Lounge of Justice - Part 90

[Arachnerd]

Clearly he has mastered the art of damage control.

 

[Predator jp]

 

[StarLord]

@Spider-Aziz It was time to change my avvy.

 

[Iceman]

Highest category win for a CBM and a rare (first?) win for a female composer of the same film. Haray!

Are there any other characters aside from Joker who have achieved multiple Oscar wins?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

@Spider-Aziz It was time to change my avvy.

My precious magnificent 30 years old movie. Everybody should approve your avatar, as long as they are a fan of the four mutated martial arts practicing reptiles.

What do you think of Shredder's voice sounding similar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger?

 

[KalvinEllis]

Kind of late to the party but I'm glad they finally gave Phoenix the Oscar 15 years later.

 

[heatvision38]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but any thoughts on why BOP hasn't done that well at the BO so far?

 

[Da-Scribe]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but any thoughts on why BOP hasn't done that well at the BO so far?

Part of me feels it's because it didn't do enough to drum up interest for any character other than Harley. I liked the flick a lot, but the actual BoP needed more time to breathe imo.

 

[Arachnerd]

I suppose how they handled the advertising could have been part of it?

 

[Nardz937]

It looked like Suicide Squad 2 and a lot of people didn't like Suicide Squad.

The title and marketing was bad, too. Lack of Batman, Joker and Will Smith didn't help either.

 

[Greenlite]

Are there any other characters aside from Joker who have achieved multiple Oscar wins?

TDK? None in the major categories though I don't think.

 

[Kevin_28]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but any thoughts on why BOP hasn't done that well at the BO so far?

Pretty large thread about it on the BOP forum. I think it comes to a variety of reasons. Poor marketing (trailers didn't drum up interest), Rated R, people are not interested in the film (most of my casual movie going friends feel this way).

 

[Greenlite]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but any thoughts on why BOP hasn't done that well at the BO so far?

We've been discussing it in the b.o thread in BOP forum

Rating, marketing and title are the main point of discussion. The creative side and response from fans/GA/critics are positive.

I liked it but my wife and daughter couldn't go, that's x 3 ticket price right there, and it's not that hardcore R anyway.

It looked like Suicide Squad 2 and a lot of people didn't like Suicide Squad.

The title and marketing was bad, too. Lack of Batman, Joker and Will Smith didn't help either.

Some said it's what SS should have been like, but teens who liked SS couldn't go to this one lol, they made up 10% of audience and gave it the highest rating according to the polls =P

 

[Da-Scribe]

Much as I preferred the R-rating, they could have easily done this as PG-13 and not alienated part of their audience.

 

[Rodimus]

Are there any other characters aside from Joker who have achieved multiple Oscar wins?

Vito from the Godfather, Brando and De Niro both won for him I think.

 

[heatvision38]

Thanks for the responses. Interesting.

I see that they are gonna rename it Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey in hopes more people will see it.

For me, there just isn't enough to make me want to go out to the theater to see this. Since I have no idea what plan they have for the DCEU, I have no idea where this even stands, and since this seems to be mainly a Harley Quinn movie with some friends of hers tagging along, it just doesn't have my interest. It's almost as if they thought that the name of Margot Robbie/Harley Quinn alone would get everyone to see the movie.

 

[Kevin_28]

Yea I think the rename is so people can more easily find it or something like that.

Many of my friends feel the same way as you do. One of them stated that BoP is rated 6.7/10 on RT and 60/100 on Metacritic, so she may catch it on digital later. I don't think others view the film that way though. Most people like to focus on the 80% RT fresh rating.

 

[Da-Scribe]

Thanks for the responses. Interesting.

I see that they are gonna rename it Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey in hopes more people will see it.

For me, there just isn't enough to make me want to go out to the theater to see this. Since I have no idea what plan they have for the DCEU, I have no idea where this even stands, and since this seems to be mainly a Harley Quinn movie with some friends of hers tagging along, it just doesn't have my interest. It's almost as if they thought that the name of Margot Robbie/Harley Quinn alone would get everyone to see the movie.

This is all pretty fair. I really do think they banked too hard on Harley. But one thing I will say is that I feel like everyone should really let go of the idea of a plan for the DCEU. Not to say there isn't one, but I don't believe WB is going to clue us into it any time soon. It's gonna be the sorta thing where we'll know once we're already there.

 

[heatvision38]

Right, but then that means WB has to work that much harder to sell the GA on each movie. Personally, I wasn't sold enough on this movie as its own entity.

The Joker movie was its own thing, but it had people really wanting to check it out. I'm not sure if BOP had enough to support it without an excellent marketing plan. It basically read to me as: "Hey come check out this wacky action movie that might have no story, but cool people do cool stuff and yo, did we say it has Harley Quinn?"

Just not enough. And yeah, an R rating can only make it that much tougher for people to see. Deadpool's marketing was insane so the rating was irrelevant. Same for Joker.

 

[Kevin_28]

Just a question that I'd like to throw out there. Does anyone else think that marketing for DC in general has not been that aggressive, lately? BoP, but Shazam, Joker, even JL to some extent, did not seem to have the same marketing push as the earlier films. Maybe it's just me. I don't really watch TV that much anymore, so that could be part of it :P

 

[StarLord]

What do you think of Shredder's voice sounding similar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger?

