Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2019

I was just replying to your post mentioning the 2 and 1/2 hour length as the reason that 'Dr. Sleep' did not do well this Opening Weekend by pointing out that 'IT-Chapter 2' had similar length. Now maybe IT-CH 2 did better because a lot of People saw Chapter 1(whether at the Theater or later on Streaming or bought the BluRay), and like me was looking forward to watching the Conclusion, so the length for Chapter 2 was not going to be a factor.

 

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was even longer and made tons of dough. So there's a variety of factors that go into whether a movie will succeed. The links I posted cover a broad spectrum of reasons for Dr. Sleep's failure. Some more here:

‘Doctor Sleep’ To Lose $20M+, But ‘Joker’ & ‘It Chapter Two’ To Profit $600M+ For Warners Bros.

 

Have you seen 'Dr. Sleep'? Just wanted your take on if it is worth seeing, as the Trailers looked good to me.

 

I'd comment on this post but the gorts will suspend me if I do!

 

Not yet, but I'll try to if I can. Trying to gird my loins for the 3-1/2 hour IRISHMAN tomorrow night.

 

I made the mistake of not eating enough before an 11:45am screening. So the last half-hour or so was a very hungry slog. Great film though! Just prepare yourself.

 

We'll be prepared. The real problem is smuggling in enough buckets for human waste disposal.

 

And just to update the Joker gross... it's about to hit $985 million worldwide, which is jaw-droppingly amazing.

Terminator’s Fate Still Dark; Joker Grinning With $985M WW, Nears $1B

I think WB would've been thrilled if they had even done half that, about $500M. For a movie that cost $70M, that would be astonishingly profitable. But a billion? Wow. Joker may be the most profitable film of the past decade, because it cost so little (relatively speaking) and made so much.

 

Movie title out people to sleep.

 

James Bond movies, over a half century and still going strong.

For every movie, we have a Bond Girl.

Fortunate for us, you don't get to pick them out.

 

"The complete Melissa Mc Carthy film collection" boxset on the way for your eyes only . Consider it a X mas gift

 

Thanx, I could use a doorstop.

 

Doctor Sleep bombed because most people realize that Kubrick's The Shining isn't any good. It is just film snobs and critics who say they like it.

 

The reasons for it bombing are more complex than that:

We already laid out to you why Doctor Sleep was in a deep coma: A late-breaking, uneventful campaign (no tee off to the horror fans at San Diego Comic-Con), its 2 1/2 hour running time, which doesn’t work for horror fans or exhibitors, the latter who are cuffed at programming the pic (one auditorium can get as little as 4 showtimes in a given day for Doctor Sleep).

Also, this 2013 novel by King doesn’t have the brand equity that It did. Not to mention, Doctor Sleep didn’t wake up the young female and Hispanic horror-going demos with its billing as a sequel to the 1980 movie The Shining. When it came to those who cited the franchise as their reason to attend, females under 25 were last in that category, 18% behind all other demos. Ditto for the 13-17 year olds (17%, yes, it’s an R-rated movie, but they’ll still go).

Not to mention Hispanics, another prime horror movie-going demo, trailed Caucasians, 18% to 32%, for that same reasoning. Many are also citing that Ewan McGregor’s cold turn as the young psychic Danny also softened grosses, with PostTrak showing that he was not the top reason why people went to see the movie; top influences being genre (40%), subject matter (39%) and the King canon (26%). McGregor was a distant reason at 16%.

All of this said, film industry social media analytics corp RelishMix cited a huge reason why Doctor Sleep didn’t work: “For those who have seen the movie, and who share frustrations with Kubrick’s Shining, Sleep similarly departs from the novel in ways they would not have preferred.” Boom, mic drop.

‘Doctor Sleep’ To Lose $20M+, But ‘Joker’ & ‘It Chapter Two’ To Profit $600M+ For Warners Bros.

 

Please troll someone else! :wave"

 

And the word is that WB is totally freaked-out that Dr. Sleep tanked, because they thought it was going to be a sure thing...

Box Office: 'Doctor Sleep's' Dismal $14M Debut Terrifies Hollywood

 

It’s amusing that anyone expected a huge box office return from Dr. Sleep. That Hollywood sequel mentality - that because a remake of It was a huge hit, audiences would flock to any King product, especially one with supposed brand equity, completely ignored the facts that -

-The Shining movie, now nearly 40 years old, was far from a big hit. It was the 18th highest grossing film of 1980 and 14th highest domestically.
-Dr. Sleep, both book and movie, are sequels in the barest sense... it’s not like a grown up Danny went back to spend the winter at the rebuilt Overlook and battled the demons (and ghosts) of his past. It was like King came up with the idea for Rose and her crew and his publisher said, “Hey, throw Danny in there and we’ll call it a sequel.”
-The book wasn’t very good and King is far from the rock star he was back then.
-The promos were terrible. It had the scary clown. Dr. Sleep had an unknown woman in a hat breathing in vape fumes.
-King’s movies have never been huge hits, other than It, which had the scary clown and what seemed like the entire cast of Stranger Things for the kiddy crowd.

So maybe we’ll be spared an endless stream of King remakes, because there are not three people in the world who want to see the return of the Tommyknockers.

 

Well, there was a Remake of 'Pet Semetary' that came out earlier this Spring. A 3rd version of 'Carrie' was released in 2013. Who knows what other King Novels or Short Stories(1408 was a Good Movie) or in potential consideration, whether 1st Time Releases or Remakes?

His Son, Joe Hill already has a few Movies based on his Books in development(think for Netflix) to followup on his 'NOS4A2' TV Series for AMC.

 

Midway bombed another remake ugh.

 

The Shining movie is mostly still remembered for Nicholson's trademark performance and the fact it was directed by Kubrick, but it's neither man's best work. It's not even one of King's better novels, either.

 

This one made a respectable amount of money when it was released and it won an Oscar

 

“Respectable” is a good word for the best of the King movie adaptations, but after It the blockbuster mentality set in and unrealistic expectations were raised. Hence the disappointment with Dr. Sleep. As someone else noted, there are a slew of King projects in the pipeline, but after last weekend it’s probably fair to assume that the green light has turned yellow.

 

Stephen King's novels have usually worked better as a TV miniseries than as proper films. It looks like there are currently several King-based streaming series in the works.

But I do remember Cujo being a fairly popular movie when it came out.

 

Trying to remember what the other version was...I got the original, the Chloe M remake and what's the other one?

 

A late 90s horrible movie called "The Rage". Unfortunately I saw it. Don't do the same mistake.