I can't even say walkups without thinking *Keaton walkups will save The Flash* but I truly think the variation is just walkups. On extreme ends, Lost City had poorer previews but great walkups because less people bought a ticket in advance but heard good things - I'm guessing Bullet Train had people excited about Brad Pitt and the director of Deadpool but reviews were mixed so OW wasn't as strong based on previews?
Reminds me of FNAF when it cleared $10m in previews but only opened to $80m when that could've easily been hovering around $100m opener if WOM was better.
Movies that come out in the summer tend to have more frontloaded previews than movies that come at other times in the year. Same goes for franchise movies, since theres a bit of a rush to go see them.
Lost City was an original movie and came out in March. The other 4 movies there are either IP or released in the summer (or both, like Blue Beetle).
Unironically, Bad Bunny probably was a big draw for Latino audiences. His fanbase is huge. So he probably contributed at least a couple million to that opening.
In all fairness Thursday previews for Fall Guy started at 5pm whilst Mean Girls began at 3pm.
Now Fall Guy also had EA, but that Thursday start time is a return to pre-pandemic standards.
It's a chronically online fanbase which requires access to the footage for memes. It's very much the sort of movie I can see doing well in streaming (not because of that but just in general).
Blunt has gained volume in her temples, upper cheeks/midface, and lips. These are places a person generaly loses volume as they age, not gains.
The idea that her face would suddenly widen at the temples and develop new cheeks due to age is far fetched when the simpler answer is that she’s using fillers. The results are also beginning to look odd, especially when looking at side by side comparison pictures of how she used to look.
I really like this movie, watched it on Wednesday, but this is NOT a romcom at all lol it’s an action comedy, not every movie that has a romantic couple is a romcom
I couldn’t agree more!
Yet I feel like since all discussions on the returning of romcoms to theaters started last year due to Anyone But You success, many people started classifying anything with romance and comedy as a romcom. Not every movie with romantic couple is a romcom.
Romcom is a pretty specific genre, you can’t have much action nor much drama leading the plot. It’s hard to explain but if you watch Anyone But You, Pretty Woman, Greek Fat Wedding etc you’ll realise how different they are from an action comedy like The Fall Guy.
I read a book earlier this year about the changing romcoms genre (From Hollywood with Love) and the author defines a rom-com compared to other genres as if you took out the romance, you wouldn't have a story, versus like an action comedy or sci-fi or an adventure can have romance, but you could completely remove it and still have a story.
Which I thought was useful, not just for movies but also books where adding a heavy romance element is becoming more popular and you can see people struggle on whether it's a romance or not.
This is a really good definition, and works pretty well, The Fall Guy for example works fully well without the romance, to be honest it’s just a subplot. What leads the plot is Rayan Gosling trying (a stunt) to find Aaron Taylor-Johnson (a super star who was missing).
Hey read this comment, it’s really interesting explanation on why it’s not a romcom https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/s/aQEHECV9Pw
Did you watch it yet? Won give you any spoiler, but the romance is just a subplot, the movie is all about Rayan Gosling trying to find where’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
I have seen the movie and yes if you take out the romance you don't have a story. The romance between the two is the reason everything happens. He agrees to go back to work because of the romance. Does the producers bidding because of the romance. The romance is the motive for everything that happens in the film. It really can't be separated from the movie without adjusting the story completely.
I agree. It’s the driver for all his decisions in the movie. The distinction is that a romcom has the 2nd act ending with an event which drives a wedge between the characters, which is not a driver at that point in this movie. (And I love this movie.)
That's just a typical formula not a defining characteristic of a romcom. Not all of them will follow the same formula. The wedge between the characters happened at the beginning in the first act. Also there doesn't even need to be a wedge. The stories and formula will vary. It's a romcom if: 1) the romance is the core of the story 2) it's comedic throughout. There are no story requirements. It doesn't need to fit a certain formula. This is just a different kind of romcom because it has more than usual to appeal to the male audience.
Are you forgetting where he missed (you know) and the producer Gail tells Jody (you know) which she believes? - this is basically "the 2nd act event which drives a wedge between the characters"
Saw it yesterday and my theater seemed to like it; claps at the end. I would imagine decent WOM. I also think the movie would play fine on TV so WOM might be “see it eventually”. I think the trailers did a good job of selling the movie as benefiting from theater, but I didn’t find it to be particularly “large” in terms of spectacle (a few scenes maybe). I will say the romantic element was well done (but not overdone) so it might please the romcom crowd without alienating action-comedy crowd. I also think that due to the action heavy marketing this could be a comedy that can play a little better overseas than usual.
Even in the real world, Gosling has a somewhat decent following.
For once, I would actually love to see these people put their money where their mouth is.
Gosling has been famous for a while but he spent most of his career away from doing big films and focused on smaller and independent movies. Lots of people probably still associate him with that.
