#Give me less “The Third Remake of A Star is Born” and more “La La Lands”

[artist-issues]

When you remake something and make changes, you’re basically saying that you either want to say something different than what the original said because what it had to say was stupid—

—or what the original said wasn’t already said perfectly, and you could say it better.

I’ll give you an example. Donald Glover, who voiced Simba in the remake of the Lion King, openly said that the message of the new Lion King was different than the old one. And that’s easy to see. The old message was something like “Remember who you are: Don’t run from your responsibility.” The new message is “Don’t be ashamed of who you are.” They communicated that change with subtle smaller changes, because although most of that movie was a less appealing shot-for-shot remake, Simba said little things like “I’m not like you,” instead of saying, “I’m not who I used to be,” to Mufasa’s ghost. Or he replied to Scar’s bullying, “I’m nothing,” rather than the emphasis being placed on him insisting that he’s “not a murderer.”

That’s saying, “yeah the old message was great but we’re going to take the award-winning songs and characters and story and make it say something else.”

Which is like trying to use a recipe for brownies to describe your chicken salad. You might as well just make an original movie, so the characters and pacing and music all fit that message more appealingly.

Here’s a different example.

The new Live Action Little Mermaid has lots of thematic references to understanding and finding one’s own voice, which, on the surface, sound like they’re exactly what the original animated classic was saying.

But they make little changes, like having Ariel make the decision to go to the surface for the first time just before she meets Eric, or big changes, like having her be the one to kill Ursula. The problem is, both of those story elements in the first film were used to drive the main message home: “True love is understanding and sacrifice.” So when you change those elements, but claim you’re still saying the same thing, all you mean is “What you said was good, but watch me say it better.”

That would be fine, if it actually worked. But it doesn’t. The Lion King (2019) is worse than the original because it’s characters are bland and lean more toward annoying or weak than they did in the original, thanks to small changes. Now Simba doesn’t look like the irresponsible runaway who needs to remember that he’s the son of a king and has responsibility. Now he just looks like a sad boi with trauma. Now Ariel doesn’t look like a real, relatable teenager who recklessly goes for the things she’s passionate about. Now she just looks like every other near-perfect heroine who’s circumstances determine her struggles instead of her own character flaws determining her struggles.

I’m tired, but I’m appreciating the originals.

[claystripemovieblog]

Box Office Report Card- 9/25/2017

Welcome to what I hope will be a running series for this blog: the Box Office Report Card (or BORC; someone please higher me a title writer). Many publications do a weekly box office report- this is one of them!

In all seriousness, this series will look at the global performance of films distributed by the seven major American film studios- Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, Fox, Sony, and Lionsgate- and see how each of them are doing in terms of overall profitability. For most cases, we’ll simply be using the formula of multiplying the most widely accepted production budget numbers by two to account for marketing and distribution costs and weighing them against the purported worldwide earnings provided by Box Office Mojo. Because of the complications and deliberate obscurity of Hollywood accounting practices, even more vague sponsorship finances, and the ever-changing size of both marketing/distribution costs and streaming/syndication/home sales, most of these numbers will actually mean next to nothing beyond giving a vague idea of how a film is doing. Isn’t that fun? Let’s get into it.

This week, two major releases helped to push this September towards being one of the most financially successful in recent box office history. But did either of these openings measure up to the studios expectations? And how is It doing?Let’s find out!

1. Universal: +$2,824,627,168 (Estimated Net Profit)

Top/Bottom Three Movies Ranked by Estimated Profit (Profit, Gross- Estimated Cost)

1. Despicable Me 3: +860,063,384, 1,020,063,384-160,000,000

2. Fate of the Furious: +738,764,765, 1,238,764,765-500,000,000

3. Fifty Shades Darker: +268,827,494, 378,827,494-110,000,000

...

-3. Raw: -3,963,684, 1,036,316-5,000,000

-2. The Book of Henry: -10,711,896, 4,288,104-15,000,000 

-1. The Zookeeper’s Wife: -11,412,769, 18,587,231-30,000,000

A quiet week for the quiet titan of this year’s movie business. The only release here in the states was the British period piece Victoria and Abdul (-2,492,557, 12,507,443-15,000,000) in four NYC/LA theaters through Comcast’s Focus Features label and won the week’s best per screen average. That’s not making a butt-ton of money in the long run, but it doesn’t matter- Universal/Comcast has released seven films that have seen estimated profits over $100,000,000 and no major flops.

