It's actually kinda crazy how Spider-verse was the lowest on the budget side on this list. It was in technicality the hardest one to make out of all of them by a long shot.
Looking at your theatrical gross estimate for Elemental gave me an idea I think would be interesting to see at the end of the year: How about a chart showing year end grosses for all movies from a studio versus the estimated budgets (& related costs) for those movies... This would show what studios made an estimated overall profit for the year, and could show which studios are most profitable (both in gross and percent)
I posted a similar comment. There are too many movies! I can't see them all, so I'm deciding which ones im seeing at the movies and some I'm gonna have wait till they appear in a streaming platform
@yolandag8436 Specifically too many movies that all look and feel the same. If we had a healthier cinematic "ecosystem" where movies besides action blockbusters and family-friendly animation dominated theatrical summer wide releases, "too many movies" a season might be a positive thing, but as it is, the summer box office is too much of the same 1-2 things over and over again.
I think Spider-Verse had a significant impact on the Flash and Elemental. Their unique selling points didn't seem as appealing in comparison and instead of going to see several movies in a short space, they'll just wait for streaming
Because Sony never said their films would go to a streaming service after a certain amount of days? One thing I would love to see from them is a Ghostbusters-Men in Black crossover. There was a board game that combined the two franchises fyi
It's true- a better multiverse film than the Flash and a better animated film than Elemental and it's also attached to the name of arguably the most popular superhero in the world.
@@AlexMartinez-gv7hy I mean, they were really good in the roles. Probably best thing about the movie. It wasn't perfect and I hope they're fired for their behavior, but it was a couple of good performances. Don't blame people for waiting for streaming though, same with Elemental.
The crazy thing is I went to see Spider-Man with my dad over the weekend and every showing at my local theater on Father’s Day was basically sold out, filled with kids and adults with their dads. I would have had no idea the box office wasn’t looking great 😅
I wouldn't be surprised if even Mario would still be in the top 10 if it had more screens. It and spiderman have been doing phenomenally to keep bringing people in.
What’s hurting it right now is that all the premium screens (which demand higher prices) went to “Flash” and “Elemental” this weekend. Otherwise, “Spider-man” would have raked in a lot more domestically. Don’t really understand why it’s not performing internationally.
"This summer...she's a Barbie girl in a Barbie world...he's a nuclear scientist and destroyer of worlds...they'll have to work together to save the box office..." *BWAAAAAAAAA*
I went to see Across the Spider-Verse this Monday and the theatre was full. I mean GOTG 3 and Spider-Verse were both really good movies. I will probably see Across the Spider-Verse again before the end of the summer because I loved the animation and score so much! GOTG 3 was great, but it was heartbreaking I don’t think I need to see it again so soon. 😅
Going to the movies is expensive and many households are having to seriously budget. That means that families are going to have to pick one, maybe two movies per month to see and they are going to skip the movies that don't have good word of mouth. Studios jamming the summer schedule is setting them all up for lots of failures. They need to spread out the releases and get the budgets of their movies under control.
I'm going on holiday. I don't have money for more than 1-2 cinema trips this summer. Inflation, cost of living etc Take a family to cinema in the UK and with snacks it's £100. That's a lot.
I understand the factors that went into the flash’s lackluster performance but I’m still a little surprised. But that just goes to show you that when you make a movie no one is interested in form a universe in shambles with a star who’s off the rails and your actors aren’t allowed to actually do the whole press thing… this is what you get.
Grant Gustin was the Flash for 8 seasons and became the largest CW Show, but somehow WB thought they could replace him with a criminal and we would just accept it because of the Batman that Boomers watched on theaters.
Who knew? I was very interested in seeing Keaton as Batman again, but I will never go see an Ezra Miller movie. I just can't support someone like that.
Jurassic Park was in theatres for about a year straight. It didn't hit home video until nearly a year and a half after its theatrical debut - October of 1994. Incredible!
Kids today would find it difficult to comprehend a time that you would be waiting the best part of a year before you could watch a new movie at home as well as the fact you actually had to leave the house to do it!
Imagine if Oppenheimer and Barbie both become the highest grossing movie of the year. I mean, both are totally different from each other and they stand side by side, peacefully or even have overlapped audience.
Barbie I can believe. Oppenheimer...not so much. I mean, I love Nolan's film but I dont see this particular film making people rush to the cinema. But, hey, I can always be wrong. :)
Barbie sure. But Oppenheimer seems unlikely. The big films have people returning to see it multiple times, and Oppenheimer doesn't strike me as one likely to have that.
@@playgroundchooser sure I guess, I just want to see their poster stand side by side and both become successful. List of movie consist of Mario, spiderverse, barbie and oppenheimer is definitely a 2023 moments.
There was a reason I didn’t put Elemental on my top 10 summer box office list. Simply put: I don’t trust Disney when it comes to marketing their original animated films at the Box Office anymore.
And the fact of the matter is, no one is going to go out in this heat at these prices for something that isn't going to blow their socks off. Even the occasional barrages of "It's Fine" or "I liked it" isn't going to cut it for most right now when there are so many other options here and upcoming.
I did and that was apparently a huge mistake!! I thought the Pixar power hadn't fallen off quite as much as Disney but after Lighyear and now this I guess we have to come to the conclusion that Pixar doesn't have the same pull it used to. They'll have to do sequels of movies like Inside Out and Coco or something like that to get back to profiting again.
Original animated films have struggled for a while now, even pre-Covid. The last big one was Coco in 2017. After that it doesn't matter the studio: WB (Smallfoot), DreamWorks (Abominable/Bad Guys), Blue Sky (Spies in Disguise), Disney (Raya, Encanto, Strange World), or Pixar, originals just can't hit $100 million domestic. Bad Guys was budgeted well at least, and Encanto has been a streaming hit, but people just don't show up to originals like they used to in theaters.
I started watching your channel in the winter when I was very sick. Your voice gave me a lot of comfort. I really enjoy how academic, organized, and thoughtful this movie channel is. It gives me hope about media. You don't go for the clickbait and reactionary treatment. Thanks you, sir.
I feel like a lot of these Disney (or Pixar) movies aren't making as much is because of Disney+. People already pay for that and figure that they can just wait for it and it'd be so much cheaper for a family of 4.
That's for a lot of movies, Flash will be on Max in a few months and for the others have a thought procrss of "my tv and sound system is theater quality enough for me and I can pause to pee while wearing my pajamas." But budgets keep creeping higher and higher while the box office keeps crawling downward. We'll never have a Titanic or Avatar 6+ month theater run, or even a Pasion of the Christ held aloft by Evangelical mega churches. The 2020s are a much different era than anything before now but the studios are living in the 20th century still. $100mil is now a decent domestic return for your 300m+ movie after production and marketing. Also, the marketing department probably still buys print space 😂
Whats funny about Elemental is when I saw it this past weekend, my theater was packed on a Sunday afternoon at 3pm. When I saw Lightyear opening weekend, I was the only one in that theater. Surprising to see it how bad it's doing.
I've been saying it all weekend - they can't flood the market with $200+M theatrical releases one week after another and expect everything to be profitable. They have to manage these budgets better, cut back on expenses, and plot their release strategies with a more comprehensive outlook. I'd be surprised if someone next month doesn't get gutted with multiple mega-budget films hitting within weeks of each other. If the films are all really good, they might having a fighting chance amongst each other, but it's still a strain to cull enough audience members to pay that much for so many movies per month. I honestly feel that Oppenheimer doesn't belong in the summer. A historical three hour long R-rated drama feels like a November release to me.
Everyone wants to be a summer blockbuster, but studios are losing money by piling these movies together. Throw one in January or September and they will probably have more “legs” and earn more money for everyone.
@@brianng8350 It seems since theatres re-opened there's been a very uneven release schedule. I remember this vacancy in theatres last August and September. Nobody was releasing anything big, and the box office suffered. Now, everyone is dumping every mega-budget film into the same month or two and thinking it's all just going to print money. Nobody is paying attention to what the other studios are doing with this release strategies and they're falling over one another, causing a massive sinkhole of box office losses.
This is the good stuff. It's 1:30am here in Australia but I was sure that Charts would be uploaded so I stuck around. It's become one of those things where my week doesn't feel complete without it. Very few things make that list.
I'm calling it -- Mission Impossible will be the top movie of the summer. I think Cruise's practical stunts with a thrilling storyline will boost word of mouth and, riding his success from TG:M, it will top this so-far weak summer box office.
I wonder if the huge budgets are due to a lot of these films being filmed or produced during pandemic restrictions and the additional costs that came from those factors.
