Thursday previews -
Talk to Me - $1.245m

Seems solid.

I'm extremely impressed with that Talk To Me number. It's almost 3x what I thought it would do. It did a bit more than Boogeyman. If it somehow does double digits this weekend that's kinda amazing.

Haunted Mansion $3.1M previews including Wed Dolby sneaks.

Hm. Probably not enough for $30m+. Lol at it costing over $150m though.

Despite costing $158M to make, Haunted Mansion is only #10 on the most expensive movies of the year so guess it was a bargain.

Movie budgets 2023 ($70M+)

Fast X $340,000,000
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny $300,000,000
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One $290,000,000
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 $250,000,000
The Little Mermaid $250,000,000
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania $200,000,000
Elemental $200,000,000
The Flash $200,000,000
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts $195,000,000
Haunted Mansion $157,750,000
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves $150,000,000
Shazam! Fury of the Gods $125,000,000
Wonka $125,000,000
The Super Mario Bros. Movie $100,000,000
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse $100,000,000
Barbie $100,000,000
John Wick: Chapter 4 $100,000,000
Oppenheimer $100,000,000
Renfield $86,203,077
Creed III $75,000,000
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken $70,000,000

Sort of sad that none of the top 3 most expensive movies will pass $200M.

Flash cost more than that I believe. I read up to $300M.

I remember when Pirates 3 was the first movie to cost $300M and it was kind of shocking. I think it was because of how rushed the post-production was and they had to get all these insanely complex VFX shots ready in no time and had to hire a ton of VFX artists from different production companies.

I always thought the Pirates movies were expensive because they shot everything on location and used huge sets which included full scale historically accurate galleons.

Yeah, lots of on set filming and and sets being built. And in the bonus features of the DVD (At World's End), I recall that a lot of one sets was destroyed by a hurricane, so they had to pick up and take everything back to LA to repair/rebuild, then fly it all back to set up again, which in turn delayed filming, of course.

Definitely not cheap to rebuild an on location overseas set, and then fly hundreds/thousands of actors, crew, catering, etc., back again on a rescheduled time frame.

All this work, the on set filming, the use of practical effects, etc., is why the Pirates films honestly look better than many films today.

I just remember the Pirates movies being filmed together to "save" money then they still ended up with the largest budget ever.

Speaking of At World's End, that deserves a mention in the worst release dates thread.

I still cannot believe trash like haunted mansion taking away PLF screens from a juggernaut like Barbie. That said its good to see Disney having these bombs. They got so big that they were dominating theaters big time. bringing them down is good for overall balance. I think MCU is also on decline. Guardians with amazing WOM did 800ishm which barbie will do in 2nd weekend !!! I am sure Marvels and beyond with not that great WOM will be down big.

Bombs away for Haunted Mansion

Deadline
Barbie - 28m /90
Oppy - 14m / 47
HM - 9-10m including previews/25m.

https://deadline.com/2023/07/barbie-opp ... 235450156/

44 and 43% drops after those weekdays is amazing.

Not good for Haunted Mansion. Would've been nice to see it do $30m+.

Also Oppenheimer smoking MI and Indy after weekend 2... just crazy.

I may be confused, but how did Renfield cost 86m?

9m would be HELLA front loaded for a family film with little if any existing fan base.

Are there a lot of Haunted Mansion ride fans that rushed out opening night?

Sorry I used The Numbers budget page. I see from a Google search its $65M. So probably more likely the lower.

Ah yeah, that makes more sense.

$25M opening for a $160M budget movie is a bomb. And it won't do great internationally.

Disney flopping is good for balance in the universe though. Buying Fox should've never been allowed, they were becoming way too big and powerful.

Disney has almost no live action movie outside franchise, remake of an animated classic or these movies based on theme park rides !!! Last ones are back in 2016. If MCU/SW dont print money that easily they will be in trouble for sure.

Wrinkle in Time?

Disney’s bread and butter is their parks division believe it or not. That’s the cash cow the company runs off of. It used to be ESPN back in the 2000s and yeah the film division was unparalleled in the late 2010s, but we’ll be fine. Downsizing has already begun. We need to stop focusing on diversification of the workforce, like we did for the past few years, and focus on bringing in some talent. We did this for a long time during the 2010s, and we can do it again.

Another mega bomb lol. And one of the lowest international grosses for a major fantasy film since the modern fantasy era began with LOTR/Harry Potter. It barely outdid The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. Certain casting choices mean automatic bomb outside of the US. It's crazy Disney has not or does not want to realize this and they keep killing what should've been major films like Little Mermaid and Haunted Mansion.

Disney took the wrong message from all their non sequel flops. They were literally all garbage, that’s why they bombed. If Disney actually put any effort into the scripts for Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Prince of Persia, Tomorrowland, John Carter, Wrinkle in Time, etc, some might still have bombed, but at least a couple might have caught on.

Forgot that one. Yes that is based of a book and they made a tv movie before. Still can be called an original as I dont think its not big enough.