2019: Worst summer movie season ever???

[JonaX]

Warner Brothers really had 3-4 big budget films early in 2019.


- Shazam ($100 million)
- Pokemon : Detective Pikachu ($150 Million)
- Lego Movie 2 ($99 million)
- Godzilla : King of Monsters ($170 million)

Warners has to watch the bottom line basically and can't just throw movies on schedule after committing almost $500-600 million in budgets to 4 films as we see. Beyond Godzilla its a big gamble to approve films and hope to earn production budget back as we saw with WB this year.

Warner Bros only on the hook for 25% of Godzilla's budget, the rest was funded by Legendary so they won't lose much.Detective Pikachu is only being distributed by WB, again funded by Legendary. The only big loser was Lego Movie 2.

The second half of the year looks a lot stronger which was the case last year as well. I think they have a wildcard in Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of the novel and also the sequel to The Shining.

[Vakanai]

Warner Bros only on the hook for 25% of Godzilla's budget, the rest was funded by Legendary so they won't lose much.Detective Pikachu is only being distributed by WB, again funded by Legendary. The only big loser was Lego Movie 2.

The second half of the year looks a lot stronger which was the case last year as well. I think they have a wildcard in Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of the novel and also the sequel to The Shining.

What I'm reading is, Legendary just has **** luck. Don't know why, their films are pretty enjoyable, don't know why they don't do better.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Well, we now have Actuals for June 14-16:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Men in Black did a little better than estimated for a $30,035,838 domestic -- about $1.5 million better than estimated.

Likewise, Dark Phoenix did a smidge better with $9,354,868 domestic. Still likely the 2nd largest second weekend drop at -71.5%.

However, even with a few hundred thousand dollars more than estimated, Rocketman also did much better than estimated, so it was able to claim the number 4 slot, and Dark Phoenix was sent from 2nd place to 5th.

Dark Phoenix's total domestic so far is $52,117,218, and its foreign is $152,383,000 for a worldwide of $204,500,218.

As I predicted earlier, Shazam did land in the top 25 for the weekend with a measly $134,755. However, Captain Marvel ended up in 27th place.

Shazam may be able to squeak by $140 million domestic and $365 million total worldwide before it'd done, but this has got to be disappointing considering the movie was so good.

However, as far as superhero bombs is concerned, it does look like Dark Phoenix will get all the press ink directed toward it. I wonder if DP can make it to $75 million domestic and $300 million worldwide.

[jetengine]

But they don't have an MCU or live action remake every month, and even in those months you can schedule things so you've got a couple weeks between movies, and most importantly I was being a bit general on the MCU thing, you most especially just need to give breathing room to the Avengers movies.

March, april, may, june, july, august, October, November, december all have disney releases. Enjoy 3 months.

[Vakanai]

March, april, may, june, july, august, October, November, december all have disney releases. Enjoy 3 months.

Again, I mentioned "even in those months you can schedule things so you've got a couple weeks between movies" so you can do months with Disney films too, just have to pick either the beginning or end of the month opposite the big Disney feature. Enjoy 12 months with decent planning.

[jetengine]

Again, I mentioned "even in those months you can schedule things so you've got a couple weeks between movies" so you can do months with Disney films too, just have to pick either the beginning or end of the month opposite the big Disney feature. Enjoy 12 months with decent planning.

Except they did that this year and its not working.

[Vakanai]

Except they did that this year and its not working.

Well, they got to figure something out, because they're getting creamed by Disney right now. Guess the deal for other film studios is merely pray to survive until Disney's remade every single one of their animated classics into live action. Best of luck to the poor bastards.

[AJBopp]

Perhaps a bright shot in the summer https://wapo.st/2N5DCa6

[Comic-Reader Lad]

March, april, may, june, july, august, October, November, december all have disney releases. Enjoy 3 months.

Yeah, I agree that the other studios cannot and should not avoid Disney.

I think the trick is not to release movies that are in the same genre as a nearby Disney release.