This is anecdotal, but hanging out with people IRL I was surprised how many people hadn't seen Spider-Verse yet. These are nerdy folks with disposable income, too. The prime audience for this type of movie, but nope. Nevertheless, Spider-Verse is undoubtedly one of the success stories of this Summer! Being so entrenched in the internet, it's easy for me to lose touch with what regular movie-going habits are like. As you have noted, a sensible production budget is what made Spider-Verse work in a very brutal month.
One of the reasons I put Indiana Jones 5 and Mission Impossible 7 at numbers 3 & 4 above a lot of the other films releasing was because I had a feeling films like Flash, Spider-Verse, and Transformers were going to cannibalize each other at the box office. Looks like I was right about Flash and Transformers. Made a grave mistake betting against Spider-Verse however.
indiana jones is certainly not touching 3 and 4 imo. Its already got pitiful word of mouth and this year has shown how impactful that is to blockbusters.
I can't really explain what went wrong with Elemental. But it's difficult to ignore the lack of press for the Flash. Junkets are absolute garbage, but those little interviews that pop up on local news stations are a huge part of general audiences exposure to new films.
It’s pretty obvious what went wrong with Elemental if you’re being honest. Many families no longer trust Disney. Mainstream audiences have buyer’s remorse from previous Pixar/Disney disappointments. The movie looks too similar to Inside Out/etc. And the budget was way too high.
People keep pitting MI against Oppenheimer, then those of us perpetually online add Barbie for sh*ts and giggles. But I feel like those three will be a weird breath of fresh air to reinvigorate the box office. I'm a total Marvel girl, but it is nice to see features coming that don't require me to do homework.
Yeah, so crazy now that we know it won’t happen right? I only picked it #1 because so many of the movies had question marks, and I think the summer has shown that to be true, even if my picks weren’t accurate
@@DanMurrellMovies looking at Aladdin and Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, I understand the thinking. But those were all more faithful adaptations in less crowded seasons without the added baggage of the last half decade of terrible Disney remakes. Not to mention the additional hurdle of Disney+, a service that has systematically killed any interest in Disney, Pixar, or Lucasfilm in the theatrical window
I actually thought the same. Sure, Little Mermaid had a decent chance to be in the top 10, but number one in a summer when we had Mission Impossible, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man??? Granted I thought the Flash was sure to beat it as well, and that won’t happen now… but still, too many other more likely candidates.
Disney+ has killed Pixar. Once those 2020 movies were given free, the bottom fell out of it. When you know you'll see it on TV in 45 days you lose reason to go pay at the screen unless it's an event movie.
I don't really think enough people are talking about this but if you look at this entire month and what it was offering when we first saw its slate, I think me and so many others should've looked at this with puzzled eyes. I simply just don't know what drugs were being smoked at the studios when they all mapped out that their films should be competing with so many other films in the span of 30 days. I can't remember the last time we had such insane competition like this with a big movie releasing pretty much every week. I think it was an insanely stupid move for some of these films to not move off their release dates. At the same time if you just look at the economical landscape of what's going on right now with theater chains, you would think that that's also pushing people away. My local Regal with its IMAX is $23 for a film (not including any food or drink I could get). Lets say you are a family of 4 and want to go see Elemental and other various films coming out this month, you have to pick and choose just because of how expensive it is to go. Idk why these theater chains think price gauging is the smart move especially with how much gauging is going on in other parts of life. People only have so much money to spend and again that doesn't factor in all the other various reasons why these movies are not doing so well. If you take out the budgets of these films alone, there are still circumstances outside that hurt them all and now I feel are potentially going to hurt the slate we have in July with Mission Impossible, Barbie, Oppenheimer, that Joyride comedy, the new Insidious movie which for a horror movie has such a dumb release date. Why do you have a horror movie in the month of July from such a big horror franchise going up against such big competition??
@@JohnSmith-jh6ey in some instances sure but again if that's the case that would also point to my other point about economics. Theaters weren't gauging prices before 2020. Back in those years an IMAX ticket for example costed like 11-13 dollars, now its like 20+ depending on where you live. Theaters aren't doing movie goers any favors with that. At the same time if you also use say summer 2019 for example, a lot of movies released in that summer but did all of them succeed? I bet you a bunch didn't do as well as they hoped. I think competition is good but at what cost.
I cannot agree with you more. I saw Spider-Man and The Little Mermaid and I still want to see them both again. I also want to see The Flash, Elemental, and for the first time in a long time, Transformers. But I have to work and eat and I work odd hours so I only have Sundays to watch movies with a friend. So, I have to choose carefully.
@@Delight96 thank you for bringing feedback into this because you are a prime example of someone who I refer to with my analysis. These studios should be way more up to date with how the world is shaped economically right to understand when their movie release would work best. If we were living in a perfect world I bet these movies would be better off. That means lowering ticket prices and concessions, lowering the budgets of the films and also maneuvering around the releases to fit a good time slot as to not get bogged down but other competition.
I agree with you. But if Super Mario came out now, would it still dominate? Were they families or teens and twenties that made this movie a blockbuster? As for horror movie, it might be counter programming. Horror is a niche group. They don’t want to see the blockbuster summer movies. And horror movies are relatively cheap. They’ll make money regardless.
Chicagoan here: in my sophomore year of high school my film class went to Gene Siskel to see parasite as a class right before the pandemic started, it’s a wonderful place and I’m glad to see it shouted out here!
Many people, including myself said they weren't going to turn up for The Flash because of Ezra Miller, WB just ignored it and thought people would forget. It turns out their strategy backfired.
The demo being something like 75% men, compared to the usual 60% for most of these, even for the movies that perform terribly. Of all pieces of information that seems to be the biggest sign that they overestimated how much Extra would destroy part of the demo of the movie. A lot of ladies that usually would've shown up, didn't.
@@iluvdrakeandjoshyep, big superhero fan and honestly even if some of the plot details sound genuinely really interesting to me I don't want WarnerBros. To keep Ezra. It's really shameful they kept them around even after they choked someone. Glad they're seeing the consequences.
I went to watch the LotR trilogy with my family a month ago. The Flash trailer was playing and my 9 year old daughter asked me if we were going to watch it. I told her “no”. And that, even though I liked the Batman actor, I didn’t like the Flash actor so I cannot support it. I feel kids learn more from our actions than our words. Ezra killed the Flash. My husband thought even 50 million was too much support for the movie. Studios must learn. We pay, we judge, we decide.
Hey Dan, regarding the PR of The Flash and Elemental; do you think late night and talk shows currently not being around, thanks to the writer's strike, might have impacted those movies? normally the stars pop up everywhere and do funny bits and interviews, but that couldn't happen this time.
Maybe a hot take, but I think The Flash's underwhelming open and The Little Mermaid's less-than-ideal box office results are where you can see the signs of superhero/remake fatigue. Lot of other factors absolutely affect how well these movies are doing, but personally, unless it's truly an artistic endeavor (like Across the Spiderverse), I've certainly found myself quite apathetic to new superhero movies in a way that seemed unfathomable to me a few years ago. I think we'll absolutely continue to see moments of these movies doing really well (like GOTG 3 and Spiderverse), but these movies are very much starting to feel unnecessary to see in theaters in the age of streaming, especially when it feels like studios are sometimes careless with the overall quality of these films.
The reason I didn't see them (and Ezra Miller...). Also, at that time, Zelda TotK just came out. I wasn't going anywhere on my weekends during that time. I'm curious if big game releases decrease movie sales.
I don't think so. The flash already had a lot of things going against it. For one, audiences are not confident in the DCEU brand anymore with interest dwindling after every release. Also, Ezra miller essentially knee-capped the marketing potential of the flash with many opting out of supporting the movie simply because they are in it. It also doesn't help that the movie opened to lukewarm reviews and has a "B" cinemascore which is bad for blockbusters. Lastly, the DCEU is being rebooted so people will be less likely to see this knowing it won't amount to anything. A real show of superhero fatigue would be if a well-received movie like GOTG 3 did bad at the box office
WB cancelled the DC universe so there's zero reason to watch a movie in a franchise that's DOA and that's without taking account of Ezra Millers antics
My husband and I use to plan date nights around big movies like Flash and other comic book movies. We would also take our 2 daughters to Pixar or Disney animated movies. Now we just wait. Now we have movie nights at home and wait for the movies to come to streaming. The only movie we've seen this year is Little Mermaid because my daughter is obsessed with Halle Bailey. I think families are just trying to save money.
There's hope that Elemental COULD have at least some good legs. According to estimates The Flash made $5.27 million on Tuesday, while Elemental made $4.9~5 million. Still won't be enough to be a money maker, but points to word of mouth kicking in and helping Elemental. I hope so. I saw it last weekend and thought it was great.
