MCD2: Movie Chart Discussion - Crafting Success

[Neon Ignition]

Dog Man - Box Office Mojo
Opening with $40m, the film held well though international takings will be the big question on this one

Companion - Box Office Mojo
$15m for a solid opening on this latest

Mufasa: The Lion King - Box Office Mojo
$653m means that $700m is still in play

Flight Risk - Box Office Mojo
$25m this week so this may struggle to clear $50m

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Box Office Mojo
$462m, the film pulling ahead of its predecessor and also now the second highest grossing videogame movie of all time.

Moana 2 - Box Office Mojo
$1.036bn as it keeps on sailing

Wicked - Box Office Mojo
Another $2m takes it to $729m

Wolf Man - Box Office Mojo
At $29m this animal has been put down

Nosferatu - Box Office Mojo
Whilst at $172m the undead are faring better than the one above

This weeks releases are the wider launch of Dog Man and the actioner Love Hurts

[Neon Ignition]

Dog Man - Box Office Mojo
The animated film held the top spot, hitting $66m but this won't last as the US market is doing all the heavy lifting

Heart Eyes - Box Office Mojo
Sony's latest horror opened ot $8.5m

Love Hurts - Box Office Mojo
Whilst the poorly reviewed actioner opened to $6.8m

Mufasa: The Lion King - Box Office Mojo
The King hit $671m this week, still course to just about touch $700m

Flight Risk - Box Office Mojo
$34m means this is a profit risk

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Box Office Mojo
$471 this week for the blue blur

Moana 2 - Box Office Mojo
$1.039bn as this continues to tick along

This weeks new releases are Captain America: Brave New World and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

[Neon Ignition]

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
The fourth entry opened to $192m worldwide, a solid opening despite weak reviews

Paddington in Peru - Box Office Mojo
The US opening finally happened taking the film up to $131m

Dog Man - Box Office Mojo
Dreamworks latest hits $87m this week

Mufasa: The Lion King - Box Office Mojo
$687m as the king refuses to bow to the competition

Heart Eyes - Box Office Mojo
$22m makes for a solid uplift

Love Hurts - Box Office Mojo
$13m means it really does hurt

A Complete Unknown - Box Office Mojo
$99m means he's not that unknown

Moana 2 - Box Office Mojo
Sails for $1.045bn

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Box Office Mojo
Another $7m spins to $478m worldwide

Wicked - Box Office Mojo
$724m puts the first entry well beyond what the combined two films needed to make


This weeks new release is horror movie The Monkey

[Neon Ignition]

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
Cap slings his shield to hit $289m this week

The Monkey - Box Office Mojo
The new horror clashes to the tune of $14m

Paddington in Peru - Box Office Mojo
$150m's worth of marmalade this week

Dog Man - Box Office Mojo
$104m as the film drops off hard

Ne Zha 2 - Box Office Mojo
China's box office isn't being reported as the sequel hits $28m internationally, in China though the film has become the highest grossing animated film of all time globally having made over $1.6bn from just the one market

Mufasa: The Lion King - Box Office Mojo
The king hits $698m

Heart Eyes - Box Office Mojo
The hearts break at just $28m

Love Hurts - Box Office Mojo
$15m means the hurt continues

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Box Office Mojo
$483m nudges Sonic up a bit more

This week sees the full international opening of The Last Showgirl

[Neon Ignition]

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
Caps shield slids onto the floor rather than back into his waiting arms as the film slows dramatically in its third week, hitting $341m this week

Last Breath - Box Office Mojo
An international $8m opening suggests low depths for this one

The Monkey - Box Office Mojo
$31m means it's still not clear if audiences are monkeying around

Paddington in Peru - Box Office Mojo
$164m this week as the bear paddles his way desperately upstream

Dog Man - Box Office Mojo
$113m worth of barking mad viewers so far

Mufasa: The Lion King - Box Office Mojo
$702m means the film has made the overwhelming lions share of what it is ever going to make now

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Box Office Mojo
$486m marks another climb but one set just short of what will be needed to send that half a billion stage complete sign spinning

Ne Zha 2 - Box Office Mojo
The Chinese sequel that would have been more fun if it was titled Ze Nha climsb just $1m this week showing international takings are quickly done, but on its home turf the tally currently rises the film to the grand haul of $1.98bn. The film has now overtaken Spider-Man: No Way Home to become the seventh highest grossing film of all time and is closing in on Avengers: Infinity War. It may come close to taking that title but seems likely to stop around there rather than ever reach the lofty cloud heights of highest grossing movie of all time Avengers: Endgame or the film that cheated to overtake it by re-releasing six times, Avatar.


