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Wkd BO 09•29-10•01•17 - Cruise spitroasted by Pennywise and Kingsman, Flatliners DOA

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Huh. Jackman vs Gosling starpower?

This is another thing. Doesn't Gosling have really weak numbers aside from The Notebook and La La Land? Actually, I don't even remember The Notebook being real big until it hit video and on tv.
 

Anth0ny

Member
I feel it is the opposite. Real cyberpunk is a very relatable premise, so much so that you should feel bothered by it. It highlights the uncomfortable things about the world, the negative trends of society, and the worst parts of all of us inside. Our insecurities, our fears, our doubts, and then it offers no answers. That's what cyberpunk does. It's not that people don't relate to it, it's that most people don't want that as their entertainment.

Agreed.

Still surprised at how poorly it's doing. I thought the public's interest in Blade Runner would have been fairly large considering how legendary that original film has become over the years. Guess I was wrong.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
This is another thing. Doesn't Gosling have really weak numbers aside from The Notebook and La La Land? Actually, I don't even remember The Notebook being real big until it hit video and on tv.
All I know is The Nice Guys should’ve made way more.
 
Both, but to be fair, I was similar to Star Trek up in till last year. Beyond opened me up to it(when people said it was a call back), and something about the OG series finally clicked. Where now, I'm even going through DS9 and loving it. TNG didn't click though.

Dune was something that I thought was cool looking, but thought was stupid. Mainly based on the older film. The mini series in 2000 was better.

But when I finally got off my ass and read the book years ago, I spent the entire time reading it asking myself, "Why did I wait decades to read this? This is incredible."
Now I read it every year.
 
I feel it is the opposite. Real cyberpunk is a very relatable premise, so much so that you should feel bothered by it. It highlights the uncomfortable things about the world, the negative trends of society, and the worst parts of all of us inside. Our insecurities, our fears, our doubts, and then it offers no answers. That's what cyberpunk does. It's not that people don't relate to it, it's that most people don't want that as their entertainment.

Maybe. Keep in mind that I haven't seen BR 2049 yet but from my perspective, cyberpunk has always been a depiction of the future anchored in 80s and 90s esthetics and themes. While some of those themes are still relevant today, I wonder if it just looks outdated to the younger generations. The cyberpunk of our youths has just become steampunk, basically.
 
Wow, that's horrible for Blade Runner 2049. It was frontloaded as fuck, ugh. I guess audiences just don't like long sci-fi films, and that's frustrating to no end.

Jackman and Gyllenhaal are bigger draws than solo Gosling.

Mainstream America sucks, but we already knew that.

Blade Runner 2049 is opening with more then Prisoners. Drawing people these days are overrated and overestimated.

Also unfortunately Blade Runner's overseas box office isn't looking so great. It's doing about as well as the original in 1982. History repeats itself, only hopefully it'll get a best picture nom this time too.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Agreed.

Still surprised at how poorly it's doing. I thought the public's interest in Blade Runner would have been fairly large considering how legendary that original film has become over the years. Guess I was wrong.

Issue is it's a direct sequel and a lot of that public hadn't even watched that film.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
All things considered though i'd rather have a good movie that fails expectation box office wise than something that did better (Even if not great) but was ultimately disappointing (Looking at those recent Alien films).
 

duckroll

Member
Wow, that's horrible for Blade Runner 2049. It was frontloaded as fuck, ugh. I guess audiences just don't like long sci-fi films, and that's frustrating to no end.

Or maybe audiences don't like films that end with them sitting in their seat felling empty and hollow. It's pretty ballsy to release a movie like that and expect commercial success of any sort, even ignoring the budget.
 

Korigama

Member
Agreed.

Still surprised at how poorly it's doing. I thought the public's interest in Blade Runner would have been fairly large considering how legendary that original film has become over the years. Guess I was wrong.
I would say the situation was more comparable to something like Twin Peaks, particularly given the performance of the Showtime revival: highly influential to countless creators throughout the world across a variety of entertainment media, but not something as big with mainstream consumers as one would think it to be.
 
I would say the situation was more comparable to something like Twin Peaks, particularly given the performance of the Showtime revival: highly influential to countless creators throughout the world across a variety of entertainment media, but not something as big with mainstream consumers as one would think it to be.

