New Mutants Movie

[WebLurker]

I got some questions for you:

Okay.

1- Did the New Mutants mention the X-Men? How? Which way? I've heard so.

Nothing overly specific. The X-Men are mentioned as an active mutant group and some of the kids wonder if they'll be transferred to them when they complete Dr. Reyes' program, but that's it.

2- Is the Xavier's School ever mentioned? Which name is used for the school?

The Institute is not mentioned period.

3- I've heard that there's some footage culled from "Logan"? A mutant facility? Tell me.

Yep, there is. Spoil at your own risk: spoilers:

When Dani is being tested during the second act, she gets a telepathic flash of Dr. Reyes' mind, of mutant children being forced into combat training. Stock footage from the Logan is used to represent it (it's a bit from the nurse's cell phone recording of Transigen, where a boy is training against dummies but then starts attacking the guards). While Dani and the other New Mutants only work out that Reyes and her unseen superior have been secretly planing to weaponize them, not help them -- the audience learns that Reyes is in the employ of the Essex Corporation (from Apocalypse). Despite the stock footage, there's no further evidence to prove or disprove of Transigen from Logan is a subsidiary or future incarnation of the Essex Corporation or a separate organization (in other words, the situation is exactly the same as before). The New Mutants do make it clear that mutants are relatively common and the New Mutants themselves are too young to belong to the last generation described in Logan, directly contradicting that movie's premise that mutants are all but extinct and are no longer being born (but that's business as usual for the series.

end of spoilers

[Amadeus Arkham]

In domestic box office news that isn’t about Tenet, Disney’s The New Mutants earned $2.9 million (-58%) over its second Fri-Sun weekend for a likely $3.5 million Labor Day frame. The $80 million X-Men spin-off will have around $12.5 million domestic and $21 million worldwide by Monday. As noted yesterday, a 58% drop would be “normal” for an MCU movie in “normal” times, and even above the 61% drops of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain America and Ant-Man and the Wasp. It’s right in the middle among second-weekend drops for the 13 X-Men movies (including the Wolverine trilogy and the Deadpool flicks). The biggest such drop is 71% for Dark Phoenix and the best hold is 53% for X2 with everything else between 56% and 69%.

Box Office: ‘Mulan’ Nabs $6M Overseas As ‘Bill & Ted’ Rules VOD

How about that? This is actually holding over better than expected. Given the reviews, I was anticipating a pretty steep drop-off. That’s pretty impressive. Not that it matters much anyway considering how low it opened.

If this was released in a crowded summer season pre-pandemic like Dark Phoenix, while it definitely would’ve had a much bigger opening weekend than 7 million, the movie would’ve likely suffered a steep drop-off since I can’t imagine the WOM would be any different. Funny enough, the unique circumstances this movie was released in has both cursed it with a low box office opening and blessed it with a low box office drop off.

Thanks to the virus there’s little in terms of actual competition for New Mutants(besides Tenet) so it’s not too surprising it has a low second weekend box office drop-off despite the poor WOM. Nowadays, people don’t have a lot of choices for escapist entertainment in theaters. It’s either this, or Tenet. So I’m betting a lot of people who went to see this movie weren’t really anticipating it like say Tenet, but they saw it anyway to kill some time. Disney doesn’t care either way since they’ll never make a sequel to this movie, and it’s merely just a leftover movie from a studio that doesn’t really exist anymore.

[ClanAskani]

WB announced Tenet made $20.2 domestically (US and Canada). That's a little deceptive since the number includes $2.6 million last week in Canada and multiple days of previews. WB hasn't announced daily numbers and studios are the only source of numbers right now.

(Disney can theoretically under or over report NM if they wanted to, if anyone wants to talk about conspiracy theories).

Tenet opened in about 400 more theaters than New Mutants, include San Diego and New Jersey. There's also a level of confidence in whether indoor theaters are safe and awareness of new movies at drive-ins which is increasing ticket sales week to week.

A NATO survey showed only 1/3 of people in areas where theaters are open are actually aware that theaters are open. I'm not sure that's a bad thing since there are very strong reactions against theaters being opened by people who would never actually go. Those that are looking for what's reopened and what there is to do being aware is all that's necessary. Backlash that theaters dare open by those who want everyone hiding in their homes won't happen if they don't know the theaters are open.

Comparing opening weekends and excluding previews, Tenet may have made about $9M more than New Mutants. That does potentially bode well for New Mutants continuing to chug along as one of the few releases. Some studios may move some sacrificial fodder into late September and October to have releases. And WW84 getting moved is looking more likely unless signs point to more people being willing to go to theaters.