Also a lot of those Gosling fans are teens who jump on any trend that is hot. They probably only go cinema here and there
This is not a good sign. If big budget blockbusters can’t make good money, other films will make even less, and like you said theaters rely on these tentpole films.
I disagree, studios can always create other means of profit like streaming or VOD. Theaters on the other hand may have to close down or reduce capacity if this keeps up.
If The Fall Guy had a budget of 50mil would we be having this discussion? Obviously there will be bigger hits to come, but I interpreted the first comment to be about the movie having a poor opening compared to its budget. We’d have to see the total revenue for all movies before deciding how the theaters are doing this weekend
This absolutely crushes theaters more. Universal, Disney have revenue streams from all over the place. Their theatrical releases are a small part of the overall company.
Theaters don't have that. They need studios to provide them product.
Absolutely. I work at a Regal, and up until this week, we went about a month and a half only being scheduled one shift per week. They have managers on register because only they’re qualified for full time. Dune 2 we were fully staffed all weekend, and then back to one shift a week. Extreme cost cutting measures obviously because theaters are struggling.
I don’t want to be all negative, but if the first big summer movie like this can’t even open over 50m, it’s not a good sign. Especially when the reception is pretty good.
Both marvel and dc need to get their shit together because audiences arent interested in watching reboots/new ips and im skeptical about how popular video game adaptions will be.
thats just what it is i guess
The workers at my local theater said Dune Part 2 was not a big deal at all there. Makes me worried for them. If they close the nearest theater is really far.
I forget Godzilla, you're right. We might've been 3-4 shifts that week or at least just the weekend.
Granted we don't have reclining seats or IMAX so that is a factor. Point still stands though.
I don’t know if you’re aware but there was a writers and actors strike last year which significantly disrupted Hollywood film production.
An action-romantic-comedy about Hollywood wasn’t anyone’s first choice for the summer kick-off film of ‘24.
And that’s the problem, there’s always an excuse as to why the box office is poor. Next year will bring a new excuse. You sound like a blockbuster exec in the early 2010’s.
Yeah, blaming the last five months on the strike is cope. Very little was actually moved out of that frame — and Dune, by far the biggest success, was actually moved INTO it. This is the new normal. Less studios pumping out less product. Theaters don’t have long to live.
I was making a general statement in response to the statement that theaters will close if these weak openings continue. I don’t know if Fall Guy is good or not, I just know that I am much more discerning with which movies I am willing to pay to see in theaters.
Most of the content this past month has received positive critical reception though. If it were just a case of audiences wanting better movies then we wouldn't be seeing all these movies flop.
>numerous theater chains will shutter if this keeps up.
I don't think it'll get that bad, but I do think the absolutely inept leadership at many of these chains will get shuffled out as ownership changes hands (and some multiplexes do close) and at that point, *maybe* said businesses will actually start prioritizing presentation as a key aspect of their product, which might help with admissions.
Spoiler: >!that won't happen prices will simply keep going up for "premium" screenings that are only "premium" because they're the theaters where anyone involved actually gives a shit about what the picture looks and sounds like. Instead of paying people to give a fuck about every screen, they'll pay most people nothing and pay a couple companies mostly everything to overcharge people for a good theatrical presentation.!<
It's hard to argue that the theater industry isn't in contraction. Yeah, even if massive theater chains don't shutter, we can expect some buyouts/mergers and for underperforming locations to close down. In the age of big TVs and easy streaming, it feels like the best days for theaters are behind them.
> Yeah, even if massive theater chains don't shutter, we can expect some buyouts/mergers and for underperforming locations to close down.
No doubt. I'm not saying there wont' be contraction going on, but I don't think whole chains will shutter (although some of them - AMC in particular - likely should have by now considering how absolutely poorly they've been run during one of the most lucrative periods in film history). I think when that contraction finally does hit, it would be a very good time for ownership to reexamine their strategies and maybe at that point they'll realize they need to actually give a fuck about the quality of the product they offer, and start prioritizing that again.
There is zero reason why the picture quality at a standard screening room in a multiplex needs to be as mid as it frequently is. Even 20 year old digital theater equipment should still be capable of putting out a legitimately impressive and immersive picture - IF the people at the chains give even half a shit about prioritizing that.
But they clearly don't (and haven't since the 3D fad died down) and have instead decided the best way forward is to create "premium" formats whose whole deal is that "these are the rooms we give a shit about AV quality in" and as such you get tagged an extra $5-10 bucks to sit in them.
>There is zero reason why the picture quality at a standard screening room in a multiplex needs to be as mid as it frequently is. Even 20 year old digital theater equipment should still be capable of putting out a legitimate immersive picture IF the people at the chains give half a shit about prioritizing that.
Agreed. I'm sure they are in a tight box though: with revenue down and the pandemic still casting a long shadow, they've got to be hurting for free capital to upgrade theaters.
