quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
I recently saw the 2019 animated kids' movie "Wonder Park" with the voices of Jennifer Garner and Matthew Broderick.

Very strange movie. I can see why it did not do well last year at the box office.ck up a ton of revenue.

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Call of the Wild is about to be released early for streaming. This is another movie made for some unknown audience. Yes it's a classic story and it has Harrison Ford giving a nice performance, but as live action its a brutal film to watch.

Buck is the star and Buck suffers throughout. Young children and animal lovers don't want to watch non-stop misery to get to some happy part. The more realistic they make these types of tear jerker animal movies, the worst they are to sit through. Call of the Wild lost about 100M at the box office and will be one of many big losers in 2020. Good.

They moved the new "Top Gun" film from June until December.

They also moved "Ghostbusters" to 2021.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: David R,

Supposedly AMC will be opening movie theaters July 30.

Given that things are supposedly getting worse, we will see if this turns out to be true.

I really find it hard to believe that any major film will open this year before October, unless it switches to some streaming channel. The studios may try to push for the holidays, which is the only reason I even say October. Right now there is even less stability than before because businesses don't know if they will be told a week after they open that they may have to close again.

But for movies, it's not even that. Theaters have to play at full capacity to make big enough box office numbers to cover cost. Even if a movie opens, if the audience is limited to 25% or 50% of seating, it will have to stay for twice as long or 4 times as long to get the same money, while no other movie can play at that location. No film festival exposure or deals. Only digital advertising campaigns. Production schedules that can't start anyway because there is no release room till 2022. Might as well stream any films that are complete or ramp up the straight to video DVDS for everything but the guaranteed 300M ones that will have to wait till 2021.

Want something worse, consider Major League Baseball's attempt to put something on TV. The players don't want to play. The fans can't come at all. The schedule is short and the same teams keep playing each other in the same location. The revised rules have made the game a joke, especially the "man starting on second in every extra inning". Can't blame COVID-19 for that last stupidity.

Some things are just not going to work and movie night in the middle of a pandemic is probable one of them. Nobody wants to say it, but normal will not return until something stops the spread for good. People can't ignore it and the powers that be can't impose impractical regulations either.

I saw a commercial which said that the Disney film "Hamilton", the movie version of the smash broadway musical, is not going to the theaters as originally planned, but instead will be on the new Disney plus tv network

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
I saw a commercial which said that the Disney film "Hamilton", the movie version of the smash broadway musical, is not going to the theaters as originally planned, but instead will be on the new Disney plus tv network

While "Hamilton" could hardly be called historically accurate, I'm pretty sure our forefathers didn't go around singing very much , it still incurred a "cancel Hamilton" movement as soon as it started streaming. Quite funny since Lin Manual Miranda is so liberal and progressive, he is actually calling the sudden criticism of his own Broadway hit valid.

At this point Disney is probably just as happy not to have it in the movies.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
While "Hamilton" could hardly be called historically accurate, I'm pretty sure our forefathers didn't go around singing very much

Of course this brought to mind the lyrics of the Tom Lehrer song from 1964 when George Murphy was elected U.S. Senator:

Hollywood's often tried to mix
Show business with politics
From Helen Gahagan
To Ronald Reagan?
But Mr. Murphy is the star
Who's done the best by far.

Oh, gee, it's great!
At last we've got a senator who can really sing and dance.
We can't expect America to win against its foes
With no one in the Senate who can really tap his toes.
...

Speaking about 2020 movies skipping the theaters, the most recent "Trolls" movie for kids, which was supposed to be released in April or May, went right to whatever streaming service had it, and surprisingly it did better than expected. From what I read, people paid the fee to watch it, and it has made over 100 M, at least. So the distributor is quite happy.

They moved "Top Gun" from this summer to December, and now it's officially been moved to July 2021.

Disney just announced that their once highly anticipated early 2020 release of the live action "Mulan" is going to come out streaming in September on the Disney channel and be available as a rental. This one costs a lot of money and they seem to want current subscribers to pay extra for it.

On the plus side for Disney, there were already going to be problems with this movie due to the timing and certain issues with the lead actress. So we will never know if it would have been a big hit anyway or, as some have already hinted, a disappointing mistake. Now it can't be held to that standard since it won't get a big screen release.

Saw Tom Hank's in Greyhound. Overall a good movie about submarine hunters in the Atlantic during WWII. Like Midway the movie is void of politics and wastes little time getting into things.