2. Disney: +1,762,422,220

1. Beauty and the Beast: +942,937,952, 1,262,937,952-320,000,000

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: +463,416,141, 863,416,141-400,000,000

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: +334,191,988, 794,191,988-460,000,000

4. Cars 3: +12,000,557, 362,000,557-350,000,000

5. Born in China: +9,875,582, 24,875,582-15,000,000

Disney likewise had a quiet week, as their policy of sticking to their major IP films has led to a pretty extensive drought for their movie releases in the states since July that won’t be broken until Thor: Ragnarok arrives in November. Cars 3 has been doing fairly well in China since its release there a few weeks ago, helping to mitigate the fact that it remains the second lowest grossing Pixar film ever behind only The Good Dinosaur (-17,792,329, 332,207,671-350,000,000). Beyond that, Disney’s got three mega-hits and no significant disappointments, more than enough to keep it in its #2 spot until Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars can set it up to reclaim the #1 over the holidays.

3. Warner Bros: +$1,467,324,014

1. Wonder Woman: +522,390,490

2. It: +408,096,375

3. Annabelle: Creation: +295,204,430

...

-3. The House:  -45,815,496

-2. LEGO Ninjago:  -109,516,929

-1. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword:  -201,324,934

Despite claiming the #2 and #3 spots on this weekend’s Top 10, WB had a pretty mixed week. First, the positives: they made It (+408,096,375, 478,096,375-70,000,000). The Stephen King adaptation has become the most financially successful horror film in years, even if its numbers are being seriously propped up by inflation.* The mid-budgeted film’s longevity is remarkable and seems likely to continue throughout the Halloween season so long as other horror flicks don’t emerge to take a bite out of its space. Who’d have thunk that making a good, funny, well-acted film with great characters, a known IP, and some seasonally appropriate scares would result in box office dividends?

WB also released this week’s second-highest earning debut, the children’s animated film LEGO Ninjago (-109,516,929, 30,483,071-140,000,000). This marks the third theatrical Lego movie and the second to be released this year. This decision to release Ninjago so close to LEGO Batman (+151,950,384, 311,950,384-160,000,000) baffled me at the time of its announcement, and it baffles me even more now, as the new film earned less than half of its predecessor on its opening weekend. Oversaturation, mixed with a lack of a known IP beyond the LEGO brand and a generally busy box office weekend combined for a seriously lackluster opening and, in all likelihood, an overall disappointment and even maybe a serious flop. This film purports a $70,000,000 budget, meaning that it will have to gross ~$140,000,000 to even break even. Ninjago still is rolling out into a few markets over the next month and has the advantage of being the only major kids movie out for the next few weeks, but without a Chinese release on the table and with pretty mixed reviews overall, the prospects of a 6x multiplier seem pretty far out of reach.

Other than that, Wonder Woman, Dunkirk (+216,092,020, 516,092,020-300,000,000) and Annabelle: Creation (+260,811,680, 290,811,680-30,000,000)  raked in a few million this week, only adding to their incredibly successful runs.

4. Sony/Columbia: +$1,145,204,978

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming: +524,357,374, 874,357,374-350,000,000

2. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter: +232,242,626, 312,242,626-80,000,000

3. Baby Driver: +156,546,585, 224,546,585-68,000,000

...

-3. 13 Minutes: -9,563,482, 436,518-10,000,000

-2. The Dark Tower: -9,703,496, 110,296,504-120,000,000

-1. Life: -15,458,194, 100,541,806-116,000,000

Sony/Columbia continues to do pretty well, largely thanks to the exceptional Chinese performance of both Baby Driver and Spider-Man: Homecoming, which has been sufficient to launch the film to the position of highest grossing superhero film of the year despite being beat by both Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 here in the states.

5. Fox: +$728,109,584

1. Logan: +422,802,633, 616,802,633-194,000,000

2. The Boss Baby: +248,905,866, 498,905,866-250,000,000

3. War for the Planet of the Apes: +170,872,672, 470,872,672-300,000,000

...