Yeah, the viewer numbers for Twin Peaks season 3 were really, really low. It is just the fans of it are very vocal.
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
Agreed.

Still surprised at how poorly it's doing. I thought the public's interest in Blade Runner would have been fairly large considering how legendary that original film has become over the years. Guess I was wrong.

There was never a blockbuster audience who'd seen Blade Runner, let alone liked it enough to pay for a sequel.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I think people might not have been interested in watching a film about a bleak, depressing, dystopian future.

You know what. This is a good point too.
I was gonna see it today but i'm just not in the mood to handle it at the moment and have pushed it back to next week instead.
 
Blade Runner tanking isn’t a surprise but it sure is a disappointment. A strong 9/10 for me and probably my favorite of the year, general audiences just don’t like gritty three hour sci-fi flicks.
 
This was my prediction

Blade Runner Villenuvile edition

OW: 40M
DOM: 120M
WW: 300M

I am beginning to doubt the final LTD now. Although to be fair, I expected around $100 million and bumped it up after critical reception.

I always said Blade Runner will remain a niche no matter what while some others were pumping it up like Blockbuster comparing it to Mad Max. It really isn't that kind of film and the long runtime is certainly not a factor. This type of reasoning is almost as lame as the short runtime one.

I also think the best film by Dennis is Prisoners. Arrivals was a nice film and Sicario was great but he has yet to find the same success as Nolan. (I didn't like Incendies) While I think peak Nolan was around the Dark Knight era, I feel like he still has the potential to release classics one after another. Memento -> Batman Begins -> The Prestige -> The Dark Knight -> Inception were all great films that were not just critically successful but commercially a hit as well.
 

TARS

Neo Member
For a while I had a feeling Blade Runner would do similar numbers to Alien: Covenant's opening weekend, but after the hype and tracking numbers, I really thought it would do at least $40M. It's disappointing, but it won't stop the director from doing great stuff in the future.

I also think the best film by Dennis is Prisoners. Arrivals was a nice film and Sicario was great but he has yet to find the same success as Nolan. (I didn't like Incendies) While I think peak Nolan was around the Dark Knight era, I feel like he still has the potential to release classics one after another. Memento -> Batman Begins -> The Prestige -> The Dark Knight -> Inception were all great films that were not just critically successful but commercially a hit as well.
You can even continue with The Dark Knight Rises -> Interstellar -> Dunkirk. Despite the hate those films often get around here, they still did good with critics and were all successful at the box office.
 

kswiston

Member
BR2049 walk ups must have been terrible. Deadline's midday number yesterday would have been based on Matinees and presales. Dropping 25% from that initial estimate doesn't happen often.
 

kitzkozan

Member
Never cared for Dune, so no loss there.

But while Dune still has a chance, Cleopatra is dead.

The issue with 2049 is being a 185mil budget film. It makes zero fucking sense. Not because it's long( ROTK, Titanic, Avatar, and almost all the highest grossing films are 2hours+ with many hitting 2 and a half or more) or a slow film. Its a bleak emotional ride that is not a crowd pleaser. Logan is the closest example for this year I can give, but that has 18 years of history plus a budget that is half it. The budget should have been 100mil and for them to make it work some how.

Denis Villeneuve is not a director who's interested in crowd pleasing projects or who's style can be bombastic enough to carry a movie to better than expected bo gross like Nolan. He's better suited to smaller budget films just like he did in Quebec or his first few Hollywood projects.
 

kitzkozan

Member
Blade Runner tanking isn't a surprise but it sure is a disappointment. A strong 9/10 for me and probably my favorite of the year, general audiences just don't like gritty three hour sci-fi flicks.

No, it's mostly the Villeneuve directing style which isn't a draw for casual moviegoer. Think of Villeneuve in wrestling terms for example: extremely talented and supremely proficient technically, but lacking in charisma. He's never going to be a Nolan despite dabbling in geeky projects such as Blade Runner or Dune. He couldn't pull off a Dunkirk which is something that the casual audience didn't care for just like Blade Runner 2049, but moved the needle just because of how Nolan shot the movie and made it exciting. There's nothing wrong with that because most of the elite directors are regulars at the Cannes festivals and they are interested in manipulating the cinematic language moreso than casual audiences.