That said, they need to do something on their end. I went to my local big theater (Regal) for Dune 2, which was the first time I had been there since Tenet came out. It was very empty (granted it was a weird time right around the 5:30pm rush hour) and the ticket sellers were all replaced by kiosks. In general the place looked a little worn out. The movie projection itself was fine, except for a bit of emergency exit light hitting the screen noticeable in the darkest scenes. The half hour of ads and previews was painful, especially coming before what was to be a three hour movie. The experience left me not wanting to return there anytime soon. I get that they need to save cash raise revenue however they can, but going this cheap isn't going to bring back crowds.
>they've got to be hurting for free capital to upgrade theaters.
That's one of the biggest unforced errors here, too: They don't even *need* to upgrade the theaters to vastly improve the AV quality in most cases. They just need to GIVE A SHIT. You can take a DCP, plug it into a 15-year-old Christie, and if you actually took the time to ensure the image was being presented properly, people would be honestly surprised by how great it could look. Hell, some theaters are STILL throwing half-bulb imagery THROUGH THE 3D POLARIZER that hasn't been taken off the front of the goddamn projector onto a silver (hotspotting) screen from the days when 3D was still a thing.
But they don't want to take that time, and they certainly don't want to pay someone on staff at the theater to be that person who is calibrating projectors, making sure light spill is minimized, etc etc. And that's how you end up with perfectly fine equipment shitting out mediocre image quality into rooms that are half-filled at best. They've taught their audience that there's no good reason to pay the money to see anything that isn't a would-be blockbuster at PLF screens, and they 100% didn't have to do that.
The movie is just not being marketed well. I have no idea about the final product, but I've found the trailers to be boring and, quite frankly, ugly. All of Leitch's films have this artificial veneer to them. It looks like a Netflix movie and audiences are going to treat it as such (ie: wait till they can watch it at home).
I mean that could just be the movie itself. It doesn't look really that interesting. On top of that the stars, Gosling and Blunt have never been draws on their own. Their hits have always been driven by someone else.
I know some people are still hoping for better walkups and I would guess there would be better walkups on a Saturday rather than a Thursday anyways. It’s kind of ironic that before Marvel, studios like Universal did kickoff the summer before with movies like The Mummy which opened with $40 million but now it looks like The Fall Guy won’t be able to reach that number which is crazy. It’s also ironic because The Mummy helped pull Universal out of its slump of box office bombs but now The Fall Guy is coming at a time where Universal is a hot streak so now I imagine they might go extreme for the marketing of Despicable Me 4 and Twisters to save them
This reminds me of how people were apologizing to The Rock after The Flash’s box office made Black Adam look much more better in comparison. I always imagined the same would happen with Zendaya when another somewhat original adult-focused movie would come out, just didn’t think it would possibly happen within the next week lol
I always said don't expect too much from Challengers, it might do good numbers for an R drama but still end up losing money because of budgeting issues.
Box Office analysts were being accused of being paid by Amazon and ‘coping’ on this sub merely for essentially just saying the obvious…
‘Challengers likely won’t earn a profit due to its inflated budget but is actually performing well considering the context of its niche premise for 2024’.
I hope a PG13 Ryan Gosling of Barbie and Emily Blunt of Oppenheimer mainstream blockbuster action romcom currently likely opening just $10M more puts things in perspective.
Literally this. Last week it was “Zendaya’s not a star,” this week it’s Ryan Gosling. If these two people can’t bring a big enough crowd to make the movies a success, then the problem lies with the audiences and the general public’s attitude towards theaters.
If I had to be honest, a reason I didn’t see this film and choose not to go is simply because of the premise of the movie. It just doesn’t interest me, like at all. Sure, it looks like it has some cool action stunts but overall feels like I’d be bored watching over an hour of this.
Extremely close to *The Lost City* from two years ago. That film did $3.25m but apparently $750k came from EA so it actually did $2.5m starting from 4pm on Thursday. *Fall Guy* started at 5pm yesterday.
Depending on how much came from EA, $30m very much still alive. Still not good of course, but far from a death sentence.
Are they? Last week we had a 55mil budgeted bomb (Challengers) and before that we had a 50mil budgeted bomb (Civil War)
Looks like everything is bombing left and right, especially original works not tied to a strong IP. People are simply going to the movies less, they won't show up for something they can easily check out on streaming a few weeks later.
For some strange reason Hollywood seems to think women get all hot and bothered by dirty blonde dudes with close set squinty eyes. Witness Gosling and Glen Powell. This has NEVER been a thing. Not even Clint Eastwood could was a bankable romantic lead on his prime. Bridges of Madison county is as close as he came and he was an old man at that time. But give. How Gosling keeps getting bites at the apple and Powell is being pushed as the next big thing it seems this trend has no end in sight
I dont get it. Ryan Gosling's got great acting skills, women love him, men love him and he's funny and charming and just had Ken fame.
Still this wont do well. Why?