Dan you’re absolutely smashing it at the moment with the content! You’re bringing peak Screen Junkies levels of insight and you’re easily the best industry commentator on UA-cam. Thanks for all your hard work!
Would you say that Marvel has set this trend for Hollywood budgeting system where every movie is $200-$250million in cost? They conditioned the audience that every blockbuster they come to see would have these massive vfx budgets and stunt teams. They were pretty careful themselves at the start with Iron man, captain america but since Avenger 2 or civil war they let just the budget expand.
Exactly. Haven't been to the movies in theaters for a few years, and took my Dad to see Wick 4. Jeez. Had sticker shock. Went to a matinee & he is a senior. It was almost $40. That was before popcorn and drinks. Total ripoff!
And with the development of HD televisions and sound systems in home, most people don't want to mess with going to a theater. With theater and snack prices, I don't blame people at all while I usually hit the afternoon which is cheaper. I might just see 4 or 5 movies this summer with 2 of them being Flash and GotG3. My son wants to see Spiderman. What is next after that for me is Indy and Oppenheimer. I have it all planned out.
I feel like one of big reasons that people aren't showing up as much as studios might be expecting, and isn't being talked about as much as I'd expect, is the global economic situation. The cost of living squeeze is certainly affecting me and many people I know who used to regularly go to the cinema for most of these big films, instead because of mortgage and energy bill increase we're now being more selective because we simply can't afford to see more than one film a month anymore. With the addition of streaming services it makes it much easier to be selective and decide to see a number of these at home instead at a slightly later date.
I love the breakdown you do in the middle of the video about the studios staking too much on streaming which ended up damaging box office numbers. You've been subtly building up to this story over the last couple of months and you were finally able to show why all those seemingly disconnected bits of news actually matter and it all gets tied up in the end. I'm honestly kind of excited that the brute force method of big budget movies (especially poor movies) is ironically leaving more space for smaller and more ambitious productions (because let's face it, there's nothing ambitious about fast x or transformers or even marvel at this point) to shine. I obviously don't actively wish for all these movies to fail, but it just really goes to show that money is not where it's all it, and that there is still something to be said!
I’m still very skeptical of Barbie. The pg13 rating seems like an odd choice for a young girls toy. The people involved give it the possibility of a classic but there is also a chance it’s a complete mess
That's the thing though, I don't think Gerwig is making a movie to cashout in the merchandising. Also, some parents don't really check ratings and assume that animation means kids, so in that same vein, they might be assuming that doll means kids. I'm curious to see if that unawareness will give Barbie an initial boost.
I don’t think that the Barbie movie is for people who currently play with Barbies as much as it is for people who have played with Barbies, which makes the PG-13 rating make sense. If you aren’t aware, Mattel already have Barbie content aimed at kids. I think this is an attempt to capitalize on a lapsed audience.
Know Greta Gerwig, it is a commentary or spoof on the toy, kind of like Deadpool making fun of himself. It is unlike be a story paying homage to the toy. That is my guess. It is not going to be a live action Barbie cartoon.
The trailer for Elemental did nothing to entice viewers. It literally starts off introducing characters with the following descriptions: Air - usually has their head in the clouds Earth - can be a little seedy (shows tree creatures) They used the most generic and obvious “puns” imaginable and they do that for each of the four elements and things didn’t get a whole lot better from there. They needed to use the opening of the trailer to grab the audience and make us want to enter this new world. Instead, they literally told us that fire is hot and thought that would be a big draw.
I think studios have forgotten movie franchise aren't TV. Going to the theater is what you do for something special, new, or unique. It's not just something you 'tune-in' to every week. Even the Pixar movie kind of fits into this. They haven't really given us a reason to 'buy into' the world, even if we know that the quality of the movie may still be good. The fact that it will be on D+ doubles the effect, since I'm not going to be missing out on it even if it is good. Side topic question for Dan: Have you ever thought about a review breakdown in sort of the way you do box-office breakdowns? I'd like a dive into what critics are saying that is deeper than a tomato meter or movie poser bi-line.
Holy crap, it’s crazy to see the Siskel film center on here! I’m an SAIC student and have been lucky enough to see some 35 mm shows there. Thanks for the shoutout Dan, it’s a wonderful theater :)
Yes! I live in Chicago Illinois and I passed back there sometimes but I've never actually gone in but I'm glad you're giving it a shout-out 😍 Definitely seeing past lives as well as no hard feelings a great start for the summer blockbuster Romance❤
Also, it's worth noticing that TV sales were the main source of income for studios not long ago. I don't know how much the streaming services are paying for some of these blockbusters.
A lot of them get “bought” by the streaming service that the company owns. So Disney+ will pay Pixar to stream Elemental, which goes as revenue for Pixar but is really just money changing hands from one division to another.
i live in chicago and go to the siskel film center reguralry! I love it there! Thank you for the spotlight on it! (On of the best theatrical experiences I had there was seeing Dr. Strangelove on 35mm, it was glorious!)
I know this doesn’t speak to all the flops, but I really do think CBM have run their course. Reminds me of the demise of the western in the late sixties early 70s. Yes we’ll have a revival like westerns did in the early 90s (Tombstone, Unforgiven) and to some extent in the 00s (310 to Yuma etc) but has a mainstay off the summer cinema, CBM might be done at this level of production, with the only the top level characters ever getting a big hit as we have had in the past.
Thanks for highlighting the Gene Siskel film center. It’s a neat little theater and it was the only one playing joyland in Chicago. The Music box theater in Chicago or the Oriental theater in Milwaukee are other indie theaters that could be spotlighted in future.
Thank you Dan for another informative show. One minor correction - Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom did not open on the same weekend back in 2018, at lest not in wide release.
Shouts out to the Gene Siskel!!! I went to school at SAIC and stayed at the 162 dorm right next door for a couple years. Seen some great stuff there during and after my college years. I’m a big fan of this channel and seeing the Siskel here makes me so happy! The Music Box probably deserves a shout out here one day too. This was rad.
Word of mouth has become an especially powerful influence on movies this year, I think. GotG 3 & Spiderverse both have great word of mouth & great success in theaters whereas all of their competitors have sounded either bad or blah at best by the same word of mouth. I don't really see movies opening weekend anymore, I wait to see what the initial response is opening weekend. Between streaming at home and having limited time/money, I can wait to see if word of mouth says a movie is good, bad, or in between.
Super Mario did not get great buzz; it was acceptable for those familiar with the brand. It still does not explain the money they collected in the box office. Maybe it was early in the season, but there were some good movies around that time.
There’s such an over saturation of content out there, from streaming apps to theaters. People don’t need to see films on a big screen, nowadays. I, personally, like the big screen experience. Times are changing for studios.
I don't think It had, Dan does an average. Flash on the other hand must have had a higher Ad cost giving the many actors and directors saying It was the best superhero movie and stuff ...
I didnt realize how exciting it would feel to hear Dan talk about my favorite local theater. I recently saw the newly-crowned Jeanne Dielman in all of it's 4hr glory on film there. Such an incredible and beautiful theater that respects the art of fim!
Do you think we might see a resurgence of the Medium Budget film in response to these continuing box office failures- how much longer until the cost benefit of “going for broke” on multiple 100 million dollar films wear off for these studios and they return to a business model of 5 movies making 15 million is more sustainable then hoping 2 hit it big
In my head canon, an executive at Netflix stumbled across Charts with Dan (back when streaming was still a segment) and saw how much more sense Dan's numbers made than the way they report viewership....and that's how this change was made 😂
When the dust settles, there's a real chance Black Adam will be the highest grossing DCEU movie in the last 5 years. I guess the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe really changed
Flash was doomed by its lead months ago. Also, people don’t really care what happens to DC at the moment, things will be reset anyway. They would have given flash a chance if not for Ezra.
I don't think it was so much Ezra's antics keeping people away, as it was Ezra's antics making it impossible for WB to build a proper marketing campaign around him. Even Keaton and Calle couldn't be used to their full potential to keep them from having to talk about Ezra's issues.
Hey Dan. An idea/request : Would love a deep dive video on movie budgets. Your diving deep in Charts into stats and factors for profitability are amazing, but looking at all this really makes me wonder where that budget number for these movies comes from . Why does Fast X have such a higher budget than Guardians? How much of that can be attributed to cast salaries or bonuses? Why did Elemental cost double vs Spiderverse ? Aren't they both animated ? If the Flash had such bad VFX and a small cast, why would that budget be so high ? I understand that the answers may be a lot of speculation, as a lot of info is not released, but would love to speculate alongside you.
