Guess I was wrong about The Snowman trailer. It opens this weekend and the general review is that its a mess, despite good talent. It might even make the 2017 worst movie list from the comments. Oh well, better to waste DVD money than theater money.

Maybe Medea Boo 2 will make the most money for new movies this week. All the big movies are hanging back for November and December.

Madea Halloween 2 will definitely be #1 this weekend, but "Jigsaw" next week out should close out October on a high note before the holiday blockbusters start hitting in November.

GEOSTORM is so dumb it defies logic. It is watchable but they break every law of physics, etc., etc.

According to Box Office Mojo, Madea Halloween 2 grossed 21 M, while the other new releases all bombed.

They were Geostorm (13 M), Only the Brave (6 M), and The Snowman (3 M)

Geostorm cost 120 M to make !

Blade Runner is up to 194 M worldwide (grossed only 74 M in the U.S.) but it cost 150 to make, so the numbers are not good.

quote:

...Blade Runner is up to 194 M worldwide (grossed only 74 M in the U.S.) but it cost 150 to make, so the numbers are not good.

Very disappointing for Blade Runner 2049, but there did not seem to be much positive 'Buzz' for it in the months leading up to it's release.

In contrast Thor:Ragnarok, which is out today in the UK, is highly anticipated.

Thor: Ragnarok looks like a fun movie.

Blade Runner was a very somber film, devoid of any humor whatsoever. Blade Runner 2049 just doubled down on that. Its a preachy theme about what it means to be alive, among other things, not helped by the oh so serious actors in it. Yeah I'll take Thor over that any time.

But Blade Runner 2049 was not a flop. It will break even and more in the end. It just won't make a lot of money.

Now mother! was a flop. Geostorm, if it really cost 120M to make, is a mega flop. The Great Wall, The Dark Tower, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Plants are also big flops for the year.

If "IT" can make 12 M more, it will dethrone Spider-Man Homecoming and become the 4th highest grossing film of the year. Right now it is # 5.

From what I have read, its huge success was unexpected.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
From what I have read, its huge success was unexpected.

I didn't expect it either, it kind of flies against the normal ideas.

Consider that this story was already done as a 4 hour mini-series that you can pick up on DVD for $5. Consider that this movie is just the first half of the story. Consider that the remake has virtually no name stars in it, just kid actors and the model brother of a slightly better known actor as Pennywise. No reason to think that it would turn into a big money maker, except that the timing was right and there are a lot of other disappointing films out there.

Now Thor: Ragnarok, which is the 3rd Thor film coming off of a 2nd movie that wasn't very good, is looking like it will really blow the box office up next week. The trailers are well received and word of mouth has been great so far. They seem to have turned this into something of a comedy like Galaxy and we are getting the slightly dim witted version of Thor and a scaled down Avenger team that does not need a name according to Thor.

The Hulk CGI looks really good and Blanchett's Hela, as the first female villain in the Marvel multi-universe films, looks even better. With only a Bad Mom's Christmas as newer competition, I would think Thor could break some records too, but it's only guess. Just look at how off we all were on IT.

More flops this past weekend


JIGSAW 16 M

SUBURBICON with Matt Damon. Made 2.8 M

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. 3.7 M

AMITYVILLE THE AWAKENING. Has made $ 742 !

I saw JIGSAW and SUBURBICON. I liked JIGSAW as much as the other SAW movies and I really liked SUBURBICON.

You must have been one of the few who saw Suburbicon, based upon the amount of tickets sold.

They are trying to claim that Suburbicon was so soundly rejected by the public because of Damon and Clooney's long history with Weinstein and their blind eyes. I doubt that had much to do with it, but they have both run away from the publicity tour anyhow.

The films that George Clooney directs, writes or produces for himself and his buddies are all like this one. Niche subjects, stuffed with liberal politics that are not made for the many, but the select few. Clooney gets a pass on making money, while still having studios put up his salary and fund the budget because they are seen as prestige films to offset the superhero garbage that actually has fans and box office profits.

I got sucked into the good reviews from equally arty critics a few times, but I now avoid anything that bears his name anywhere. With the Hollywood scandals continuing to expand, it will be fun to hear the double talk from some of these moralists at the award shows, but I don't think the public will be protesting good films. Suburbicon failed because it has a lousy title, confusing trailers, and no one could figure out what it was about. Not that much different from all his other projects, only the shine is wearing off.