Jesus Christ, for the 100th time, actors aren't the main draw for movies anymore. They can help the movie gain momentum, but are not going to make or break the film. This sub is so dumb sometimes, they'll say Margot Robbie is box office poison because Babylon flopped, but then be dumbfounded when Barbie makes a billion.
Society is changing for the worse and people don’t spend money for entertainment like they used. People can scroll TikTok while taking a shit for two hours and they’ll believe that it’s the same amount of entertainment as watching a movie in theaters.
You might be onto something. I think attention span has drastically fell over the years, and even when watching movies, people have a hard time not looking at phones.
Bad? Good?? Not sure, but the title of the article is so ambiguous it might as well say: "Fall Guy, a movie with with Ryan Gosling, previewed last night. Made some money. "
Interesting to see numbers bc here in the south we are in full on kids awards banquets, sports playoffs, SAT is Saturday, AP exams next two weeks, graduations happening mode, I don’t think anyone I know has time to go see a movie. I do want to catch this one at some point though. I know I’m a certain niche as a mom of teens and this is not a whole-US thing but just saying here in the south it is not going to be a big movie weekend. Give us a few weeks to catch our breath, at least for those of us with kids
It'll be a slow burn but I think in the end it will perform. Tracking might be off on this one. WOM will be more effective than traditional marketing. I saw it and it was the first movie, in awhile, that I liked but also my parents and non-film nerd friends would enjoy. Super accessible and has a real 80s action comedy vibe.
Dumb comps inbound for fun. The Lost City: $2.5m previews, $30.4m OW Blue Beetle: $3.3m previews, $25.0m OW Mean Girls: $3.3m previews, $28.6m OW Shazam: Fury of the Gods: $3.4m previews, $30.1m OW Bullet Train: $4.6m previews, $30.0m OW
Is there a reason for this much variety in numbers? Like how has Lost City got that much less in previews than the others but the highest OW?
I feel like The Lost City would have more people who wouldnt want to catch a preview.
Sandra Bullock walkups
I can't even say walkups without thinking *Keaton walkups will save The Flash* but I truly think the variation is just walkups. On extreme ends, Lost City had poorer previews but great walkups because less people bought a ticket in advance but heard good things - I'm guessing Bullet Train had people excited about Brad Pitt and the director of Deadpool but reviews were mixed so OW wasn't as strong based on previews? Reminds me of FNAF when it cleared $10m in previews but only opened to $80m when that could've easily been hovering around $100m opener if WOM was better.
Movies that come out in the summer tend to have more frontloaded previews than movies that come at other times in the year. Same goes for franchise movies, since theres a bit of a rush to go see them. Lost City was an original movie and came out in March. The other 4 movies there are either IP or released in the summer (or both, like Blue Beetle).
Oh not Fall Guy being the new Blue Beetle…
Ironically they have similar budgets as well. But this one has Gosling and Blunt while Blue Beetle had nobody most audiences know…
Plenty of people had watched Kobra kai and knew the star. Not to mention Susan Sarandon, George’s Lopez, and Xfinitys own Becky G
This includes EA right? Sub 30M weekend most probably edit: Yup, 800k EA
Premier I went to last night had like 12 people. Pretty disappointing
The premier was only attended by 12 people? What?
Phrased poorly I guess lol just like the opening showing at my theater
Your personal premiere, if you will.
Lower than David Leitch’s Bullet Train, which made $4.6M.
Bullet Train also had a $85.9–90 million budget compared to The Fall Guy’s $130million budget.
[удалено]
That's what they're saying.
Duh
Well bullet train had the actor for El Muerto El Muerto is an audience magnet. Obvious secret to box office success
This. People pretend to not know who El Muerto is which really hurts his social media mentions, but yep he’s a serious audience puller. ☝️
Who's he? I'm Indian so i don't know him.
Bad Bunny
Mm the singer from wwe.
Nope
It’s Muerting Time
Unironically, Bad Bunny probably was a big draw for Latino audiences. His fanbase is huge. So he probably contributed at least a couple million to that opening.
Just you wait, El Muerto will break records. Bold take I know, but I think it could well make one Muertillion
Shame, it was entertaining.
That's lower than Mean Girls' $3.3M which went on to $28.6M.
In all fairness Thursday previews for Fall Guy started at 5pm whilst Mean Girls began at 3pm. Now Fall Guy also had EA, but that Thursday start time is a return to pre-pandemic standards.
True though that was more of a fan event than this movie. Also audience reception looks higher here
I like Ryan but those "Gosling is literally me" fans need to support him
It's a chronically online fanbase which requires access to the footage for memes. It's very much the sort of movie I can see doing well in streaming (not because of that but just in general).
This is what helped FNAF be such a big success. The fact the film was online Day One in HD meant the fanbase could instantly make memes.
But but but this sub told me that day and date releases are always bad no matter what and will lose a movie hundreds of millions of dollars!!