Wait wait wait, *Elemental cost twice as much as Across The Spider-Verse?!* That's just bananas! Spider-Verse is one of the most visually impressive recent animated movies I've seen (I was less enamoured of the plot, but it looked amazing); the trailer for Elemental put me in mind of The Emoji Movie. I agree that a video exploring this would be good.
On the Flash bombing, I know a lot of people that where kind of on the fence about watching it and ultimately decided to not watch it in theatres precisely because of everything surrounding Ezra Miller. All the allegations (and probably a lack of marketing as a result) was what tipped them into not going and simply waiting for it to be on TV or streaming.With Elemental on the other hand, it felt like noone had even heard of this movie before. Marketing had not at all done its job in reaching people at least in my bubble of adults who like pixar films but don't have kids.
DCEU was divided into 2 parts. Snyderverse and Hamadaverse. It is very clear which movie belongs to which verse. Snyderverse: 1. Man of Steel (2013) 2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) 3. Suicide Squad (2016) 4, Wonder Woman (2017) 5. ZS Justice League (2021) 6. Aquaman (2018) Hamadaverse: 1. Shazam! (2019) 2. Birds of Prey (2020) 3. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) 4. The Suicide Squad (2021) 5. Black Adam (2022) 6. Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023) 7. The Flash (2023) By the number of Box Office results it is clearly seen that putting Hamada as head of DC Films was the worst idea. If WB was a little bit more patient with Snyder, they could have a steady universe right now. Putting film critics opinion ahead of actual audience leads to many flops in recent years like the Star Wars universe.
I got to say, the best thing I can say for this video right now is that those international posters for "The Flash", "Transformers: Rise of The Beast", "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse" and "Elemental" are splendid. Nice that the rest of the world can keep a better sense of artistry if the posters we get don't look very interesting.
Rarely do I want a review from Dan as badly as I want a "Mad Heidi" review from Dan. Hadn't heard of it until this very moment. Please make it happen, Dan!
I think because of where Dan lives, he doesn’t not get a lot of the smaller movies and limited release. It’s a shame. He seems to be driving to get the first reactions for the big blockbusters only.
@@brianng8350 Agreed, and more power to Dan for doing it! I really don't care when Dan gets us a review for that movie (could be a year past release), I just want to see it 😄
I want more stories about people. We don’t have any more “Forrest Gump” type movies, or just movies that the entire domestic audience want to see. CGI is no longer a draw to the box office, because there are very few advancements left. It’s not impressive anymore. Avatar does well because it’s immersive and a legitimate escape. End rant haha. didn’t mean to
Fingers crossed for Oppenheimer, Barbie & Mission Impossible 🤞🏻. My spidey sense is telling me we are in for great success with all three. In fact the Venn diagrams line up in such a way that all of these could co-exist relatively well and possibly even boost business for each other at the theatres. They all definitely appeal to different parts of my brain.
On this week's episode of 'Charts with Dan': Was 'The Flash' able to *DASH* its way to #1? ⚡🏃 Did 'Elemental' *SCORCH* it's way to the charts? 🔥 Is 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' still *RIDING* towards box office success? 🚛 And is 'Across the Spider-Verse' still *SWINGING* it's way to victory? Hi, I'm Dan Murrell and this is 'Charts with Dan', starting right NOW!
It’s pretty clear what the theatergoing situation is. People are only really willing to spend money on a night out at the movies for something with good buzz, and therefore worth the money. Otherwise people will just decide to wait until it shows up on streaming. The backlash of inflation is very real.
For me, I haven't seen many movies, as much as I would love to see in theaters. I just don't have the money to see movies every weekend. Let alone multiple times like in the past. Fast X was on my tv before I could blink.
For me, going to movies is not a multiple movie thing anymore, too loud, Covid's still around, and too many jerks in the theatre. I loved the first Spiderverse, and heard good things, so I saw that one. The rest I can see on streaming tbh, I have invested in a pretty nice home setup and enjoy streaming more now. My question right now is usually, "would I rather play Zelda ToTK or go to the movies?". Only Spiderverse won that question, and with my limited time, I enjoy gaming more right now.
Indiana Jones will bomb hard too. Studios will realize sooner or later that nostalgia-bait doesn't work, recycling ideas doesn't work. Good stories made with love will always be making money.
I think Disney needs to stop rushing their films from cinema to Disney plus in a short space amount of time as it seems people know and are just waiting for it to come to Disney plus
@@JohnSmith-jh6ey Yeah but people had more MONEY and less options back during the height of modern day Hollywood. The world is struggling right now and most people have to choose what form of entertainment they want to digest. Sorry but instead of the Flash I went to a music festival that housed 80,000 attendants. Consumers have more options and movies aren't at the forefront like they use to be.
Dan, it is never a problem waiting an extra day for these weekly "charts" shows. You are always worth the wait!
It's actually kinda crazy how Spider-verse was the lowest on the budget side on this list. It was in technicality the hardest one to make out of all of them by a long shot.
Yeah and it also looks the best out of them all
And it's an absolute shoe-in for a Best Animated Movie Oscar just on a technical level alone. I can't see anything coming close.
Ummm... I don't like the Fast movies, but I def appreciate the amazing stunt work achieved on each film~
It was like a 5 year gap between movies for a reason!
@@nileshkumaraswamy2711 it's because they made Mitchells vs the Machines in between.
Crazy to see Netflix adapt the Murrell Metric into their numbers
Looking at your theatrical gross estimate for Elemental gave me an idea I think would be interesting to see at the end of the year: How about a chart showing year end grosses for all movies from a studio versus the estimated budgets (& related costs) for those movies... This would show what studios made an estimated overall profit for the year, and could show which studios are most profitable (both in gross and percent)
I, for one, really like this idea
I like this! This would be a great chart to see
I love this idea! I’d even like to see a seasonal variant like “Most and Least Profitable Summer Movies.”
Sounds interesting!
That would be VERY interesting
The studios crammed too many huge movies into May-July. The competition is just too much, and the movies are all hurting eachother’s possible revenue.
Reminds me of last year where all the studios forgot July and August existed.
That's a good point. Especially since May and June, kids are still in school, so they don't have the youth marker as much as they think.
What about the Barbie movie vs Oppenheimer on July 21 Crazy or what ?
I posted a similar comment. There are too many movies! I can't see them all, so I'm deciding which ones im seeing at the movies and some I'm gonna have wait till they appear in a streaming platform
@yolandag8436 Specifically too many movies that all look and feel the same. If we had a healthier cinematic "ecosystem" where movies besides action blockbusters and family-friendly animation dominated theatrical summer wide releases, "too many movies" a season might be a positive thing, but as it is, the summer box office is too much of the same 1-2 things over and over again.
I think Spider-Verse had a significant impact on the Flash and Elemental. Their unique selling points didn't seem as appealing in comparison and instead of going to see several movies in a short space, they'll just wait for streaming
Because Sony never said their films would go to a streaming service after a certain amount of days?
One thing I would love to see from them is a Ghostbusters-Men in Black crossover. There was a board game that combined the two franchises fyi
It's true- a better multiverse film than the Flash and a better animated film than Elemental and it's also attached to the name of arguably the most popular superhero in the world.
Well elemental had pretty boring trailers focusing on the romance and choosing your own destiny. The flash it might be because of Ezra Miller
Yes you’re right! As a multiverse movie - it is better than the Flash and as an animated film better than Elementals
@@AlexMartinez-gv7hy I mean, they were really good in the roles. Probably best thing about the movie. It wasn't perfect and I hope they're fired for their behavior, but it was a couple of good performances.
Don't blame people for waiting for streaming though, same with Elemental.
The crazy thing is I went to see Spider-Man with my dad over the weekend and every showing at my local theater on Father’s Day was basically sold out, filled with kids and adults with their dads. I would have had no idea the box office wasn’t looking great 😅
I wouldn't be surprised if even Mario would still be in the top 10 if it had more screens. It and spiderman have been doing phenomenally to keep bringing people in.
It’s playing much better domestically than it is internationally
Yeah take a break from that film.
I saw it with my wife and our boys on Saturday night in a packed theatre.
What’s hurting it right now is that all the premium screens (which demand higher prices) went to “Flash” and “Elemental” this weekend. Otherwise, “Spider-man” would have raked in a lot more domestically. Don’t really understand why it’s not performing internationally.
If anyone can save the Box Office it's Tom Cruise.
But it would be hilarious if Barbie and Oppenheimer were the actual saviors.
Harrison Ford tears
"This summer...Ethan Hunt has his most impossible mission yet..."
