Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2018

I have not seen that many movies in the last few years, but none that I have seen gave me reason to comment that they were "noticeably dark".

This is something local to your cinema. I had to leave during the first 2D showing. I had not realized that there was also a 3D showing, until someone here commented on it.

The next day, I went back and caught almost the entire movie again, in 3D.

Neither showing struck me as being the least bit dark. F.Y.I.

 

The score doesn't lend itself to Hip Hop. "Yo! A Deer! A female deer..."

 

It was done on TV probably the only place it would do well in today's film market.

 

There's always a place for solid family entertainment. I make not be in the top 10 grossers of all time but...

 

True, but where are you going to go from the original?

Musical's mostly died out with Rogers and Hammerstien's, Sound of Music, back in 1965.

I enjoy musicals. They were a mainstay of movies, ever since the talkie was born.

Sound of Music, marked an end of an era.

Back in 1965, people used to listen to music like this. Today, not so much.

Rogers and Hammerstien's musicals were from a certain era and very much, belong in that era.

I am very fond of their movies and grew up on them. But, I don't think that you could make a successful remake out of any of them as a film, though they usually do well when brought back on the Broadway stage.

Movies, like A Star is Born, don't have to be pigeon holed into a certain point of time. You can do it in any time frame.

 

Yes. The cost of light bulbs is still a "thing" (usually around $700 each for digital projectors). Complain to the management that the projector's light level is too low and that they need to calibrate it and make sure it's hitting the normal DCI standards (48 nits or 14 footlamberts).

 

“Musicals aren’t popular anymore” is something people regularly say, like “Westerns aren’t popular anymore,” even though musicals (and Westerns) come along fairly regularly that do well, from Chicago to Les Miserables to Hairspray to Mamma Mia to La La Land to The Greatest Showman to all the Disney movies that feature songs.

Certainly the musical style of Rodgers and other composers of that era is dated, and there isn’t a new musical out every week like there probably was in the 30s. But I don’t think the genre is dead at all.

 

There was a live production on NBC a few years back. That's probably as close as we'll get to one.

 

My comments were intended to be primarily directed to doing a remake of Sound of Music.

Certainly, there have been and hopefully there will continue to be musical's in the theater's.

But, if you compare the musical as a genera to other current popular movie genera's, post 1965's Sound of Music, it is more dead than alive, as an active genera.

I can be all for musical's, the same way that I can be all in favor of having and owning physical media, but that is not going to change the realities of the market place.

The concept that people are walking around doing what ever they were doing on screen and the suddenly start breaking into song and dance routines, is not something that modern day audiences embrace. It is what it is.

Musical western's were a very popular genera back in the 30's. Singing cowboy's were huge studio stars back then, like Gene Autry.

You can buy this double CD on Amazon.

What can be better than the combination of two very popular genera's from the 30's, musical's and western's?

What a shame, we could have enjoyed Clint Eastwood singing his through spaghetti western's.

I can imagine the growth possibilities of merging science fiction film's with musical's.

Dow that Disney owns the Star War's franchise, anything is possible.

And, we all know about Disney and movie merchandising.

Think of how exciting it would be to own the video of "Jar Jar sings Star War's"?

How about the Jedi Song?

I think the last time I was this excited was Mr. Spock's album;


I do hope that they re-release a SH mastering version on vinyl!



Yes, the musical genera does not have to be dead. Bring it on!

 

I bet you £1 that this does really well. It's the perfect holiday film for all the family and the trailer looks good. I think this will do very well.

I'm not sure why today's audience would consider it crap? She's a pop culture classic, there was even a Simpsons episode.

 

We didn't get Clint singing in a pasta Western but we did get to hear him warble, literally, in Paint Your Wagon.

 

We saw this yesterday. It was cute enough, funny, and I felt the animation nailed the proper feel. We also really liked Cumberbatch's portrayal of The Grinch, also Max, Fred the reindeer, and Kenan Thompson's character.

But the plot as you say was a bit of a letdown. I could have done without the pointless Cindy Lou suplot. Also, we found The Grinch not mean enough. You sympathized with him early in the film. What made the original so great, was the Grinch was right down evil, which made his turn at the end more powerful. The film is already up to 78 million domestic, so mission accomplished.