For example, it was great that Warner released Aquaman in December. Yes, it had to compete with Mary Poppins Returns, but the two movies are so different that Warner had the superhero territory staked out for itself for December and January.

It was quite a different story with Shazam in March. Shazam was sandwiched in between two major Marvel movies -- Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. The family audience showed up for Shazam -- trouncing Disney's own Dumbo in the process -- but the larger audience avoided it, not because it was a bad movie, but because their superhero movie itch was going to be scratched by the two Disney-Marvel offerings. If Shazam had been released this August instead, I believe it would have become a much bigger hit -- especially since Fox's own New Mutants, originally scheduled for August, is once again on the shelf and will probably never get a theatrical release, but end up on the Disney+ streaming service instead.

I think Dark Phoenix also fell victim to scheduling in addition to the bad reviews. Remember, Venom had atrocious reviews, but did exceptionally well because it had the superhero field all to itself for October through late December. Once Fox realized they weren't going to release New Mutants in August, they should have moved DP there. I'm not saying it would have hit Venom's heights, but I'm pretty sure it would have successfully cracked $100 million domestic. Right now, after Endgame, I think most people are superheroed-out. When Spider-Man gets released next month, the audiences will have their batteries recharged and be ready for another super-flick.

As I've said in the OP, Disney is the 800-pound entertainment gorilla, so if the studios want their movies to succeed, they do have to schedule them a bit smarter, but they shouldn't completely run and hide from Disney.

[motherofpearl1]

Disney's takeover of so much is worrying. Once one giant owns everything it can afford to let the quality drop.

Apart from Lion King I have zero interest in any of these films. And I used to be a cinema addict.

[Username taken]

Disney's takeover of so much is worrying. Once one giant owns everything it can afford to let the quality drop.

Apart from Lion King I have zero interest in any of these films. And I used to be a cinema addict.

While I agree with your larger point, I think other studios need to step up their game.

It's quite clear now that there's a disconnect between what the major studios (outside of Disney) are offering and the general audience.

The studios need to break away from the follow the trends mentality (i.e absolutely everything needs to be shared universe and/or franchise) and create their path.

Honestly, Disney is simply building off their current brand off the work people have done in the past (they literally didn't build up Pixar or Marvel and are capitalizing on their previous animated successes), Warners already had a massive library of superheroes which they owned completely but only recently started getting their movie universe together. Universal have the monsters but railroaded themselves into a share universe that died before it started. Paramount had a massive franchise in Transformers and could have done something with G.I Joe but they just turned out movies that seek to be anything beyond run off the mill dumb summer blockbusters.

I won't pretend to know what it takes to make a "good summer blockbuster" but the studios are in this business and actually have people paid to do this stuff. They really need to do better honestly.

[motherofpearl1]

I think a lot of them have got to the state where they believe that pick a popular franchise and/or popular characters, and they'll watch it regardless.

Many, myself included, hated X Men 3...but it was the most financially successful of the first three films.

Nowadays I suspect people are beginning to wise up.

Off topic but I recently re watched my DVD of Princess Mononoke.......now that was a film!

[Username taken]

I think a lot of them have got to the state where they believe that pick a popular franchise and/or popular characters, and they'll watch it regardless.

Many, myself included, hated X Men 3...but it was the most financially successful of the first three films.

Nowadays I suspect people are beginning to wise up.

Funny enough, I used to be like that at a point in time. But now...I simply don't.

Off topic but I recently re watched my DVD of Princess Mononoke.......now that was a film!

Strangely enough, I never got round to watching that movie. Probably something I'll catch in my free time.

[Vakanai]

Strangely enough, I never got round to watching that movie. Probably something I'll catch in my free time.

Definitely should watch it, I consider it one of Studio Ghibli's better films, which pretty much automatically makes it an animated classic.

[jetengine]

To put it bluntly Disney is winning because their being smart and inventive whilst the other studios are floundering using older models or assuming the audiences are dumb.