"This summer...she's a Barbie girl in a Barbie world...he's a nuclear scientist and destroyer of worlds...they'll have to work together to save the box office..."
*BWAAAAAAAAA*
This summer the longest Indy movie ever, the longest Mission Impossible ever, the longest Nolan movie ever, and Barbie.
@@travisspazz1624 ...go on an epic quest to save the box office!
I went to see Across the Spider-Verse this Monday and the theatre was full. I mean GOTG 3 and Spider-Verse were both really good movies. I will probably see Across the Spider-Verse again before the end of the summer because I loved the animation and score so much! GOTG 3 was great, but it was heartbreaking I don’t think I need to see it again so soon. 😅
Going to the movies is expensive and many households are having to seriously budget. That means that families are going to have to pick one, maybe two movies per month to see and they are going to skip the movies that don't have good word of mouth. Studios jamming the summer schedule is setting them all up for lots of failures. They need to spread out the releases and get the budgets of their movies under control.
I'm going on holiday. I don't have money for more than 1-2 cinema trips this summer. Inflation, cost of living etc Take a family to cinema in the UK and with snacks it's £100. That's a lot.
Exactly 💯
I understand the factors that went into the flash’s lackluster performance but I’m still a little surprised. But that just goes to show you that when you make a movie no one is interested in form a universe in shambles with a star who’s off the rails and your actors aren’t allowed to actually do the whole press thing… this is what you get.
Agreed. I don't think DC realized how much people loathe Miller.
Even with the promise of Keaton Batman, some of my hard-core, DC fan friends have told me they'll just wait to watch it as a matinee or discount day.
Grant Gustin was the Flash for 8 seasons and became the largest CW Show, but somehow WB thought they could replace him with a criminal and we would just accept it because of the Batman that Boomers watched on theaters.
@@thevikingbear2343you look 40 lol you never seen 1989 Batman?
Who knew? I was very interested in seeing Keaton as Batman again, but I will never go see an Ezra Miller movie. I just can't support someone like that.
Jurassic Park was in theatres for about a year straight. It didn't hit home video until nearly a year and a half after its theatrical debut - October of 1994. Incredible!
Times were different. Less movies were released theatrically, and the standard for releasing it on vhs/dvd was typically 8-12 months after release.
Kids today would find it difficult to comprehend a time that you would be waiting the best part of a year before you could watch a new movie at home as well as the fact you actually had to leave the house to do it!
Imagine if Oppenheimer and Barbie both become the highest grossing movie of the year.
I mean, both are totally different from each other and they stand side by side, peacefully or even have overlapped audience.
Barbie I can believe. Oppenheimer...not so much. I mean, I love Nolan's film but I dont see this particular film making people rush to the cinema. But, hey, I can always be wrong. :)
Well... now this is all I want. But can Spider-Verse be #1, then those other two tie for #2?
Barbie sure. But Oppenheimer seems unlikely. The big films have people returning to see it multiple times, and Oppenheimer doesn't strike me as one likely to have that.
@@playgroundchooser sure I guess, I just want to see their poster stand side by side and both become successful. List of movie consist of Mario, spiderverse, barbie and oppenheimer is definitely a 2023 moments.
@@xger21 yeah seems unlikely for oppenheimer but who knows
There was a reason I didn’t put Elemental on my top 10 summer box office list. Simply put: I don’t trust Disney when it comes to marketing their original animated films at the Box Office anymore.
Disney completely killed the PIXAR brand during the pandemic unfortunately
And the fact of the matter is, no one is going to go out in this heat at these prices for something that isn't going to blow their socks off. Even the occasional barrages of "It's Fine" or "I liked it" isn't going to cut it for most right now when there are so many other options here and upcoming.
I did and that was apparently a huge mistake!! I thought the Pixar power hadn't fallen off quite as much as Disney but after Lighyear and now this I guess we have to come to the conclusion that Pixar doesn't have the same pull it used to. They'll have to do sequels of movies like Inside Out and Coco or something like that to get back to profiting again.
Original animated films have struggled for a while now, even pre-Covid. The last big one was Coco in 2017. After that it doesn't matter the studio: WB (Smallfoot), DreamWorks (Abominable/Bad Guys), Blue Sky (Spies in Disguise), Disney (Raya, Encanto, Strange World), or Pixar, originals just can't hit $100 million domestic. Bad Guys was budgeted well at least, and Encanto has been a streaming hit, but people just don't show up to originals like they used to in theaters.
blaming the quality of lightyer and this on disney marketing huh
I started watching your channel in the winter when I was very sick. Your voice gave me a lot of comfort. I really enjoy how academic, organized, and thoughtful this movie channel is. It gives me hope about media. You don't go for the clickbait and reactionary treatment. Thanks you, sir.
I feel like a lot of these Disney (or Pixar) movies aren't making as much is because of Disney+. People already pay for that and figure that they can just wait for it and it'd be so much cheaper for a family of 4.
That's for a lot of movies, Flash will be on Max in a few months and for the others have a thought procrss of "my tv and sound system is theater quality enough for me and I can pause to pee while wearing my pajamas."
But budgets keep creeping higher and higher while the box office keeps crawling downward.
We'll never have a Titanic or Avatar 6+ month theater run, or even a Pasion of the Christ held aloft by Evangelical mega churches.
The 2020s are a much different era than anything before now but the studios are living in the 20th century still. $100mil is now a decent domestic return for your 300m+ movie after production and marketing.
Also, the marketing department probably still buys print space 😂
Whats funny about Elemental is when I saw it this past weekend, my theater was packed on a Sunday afternoon at 3pm. When I saw Lightyear opening weekend, I was the only one in that theater. Surprising to see it how bad it's doing.
@@clarkkent7973 i live in Miami. I'm in red country in good ole Florida.
I've been saying it all weekend - they can't flood the market with $200+M theatrical releases one week after another and expect everything to be profitable. They have to manage these budgets better, cut back on expenses, and plot their release strategies with a more comprehensive outlook. I'd be surprised if someone next month doesn't get gutted with multiple mega-budget films hitting within weeks of each other. If the films are all really good, they might having a fighting chance amongst each other, but it's still a strain to cull enough audience members to pay that much for so many movies per month. I honestly feel that Oppenheimer doesn't belong in the summer. A historical three hour long R-rated drama feels like a November release to me.
Everyone wants to be a summer blockbuster, but studios are losing money by piling these movies together. Throw one in January or September and they will probably have more “legs” and earn more money for everyone.
@@brianng8350 It seems since theatres re-opened there's been a very uneven release schedule. I remember this vacancy in theatres last August and September. Nobody was releasing anything big, and the box office suffered. Now, everyone is dumping every mega-budget film into the same month or two and thinking it's all just going to print money. Nobody is paying attention to what the other studios are doing with this release strategies and they're falling over one another, causing a massive sinkhole of box office losses.
This is the good stuff. It's 1:30am here in Australia but I was sure that Charts would be uploaded so I stuck around. It's become one of those things where my week doesn't feel complete without it. Very few things make that list.
I'm calling it -- Mission Impossible will be the top movie of the summer. I think Cruise's practical stunts with a thrilling storyline will boost word of mouth and, riding his success from TG:M, it will top this so-far weak summer box office.
That, plus it is part of an established IP, but you don't have to do homework before watching it to enjoy it.
I agree!!
I think MI has strong international appeal too.
I wonder if the huge budgets are due to a lot of these films being filmed or produced during pandemic restrictions and the additional costs that came from those factors.
And the primary photography on Flash wrapped pre pandemic!
This is anecdotal, but hanging out with people IRL I was surprised how many people hadn't seen Spider-Verse yet. These are nerdy folks with disposable income, too. The prime audience for this type of movie, but nope. Nevertheless, Spider-Verse is undoubtedly one of the success stories of this Summer! Being so entrenched in the internet, it's easy for me to lose touch with what regular movie-going habits are like. As you have noted, a sensible production budget is what made Spider-Verse work in a very brutal month.
One of the reasons I put Indiana Jones 5 and Mission Impossible 7 at numbers 3 & 4 above a lot of the other films releasing was because I had a feeling films like Flash, Spider-Verse, and Transformers were going to cannibalize each other at the box office. Looks like I was right about Flash and Transformers. Made a grave mistake betting against Spider-Verse however.
Yeah they're both kind of throwbacks and have the potential to have good legs at the box office.
indiana jones is certainly not touching 3 and 4 imo. Its already got pitiful word of mouth and this year has shown how impactful that is to blockbusters.
@@marcochen9117 pitiful?
Transformers 4 got some of the worst reviews of all time and that made a billion dollars.
