. No what's sad is that none of the people involved saw this coming when hobby analysts on a video game forum could have told you it will be a bomb.
 
B

berzeli

Banned
Lima said:
Everyone's going to lose money on this and it's sad. No what's sad is that none of the people involved saw this coming when hobby analysts on a video game forum could have told you it will be a bomb.
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Hi would you like to invest in the newest sci-fi action franchise from the people who brought you the very successful action franchise Taken? It is being helmed by the guy who did Lucy, you know that sci-fi action film that did $460 million on a $40 million budget, whose previous French sci-fi action film is one of the highest grossing French films of all time?

It's really not an obvious bomb on paper.
 
K

kswiston

Member
berzeli said:
Hi would you like to invest in the newest sci-fi action franchise from the people who brought you the very successful action franchise Taken? It is being helmed by the guy who did Lucy, you know that sci-fi action film that did $460 million on a $40 million budget, whose previous French sci-fi action film is one of the highest grossing French films of all time?

It's really not an obvious bomb on paper.
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I'm curious to know how far in advance the various international distribution rights get sold for something like Valerian.
 
B

berzeli

Banned
kswiston said:
I'm curious to knoe how far in advance the various international distribution rights get sold for something like Valerian.
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Far.

Fundamental officially joined in March of 2015
Lionsgate officially announced their acquisition of the UK rights in February 2016
STX Lands Luc Besson’s ‘Valerian’ And Other EuropaCorp Titles In 3-Year Pact; RED* Hit With Massive Layoffs (January 3, 2017)
*RED was a joint venture between Relativity Media and EuropaCorp, Relativity went bankrupt in 2015 so things were a bit fucked w/r/t US distribution rights.

I think most of the distribution rights (i.e. number of territories, not dollar value) were sold at Cannes in 2015.
 
M

MHWilliams

Member
Lima said:
Everyone's going to lose money on this and it's sad. No what's sad is that none of the people involved saw this coming when hobby analysts on a video game forum could have told you it will be a bomb.
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I mean, the pitch feels like a winner. "Luc Besson makes a scifi action film based on a historic European comic." The final product, not so much. There are many films where I go, "Why was this made?" Valerian on paper ins't one of them.
 
J

Jigorath

Banned
Lima said:
Everyone's going to lose money on this and it's sad. No what's sad is that none of the people involved saw this coming when hobby analysts on a video game forum could have told you it will be a bomb.
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Us hobby analysts don't have the best track record either :p
 
L

Lima

Member
berzeli said:
Far.

Fundamental officially joined in March of 2015
Lionsgate officially announced their acquisition of the UK rights in February 2016
STX Lands Luc Besson’s ‘Valerian’ And Other EuropaCorp Titles In 3-Year Pact; RED* Hit With Massive Layoffs (January 3, 2017)
*RED was a joint venture between Relativity Media and EuropaCorp, Relativity went bankrupt in 2015 so things were a bit fucked w/r/t US distribution rights.

I think most of the distribution rights (i.e. number of territories, not dollar value) were sold at Cannes in 2015.
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I guess this makes sense then. Timing is obviously the key point here and if they get brought on what's like pre-production stage then I can understand it.

The only thing you can do when realizing it's a bomb and you are about to lose money is to cut your marketing budget to not lose more money. Because this thing has very little marketing in Germany.
 
S

snap

Banned
berzeli said:
Hi would you like to invest in the newest sci-fi action franchise from the people who brought you the very successful action franchise Taken? It is being helmed by the guy who did Lucy, you know that sci-fi action film that did $460 million on a $40 million budget, whose previous French sci-fi action film is one of the highest grossing French films of all time?

It's really not an obvious bomb on paper.
Click to expand...