We actually liked the Jim Carrey version better.

 

Really wish I was more of a movie-goer so I could participate more in earnest...

Don't have real plans for Thanksgiving so I'm hoping to go see Creed II which I'm sure is going to be successful at the box office... on the other hand, I can't see this new Robin Hood film, also slated for a Thanksgiving release, doing well at all.

 

I think there is zero interest in this new Robin Hood. I don't know why they made it. It looks like an awful 'modern' re-telling along the lines of that dreadful King Arthur they released a while back.

Won't make it's money back I think.

 

...except when they do, in hit musicals like the ones I mentioned.

No, musicals and Westerns are not flooding the multiplexes in great numbers. But there are still successful films in both genres, which makes me question why people like yourself always claim nobody wants to see them anymore.

 

Yes he did. I did see Paint Your Wagon when it came out. That was the last time that I remember singing in a western. I was thinking of this yesterday, when I made my post.

 

Let's try this one last time.

As you continue to state things as fact that I never did say.

If you take time to read what I did say, you might notice that never did I say that "nobody wants to see them anymore".

What I did say was that:

I further clarified that my initial post on the subject was limited in its scope to comment that I didn't feel that a remake of the Sound of Music, would be viable for a profitable theatrical movie remake.

This should be interpreted to mean, that in order for them to continue to be released in the theater's, then at least some of them, would need to turn a profit, which means that at least some people would still continue to purchase tickets and watch them.

I mentioned the movie, A Star is Born, which has been remade and has been making a very successful run and is currently in the theater's.

I have DVD's of Chicago and La La Land.

Back in the 90's, I used to collect movies in the VHS format. By the end of the decade, when I sold of the collection, I have a total of about 3,800 pre-recorded movies, inclusive of around 200 musical's.

I have been a life long fan of both musical's and movie music in general. At age of eleven, I started buying my first original movie soundtrack album and went on to purchase many more afterward.

I grew up watching movie musical's. I have seen and adore all of the old Rogers and Hammerstien musicals.

I have been a movie buff, my entire life, though I rarely attend movies in a theater these days. I am fine, watching moves from different era's, in fact, I make it a point to watch them. I watch foreign movies with subtitles, I have no problem watching old black and white movies. I used to own almost every pre Wizard of Oz, black and white movie that Judy Garland was in and sung in. As well as those that she made afterward.

For about thirty five years, the musical had been a mainstay of the motion picture industry. Post Sound of Music, the musical has never regained the popularity with the general public that it once enjoyed.

My comments are concerning movie watching trend's of the general public, as reflected in the market place.

They are observations of what has happened in the movie business, nothing more. They are not even personal opinion's.

Seen any singing cowboy western's lately?

 

I saw that some company (Samsung, Toshiba?is trying out multiplex-sized "TV" screens. So, maybe soon no projection at all.

 

You didn't, I apologize. But frequently when a musical is a hit I will read somewhere, "the surprise success of Musical X in an era when audiences don't relate to musicals anymore" or as you did say, "The concept that people are walking around doing what ever they were doing on screen and the suddenly start breaking into song and dance routines, is not something that modern day audiences embrace." And I think... but they do still embrace it, every time a musical is a hit. Maybe not everybody, but then nothing is embraced by everybody.

I guess we look at it differently. Just because it is no longer the most popular movie genre doesn't mean it's dead. You're doing your own reductio ad absurdum bringing up singing cowboys... of course the genre has changed over the years.

I do think musicals and Westerns now have in common with straight dramas that they are what Hollywood calls “execution dependent,” i.e. they have to be good to be successful. (Though this doesn’t explain Mamma Mia but I think it's still generally true.) This is why you see less of them than, say, horror movies, which almost always make money no matter how bad they are.

 

Actually I got that from an article I read several years back, that I found was well written on the subject of musical's and how they interact with today's audiences.

Movies were fantasy escapes from reality pre-WWII. After the war, audiences shied away from the traditional "feel good" movies that studio's, namely MGM had been previously putting out to audiences.

The post war audiences were tired of the "pablum" and wanted movies that were more lifelike and had more grit to them.