[Hellion]

WB announced Tenet made $20.2 domestically (US and Canada). That's a little deceptive since the number includes $2.6 million last week in Canada and multiple days of previews. WB hasn't announced daily numbers and studios are the only source of numbers right now.

(Disney can theoretically under or over report NM if they wanted to, if anyone wants to talk about conspiracy theories).

Tenet opened in about 400 more theaters than New Mutants, include San Diego and New Jersey. There's also a level of confidence in whether indoor theaters are safe and awareness of new movies at drive-ins which is increasing ticket sales week to week.

A NATO survey showed only 1/3 of people in areas where theaters are open are actually aware that theaters are open. I'm not sure that's a bad thing since there are very strong reactions against theaters being opened by people who would never actually go. Those that are looking for what's reopened and what there is to do being aware is all that's necessary. Backlash that theaters dare open by those who want everyone hiding in their homes won't happen if they don't know the theaters are open.

Comparing opening weekends and excluding previews, Tenet may have made about $9M more than New Mutants. That does potentially bode well for New Mutants continuing to chug along as one of the few releases. Some studios may move some sacrificial fodder into late September and October to have releases. And WW84 getting moved is looking more likely unless signs point to more people being willing to go to theaters.

Interesting. I live in a city of about 60,000 people and going to the movies is about the only indoors activity to do here aside from fine dining. And yet I was one of only 7 people in a 7pm Friday showing of New Mutants, and I was one of only 4 people at a 7pm Friday showing of Tenet. I don't know where the hell everyone else in the city is, but I know for certain there's nothing else for them to be doing on a Friday night.

[WebLurker]

Box Office: ‘Mulan’ Nabs $6M Overseas As ‘Bill & Ted’ Rules VOD

How about that? This is actually holding over better than expected. Given the reviews, I was anticipating a pretty steep drop-off. That’s pretty impressive. Not that it matters much anyway considering how low it opened.

Interesting, esp. since it kinda seems like Forbes has been rooting for it to fail (film reviewer really hated it -- as is his right -- and two articles from the perspective that it's a financial disappointment).

[ClanAskani]

Deadline had this to say about Tenet's less than stellar reviews (https://deadline.com/2020/09/tenet-o...-1234571662/):

Tenet has a 79% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and a 74% RT rating. That latter rating needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as Los Angeles and New York critics weren’t cleared to see the movie in advance since the pic wasn’t opening in their market. As such, media outlets in those markets had to tap freelancers to see the film, yielding a wide range of responses.

So... Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro believes NY and LA critics would have given different (better) reviews than some freelancers in podunkville because... they somehow aren't sophisticated enough to understand what amazing filmmaking it is? Or because they didn't understand how reviews for these types of movies are supposed to be?

I don't buy into a conspiracy that Disney is paying off critics one way or the other, but I do suspect reviewers do go with what they believe the consensus among film culture will be. Whatever Nolan does is supposed to be great, and if you think otherwise - you are wrong. And if a reviewer wants to let lose and rip on New Mutants, there's no one who will think that is the wrong opinion.

[ClanAskani]

WB is refusing to release any specific domestic numbers for Tenet - only the $20.2M figure for 11 days of release. The fairly decent overseas numbers are being released daily.

Expect WB to move WW84 this week and Disney to start moving more films to PVOD. The question is whether it's Soul or Black Widow or both. Disney's stock increased today on good Mulan PVOD numbers.

And September through October probably become the new January-February to dump anything studios expect to underperform and appeal to 18-34 males.

[BroHomo]

WB is refusing to release any specific domestic numbers for Tenet - only the $20.2M figure for 11 days of release. The fairly decent overseas numbers are being released daily.

Expect WB to move WW84 this week and Disney to start moving more films to PVOD. The question is whether it's Soul or Black Widow or both. Disney's stock increased today on good Mulan PVOD numbers.

And September through October probably become the new January-February to dump anything studios expect to underperform and appeal to 18-34 males.

Soooo basically the New Mutants movie lol

[ClanAskani]

Soooo basically the New Mutants movie lol

Pretty much, but there wasn't that assumption when the date was set or even a few weeks ago. There was considerable hope for Tenet opening in the 40 million range for the 3 day and a 50 million 4 day.

Now with the bad vaccine news tonight, it's guaranteed things will be moving.

[Kingdom X]

I know everyone is pretty tired of talking about colorism and the casting choices in this movie, but this video popped up on my youtube feed and it's actually pretty interesting and well researched so I thought I'd share.

She focuses on Sunspot around the 12 minute mark, but she also brought up some interesting points about Storm and Damian Wayne before that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bOIRI2wfYU

[ClanAskani]

And as expected, WW84 was just moved to later in the year date TBD.