I never read reviews, watch trailers or try to find out anything about a movie until AFTER I've seen it, or at least I try to do these things as much as is possible. That way I enter the theater with an open mind and can judge the picture for myself and not have pre-programmed responses in my brain. Sometimes this works to my advantage and sometimes not, but I still prefer it this way.

Everyone knows what works for them. Some want to know everything beforehand and some want to know as little as possible. It's all good, but pre-conceived ideas are only a bad thing when they are wrong.

When you see a movie and you don't like it, and you see the same sort of movie and you don't like it, and you see the same sort of movie again and you don't like it, at some point you have to figure that you don't like it and maybe it's not necessary to go anymore.

That's how I feel about anything associated with George Clooney, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy his films.

So Thor: Ragnarok rocks! Don't say I didn't call at least one. It's hitting 121M in US first weekend and has passed 427M globally in just one week. So what can we take away?

I think it means that a self contained story in the superhero universe can still work and even divert the characters from their assigned roles. The Thor in this one is very different from the Thor portrayed in the first two films and in the Avengers. We also get a much more talkative Hulk and only the vaguest links to the ongoing Avenger line, which will of course come back as indicated by the end.

But best yet, Thor: Ragnarok has two female characters that are every bit as good as the men and in the case of Hela, even better. All of these conflict stories, whether fantasy, si-fi or Bond, rely on the villain. If the villain is no challenge the hero has nothing to play against. Hela is mightier than Thor and that is a challenge. Valkyrie is nobody's sidekick and eats Black Widow for breakfast.

I caught this film at a packed house last night and loved it. Pretty much everyone else seemed to have fun too. Yes, some Marvel purists think it got to silly and Goldblum is an acquired taste, but if you forget what it should be, you will enjoy it for what it is.

Which brings me back to movie misses. Thor: Ragnarok will still be in theatres when Justice League hits two weeks from now. Thor will have already made its money and set the bar very high. I'm not saying JL will flop, it already has a built audience and it is coming off of Wonder Woman, but it still has that non-dynamic duo of Batman and Superman from BvS.

No way does the success of Thor work in Justice League's favor because the tone is going to be totally different. Look for a lot of comparisons to be made in reviews. Marvel was very smart in getting Thor out first. JL now has to play catch up and with that pair of wooden superheroes, I don't think they will do it. I know I'm not sitting there on opening weekend.

Here is my review of THOR RAGNAROK - I loved it!

I think that there are a few things we can learn from 2017:

Tom Cruise' popularity is now primarily overseas. Both American Made and The Mummy were not hits in the U.S. Maybe he can make a comeback with Top Gun 2 in 2019 ?

Remakes of 20-30 year old TV shows are not good ideas. Both Baywatch and especially "CHIPS" failed. I guess the only successful remake in recent years were the 21 Jump St movies.

People in the U.S. seem to be losing interest in the franchise films: Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Star Trek (in 2016)

So Justice League is really getting squeezed this weekend and is likely to wind up pulling in less than 95M domestically. That's a long way from the 150M opening that was being talked about only a couple of months ago. It's even worse at its 300M budget, not counting the post production money.

Not even talking about the movie itself, which just has to be better than BvS, the studio pulled a real boner when it went so close to the release of Thor: Ragnarok. Justice League either should have been sent out first, or if couldn't, it should have waited for an Xmas release after Thor audiences had dried up.

Now Thor is still pulling in about 20M this weekend on top of its over $500M worldwide. To make matters worse, the sentimental new Wonder is over performing in second place with about 27M.

If the Justice League box office numbers come in like it looks now there are going to be changes made to these DC multiverse films. There is a rumor going around already that Jake Gyllenhaal may be replacing Ben Affleck. I'm not really sure how much that would help since I'm not crazy about that casting choice either. Although I never liked Affleck for Batman, I thought BvS was just a bad movie for a lot more reasons than one actor.

At 96 M, Justice League is currently ranked as the 25th highest grossing film of the year

It would have to make at least 170 M to be in the Top 15. Can it do that ? I am not sure

It probably won't be in the Top 10 of the year, which will be a MAJOR disappointment for DC Comics and Warner Bros. Would this mean no sequel ?

Now they are saying that with Justice League having underwhelmed at the box office, a sequel may not happen

There will definitely be an Aquaman movie (it has already been filmed) in 2018 and Wonder Woman 2 in 2019, but there may be no other DC Comics movies after that