March Movies: Batman V. Superman, 10 Cloverfield Lane...

[unbillievable]

Generally, people either think it's okay or absolutely hate it. I haven't seen anyone praise Batman v Superman. The closest you'll get is "i actually liked it despite the flaws."

[shrader]

 

Here's another article that I came across this morning as I settle in to work. I haven't seen an updates as to how the film is tracking for the weekend, but as the article points out they don't have any competition for at least two more weeks which is enough time to right the ship if people show up to see it this weekend.

 

http://screenrant.com/batman-v-superman-box-office-opening-friday-sunday/

 

 

The buzz surrounding the release of Dawn of Justice helped propel it into the minds of moviegoers despite its not-for-kids tone and bad reviews, but those reviews and the mixed reaction of fans (we discuss these competing reactions in-depth here) may actually hurt the film. What Warner Bros., analysts, and passionate observers are looking forward to now is how Batman V Superman performs in its second weekend. If there’s a massive dropoff, the film may under-perform overall, and that’s usually fueled by a negative response.

 

That effect was potentially already seen over the weekend since Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice actually set a record for the biggest box office dropoff for a superhero film from Friday to Sunday in an opening weekend. Looking at daily numbers for all modern superhero films, Forbes discovered that BvS dropped 58.6% from Friday (which includes Thursday previews) to Sunday.

 

Do they look at how past films released on Easter weekend have performed? I'd imagine you'd see similar drops over the years.

[Doc]

Do they look at how past films released on Easter weekend have performed? I'd imagine you'd see similar drops over the years.

 

True. There was another Superhero people went to see on Sunday.

[eball]

 

Do they look at how past films released on Easter weekend have performed? I'd imagine you'd see similar drops over the years.

 

Great point. How many devout Christians are going to see movies on Easter Sunday?

[Deranged Rhino]

 

Do they look at how past films released on Easter weekend have performed? I'd imagine you'd see similar drops over the years.

 

I'm sure they do but I don't know them off hand. I can look though.

[Mark Vader]

Generally, people either think it's okay or absolutely hate it. I haven't seen anyone praise Batman v Superman. The closest you'll get is "i actually liked it despite the flaws."

That's what I am hearing too, and I still have not seen BvS.

 

People are liking it, not loving it. The Cinema Score Grade was a: "B" from audiences. Which is still not good enough for a blockbuster such as this.

 

 

Do they look at how past films released on Easter weekend have performed? I'd imagine you'd see similar drops over the years.

This might be negligible, because movie studios have only recently begun to target Easter weekend as a big movie weekend.

 

Regardless of that, BvS faces a real challenge at making more money in the coming weeks. BvS has no real competition in the next 2 weeks, unless people are dying to see "Hardcore Henry".

 

If it drops over 65% this weekend, then Warner Bros. has a problem. I agree with you Deranged Rhino, WB might want to hold off on that Aquaman movie for a little while, even though they are committed to the Justice League movies.

 

I can only imagine what studio executives will be thinking if Deadpool ends up making more domestic money than BvS. Yikes!

[Sig1Hunter]

I came away from Batman v Superman feeling like I watched an Avengers flick. Entertaining, cool special effects, but questionable plot. If you go into it expecting it to be anything like The Dark Knight Batman, you will be sorely disappointed. I give it a 6 on a scale of 1-10.

 

I would have enjoyed watching Deadpool (for a fourth time) more.

[Punching Bag]

Remarkably, I've heard reports that Affleck pulled off Batman rather well.

Yes that is what I heard at work; his Batman was the best ever, his Bruce Wayne not so much and I expected the opposite.

[dayman]

Alright, I saw Batman v. Superman. Here is my short spoiler-free review:

 

Believe the hate--this movie is as bad as people are saying. The plot makes absolutely no sense at all. Eisenberg does a hideous job (probably the worst I've seen in any movie in a long time) and the Lex Luthor character (as written) was laughable. In retrospect, it is Eisenberg/Lex that hurt the movie the most. Superman's whole situation is as soulless and "meh" as it was in his last movie, and towards the end the entire movie goes way off the rails and ends up in parody mode.