I can definitely hear it in The Secret of the Ooze. They've added that weird same voice effect that Arnie had as Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin.

 

[Iceman]

TDK? None in the major categories though I don't think.

I meant the same character across films winning, as in Heath and Joaquin both winning for Joker. Shows what a great character we have on our hands and supports Joker’s case for one of the best all time villains.

 

[Greenlite]

Scott Mendelson

The hope is that Warner Bros. and DC Films’ Birds of Prey has the domestic legs of a LEGO sequel and the overseas oomph of a Fifty Shades sequel.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) earned $2.2 million on Monday to bring its four-day domestic total to $35.21 million. That title change that you’ve seen at AMC and elsewhere is not an official title change. While it’s possible that Margot Robbie vehicle will get retitled “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey” when it comes to Blu-ray, DVD and VOD, for now it’s just an SEO-friendly change for vendors and theaters. Yes, that’s probably the title Warner Bros. and DC Films should have gone with initially, but c’est la vie. That 72% drop from Sunday to Monday is right between the three LEGO movies and the two Fifty Shades sequels on this same weekend.

John Wick: Chapter 2 earned $2.6 million (-67% from an $8 million Sunday) after a $30.4 million opening weekend. The LEGO Batman Movie dropped a harsh 82% from Sunday after a $53 million launch. That makes sense as it was a kids flick, and the kids were back in school. Ditto The LEGO Movie 2 (-85.8% on Monday after a $34 million launch) and The LEGO Movie (-83% on Monday after a $69 million debut) on this same weekend in 2019 and 2014. Fifty Shades Freed dropped 62% on Sunday on this weekend in 2018 after a $38 million debut, while Fifty Shades Darker dropped 58% on its first Monday after opening with $46.6 million over its opening weekend.

In terms of expectations, Birds of Prey was expected to open better than, for example, Dark Phoenix and (because several folks asked me about this) Ford v Ferrari. While I hailed the $31 million launch of James Mangold’s $97 million-budgeted Ford v Ferrari as a likely win, that judgment was predicated on an A+ Cinemascore, a likely seat at the awards season table and the (correct) presumption that it would leg out to nearly four times its opening weekend. It ironically didn’t take off overseas, and its $222 million global cume isn’t quite what Fox and Disney wanted. Moreover, in this franchise-driven world, a $31 million launch for the Matt Damon/Christian Bale flick (and eventual Best Picture nominee) was considered a near-miracle.


Today In: Business
Birds of Prey came in well below Warner Bros.’ cautious $45 million projections and the $50-$55 million guestimated by the tracking services. To the extent that the tracking was wrong, it’s just one of many, many instances over the last year where tracking painted far too rosy of a picture compared to what actually occurred. It’s not quite as blown of a call as Solo, which went on the tracking boards at a $170 million Fri-Mon Memorial Day debut in 2018 but ended up with $103 million for the holiday, but it still stings. Tracking estimates should never be treated as ironclad predictions, but the popularity of recent DC Films flicks and the strong pre-release reviews certainly offered cause for optimism.

I would argue that many of the “too high” pre-release guestimates are a result of the services (or the number crunchers) not necessarily taking into account the whole “Netflix Curve.” There is a huge swath of general moviegoers who, even five or six years ago, viewed theatrical moviegoing as a casual/impulsive entertainment option but now only go to theaters when there is something they specifically want to see in theaters. They otherwise either wait for streaming/VOD or just ignore the movie altogether while they binge something on Disney+, Netflix or Hulu. We’ll see if Sonic the Hedgehog delivers on the pre-release over/under $45 million Fri-Mon guestimates. If not, it may be less about the movie and more about the tracking.

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Birds of Prey’s ultimate fate will be decided this coming weekend. If it holds akin to a LEGO sequel/spin-off (-39% for the weekend), then that’s good. It drops closer to a Fifty Shades sequel (-55%), that’s bad. If it drops like John Wick: Chapter 2 (-46%), well, that’s something of a draw. Broadly speaking, Warner Bros. is hoping that it has the domestic legs of a LEGO movie and the overseas oomph of a Fifty Shades sequel. And if its global cume really ends up closer to a Conjuring movie (around $320 million) than Dark Phoenix, Terminator: Dark Fate and Men In Black: International (around $260 million), then the DC flick will be a mild hit and a minor disappointment.

 

[Greenlite]

I meant the same character across films winning, as in Heath and Joaquin both winning for Joker. Shows what a great character we have on our hands and supports Joker’s case for one of the best all time villains.

OK...Batman won some awards for TDK then he starred in Suicide Squad which also won Oscar for Hair Makeups...and he was also in Joker which won 11 nominations and 2 awards? =P

 

[Iceman]

This is all pretty fair. I really do think they banked too hard on Harley. But one thing I will say is that I feel like everyone should really let go of the idea of a plan for the DCEU. Not to say there isn't one, but I don't believe WB is going to clue us into it any time soon. It's gonna be the sorta thing where we'll know once we're already there.

That gives people a lot less to talk about, anticipate get excited about and spread the word about. I think this strategy is part of why some of their films will be missed by the audience even while others knock it out the park. When I said I was watching Birds of Prey to work people noone knew what I was talking about.