For some the CGI may be a bit overbearing. Breaking the laws of physics for torpedo's does intensify the action a bit.

I have tickets for Tenet in IMAX on Monday. I have only seen three movies in the theater this year and only one that was current, 1917. The other two were 1979 Alien and then 1933 King Kong.

I was detoxing and didn't even know it!!

A little bit like releasing Unhinged, not sure why they decided Tenet should open up when major movie chains in many big cities are still closed. Unhinged was mindless violence and Tenet appears to be going for intellectually challenging violence. I suspect that the studios lack faith in both of them or they would have waited it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
A little bit like releasing Unhinged, not sure why they decided Tenet should open up when major movie chains in many big cities are still closed. Unhinged was mindless violence and Tenet appears to be going for intellectually challenging violence. I suspect that the studios lack faith in both of them or they would have waited it out.

I really don’t think Warner Brothers lack faith in Christopher Nolan, quite the opposite.
They have pushed ahead with TENET in an attempt to draw out the moviegoers who are less willing to miss a Nolan tent-pole/blockbuster/event movie on the big screen.

quote:

Originally posted by X:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
A little bit like releasing Unhinged, not sure why they decided Tenet should open up when major movie chains in many big cities are still closed. Unhinged was mindless violence and Tenet appears to be going for intellectually challenging violence. I suspect that the studios lack faith in both of them or they would have waited it out.

I really don’t think Warner Brothers lack faith in Christopher Nolan, quite the opposite.
They have pushed ahead with TENET in an attempt to draw out the moviegoers who are less willing to miss a Nolan tent-pole/blockbuster/event movie on the big screen.

Well maybe when mydude sees it, he'll give us a general review, but actually I said that exactly because Tenet was made by Christopher Nolan. No spoilers, but its a puzzle that I gather is more than meets the eye. People are saying "multiple viewings", which is reserved for the complex plot. I think a film like that usually plays better in major cities where you get more diverse audiences and critically good reviews for "high art" concepts.

Yes I am generalizing, but you know what I mean, and its what marketing executives look at when making plans. Where are the best places to open up something based on whatever data they have gathered?

Unhinged has done about 13M in box office in 2 weeks. That's not good by old standards, but some say it is good for this time. It is a straight up psycho horror story, despite the Oscar winning actor. In that regard horror plays well in big or small markets.

On the other hand Tenet is a much bigger and more prestigious film just based on the reputation of the director, as you point out. My reasoning is simply that the studio would have held back the film if they really liked it, as they have with most of the other potential hits, if they thought it would get a lot of money in bigger metro cities from those Nolan fans you mention in places like NYC, which is still shut tight. We'll see how it goes shortly.

I saw an ad on TV the other day that the new "Bill and Ted" film was being released IN THEATERS on August 28.

What theaters are showing this ? As far as I know, everything in this part of the country is still closed.

Chains like AMC are opening small numbers of movie theatres in selected states. Seems to be mainly in the South, but I heard California wanted to re-open something, not sure if they closed up again. The rules for capacity seating is something like 25%, so no new film can get any kind of real domestic box office revenue under these conditions. I know there are also international openings, but I'm not sure they can fare any better. China is up and running with their film Ba Bai on top.

New York State, and especially NYC, has entertainment venues that are either shut down completely or opened with so many restrictions they might as well be shut down. NJ is a bit more open to accommodate Atlantic City and the Jersey shore businesses, but they are always threatening to close too.

I don't see much changing State policy wise before November and the presidential election. Say what you want, on whatever side you are, but there is a political element going on here. Elected officials are more interested in blaming the other side than they are in working together and they refuse to give the other side, whichever other side, any credit or support for anything.

No movie theaters are open in my area. I still can't get a haircut. Of course, going outside is a bad idea anyway. We aren't in danger from the fires directly but we are getting the smoke everyday.

Jess

Saw The New Mutants on IMAX tonight. So great to go to the movies again.

The movie isn't bad and there are some really cool scenes and effects. Still, I really don't see it doing much for the franchise. Sort of The Breakfast Club meets The X Men.

Theaters running at 40% here when you select a seat the program blocks off the surrounding seats around your group.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

I don't see much changing State policy wise before November and the presidential election. Say what you want, on whatever side you are, but there is a political element going on here. Elected officials are more interested in blaming the other side than they are in working together and they refuse to give the other side, whichever other side, any credit or support for anything.

Yeah, not to turn this thread into politics but the two loudest extremes who manage to get TV time on each side have certainly lost their minds.