This week sees the release of Sinners

[Neon Ignition]

Mickey 17 - Box Office Mojo
The film opened this week to $53m which was stronger than had been projected

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
$370m this week means the film is beginning to severely stall

Paddington in Peru - Box Office Mojo
Sticky paws its way to $175m

Dog Man - Box Office Mojo
$119m as the film heads toward its end

Mufasa: The Lion King - Box Office Mojo
$709m meaning quite a lot will be coming off screen soon

The Monkey - Box Office Mojo
$45m in its second week

Ne Zha 2 - Box Office Mojo
$32m this week which adds to its now $2bn domestic earnings - in the past day a European opening has been confirmed


This weeks release is action film Novocaine

[Neon Ignition]

Mickey 17 - Box Office Mojo
Rising to $90m, the high budget for the film means that the studio is already cutting its losses and has set a PVOD release in just 17 days time

Novocaine - Box Office Mojo
The actioner scored strong reviews but has opened to just $10m

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
With $388m and a major family film opening this week it seems like the film will have to settle for breaking $400m

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie - Box Office Mojo
Just $5m as Warners continues to struggle

Paddington in Peru - Box Office Mojo
$183m puts the film on a path to try and hold on for the next milestone

‘Ne Zha 2' Overtakes ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens' To Become No. 5 Highest-Grossing Movie Ever WW – International Box Office


This weeks new release is Snow White

[Dogg Thang]

Mickey 17 - Box Office Mojo
Rising to $90m, the high budget for the film means that the studio is already cutting its losses and has set a PVOD release in just 17 days time

Doing this over and over is basically training people not to bother going to see a film in a cinema.

[wakka]

I'm curious to know how well the top dollar early VOD launches do in terms of sales to be honest. I struggle to imagine a scenario where I'd drop £15 just to rent a movie to watch at home.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm curious too, if a film like Mickey 17 fails at the box office I have a tough time believing that it's because audiences are clamouring for a home release instead. Whilst cinema takings remain down, when a film does well it tends to overperform if anything so I think there's still a strong chance Hollywood is just making the wrong kinds of films.

[Dogg Thang]

when a film does well it tends to overperform if anything so I think there's still a strong chance Hollywood is just making the wrong kinds of films.

We're in an all or nothing movie environment, in part because of streaming along with other factors such as price. The question isn't just: does this movie sound good to me? It has to get past a lot of checks before it crosses a threshold into "I have to see this now in the cinema". Very few movies will cross that. But those that do can often do it for lots of people and then do staggeringly well. Because most people are content to wait for even a good movie to hit streaming or VOD in the comfort of their own home.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, when it comes to big box office successes since the pandemic they're nearly all films with some level of 'event' to them. From each year the biggest movie hits since the end of the pandemic have been:

2021
-Spider-Man: No Way Home
Event due to bringing back Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Men

-No Time to Die
Event due to being Craig's final entry and the first ever death of Bond

-Fast and Furious 9
Not an event, traditional sequel release - high grossing for the year but underperformed compared to prior entries

2022
-Avatar: The Way of Water
Event due to being the sequel to one of the highest grossing films ever, following a 13 year wait

-Top Gun: Maverick
Event due to being a legacy sequel delivered to a very high standard

-Jurassic World: Dominion
Event due to being billed as the final entry of a trilogy and bringing back the original cast

2023
-Barbie
Event due to stronger than expected reviews and a very fortunate meme marketing drive

-The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Event due to being a faithful adaptation of one of the biggest global brands