 

The one positive is in fact Batman. Batman and Affleck are both pretty good. But it isn't nearly enough to save the movie. Also, even though Batman/Affleck is good...even Batman gets infected with the nonsense plot and ends up making little sense.

I came away from Batman v Superman feeling like I watched an Avengers flick. Entertaining, cool special effects, but questionable plot. If you go into it expecting it to be anything like The Dark Knight Batman, you will be sorely disappointed. I give it a 6 on a scale of 1-10.

I would have enjoyed watching Deadpool (for a fourth time) more.

 

Also, I wouldn't say it was like an Avengers flick. The Avengers movies were at least entertaining and internally coherent. This was neither of those things. This was utter garbage.

Edited March 30, 2016 by dayman

[unbillievable]

Alright, I saw Batman v. Superman. Here is my short spoiler-free review:

 

Believe the hate--this movie is as bad as people are saying. The plot makes absolutely no sense at all. Eisenberg does a hideous job (probably the worst I've seen in any movie in a long time) and the Lex Luthor character (as written) was laughable. In retrospect, it is Eisenberg/Lex that hurt the movie the most. Superman's whole situation is as soulless and "meh" as it was in his last movie, and towards the end the entire movie goes way off the rails and ends up in parody mode.

 

The one positive is in fact Batman. Batman and Affleck are both pretty good. But it isn't nearly enough to save the movie. Also, even though Batman/Affleck is good...even Batman gets infected with the nonsense plot and ends up making little sense.

 

Also, I wouldn't say it was like an Avengers flick. The Avengers movies were at least entertaining and internally coherent. This was neither of those things. This was utter garbage.

Batfleck,

the one thing everyone hated from the beginning turns into the only thing that was good...

Actually, I didn't like that they base Batman's persona on a single anomalous Frank Miller series, instead of decades of history. This Batman shoots guns and kills people- which he never does, (except for that one time...)

 

I always get that one comic book geek who tries to justify it by saying I don't really know the comics.... It's Batman-everyone knows it.

[Just Jack]

And they'd be right...because coherent or not, no one's sitting through a 3.5 hour movie.

Maybe if they brought back intermission....

 

[Deranged Rhino]

Update: Tracking numbers for BvS second weekend are predicting a 60% drop, which isn't unusual but is more than the studio feared. With Thursday screenings the film has crossed the $200 million barrier domestically and they're expecting another $50-66 million this weekend. Come Monday they'll have a clearer picture as to whether or not the film has a chance to hit the necessary domestic benchmarks -- but at the moment it looks like there isn't much word of mouth helping the film.

[Dorkington]

FWIW, Suicide Squad comes out in a few months, Wonder Woman has finished filming, and Justice League starts filming in 9 days.

 

If WB was going to fire a bunch of people, or cancel their universe due to severe disappointment, I feel like we'd be hearing about something right now.

[Doc]

FWIW, Suicide Squad comes out in a few months, Wonder Woman has finished filming, and Justice League starts filming in 9 days.

 

If WB was going to fire a bunch of people, or cancel their universe due to severe disappointment, I feel like we'd be hearing about something right now.

 

Cancelling their universe would be dumb. But if B v. S fails to turn a profit, I can see some heads rolling.

[Dorkington]

It's at $570m worldwide on a production budget of $250m, its made profit. As much profit as they'd like? That's for them to answer.

 

And yes, I'm aware that advertising is not part of the budget, but merchandising is also not part of the profit. and there was a ton of both.

[Deranged Rhino]

FWIW, Suicide Squad comes out in a few months, Wonder Woman has finished filming, and Justice League starts filming in 9 days.

 

If WB was going to fire a bunch of people, or cancel their universe due to severe disappointment, I feel like we'd be hearing about something right now.

 

 

They just ordered a ton of reshoots for suicide squad (this week actually) to "add more humor" into the film. Reshoots happen, so that in and of itself isn't trouble news... But the fact they are trying, in one studio execs words, to make it more like dead pool is a BAD sign.

 

Also, the folks who will get the ax for BvS failing to meet expectations (it's currently tanking in China this weekend and is now projected to be down 65% domestic this weekend -- even more than previously thought as late as Friday morning) you're likely not going to hear about them getting fired unless you're reading variety or deadline or another industry rag.