Well, yes, when you're reductive like that, sure. But when looking at the greater context there's a few things to keep in mind, and not the smallest one is that both Taken and Lucy were both smaller budget action movies--Lucy was $40M, as you said, and Taken was $26M. Higher budget movies--like Valerian--are a completely different ballgame that require a completely new playbook. On top of that, both of those movies were flukes that managed to do well not because of some inherent quality, but because they managed to come out at the right time and grab on to something bigger than themselves--Lucy opened the same weekend as the Hercules movie that starred The Rock and its only real competition on opening day was Dawn of the Planet of the Apes from two weeks earlier. It was able to hook into a push for more female representation in action movies.

Taken also opened in February during Super Bowl weekend, not exactly a hotspot for action movies. A tight, well-edited production and that one line that turned into a meme is what provided it with success. It should also be noted--both of those movies opened to less than $50M here in the states. There were never any signs Valerian could vastly outperform either, even if it didn't have as strong competition as it did and was better received than it did. Heck, sidelining the female lead was already learning no lessons from Lucy.

This isn't to pick on you though, you're probably right on how it was sold to investors and distributors. Kind of has the familiar feel of that Chinese-backed Point Break remake. They didn't really look at market trends and ways to success past "this was a big movie once and people like action right?"
 
B

berzeli

Banned
snap said:
Well, yes, when you're reductive like that, sure. But when looking at the greater context there's a few things to keep in mind, and not the smallest one is that both Taken and Lucy were both smaller budget action movies--Lucy was $40M, as you said, and Taken was $26M. Higher budget movies--like Valerian--are a completely different ballgame that require a completely new playbook. On top of that, both of those movies were flukes that managed to do well not because of some inherent quality, but because they managed to come out at the right time and grab on to something bigger than themselves--Lucy opened the same weekend as the Hercules movie that starred The Rock and its only real competition on opening day was Dawn of the Planet of the Apes from two weeks earlier. It was able to hook into a push for more female representation in action movies.

Taken also opened in February during Super Bowl weekend, not exactly a hotspot for action movies. A tight, well-edited production and that one line that turned into a meme is what provided it with success. It should also be noted--both of those movies opened to less than $50M here in the states. There were never any signs Valerian could vastly outperform either, even if it didn't have as strong competition as it did and was better received than it did. Heck, sidelining the female lead was already learning no lessons from Lucy.

This isn't to pick on you though, you're probably right on how it was sold to investors and distributors. Kind of has the familiar feel of that Chinese-backed Point Break remake. They didn't really look at market trends and ways to success past "this was a big movie once and people like action right?"
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I'm not being reductive. That's the pitch Europacorp made.

Also, Taken as a franchise not a single film.
Taken: $220 million
Taken 2: $370 million
Taken 3: $320 mllion
Or were they just "flukes" too?

I was just explaining why people invested. Not commenting on how to make and market a successful sci-fi action blockbuster franchise.
 
K

kswiston

Member
Keeping in mind that this week (week 30) is only on Tuesday, here's an updated graph of Box Office GAF posts in the weekend box office threads through the first 30 weeks of the past 4 years.

f41YzGZ.png


2017 made up for the TFA and BvS bumps of 2016 a few weeks back and is now the chattiest year to date, probably passing 23k posts for the year by the end of today. Last year was at around 21k posts by this point. 2015 was at just over 9k. 2014 was at 4.8k (I was mainly talking to myself back then).
 
S

snap

Banned
berzeli said:
I'm not being reductive. That's the pitch Europacorp made.

Also, Taken as a franchise not a single film.
Taken: $220 million
Taken 2: $370 million
Taken 3: $320 mllion
Or were they just "flukes" too?

I was just explaining why people invested. Not commenting on how to make and market a successful sci-fi action blockbuster franchise.
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I know you weren't trying to be reductive, that's why I had those last few lines. And the Taken sequels don't negate what I said. Maybe they weren't as good and memorable as the first movie, but they still coasted off of the first movie's goodwill to see some success.
 
S

snap

Banned
How long until Box Office GAF gets spun out into its own forum. Feel like between us and PoliGAF we make up 60-80% of OT threads
 
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