-Oppenheimer
Event due to tying in with the meme marketing drive

2024
-Inside Out 2
Event due to being a sequel to a well regarded original, delivered nearly a decade later

-Deadpool & Wolverine
Event due to bringing back Jackman's incarnation

-Moana 2
Event due to being a sequel to a well regarded original, delivered nearly a decade later



When it comes to underperforming films there are so many, but notable ones include

2021
-The Suicide Squad
Despite strong reviews, flop due to aiming for adults only market and the DC Extended Universe brand being marketing poison by this point

-Snake Eyes
Heavily belated prequel to a franchise few cared about to begin with

-West Side Story
Remake musical at a time when hardly any musicals performed well at the cinema

2022
-Lightyear
Reinterpretation relying on brand recognition to appeal

-Morbius
MCU entry with few ties to anything else going on that people have seen, again relying on brand recognition to appeal

-Moonfall
Another big budget end of the world film following numerous over past years

2023
-Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Legacy sequel to a beloved franchise that had already recieved a legacy sequel that squandered fan good will

-The Flash
Massive budget coupled with marketing issues and the DC Extended Universe marketing poison

-The Marvels
Even bigger budget sequel that looked like a lower budgeted follow up to Disney+ series rather than a direct sequel


2024
-Joker: Folie a Deux
Massively over budgeted sequel delivered in a form literally no-one asked for

-Madame Web
Similar to Morbius, relying on Spider-Man branding even though it isn't an MCU entry

-Borderlands
Poor reviews adding to a project relying on brand recognition


These are just more notable misses but there are a ton of others on a smaller scale with lots of lower budget action films trying to cash in on Wick's success but that in turn meaning they're the definition of direct to streaming level productions.

On the bigger scale it's clear that audience expectations have been reset, unless your film has a sense of event to it or something really strongly marking it out then people aren't going to turn up out of routine anymore.

Hollywood is giving no indication that it has worked out a new direction either which is probably why it's critical that they finally get their heads around managing their insane budgets. Some of these massive flops would have been alright if they had the right budget to begin with.

Fast X was borderline a flop leading to the long delay in getting the next one out, it made $700m - $700m should never equate to a flop movie.

Similarly though, the streaming sites and company moves to steer toward cinema more suggest things aren't so rosey on that side either. I don't think streaming can offer a path forward, it's an overly competitive and overstuffed for content market. But studios really need to reset their approach to the films they greenlight for production - it feels like the game development issues the industry is facing. If you're setting a massive budget requiring 10m+ sales to break even - think again.

[Neon Ignition]

Snow White - Box Office Mojo
The latest live action remake opened soft to $87m putting it immediately at high risk of failing to avoid incurring losses for the mouse house

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
The latest Cap movie passes $400m this week

Mickey 17 - Box Office Mojo
$110m as the film stalls very quickly

Novocaine - Box Office Mojo
$21m means another actioner struggles to get attention

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Box Office Mojo
The Hedgehod reaches $491m

This week sees the remaining international rollout for Novocaine

[Neon Ignition]

Snow White - Box Office Mojo
$143m for the films second week places its total lifetime earnings at risk of being one of the mouse house's lowest ends

A Working Man - Box Office Mojo
The latest Statham film opens to $30m

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
Hitting $405m this week, the MCU latest sees its earnings fall off a cliff with the film looking set to be removed from screens having barely outgrossed the 2010 original

Novocaine - Box Office Mojo
With $27m this also saw its earnings collapse in its second week marking a disasterous week for the big screen


With films across the board closing up shop, cinemas will be hoping for big things with this weeks new release - The Minecraft Movie

[Neon Ignition]

A Minecraft Movie - Box Office Mojo
The latest game movie proved to be a Mario sized hit opening to $301m worldwide

A Working Man - Box Office Mojo
As Stathams latest hit $44m

Snow White - Box Office Mojo
Biting the apple fast, Snow rose to just $168m in its third week

Captain America: Brave New World - Box Office Mojo
With $411m this week, Cap looks likely to settle just a few mill more

With no major releases this week, Minecraft will have complete dominance of the box office.