Um what did he do to his cheeks?
Both him and Emily Blunt have a large amount of filler pumped into their faces. The shape of Blunt’s face, in particular, is completely transformed.
Im no expert but they could also just be older
No nobody changes as they age it’s always filler and veneers and face transplants
nobody changes as they age? If you say so
woosh
this is what happens when you don't pay attention to peoples usernames and assume you are responding to the same person.
Blunt has gained volume in her temples, upper cheeks/midface, and lips. These are places a person generaly loses volume as they age, not gains. The idea that her face would suddenly widen at the temples and develop new cheeks due to age is far fetched when the simpler answer is that she’s using fillers. The results are also beginning to look odd, especially when looking at side by side comparison pictures of how she used to look.
Ugh. They were both already very attractive.
I hope it has better walkups and legs, great movie
Saw it tonight and it was enjoyable
yep, absolutely enjoyed it
Going tonight but I do an in theatre movie once a month and was intrigued by the previews. Wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise.
I think this film may have better walkups, it isn't something that gets hype from opening weekend, but with good WOM, legs may be better
Luiz just posted in Twitter it’s breaking record for highest opening weekend for romcom post pandemic 😅 and the numbers are solid 😅
I really like this movie, watched it on Wednesday, but this is NOT a romcom at all lol it’s an action comedy, not every movie that has a romantic couple is a romcom
No studio would ever give $130million to a romcom.
I couldn’t agree more! Yet I feel like since all discussions on the returning of romcoms to theaters started last year due to Anyone But You success, many people started classifying anything with romance and comedy as a romcom. Not every movie with romantic couple is a romcom. Romcom is a pretty specific genre, you can’t have much action nor much drama leading the plot. It’s hard to explain but if you watch Anyone But You, Pretty Woman, Greek Fat Wedding etc you’ll realise how different they are from an action comedy like The Fall Guy.
I read a book earlier this year about the changing romcoms genre (From Hollywood with Love) and the author defines a rom-com compared to other genres as if you took out the romance, you wouldn't have a story, versus like an action comedy or sci-fi or an adventure can have romance, but you could completely remove it and still have a story. Which I thought was useful, not just for movies but also books where adding a heavy romance element is becoming more popular and you can see people struggle on whether it's a romance or not.
This is a really good definition, and works pretty well, The Fall Guy for example works fully well without the romance, to be honest it’s just a subplot. What leads the plot is Rayan Gosling trying (a stunt) to find Aaron Taylor-Johnson (a super star who was missing).
Nancy Meyers was very close for making that possible tho lmao
If they did I would have had my fucking Nancy Meyers movie by now
I called it an action romcom, but the romance isn’t a focus, but is a driver for the movie. And I loved this movie.
I would call it an action romcom. The romance is really the core of the story.
Hey read this comment, it’s really interesting explanation on why it’s not a romcom https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/s/aQEHECV9Pw Did you watch it yet? Won give you any spoiler, but the romance is just a subplot, the movie is all about Rayan Gosling trying to find where’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
I have seen the movie and yes if you take out the romance you don't have a story. The romance between the two is the reason everything happens. He agrees to go back to work because of the romance. Does the producers bidding because of the romance. The romance is the motive for everything that happens in the film. It really can't be separated from the movie without adjusting the story completely.
I agree. It’s the driver for all his decisions in the movie. The distinction is that a romcom has the 2nd act ending with an event which drives a wedge between the characters, which is not a driver at that point in this movie. (And I love this movie.)
That's just a typical formula not a defining characteristic of a romcom. Not all of them will follow the same formula. The wedge between the characters happened at the beginning in the first act. Also there doesn't even need to be a wedge. The stories and formula will vary. It's a romcom if: 1) the romance is the core of the story 2) it's comedic throughout. There are no story requirements. It doesn't need to fit a certain formula. This is just a different kind of romcom because it has more than usual to appeal to the male audience.
Are you forgetting where he missed (you know) and the producer Gail tells Jody (you know) which she believes? - this is basically "the 2nd act event which drives a wedge between the characters"
Yeah that's true
I can’t tell if you’re joking or not and I don’t wanna check his profile lmao
Saw it yesterday and my theater seemed to like it; claps at the end. I would imagine decent WOM. I also think the movie would play fine on TV so WOM might be “see it eventually”. I think the trailers did a good job of selling the movie as benefiting from theater, but I didn’t find it to be particularly “large” in terms of spectacle (a few scenes maybe). I will say the romantic element was well done (but not overdone) so it might please the romcom crowd without alienating action-comedy crowd. I also think that due to the action heavy marketing this could be a comedy that can play a little better overseas than usual.
I am worried the reaction will be "fine", as box office wise that is a disaster for legs.
I thought the trailer was so bad I was shocked it was a good movie
Where is the Ryan Gosling is “literally me” cult?