Expectation towards Villeneuve should be adjusted as to what kind of career he's interested in having. ;)
 
Denis Villeneuve is not a director who's interested in crowd pleasing projects or who's style can be bombastic enough to carry a movie to better than expected bo gross like Nolan. He's better suited to smaller budget films just like he did in Quebec or his first few Hollywood projects.
If he is not this type of director, then why are people hoping for a big budget Dune movie. I mean sure, no one here is going to finance the movie but if we just take a look at the track record of Dennis, it is easy to see why giving such a huge budget for his passion project will only end up making the studio look stupid in the end.

IMO, Dennis should drop his Dune plans and make more movies like Sicario, Prisoners and Arrival. He is great with mid budget movies and I do like him as a director, just not as the best.
 

Slayven

Member
BR was always a niche thing. Anecdotally, many sci-fi aficionados that I know just hate the original because they think it's too slow.



Bond would be the worst timeline. He's too good for that franchise. It's just the Broccoli show anyway, better suited for journeymen filmmakers. And I don't mean this as an insult.

I don't think one semi-bomb (that no one expected to perform well) is enough to torpedoe Dune completely. Villeneuve has plenty of momentum. Many directors with lesser filmographies have survived way worse than this and still got expensive projects greenlit. But to be fair, I don't see a Villeneuve version of Dune ever making any money at all. If it was a tv miniseries, then maybe.
BR was a niche of a niche, it only became popular after the joke of having 8338 different laser disk versions.
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
That's quite a steep fall in estimates: $45M-$32M.

I'm planning on seeing BR2049 on Monday but dunno if I should now given the tepid response with general audiences, and also I didn't enjoy Arrival so that doesn't help.
 

Prompto

Banned
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. A movie about monster trucks with a $125 million budget. $180 million spent on an adaptation of an obscure French comic book. I watched a sequel to an 80's cult cyberpunk movie that cost $185 million to make. All that money will be lost, like tears in the rain.


Time to bomb
 

kswiston

Member
We don't need a third Blade Runner any time soon, so I guess the box office performance isn't super important.

Critical response was fantastic, and it looks like audience response is pretty good among the niche that went. That's going to save Denis Villeneuve any flak. He did what he was hired to do about as good as anyone could have done. I doubt Ridley's version would have been an upgrade.
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
We don't need a third Blade Runner any time soon, so I guess the box office performance isn't super important.

Critical response was fantastic, and it looks like audience response is pretty good among the niche that went. That's going to save Denis Villeneuve any flak. He did what he was hired to do about as good as anyone could have done. I doubt Ridley's version would been an upgrade.

Yup. He's more of a miss these days.

Last film I genuinely enjoyed from him was Kingdom of Heaven, and that was 10+ years ago.

d8942e5ba40fcfde4b6499ed9be1f2e0.gif
 

jett

D-Member
We don't need a third Blade Runner any time soon, so I guess the box office performance isn't super important.

Critical response was fantastic, and it looks like audience response is pretty good among the niche that went. That's going to save Denis Villeneuve any flak. He did what he was hired to do about as good as anyone could have done. I doubt Ridley's version would been an upgrade.

In 35 years someone else will make the hilarious decision of spending $700 million dollars on Blade Runner 2099.
 
We don't need a third Blade Runner any time soon, so I guess the box office performance isn't super important.

Critical response was fantastic, and it looks like audience response is pretty good among the niche that went. That's going to save Denis Villeneuve any flak. He did what he was hired to do about as good as anyone could have done. I doubt Ridley's version would been an upgrade.

All in all I'd take Denis any day over modern Ridley Scott, but BR2049's script is wonderful and I think it'd still have been good under Scott. As is I wouldn't change how it went.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I think the issue with Scott is when he misses he misses really big.

Like you get good or you get bad with no real inbetween
 

Slayven

Member
Me and Dune have a sordid history. Back when i was younger when late night movie shows was a thing(Kswiss knows about that), when i would sneak and stay up they always ended up showing Dune or Phantasm. Flying deathballs were cool, Shakespeare in the desert wasn't
 
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