@@marcochen9117 well it’s at 59% right now on RT (same as Super Mario Bros movie)
Transformers is not going to hold. It might be another one that works better internationally.
I can't really explain what went wrong with Elemental. But it's difficult to ignore the lack of press for the Flash. Junkets are absolute garbage, but those little interviews that pop up on local news stations are a huge part of general audiences exposure to new films.
It’s pretty obvious what went wrong with Elemental if you’re being honest. Many families no longer trust Disney. Mainstream audiences have buyer’s remorse from previous Pixar/Disney disappointments. The movie looks too similar to Inside Out/etc. And the budget was way too high.
Is it possible we are all underestimating Tom Cruise for the second year in a row? Could he save the box office again?
That's the question! Will TG Maverick's success have an impact on MI 7 and make it the first movie in the franchise to gross $800m worldwide?!
No lol last year it was literally no competition now every studio releases a new movie ever week. Way more competition
He absolutely will. Everything I'm seeing about Dead Reckoning is pointing to another Top Gun tier performance
@@Tonyoung55top Gun had competition tho
People keep pitting MI against Oppenheimer, then those of us perpetually online add Barbie for sh*ts and giggles. But I feel like those three will be a weird breath of fresh air to reinvigorate the box office. I'm a total Marvel girl, but it is nice to see features coming that don't require me to do homework.
It is CRAZY that you thought Little Mermaid was going to be number 1 for the summer. Like, I remember laughing when I heard that.
Yeah, so crazy now that we know it won’t happen right? I only picked it #1 because so many of the movies had question marks, and I think the summer has shown that to be true, even if my picks weren’t accurate
@@DanMurrellMovies looking at Aladdin and Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, I understand the thinking. But those were all more faithful adaptations in less crowded seasons without the added baggage of the last half decade of terrible Disney remakes. Not to mention the additional hurdle of Disney+, a service that has systematically killed any interest in Disney, Pixar, or Lucasfilm in the theatrical window
@@StewartFletcher Betting on princesses hasn't failed before! Except for the Mulan remake, I guess, and they can blame Covid for that.
There’s a good chance it’ll end up in the top 3-4 for the summer, so it wasn’t that crazy
I actually thought the same. Sure, Little Mermaid had a decent chance to be in the top 10, but number one in a summer when we had Mission Impossible, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man??? Granted I thought the Flash was sure to beat it as well, and that won’t happen now… but still, too many other more likely candidates.
Disney+ has killed Pixar. Once those 2020 movies were given free, the bottom fell out of it. When you know you'll see it on TV in 45 days you lose reason to go pay at the screen unless it's an event movie.
I don't really think enough people are talking about this but if you look at this entire month and what it was offering when we first saw its slate, I think me and so many others should've looked at this with puzzled eyes. I simply just don't know what drugs were being smoked at the studios when they all mapped out that their films should be competing with so many other films in the span of 30 days. I can't remember the last time we had such insane competition like this with a big movie releasing pretty much every week. I think it was an insanely stupid move for some of these films to not move off their release dates. At the same time if you just look at the economical landscape of what's going on right now with theater chains, you would think that that's also pushing people away. My local Regal with its IMAX is $23 for a film (not including any food or drink I could get). Lets say you are a family of 4 and want to go see Elemental and other various films coming out this month, you have to pick and choose just because of how expensive it is to go. Idk why these theater chains think price gauging is the smart move especially with how much gauging is going on in other parts of life. People only have so much money to spend and again that doesn't factor in all the other various reasons why these movies are not doing so well. If you take out the budgets of these films alone, there are still circumstances outside that hurt them all and now I feel are potentially going to hurt the slate we have in July with Mission Impossible, Barbie, Oppenheimer, that Joyride comedy, the new Insidious movie which for a horror movie has such a dumb release date. Why do you have a horror movie in the month of July from such a big horror franchise going up against such big competition??
Summer was always like this before 2020
@@JohnSmith-jh6ey in some instances sure but again if that's the case that would also point to my other point about economics. Theaters weren't gauging prices before 2020. Back in those years an IMAX ticket for example costed like 11-13 dollars, now its like 20+ depending on where you live. Theaters aren't doing movie goers any favors with that. At the same time if you also use say summer 2019 for example, a lot of movies released in that summer but did all of them succeed? I bet you a bunch didn't do as well as they hoped. I think competition is good but at what cost.
I cannot agree with you more. I saw Spider-Man and The Little Mermaid and I still want to see them both again. I also want to see The Flash, Elemental, and for the first time in a long time, Transformers. But I have to work and eat and I work odd hours so I only have Sundays to watch movies with a friend. So, I have to choose carefully.
@@Delight96 thank you for bringing feedback into this because you are a prime example of someone who I refer to with my analysis. These studios should be way more up to date with how the world is shaped economically right to understand when their movie release would work best. If we were living in a perfect world I bet these movies would be better off. That means lowering ticket prices and concessions, lowering the budgets of the films and also maneuvering around the releases to fit a good time slot as to not get bogged down but other competition.
I agree with you. But if Super Mario came out now, would it still dominate? Were they families or teens and twenties that made this movie a blockbuster?
As for horror movie, it might be counter programming. Horror is a niche group. They don’t want to see the blockbuster summer movies. And horror movies are relatively cheap. They’ll make money regardless.
Chicagoan here: in my sophomore year of high school my film class went to Gene Siskel to see parasite as a class right before the pandemic started, it’s a wonderful place and I’m glad to see it shouted out here!
Many people, including myself said they weren't going to turn up for The Flash because of Ezra Miller, WB just ignored it and thought people would forget. It turns out their strategy backfired.
The demo being something like 75% men, compared to the usual 60% for most of these, even for the movies that perform terribly. Of all pieces of information that seems to be the biggest sign that they overestimated how much Extra would destroy part of the demo of the movie. A lot of ladies that usually would've shown up, didn't.
@@iluvdrakeandjosh yup I agree!
@@iluvdrakeandjoshyep, big superhero fan and honestly even if some of the plot details sound genuinely really interesting to me I don't want WarnerBros. To keep Ezra. It's really shameful they kept them around even after they choked someone. Glad they're seeing the consequences.
I went to watch the LotR trilogy with my family a month ago. The Flash trailer was playing and my 9 year old daughter asked me if we were going to watch it. I told her “no”. And that, even though I liked the Batman actor, I didn’t like the Flash actor so I cannot support it. I feel kids learn more from our actions than our words. Ezra killed the Flash. My husband thought even 50 million was too much support for the movie. Studios must learn. We pay, we judge, we decide.
That's what all my friends said when I told them I saw it. They didn't want to see it due to the crappy things Ezra Miller has done.
Oh! I remember the opening of Jurassic Park. I was 12 and mesmerized. A rare sight of true Movie Magic! 🦖
Hey Dan, regarding the PR of The Flash and Elemental; do you think late night and talk shows currently not being around, thanks to the writer's strike, might have impacted those movies? normally the stars pop up everywhere and do funny bits and interviews, but that couldn't happen this time.
Good points!
Maybe a hot take, but I think The Flash's underwhelming open and The Little Mermaid's less-than-ideal box office results are where you can see the signs of superhero/remake fatigue. Lot of other factors absolutely affect how well these movies are doing, but personally, unless it's truly an artistic endeavor (like Across the Spiderverse), I've certainly found myself quite apathetic to new superhero movies in a way that seemed unfathomable to me a few years ago. I think we'll absolutely continue to see moments of these movies doing really well (like GOTG 3 and Spiderverse), but these movies are very much starting to feel unnecessary to see in theaters in the age of streaming, especially when it feels like studios are sometimes careless with the overall quality of these films.
The reason I didn't see them (and Ezra Miller...). Also, at that time, Zelda TotK just came out. I wasn't going anywhere on my weekends during that time. I'm curious if big game releases decrease movie sales.
Superhero movies are doing fine.
I don't think so. The flash already had a lot of things going against it. For one, audiences are not confident in the DCEU brand anymore with interest dwindling after every release. Also, Ezra miller essentially knee-capped the marketing potential of the flash with many opting out of supporting the movie simply because they are in it. It also doesn't help that the movie opened to lukewarm reviews and has a "B" cinemascore which is bad for blockbusters. Lastly, the DCEU is being rebooted so people will be less likely to see this knowing it won't amount to anything.
A real show of superhero fatigue would be if a well-received movie like GOTG 3 did bad at the box office
WB cancelled the DC universe so there's zero reason to watch a movie in a franchise that's DOA and that's without taking account of Ezra Millers antics
There is no such thing as superhero fatigue. Make good movies and people will go.