 

They're too far committed to cancel the slate, which is why people will get fired instead.

 

It's at $570m worldwide on a production budget of $250m, its made profit. As much profit as they'd like? That's for them to answer.

 

And yes, I'm aware that advertising is not part of the budget, but merchandising is also not part of the profit. and there was a ton of both.

 

The budget for the film is well over 800 million -- over 2 billion if you include the budgets for Wonder Woman, suicide squad, and the projected one for aquaman. They need to be making way more cash domestically (and abroad which looked safe until this mornings numbers from China came out) for WB to feel secure in their return.

 

This from a studio who's box office has been disappointing for multiple quarters now. That's a huuuuuuuge red flag to the corporate board.

[Dorkington]

I'm not saying its a runaway success, just that its not the extreme failure some are painting it. By the end of everything it should make about 900mil from theaters alone, and thats not including merchandising (WB owns DC and all the movie/merchandise/comic rights), home releases, or anything else. If BvS was the outright failure that people are saying, then JL would be delayed at the very least, so they can wait on SS (and possibly WW) results, but all indications are they are going ahead as planned.

 

As far as re-shoots for SS, I'm not surprised at all, that happens quite often, and I don't see anything wrong with them tweaking things to get what they want. To me its not a red flag. Some good movies have had re-shoots, some bad movies have had re-shoots. Guardians of the Galaxy made Suicide Squad possible, and Deadpool's success means WB/DC can go back and do some things that maybe they were unsure of doing originally in Suicide Squad.

 

I don't know, I guess I'm just not seeing the disaster everyone else is. I can understand a bit of disappointment, and tweaking things one way or another, but that's about it. I am a Batman fanboy though, so maybe I'm incredibly biased and talking out of my ass.

[Deranged Rhino]

I'm not saying its a runaway success, just that its not the extreme failure some are painting it. By the end of everything it should make about 900mil from theaters alone, and thats not including merchandising (WB owns DC and all the movie/merchandise/comic rights), home releases, or anything else. If BvS was the outright failure that people are saying, then JL would be delayed at the very least, so they can wait on SS (and possibly WW) results, but all indications are they are going ahead as planned.

 

As far as re-shoots for SS, I'm not surprised at all, that happens quite often, and I don't see anything wrong with them tweaking things to get what they want. To me its not a red flag. Some good movies have had re-shoots, some bad movies have had re-shoots. Guardians of the Galaxy made Suicide Squad possible, and Deadpool's success means WB/DC can go back and do some things that maybe they were unsure of doing originally in Suicide Squad.

 

I don't know, I guess I'm just not seeing the disaster everyone else is. I can understand a bit of disappointment, and tweaking things one way or another, but that's about it. I am a Batman fanboy though, so maybe I'm incredibly biased and talking out of my ass.

 

You're not understanding that the Hollywood studio system is not only in flux, it's broken and thus operates differently than most other industries. The leaders of the industry cannot even agree on whether or not movie theaters are the best venue in which to display their product -- something that would never have been debated as recently as 5 years ago. The entire industry is groping around in the dark trying to find a business model they can rely on in the streaming age.

 

Yes, by conventional measures, making 100 million in profit is considered a success. In Hollywood, if you tell your investors you're going to make 100 million and you only make 99 million, that's a failure because the studio system is owned and financed by people who do not care about the product or the art, only the bottom line. WB is owned by a larger conglomerate and they brought in a new studio head in 2013 to help the studio compete with Disney -- who has bought up pretty much every valuable piece of IP in town over the past half a decade: Marvel, Pixar, LucasFilm et. al. Kevin Tsujihara, the gentleman brought in to right the ship, has been very hands on. Retaining green light control of his movies (which wasn't the case under the last WB chief) even as WB's film slate has been tanking. WB finished third the past two years (the first time they've been third in over a decade and a half) in total box office, and while their TV and gaming divisions are strong Tsujihara was brought in to get WB's film studio back on top.