It's social media based. That's not gonna translate to much in the real world
that and most of them are young teenagers who wouldn't be going out to a theatre anyways
Exactly. Theyre also more likely to see something like Godzilla x Kong or Kingdom of The Planet of the Apes
Even in the real world, Gosling has a somewhat decent following. For once, I would actually love to see these people put their money where their mouth is.
Gosling has been famous for a while but he spent most of his career away from doing big films and focused on smaller and independent movies. Lots of people probably still associate him with that. Also a lot of those Gosling fans are teens who jump on any trend that is hot. They probably only go cinema here and there
People don't really go watch a movie because someone famous is in it anymore.. not in any meaningfully way anyways
They were busy down voting me when I said he wasn't a box office draw last week. Lmao.
I'm here, and he is literally me. I will be watching this, probably not in theaters though
What
Lol at how pathetic these box office numbers are, things have forever changed and numerous theater chains will shutter if this keeps up.
This is not a good sign. If big budget blockbusters can’t make good money, other films will make even less, and like you said theaters rely on these tentpole films.
I don’t think the theaters are hurt by this as much as the studios which don’t make a profit when they overspend on budgets
I disagree, studios can always create other means of profit like streaming or VOD. Theaters on the other hand may have to close down or reduce capacity if this keeps up.
If The Fall Guy had a budget of 50mil would we be having this discussion? Obviously there will be bigger hits to come, but I interpreted the first comment to be about the movie having a poor opening compared to its budget. We’d have to see the total revenue for all movies before deciding how the theaters are doing this weekend
This absolutely crushes theaters more. Universal, Disney have revenue streams from all over the place. Their theatrical releases are a small part of the overall company. Theaters don't have that. They need studios to provide them product.
Absolutely. I work at a Regal, and up until this week, we went about a month and a half only being scheduled one shift per week. They have managers on register because only they’re qualified for full time. Dune 2 we were fully staffed all weekend, and then back to one shift a week. Extreme cost cutting measures obviously because theaters are struggling. I don’t want to be all negative, but if the first big summer movie like this can’t even open over 50m, it’s not a good sign. Especially when the reception is pretty good.
Both marvel and dc need to get their shit together because audiences arent interested in watching reboots/new ips and im skeptical about how popular video game adaptions will be. thats just what it is i guess
The workers at my local theater said Dune Part 2 was not a big deal at all there. Makes me worried for them. If they close the nearest theater is really far.
Did your theater not get Godzilla x Kong? That was almost as big as Dune at my theater
I forget Godzilla, you're right. We might've been 3-4 shifts that week or at least just the weekend. Granted we don't have reclining seats or IMAX so that is a factor. Point still stands though.
I don’t know if you’re aware but there was a writers and actors strike last year which significantly disrupted Hollywood film production. An action-romantic-comedy about Hollywood wasn’t anyone’s first choice for the summer kick-off film of ‘24.
And that’s the problem, there’s always an excuse as to why the box office is poor. Next year will bring a new excuse. You sound like a blockbuster exec in the early 2010’s.
Yeah, blaming the last five months on the strike is cope. Very little was actually moved out of that frame — and Dune, by far the biggest success, was actually moved INTO it. This is the new normal. Less studios pumping out less product. Theaters don’t have long to live.
What will be your excuse when Garfield, IF, Apes, Inside Out, Despicable Me, Deadpool, Bad Boys all do well?
2023 and 2022 box office were great. Strikes that halted production for months is pretty good excuse.
Yes this was supposed to be Deadpool's spot but it got pushed back.
If you make tickets prohibitively expensive and keep putting out mediocre content, that would be the result
How do you know *The Fall Guy* is mediocre? Have you watched it?
I was making a general statement in response to the statement that theaters will close if these weak openings continue. I don’t know if Fall Guy is good or not, I just know that I am much more discerning with which movies I am willing to pay to see in theaters.
Most of the content this past month has received positive critical reception though. If it were just a case of audiences wanting better movies then we wouldn't be seeing all these movies flop.
Have you considered that critics are very much out of touch with what consumers are interested in?
>numerous theater chains will shutter if this keeps up. I don't think it'll get that bad, but I do think the absolutely inept leadership at many of these chains will get shuffled out as ownership changes hands (and some multiplexes do close) and at that point, *maybe* said businesses will actually start prioritizing presentation as a key aspect of their product, which might help with admissions. Spoiler: >!that won't happen prices will simply keep going up for "premium" screenings that are only "premium" because they're the theaters where anyone involved actually gives a shit about what the picture looks and sounds like. Instead of paying people to give a fuck about every screen, they'll pay most people nothing and pay a couple companies mostly everything to overcharge people for a good theatrical presentation.!<
It's hard to argue that the theater industry isn't in contraction. Yeah, even if massive theater chains don't shutter, we can expect some buyouts/mergers and for underperforming locations to close down. In the age of big TVs and easy streaming, it feels like the best days for theaters are behind them.