Some box office analysts are saying the actual domestic Tenet box office was about 10 Million, so only 3 million above New Mutants. It's expanding to drive-ins in LA which are some of the largest sources of ticket sales.

So, New Mutants may be one of the few major studio releases in theaters through Halloween.

[HaydnC95]

I'm interested in seeing how Black Widow is going to go with all this. Disney+? Push back? Keep it's release date?

Here in the UK some cinemas are open, but cases are going up again and in the cinema where I work, we are barely getting any customers.

[ClanAskani]

I'm interested in seeing how Black Widow is going to go with all this. Disney+? Push back? Keep it's release date?

Here in the UK some cinemas are open, but cases are going up again and in the cinema where I work, we are barely getting any customers.

Tenet has done far better outside of the US & Canada - with over $132M as of last weekend. It's difficult to say how it would have done with far more competition in a regular summer release slot.

Deadline posted an article day with their numbers for Tenet last weekend - $11.2M 3-day/ $12M 4-day. That 3 day includes the usual domestic Thursday night previews, but not the previews from earlier in the week.
https://deadline.com/2020/09/tenet-b...ce-1234575805/

Sony is following suit with Warners and not releasing numbers for Broken Hearts Gallery and the belief this is to protect exhibitors and the major chains so all the reporting is Tenet making millions overseas and not empty theaters. So, New Mutants will be listed as number 1 on sites like Boxofficemojo.com. Speculation is that Disney may stop reporting though and that may add to the debate on whether they were intentionally trying to hurt New Mutants by reporting the box office. I don't think they were. But consider how badly Tenet, there's an argument that the box office numbers for New Mutants can be ignored. And Warners is blaming negative reviews for Tenet on reviewers angry movies are being released. New Mutants had far more anger directed at it than Tenet did.

THR in their WW84 article said their were rumors about Black Widow being delayed. Mulan has done very well on PVOD and Disney+, and speculation is that it's the equivalent of a $150M domestic opening since studios only collect half of the box office revenue approximately. Disney gets nearly all of the PVOD sales.

Overseas, the PVOD model isn't working as well and Mulan has been released in countries where Disney+ hasn't been launched. Paying $20-$30 for a movie is something that will only work for events, but Disney may reserve that for family movies which will have extreme difficulties in theaters for the next year or more. Most moms aren't going to take their kids to theaters until this pandemic is over and there's a vaccine. Adults might.

There's speculation/rumors the next movie Disney will move to Disney+ Premium is Pixar's Soul as the holiday special event. That would be good family viewing and families would pay that to see a special event type movie on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

My guess is the MCU movies won't go to Disney+ Premium because the international box office potential is too large and they aren't going to upset exhibitors by removing them. After Chadwick's death and the production delays for upcoming MCU movies, they have the ability to shift some movies around. But Disney needs to bring in revenue with the parks shut down or operating at low capacity.

There are other movies that Disney could put on Disney+ Premium first - even Fox's The Free Guy - which could work as family viewing and wouldn't require the amount of adverting spend to promote.

[Maestro 216]

I mean NM seems kinda low budget, so doing less that Dark Phoenix box office wise isn't the worst.

[jignat]

I actually went to see New Mutants today. Its been 3 weeks since it opened so I figured the "rush" to see it would have died down.
Thankfully, my theatre was a ghost town. Only 3 people were seeng the film with me so I could distance easily and I wore my mask the full time.

This film feels like t was written by a bipolar person who both likes X-men and someone who doesn't give a ****.

I confess I am not a NM xpert. I read issues 80-100 of Vol 1 and the first 3 years of Xforce vol1 . I am unfamiliar with Demon Bear story, but generally know of the characters through Claremonts Uncanny and other stuff.

Pros:

The casting and backstory for Rahne,Illyana,Sam and Dani. Illyana and Rahne feel pretty well characterized. Dani is the man character, but Illyana is the breakout character.

Special effects were decent esp involving Illyana.

Cons

Cannonball and especially Sunspot get little to do and less characterization compared to the girls. I remember Sunspot washing dishes more than anything else.

Sunspot and Cecilia Reyes are not black. Reyes was used just for her powers, but not for her character. Kinda bland personality and she is not supposed to be an evil or amoral scientist character.

The film is 86 minutes without credits, yet it feels like a 2 hr film. It needed some more excitement and action scenes imo.

For something that was billed as being a horror film, it is surprisingly not scary.
I am a soft scaredycat and I only felt dread once and it was due to a priest lol

A bland, unmemorable film with some nice Illyana bits.

**Overall: 5.5/10**