By the time that we had gotten to the later forties and on into the 50's, there was already substantial changes being made to movies that were being embraced by the audience demographic. We started seeing western's being replaced by war movies.

There were fewer and fewer MGM movies during the 50's. A couple of notable ones were An American in Paris in the early part of the decade and GiGi in that latter part.

The biggest musical's from that period, were mainly the Rogers and Hammerstien musical's.

As I said, after SOM, the movie musical's slowed to a trickle. Compare before and after this point in time.

As Rogers and Hammerstien, went by the wayside, Hal David and Burt Bacharach teamed up in the early 1960's and remained as the most influential team of musical composers for the next two decades to come. They redefined the Broadway musical and movie musical's to reflect more updated styles of music. They also wrote music for various successful performing artists.

So, I have followed musical's past Rogers and Hammerstien and into what was the current era for me, at the time.

A couple of favorite works of mine back around 1970 was the music from the Broadway play, Promises Promises and the Ross Hunter production of Lost Horizon, which was severely panned by the movie critics.

I had both of these on vinyl and even a few years later, had a copy of Lost Horizon on 16mm.

I don't get what you find so absurd about that genera, it was huge! I remember Roy Rodgers and Dale Evens singing their "happy trails to you..", back in the early 60's, when the singing cowboy's went away from the western's.

Back in the 60's. the radio had a category called CW music, meaning country & western music.

Over the ensuing decades, country has not only survived but has thrived, while western music as a genera went the way of the Dodo bird.

Times change and modern audiences do not identify with "cowboy's" and western's the way they embraced them in past days.

Singing cowboy's were the writing on the wall for things to come.

As the 60's progressed into the later 60's and early 70's, staunch western movie icon's, like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, moved away from playing cowboy's and made their ways into other movie genera's.

I do agree with you, as not everyone today will watch musical's, the ones that make it must be “execution dependent,” i.e. they have to be good to be successful, otherwise, they would not exist.

In older days, you didn't have to coax movie audience's into watching a musical. Most enjoyed and welcomed the concept.

Up until the middle 60's when the Vietnam war was gaining grassroots opposition and the growth of rock music was exponential. I think that music was something that was generally something that all ages found enjoyable and the same musical genera's were enjoyed by all.

The Vietnam war polarized the country, into the older and the younger, under thirty generation, with the younger generation endorsing amplified rock music to the general exclusion of older listener's.

The younger generation of this period spanned three generations and were not the type to line up for a midnight showing of the Sound of Music.

Musical's that have been overall successful in post Sound of Music days, have dealt with contemporary themes and contemporary music.

Myself, I would rather watch a good musical, as a movie genera than any other genera, maybe along side of a good science fiction movie.

At home, I listen to movie music through real theater speakers and tube amplifier's.

 

I was just checking on my local multiplex movie listing for showings for today.

I noticed that Nutcracker, had four showings, three of which were in 2D and only one evening showing was in 3D.

Seems like the cinema is deliberately trying to evade the after school matinee showings that are regularly attended by children and their families, during the school week.

Children prefer 3D showings and the only time that adults usually get to see a 3D movie, is when they go to one with their children.

 

I think you're kind of missing the point I was making. I'm not claiming that musicals are as popular or dominant as they were back in the glory days of MGM. I just don't agree when people say, "nobody wants to watch musicals anymore" or "audiences can't accept actors singing." That's simply not true -- it's demonstrated every time a musical is successful. Just last year, "The Greatest Showman" ran for months and made $400 million. It doesn't happen every week but it happens often enough that I think the genre is still viable.

 

Don't forget Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

 

Yeah, the Samsung Onyx Cinema LED Wall:



Samsung Redefines the Movie Theater Experience with the New Onyx Cinema LED Screen

Two big problems with it: 1) it's very expensive (in the neighborhood of $500,000+), and 2) there's no place to put the loudspeakers, which are traditionally put behind the screen in cinemas. I have seen a demo and thought it had pros and cons -- it's bright, blacks are good, but I thought the color was off.

 

Interesting. I figured it was just a matter of time until LED and then OLED screens get big enough to use as cinema screens.