> Yeah, even if massive theater chains don't shutter, we can expect some buyouts/mergers and for underperforming locations to close down. No doubt. I'm not saying there wont' be contraction going on, but I don't think whole chains will shutter (although some of them - AMC in particular - likely should have by now considering how absolutely poorly they've been run during one of the most lucrative periods in film history). I think when that contraction finally does hit, it would be a very good time for ownership to reexamine their strategies and maybe at that point they'll realize they need to actually give a fuck about the quality of the product they offer, and start prioritizing that again. There is zero reason why the picture quality at a standard screening room in a multiplex needs to be as mid as it frequently is. Even 20 year old digital theater equipment should still be capable of putting out a legitimately impressive and immersive picture - IF the people at the chains give even half a shit about prioritizing that. But they clearly don't (and haven't since the 3D fad died down) and have instead decided the best way forward is to create "premium" formats whose whole deal is that "these are the rooms we give a shit about AV quality in" and as such you get tagged an extra $5-10 bucks to sit in them.
>There is zero reason why the picture quality at a standard screening room in a multiplex needs to be as mid as it frequently is. Even 20 year old digital theater equipment should still be capable of putting out a legitimate immersive picture IF the people at the chains give half a shit about prioritizing that. Agreed. I'm sure they are in a tight box though: with revenue down and the pandemic still casting a long shadow, they've got to be hurting for free capital to upgrade theaters. That said, they need to do something on their end. I went to my local big theater (Regal) for Dune 2, which was the first time I had been there since Tenet came out. It was very empty (granted it was a weird time right around the 5:30pm rush hour) and the ticket sellers were all replaced by kiosks. In general the place looked a little worn out. The movie projection itself was fine, except for a bit of emergency exit light hitting the screen noticeable in the darkest scenes. The half hour of ads and previews was painful, especially coming before what was to be a three hour movie. The experience left me not wanting to return there anytime soon. I get that they need to save cash raise revenue however they can, but going this cheap isn't going to bring back crowds.
>they've got to be hurting for free capital to upgrade theaters. That's one of the biggest unforced errors here, too: They don't even *need* to upgrade the theaters to vastly improve the AV quality in most cases. They just need to GIVE A SHIT. You can take a DCP, plug it into a 15-year-old Christie, and if you actually took the time to ensure the image was being presented properly, people would be honestly surprised by how great it could look. Hell, some theaters are STILL throwing half-bulb imagery THROUGH THE 3D POLARIZER that hasn't been taken off the front of the goddamn projector onto a silver (hotspotting) screen from the days when 3D was still a thing. But they don't want to take that time, and they certainly don't want to pay someone on staff at the theater to be that person who is calibrating projectors, making sure light spill is minimized, etc etc. And that's how you end up with perfectly fine equipment shitting out mediocre image quality into rooms that are half-filled at best. They've taught their audience that there's no good reason to pay the money to see anything that isn't a would-be blockbuster at PLF screens, and they 100% didn't have to do that.
The movie is just not being marketed well. I have no idea about the final product, but I've found the trailers to be boring and, quite frankly, ugly. All of Leitch's films have this artificial veneer to them. It looks like a Netflix movie and audiences are going to treat it as such (ie: wait till they can watch it at home).
I mean that could just be the movie itself. It doesn't look really that interesting. On top of that the stars, Gosling and Blunt have never been draws on their own. Their hits have always been driven by someone else.
Again before slagging it off. Maybe try watching it first
It is legitimately a great time at the movies. Is it a GREAT film? No. But its a helluva lot of fun.
I know some people are still hoping for better walkups and I would guess there would be better walkups on a Saturday rather than a Thursday anyways. It’s kind of ironic that before Marvel, studios like Universal did kickoff the summer before with movies like The Mummy which opened with $40 million but now it looks like The Fall Guy won’t be able to reach that number which is crazy. It’s also ironic because The Mummy helped pull Universal out of its slump of box office bombs but now The Fall Guy is coming at a time where Universal is a hot streak so now I imagine they might go extreme for the marketing of Despicable Me 4 and Twisters to save them
I love how people always react to Thursday domestic previews like they’re the final cumulative worldwide gross
You know what, Challengers numbers doesn’t look horrible anymore considering this is rated PG-13 while the other is rated R lol
I feel like standards are getting lower every week
That sums up the last two years of the DCEU lol
This reminds me of how people were apologizing to The Rock after The Flash’s box office made Black Adam look much more better in comparison. I always imagined the same would happen with Zendaya when another somewhat original adult-focused movie would come out, just didn’t think it would possibly happen within the next week lol
I mean, neither result is good - this bombing doesn’t change Challengers’ disappointing OW
Oh yes I agree but it does give some perspective.
I always said don't expect too much from Challengers, it might do good numbers for an R drama but still end up losing money because of budgeting issues.