 

Over the first two years of WB's new direction they've taken baths on their biggest film releases: Pan (lost over $100, Man from U.N.C.L.E lost over $50 million in 2015 alone) -- all of this after Tsujihara stuck by the development team (and their slate) which he inherited from Alan Horn. This is important to note because 99% of the time a new studio head is brought in the first thing they do is clear the development slate and overturn most of the executives in order to get their people and also to bring in fresh ideas/eyes. These are the people that would/will take the fall for any perceived failures, it's doubtful Tsujihara will.

 

As recently as November of '15, Tsujihara was out in front of investors and the press guaranteeing victory for WB once the DC universe started to roll out. After two years of losses and a smaller slate of films, this was the year that WB was supposed to be rewarded for their patience. The fact that the foundation of that universe is massively under performing Tsuhihara's own predictions to the corporate board is a problem as it casts doubts about the ability of lesser known heroes being able to change the tide at the studio. Wonder Woman has never been a successful franchise in film, nor has Aquaman. WB now needs both of those movies, in addition to the equally controversial (and star studded -- meaning super pricey) Suicide Squad to not only meet expectations but exceed them.

 

Is it possible they do? Sure. Is it likely?

 

I don't think anyone on the board at WB is banking on that after seeing the box office numbers from last night. But they can't just cancel their slate or delay JL -- they're too far gone now. Doing so would be a flaming signal of risk for the studio's financiers and put their future slate in jeopardy. All they can do now is ride out the wave and pray it works better than BvS.

 

As far as the reshoots go on Suicide Squad I agree that reshoots are common and are not red flags by themselves. But when the studio comes out and says they're doing these reshoots to add more humor like Deadpool -- that's a REAL bad sign. It's a bad sign because of the timing. Clearly the under performance of BvS has them panicking a bit. When you try to change the tone of a movie, simply by adding jokes in reshoots, it rarely works because you're changing the surface without addressing the narrative issues which got you to that humorless place originally.

 

Think of it like the NFL -- the Bills see the Patriots winning with Brady throwing the ball 50 times. Imagine the Bills attempting redo their entire game plan on a Friday of game week in an effort to be more like the Patriots... only they don't have Brady. So instead of making themselves better, they actually make themselves worse by trying to imitate something else without having all the right pieces. That's what this smacks of.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Deranged Rhino

[Mark Vader]

As far as the reshoots go on Suicide Squad I agree that reshoots are common and are not red flags by themselves. But when the studio comes out and says they're doing these reshoots to add more humor like Deadpool -- that's a REAL bad sign. It's a bad sign because of the timing. Clearly the under performance of BvS has them panicking a bit. When you try to change the tone of a movie, simply by adding jokes in reshoots, it rarely works because you're changing the surface without addressing the narrative issues which got you to that humorless place originally.

 

 

Wow, Deranged Rhino, that is amazing and troubling news for "Suicide Squad".

 

Honestly, I thought WB was showing far more confidence in "Suicide Squad" than BvS, simply because they have a bigger cast and are giving that movie a summer date.

 

If BvS does have a 65% drop, then WB could have a big problem on their hands. They cannot back out of "Justice League", but they really should consider delaying the Aquaman movie, and they are going to have to pray that "Wonder Woman" does enormous business. I understand they also have a movie for Flash all planned to get working on as well.

 

I am really keeping an eye on the domestic grosses for BvS & Deadpool. There is a chance that Deadpool could end up with more domestic gross than BvS. If that actually happens.....

[Deranged Rhino]

Wow, Deranged Rhino, that is amazing and troubling news for "Suicide Squad".

 

Honestly, I thought WB was showing far more confidence in "Suicide Squad" than BvS, simply because they have a bigger cast and are giving that movie a summer date.

 

If BvS does have a 65% drop, then WB could have a big problem on their hands. They cannot back out of "Justice League", but they really should consider delaying the Aquaman movie, and they are going to have to pray that "Wonder Woman" does enormous business. I understand they also have a movie for Flash all planned to get working on as well.

 

I am really keeping an eye on the domestic grosses for BvS & Deadpool. There is a chance that Deadpool could end up with more domestic gross than BvS. If that actually happens.....

 

100% with you. The latest projections I've seen have BvS only bringing in $50 million this weekend. That's closer to a 70% drop off. Yikes.