-3. Snatched: -23,154,289, 60,845,711-84,000,000

-2. The Cure for Wellness: -53,440,443, 26,559,557-80,000,000

-1. Kingsman: The Golden Circle: -110,242,458, 97,757,542-208,000,000 

Fox had a very busy week, but also not necessarily a great one. The big story is their release of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which saw a release that was more or less the same as the original when accounting for inflation. That implies that the original Kingsman: The Secret Service (+252,351,546, 414,351,546-162,000,000) did not collect as many loyal franchise fans as Fox might have hoped, but that would be fine if this new one did not also cost about $20,000,000 more for production alone. Further bad news comes from the fact that the first film benefited from a proto-Deadpool style February opening with relatively little competition, allowing it to naturally grow from word-of-mouth. This film lacks the original’s critical reception and, well, originality (and I certainly had thoughts about it), and I don’t think it will see the same kind of multiplier (domestically, at least). It should still turn a profit, but here’s hoping it’s enough to get them to shake this franchise up in the future and maybe take more time on the next one.

The other story from Fox is the limited release of Battle of the Sexes (-9,484,550, 515,450-10,000,000), the Emma Stone/Steve Carell historical Oscar-vehicle-for-the-wide-audience, which is set to go wide over the next few weeks. That’ll be one to look out for.

6. Paramount: +$153,295,019

1. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage: +176,147,658, 346,147,658-170,000,000

2. Transformers 5: The Last Knight: +171,425,157, 605,425,157-434,000,000

3.  Baywatch: +39,856,751, 177,856,751-138,000,000

...

-3.  mother!: -34,040,202, 25,959,798-60,000,000

-2. Ghost in the Shell: -50,198,079, 169,801,921-220,000,000

-1. Monster Trucks: -185,506,085, 64,493,915-250,000,000

Not much to report from the saddest film studio in Hollywood beyond that they lost JJ Abrams again to Episode IX, meaning that he’ll go for nearly a decade since the last time he made the studio a blockbuster they so desperately need (that’d be Star Trek Into Darkness (+87,381,469, 467,381,469-380,000,000)). Mother! continues to underperform (or, rather, perform exceptionally well for a movie of its type with an illogically high budget). 

7. Lionsgate: $+85,414,287

1. John Wick: Chapter Two: +91,539,887, 171,539,887-80,000,000

2. The Hitman's Bodyguard: +84,764,016144,764,016-60,000,000

3. The Shack: 56,595,233, 96,595,233-40,000,000

...

-3. All Eyez On Me-35,123,14554,876,855-90,000,000

-2. Power Rangers-57,662,571142,337,429-200,000,000

-1. Rock Dog-99,169,45420,830,546-120,000,000 

It was a fairly subdued week for Lionsgate, but that’s not really a bad thing for the big daddy of “independent” studios. The Hitman’s Bodyguard and American Assassin (-27,592,584, 38,407,416-66,000,000) had respectable holdovers.

The Week Ahead

Next week is should be a little more subdued. The main releases are Universal’s Tom Cruise vehicle American Made and Sony’s horror remake Flatliners. American could go either way. On the one hand, Cruise remains one of the few bankable Hollywood stars, critics have been very favorable, and the concept of Wolf of Wall Street with Tom Cruise flying planes is great. On the other, Cruise’s record as a draw has been rather spotty of late, and I feel like this movie hasn’t been marketed all that well. Flatliners, on the other hand, is almost assured to be a dud, as it’s a Sony remake no one asked for that looks like its so bad that it isn’t even getting critic screenings.

* For reference, It’s current gross among horror movies has only been surpassed by The Sixth Sense (+592,806,292, 672,806,292-80,000,000) in 1999. Adjusting those numbers with consideration for modern buying power diminishes these results somewhat, as Shyamalan’s masterpiece would have grossed a full billion in today’s dollars, and neither comes close to the over two billion that would have been grossed by The Exorcist (+417,306,145, 441,306,145-24,000,000) and Jaws (+456,653,000, 470,653,000-14,000,000) had they been released forty years after they defined the horror genre for decades to come.