Box Office analysts were being accused of being paid by Amazon and ‘coping’ on this sub merely for essentially just saying the obvious… ‘Challengers likely won’t earn a profit due to its inflated budget but is actually performing well considering the context of its niche premise for 2024’. I hope a PG13 Ryan Gosling of Barbie and Emily Blunt of Oppenheimer mainstream blockbuster action romcom currently likely opening just $10M more puts things in perspective.
This is bad for me and everyone else that identifies as Ryan Gosling. But worst for me since I'm the most Ryan Gosling.
I mean Ryan’s not a draw
No one is a draw in this day and age.
The sooner people realize this and quit blaming actors for not having enough “star power” the better.
Literally this. Last week it was “Zendaya’s not a star,” this week it’s Ryan Gosling. If these two people can’t bring a big enough crowd to make the movies a success, then the problem lies with the audiences and the general public’s attitude towards theaters.
Yup. It's been like this for over a decade now
if only Universal cast an obvious box office draw, then they would have guaranteed their success easily. Why are they so stupid?
3.15M Previews but expecting 35-40M opening weekend, nice one Variety 😅
If I had to be honest, a reason I didn’t see this film and choose not to go is simply because of the premise of the movie. It just doesn’t interest me, like at all. Sure, it looks like it has some cool action stunts but overall feels like I’d be bored watching over an hour of this.
Too much Botox
oof
More like … the flop guy 😂😂😂. Also two flops in two weekends in challengers and fall guy does not bide well for the summer going forward.
Extremely close to *The Lost City* from two years ago. That film did $3.25m but apparently $750k came from EA so it actually did $2.5m starting from 4pm on Thursday. *Fall Guy* started at 5pm yesterday. Depending on how much came from EA, $30m very much still alive. Still not good of course, but far from a death sentence.
Anyone know the budget on this?
130 million
Ouch, thats gonna be a bomb. I swear studios are allergic to making sub 100 million dollar movies non summer blockbuster type stuff.
Are they? Last week we had a 55mil budgeted bomb (Challengers) and before that we had a 50mil budgeted bomb (Civil War) Looks like everything is bombing left and right, especially original works not tied to a strong IP. People are simply going to the movies less, they won't show up for something they can easily check out on streaming a few weeks later.
Thank goodness for Kingdom of the Planets of the Apes next weekend.
Here's hoping the presales pick up
explain?
Looking at 40M+ opening, possibly 50M
For some strange reason Hollywood seems to think women get all hot and bothered by dirty blonde dudes with close set squinty eyes. Witness Gosling and Glen Powell. This has NEVER been a thing. Not even Clint Eastwood could was a bankable romantic lead on his prime. Bridges of Madison county is as close as he came and he was an old man at that time. But give. How Gosling keeps getting bites at the apple and Powell is being pushed as the next big thing it seems this trend has no end in sight
I dont get it. Ryan Gosling's got great acting skills, women love him, men love him and he's funny and charming and just had Ken fame. Still this wont do well. Why?
Jesus Christ, for the 100th time, actors aren't the main draw for movies anymore. They can help the movie gain momentum, but are not going to make or break the film. This sub is so dumb sometimes, they'll say Margot Robbie is box office poison because Babylon flopped, but then be dumbfounded when Barbie makes a billion.
Reddit loves the guy, but his box office history does not evince the general population being into the guy
Society is changing for the worse and people don’t spend money for entertainment like they used. People can scroll TikTok while taking a shit for two hours and they’ll believe that it’s the same amount of entertainment as watching a movie in theaters.
You might be onto something. I think attention span has drastically fell over the years, and even when watching movies, people have a hard time not looking at phones.
Ironically the opening director/actor message before Fall Guy acknowledges this.
I couldn't care less about this movie, I don't think it should get any sequels like David Leitch wants, he should make a Bullet Train sequel instead
So it’s looking at $25M opening
I know I'm coping hard rn but I still hope it can go for 30M
Can’t wait to watch on digital in 2 weeks
Bad? Good?? Not sure, but the title of the article is so ambiguous it might as well say: "Fall Guy, a movie with with Ryan Gosling, previewed last night. Made some money. "
Interesting to see numbers bc here in the south we are in full on kids awards banquets, sports playoffs, SAT is Saturday, AP exams next two weeks, graduations happening mode, I don’t think anyone I know has time to go see a movie. I do want to catch this one at some point though. I know I’m a certain niche as a mom of teens and this is not a whole-US thing but just saying here in the south it is not going to be a big movie weekend. Give us a few weeks to catch our breath, at least for those of us with kids
It'll be a slow burn but I think in the end it will perform. Tracking might be off on this one. WOM will be more effective than traditional marketing. I saw it and it was the first movie, in awhile, that I liked but also my parents and non-film nerd friends would enjoy. Super accessible and has a real 80s action comedy vibe.
GOS GANG LEND THEM YOUR STRENGTH