My husband and I use to plan date nights around big movies like Flash and other comic book movies. We would also take our 2 daughters to Pixar or Disney animated movies. Now we just wait. Now we have movie nights at home and wait for the movies to come to streaming. The only movie we've seen this year is Little Mermaid because my daughter is obsessed with Halle Bailey. I think families are just trying to save money.
There's hope that Elemental COULD have at least some good legs. According to estimates The Flash made $5.27 million on Tuesday, while Elemental made $4.9~5 million. Still won't be enough to be a money maker, but points to word of mouth kicking in and helping Elemental. I hope so. I saw it last weekend and thought it was great.
Factor in that matinées and weekdays are always stronger throughout June and July. Pixar movies do tend to have strong multipliers.
Dan you’re absolutely smashing it at the moment with the content! You’re bringing peak Screen Junkies levels of insight and you’re easily the best industry commentator on UA-cam. Thanks for all your hard work!
In Dan we trust
Would you say that Marvel has set this trend for Hollywood budgeting system where every movie is $200-$250million in cost? They conditioned the audience that every blockbuster they come to see would have these massive vfx budgets and stunt teams. They were pretty careful themselves at the start with Iron man, captain america but since Avenger 2 or civil war they let just the budget expand.
I remember the week after Onward came out, the world stopped for Covid so it definitely has an asterix
The stamina of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse now $500 mill..Love the profit talk.
Movie tickets are way too expensive, especially since movies now hit streaming platforms within about 2 to 4 months. I can wait.
Exactly.
Haven't been to the movies in theaters for a few years, and took my Dad to see Wick 4.
Jeez. Had sticker shock. Went to a matinee & he is a senior. It was almost $40. That was before popcorn and drinks. Total ripoff!
I think you mean digital releases not streaming?
@@M_k-zi3tn No, I meant streaming platforms.
And with the development of HD televisions and sound systems in home, most people don't want to mess with going to a theater. With theater and snack prices, I don't blame people at all while I usually hit the afternoon which is cheaper. I might just see 4 or 5 movies this summer with 2 of them being Flash and GotG3. My son wants to see Spiderman. What is next after that for me is Indy and Oppenheimer. I have it all planned out.
@@Wh0isTh3D0ct0r yeah well that doesn't happen. 4 months maybe, but not 2. Especially not for big blockbusters
The reason is all of these movies came out in the same month. If I’m only going once a month I’m gonna pick Spider-Verse over the rest
I’ve been gone from this channel for a long time but I’m glad to be back. I miss these nerdy deep dives. Thanks Dan!
I feel like one of big reasons that people aren't showing up as much as studios might be expecting, and isn't being talked about as much as I'd expect, is the global economic situation. The cost of living squeeze is certainly affecting me and many people I know who used to regularly go to the cinema for most of these big films, instead because of mortgage and energy bill increase we're now being more selective because we simply can't afford to see more than one film a month anymore. With the addition of streaming services it makes it much easier to be selective and decide to see a number of these at home instead at a slightly later date.
I love the breakdown you do in the middle of the video about the studios staking too much on streaming which ended up damaging box office numbers. You've been subtly building up to this story over the last couple of months and you were finally able to show why all those seemingly disconnected bits of news actually matter and it all gets tied up in the end. I'm honestly kind of excited that the brute force method of big budget movies (especially poor movies) is ironically leaving more space for smaller and more ambitious productions (because let's face it, there's nothing ambitious about fast x or transformers or even marvel at this point) to shine. I obviously don't actively wish for all these movies to fail, but it just really goes to show that money is not where it's all it, and that there is still something to be said!
I’m still very skeptical of Barbie. The pg13 rating seems like an odd choice for a young girls toy. The people involved give it the possibility of a classic but there is also a chance it’s a complete mess
If it’s The Truman show with Barbie it’ll be one of the greatest movies ever.
That's the thing though, I don't think Gerwig is making a movie to cashout in the merchandising.
Also, some parents don't really check ratings and assume that animation means kids, so in that same vein, they might be assuming that doll means kids. I'm curious to see if that unawareness will give Barbie an initial boost.
I don’t think that the Barbie movie is for people who currently play with Barbies as much as it is for people who have played with Barbies, which makes the PG-13 rating make sense. If you aren’t aware, Mattel already have Barbie content aimed at kids. I think this is an attempt to capitalize on a lapsed audience.
Know Greta Gerwig, it is a commentary or spoof on the toy, kind of like Deadpool making fun of himself. It is unlike be a story paying homage to the toy. That is my guess. It is not going to be a live action Barbie cartoon.
The trailer for Elemental did nothing to entice viewers. It literally starts off introducing characters with the following descriptions:
Air - usually has their head in the clouds
Earth - can be a little seedy (shows tree creatures)
They used the most generic and obvious “puns” imaginable and they do that for each of the four elements and things didn’t get a whole lot better from there. They needed to use the opening of the trailer to grab the audience and make us want to enter this new world. Instead, they literally told us that fire is hot and thought that would be a big draw.
I think studios have forgotten movie franchise aren't TV. Going to the theater is what you do for something special, new, or unique. It's not just something you 'tune-in' to every week.
Even the Pixar movie kind of fits into this. They haven't really given us a reason to 'buy into' the world, even if we know that the quality of the movie may still be good. The fact that it will be on D+ doubles the effect, since I'm not going to be missing out on it even if it is good.
Side topic question for Dan: Have you ever thought about a review breakdown in sort of the way you do box-office breakdowns? I'd like a dive into what critics are saying that is deeper than a tomato meter or movie poser bi-line.
Holy crap, it’s crazy to see the Siskel film center on here! I’m an SAIC student and have been lucky enough to see some 35 mm shows there. Thanks for the shoutout Dan, it’s a wonderful theater :)
'The Blackening' was hilarious. Highly recommend seeing it in a theater. 🎥
Yes! I live in Chicago Illinois and I passed back there sometimes but I've never actually gone in but I'm glad you're giving it a shout-out 😍
Definitely seeing past lives as well as no hard feelings a great start for the summer blockbuster Romance❤
Also, it's worth noticing that TV sales were the main source of income for studios not long ago. I don't know how much the streaming services are paying for some of these blockbusters.
A lot of them get “bought” by the streaming service that the company owns. So Disney+ will pay Pixar to stream Elemental, which goes as revenue for Pixar but is really just money changing hands from one division to another.
i live in chicago and go to the siskel film center reguralry! I love it there! Thank you for the spotlight on it! (On of the best theatrical experiences I had there was seeing Dr. Strangelove on 35mm, it was glorious!)
Thanks Dan! I was looking forward to this epidsode! You always do such great numbers.
Same been anticipating this one.
This was one of the most interesting weekends, so tailor made for a Charts episode! Thanks Dan!
I know this doesn’t speak to all the flops, but I really do think CBM have run their course. Reminds me of the demise of the western in the late sixties early 70s. Yes we’ll have a revival like westerns did in the early 90s (Tombstone, Unforgiven) and to some extent in the 00s (310 to Yuma etc) but has a mainstay off the summer cinema, CBM might be done at this level of production, with the only the top level characters ever getting a big hit as we have had in the past.
Thanks for highlighting the Gene Siskel film center. It’s a neat little theater and it was the only one playing joyland in Chicago. The Music box theater in Chicago or the Oriental theater in Milwaukee are other indie theaters that could be spotlighted in future.
Thank you Dan for another informative show. One minor correction - Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom did not open on the same weekend back in 2018, at lest not in wide release.
Shouts out to the Gene Siskel!!! I went to school at SAIC and stayed at the 162 dorm right next door for a couple years. Seen some great stuff there during and after my college years. I’m a big fan of this channel and seeing the Siskel here makes me so happy! The Music Box probably deserves a shout out here one day too. This was rad.
Word of mouth has become an especially powerful influence on movies this year, I think. GotG 3 & Spiderverse both have great word of mouth & great success in theaters whereas all of their competitors have sounded either bad or blah at best by the same word of mouth.
I don't really see movies opening weekend anymore, I wait to see what the initial response is opening weekend. Between streaming at home and having limited time/money, I can wait to see if word of mouth says a movie is good, bad, or in between.
Super Mario did not get great buzz; it was acceptable for those familiar with the brand. It still does not explain the money they collected in the box office. Maybe it was early in the season, but there were some good movies around that time.
There’s such an over saturation of content out there, from streaming apps to theaters. People don’t need to see films on a big screen, nowadays. I, personally, like the big screen experience. Times are changing for studios.
This summer is gonna be one worth analyzing in film history
Elemental having a 100 million dollar advertising budget is crazy because I don't think anyone knew that movie was coming out
I don't think It had, Dan does an average. Flash on the other hand must have had a higher Ad cost giving the many actors and directors saying It was the best superhero movie and stuff ...
@@nathaliavs7713 I was making a joke!
@@FilmTheRightThing It was still a valid argument you had, even as a joke.
@@nathaliavs7713 lolol
I didnt realize how exciting it would feel to hear Dan talk about my favorite local theater.
I recently saw the newly-crowned Jeanne Dielman in all of it's 4hr glory on film there. Such an incredible and beautiful theater that respects the art of fim!
Do you think we might see a resurgence of the Medium Budget film in response to these continuing box office failures- how much longer until the cost benefit of “going for broke” on multiple 100 million dollar films wear off for these studios and they return to a business model of 5 movies making 15 million is more sustainable then hoping 2 hit it big
In my head canon, an executive at Netflix stumbled across Charts with Dan (back when streaming was still a segment) and saw how much more sense Dan's numbers made than the way they report viewership....and that's how this change was made 😂
When the dust settles, there's a real chance Black Adam will be the highest grossing DCEU movie in the last 5 years. I guess the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe really changed
I have been waiting for this all weekend! With all this talk online, i couldn’t wait to hear from the man himself! 😊 Thanks a lot Dan!
Man looking at the calendar releases i thought its going to be box-office smashing year. Let's hope MI7, Oppenheimer and Barbie do pretty well.
Times are good when Hollywood loses money. Let's hope more good times are ahead!
Flash was doomed by its lead months ago. Also, people don’t really care what happens to DC at the moment, things will be reset anyway. They would have given flash a chance if not for Ezra.
I don't think it was so much Ezra's antics keeping people away, as it was Ezra's antics making it impossible for WB to build a proper marketing
campaign around him. Even Keaton and Calle couldn't be used to their full potential to keep them from having to talk about Ezra's issues.
Nobody outside of “us” paid attention to Ezra. It never even made national news.
Hey Dan. An idea/request : Would love a deep dive video on movie budgets. Your diving deep in Charts into stats and factors for profitability are amazing, but looking at all this really makes me wonder where that budget number for these movies comes from .
Why does Fast X have such a higher budget than Guardians? How much of that can be attributed to cast salaries or bonuses? Why did Elemental cost double vs Spiderverse ? Aren't they both animated ? If the Flash had such bad VFX and a small cast, why would that budget be so high ?
I understand that the answers may be a lot of speculation, as a lot of info is not released, but would love
to speculate alongside you.
Wait wait wait, *Elemental cost twice as much as Across The Spider-Verse?!* That's just bananas! Spider-Verse is one of the most visually impressive recent animated movies I've seen (I was less enamoured of the plot, but it looked amazing); the trailer for Elemental put me in mind of The Emoji Movie.
I agree that a video exploring this would be good.
I loved the flash. Wasn’t a perfect film but it hit for me.
same
Just in time for lunch! I look forward to listening on break!
Feeling like Bob Chapek’s biggest legacy is killing off Pixar as a box office draw
On the Flash bombing, I know a lot of people that where kind of on the fence about watching it and ultimately decided to not watch it in theatres precisely because of everything surrounding Ezra Miller. All the allegations (and probably a lack of marketing as a result) was what tipped them into not going and simply waiting for it to be on TV or streaming.With Elemental on the other hand, it felt like noone had even heard of this movie before. Marketing had not at all done its job in reaching people at least in my bubble of adults who like pixar films but don't have kids.
Ah the days when studios were happy to make a nice small film that would turn a tidy profit...
DCEU was divided into 2 parts. Snyderverse and Hamadaverse. It is very clear which movie belongs to which verse.
Snyderverse:
1. Man of Steel (2013)
2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
3. Suicide Squad (2016)
4, Wonder Woman (2017)
5. ZS Justice League (2021)
6. Aquaman (2018)
Hamadaverse:
1. Shazam! (2019)
2. Birds of Prey (2020)
3. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
4. The Suicide Squad (2021)
5. Black Adam (2022)
6. Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023)
7. The Flash (2023)
By the number of Box Office results it is clearly seen that putting Hamada as head of DC Films was the worst idea. If WB was a little bit more patient with Snyder, they could have a steady universe right now. Putting film critics opinion ahead of actual audience leads to many flops in recent years like the Star Wars universe.
I would love to see a recap of the biggest money losers and the biggest money makers at the end of the year!
I got to say, the best thing I can say for this video right now is that those international posters for "The Flash", "Transformers: Rise of The Beast", "Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse" and "Elemental" are splendid. Nice that the rest of the world can keep a better sense of artistry if the posters we get don't look very interesting.
Would love to hear your analysis of MI Vs Barbie Vs Oppenheimer! The battle of the year!!! x
Rarely do I want a review from Dan as badly as I want a "Mad Heidi" review from Dan.
Hadn't heard of it until this very moment. Please make it happen, Dan!
I think because of where Dan lives, he doesn’t not get a lot of the smaller movies and limited release. It’s a shame. He seems to be driving to get the first reactions for the big blockbusters only.
@@brianng8350 Agreed, and more power to Dan for doing it! I really don't care when Dan gets us a review for that movie (could be a year past release), I just want to see it 😄
All I can say is they put Spider-Verse *back* into the Dolby Theater at my local cinema for this coming weekend.
I think the real message here is that movies are getting overbudgeted and audiences might be tired of the CGI fests.
I want more stories about people. We don’t have any more “Forrest Gump” type movies, or just movies that the entire domestic audience want to see. CGI is no longer a draw to the box office, because there are very few advancements left. It’s not impressive anymore. Avatar does well because it’s immersive and a legitimate escape. End rant haha. didn’t mean to
Fingers crossed for Oppenheimer, Barbie & Mission Impossible 🤞🏻. My spidey sense is telling me we are in for great success with all three. In fact the Venn diagrams line up in such a way that all of these could co-exist relatively well and possibly even boost business for each other at the theatres. They all definitely appeal to different parts of my brain.
I just watched Dave with my mom last week! I really enjoyed it.
On this week's episode of 'Charts with Dan':
Was 'The Flash' able to *DASH* its way to #1? ⚡🏃
Did 'Elemental' *SCORCH* it's way to the charts? 🔥
Is 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' still *RIDING* towards box office success? 🚛
And is 'Across the Spider-Verse' still *SWINGING* it's way to victory?
Hi, I'm Dan Murrell and this is 'Charts with Dan', starting right NOW!
Yes, Spiderverse has swung to victory.
One major take-away for me... inflation is ridiculous haha
Ezra Miller is literally the "groomer" everyone talks about. The fact that WB dropped Depp and kept Miller. Nope, never gonna go.
Glad to see your enthusiasm for "Dave." That is an enjoyable movie.
I think Indy is going to open low in two weeks too. MI-7 is going to open big
It’s pretty clear what the theatergoing situation is. People are only really willing to spend money on a night out at the movies for something with good buzz, and therefore worth the money. Otherwise people will just decide to wait until it shows up on streaming. The backlash of inflation is very real.
The Flush...lol
For me, I haven't seen many movies, as much as I would love to see in theaters. I just don't have the money to see movies every weekend. Let alone multiple times like in the past. Fast X was on my tv before I could blink.
Why did elemental cost 200million while spiderverse cost half that?
For me, going to movies is not a multiple movie thing anymore, too loud, Covid's still around, and too many jerks in the theatre. I loved the first Spiderverse, and heard good things, so I saw that one. The rest I can see on streaming tbh, I have invested in a pretty nice home setup and enjoy streaming more now. My question right now is usually, "would I rather play Zelda ToTK or go to the movies?". Only Spiderverse won that question, and with my limited time, I enjoy gaming more right now.
You are me, I am you
Elemental always looked bland to me because its trailer was so ridiculously cliche. There was absolutely no hook for me.
I think Elemental will leg-out better than anticipated. I saw it with a packed theater of kids and people cheered at the end.
Indiana Jones will bomb hard too. Studios will realize sooner or later that nostalgia-bait doesn't work, recycling ideas doesn't work. Good stories made with love will always be making money.
I think Disney needs to stop rushing their films from cinema to Disney plus in a short space amount of time as it seems people know and are just waiting for it to come to Disney plus
I'm sorry but June was TO PACTED. It's summer time and it's my travel era so I can't afford to see a new movie every weekend
Before 2020 summer was always packed what are you talking about
@@JohnSmith-jh6ey Yeah but people had more MONEY and less options back during the height of modern day Hollywood. The world is struggling right now and most people have to choose what form of entertainment they want to digest. Sorry but instead of the Flash I went to a music festival that housed 80,000 attendants. Consumers have more options and movies aren't at the forefront like they use to be.