All interesting thoughts from both y'all. We should definitely write off CRAWDADS as a source-fueled phenomenon. That book was a huge deal, and the pre-release buzz about the author wanted for questioning in Africa probably helped rather than hindered its box office. (I saw the film in a mixed public/press screening and the public folks …
All interesting thoughts from both y'all. We should definitely write off CRAWDADS as a source-fueled phenomenon. That book was a huge deal, and the pre-release buzz about the author wanted for questioning in Africa probably helped rather than hindered its box office. (I saw the film in a mixed public/press screening and the public folks were absolutely thrilled with it.)
I think James is right here about some of these big movies not seeming very entertaining to audiences. BABYLON and FABELMANS would be tough sells under any circumstances, but I do think the latter would have hooked audiences had they walked through the doors. They just didn't. The HEAVEN'S GATE comparison fascinates me, too. It almost feels like name directors are gobbling up budgets from whatever streaming service is desperate enough to bid for them and then burning them on uncommercial work (e.g. WHITE NOISE, BARDO, BABYLON). Noble but not sustainable.
It's a 2.5 hour film about a Jewish family. I mean, Avalon didn't clean up at the box office either. Brighton Beach Memoirs is more of a comedy than Avalon or Fabelmans but it was not a hit either.
And I say this as someone who has The Fabelmans as my #1 film in 2022 and have urged friends to see it.
Agreed. Of all the prestige-y Hollywood films this season, The Fabelmans was the one I felt most comfortable recommending to regular folks like my family members. But then... how do you sell them on it? I struggled to get them excited. Neither the Spielberg filmmaking origin story nor the drama about a rocky marriage are all that hooky, much as those elements play out together so beautifully in the film. I guess we can just be glad it was made and move on!
Yeah, the best I could do was say it was a warm, humanistic movie about the ups and downs of a family's relationships with each other. I hope maybe it gets a Best Picture nom and a re-release that will maybe pad its BO totals (a bit anyway).
aside from the Hanukkah scenes at the beginning and the anti-semitic bullying at the high school, and Judd Hirsch's entire scene.... ok, it's pretty jewish, I guess. but doesn't every movie about a quirky family have some details that people will find foreign? it's not something I thought about at all while watching it.
I'd honestly compare it to something like The Ice Storm, which was pretty highly acclaimed and popular in an art-house sense, and (according to wikipedia) only grossed $8m?? in '97! so is it really doing so bad?
My minor, MINOR source of encouragement is it's now up to $12.6M after a terrible opening. My initial fear was it would be She Said (horrible opening, absolutely nothing after either). But it has inched up a TINY bit, which means some of us are convincing at least a few people to see it.
When I was reading James’s Heaven’s Gate comparison it struck me as unexpected, inevitable, and spot-on. I don’t think people expected a straight-A student like Chazelle to turn in such an assaultive piece of work, and consequently he seems to have burned a lot of goodwill in addition to a mountain of cash. I’m a pretty big fan, but his next movie will probably be somewhat deformed by the reception this one got.
It’s really too bad that Fabelmans was hard to market. The trailer made it look like a crass parade of Spielbergian tics rather than the mature apotheosis of them. People will see it eventually, and they’ll love it, and this Spielberg kid is gonna be just fine, but I’m nervous that there are now several generations of directors underneath him who aren’t going to get the opportunities to make movies like that anymore because audiences just don’t show up for them. Hollywood used to be a place for transforming money into prestige which you could then use to get more money. Now the money is the prestige and the cohort of executives running the place don’t seem to enjoy movies at all.
All interesting thoughts from both y'all. We should definitely write off CRAWDADS as a source-fueled phenomenon. That book was a huge deal, and the pre-release buzz about the author wanted for questioning in Africa probably helped rather than hindered its box office. (I saw the film in a mixed public/press screening and the public folks were absolutely thrilled with it.)
I think James is right here about some of these big movies not seeming very entertaining to audiences. BABYLON and FABELMANS would be tough sells under any circumstances, but I do think the latter would have hooked audiences had they walked through the doors. They just didn't. The HEAVEN'S GATE comparison fascinates me, too. It almost feels like name directors are gobbling up budgets from whatever streaming service is desperate enough to bid for them and then burning them on uncommercial work (e.g. WHITE NOISE, BARDO, BABYLON). Noble but not sustainable.
is Fabelmans a tough sell? I can think of many successful films in it's category. or are you making a comparison to Major Studio Productions?
It's a 2.5 hour film about a Jewish family. I mean, Avalon didn't clean up at the box office either. Brighton Beach Memoirs is more of a comedy than Avalon or Fabelmans but it was not a hit either.
And I say this as someone who has The Fabelmans as my #1 film in 2022 and have urged friends to see it.
Agreed. Of all the prestige-y Hollywood films this season, The Fabelmans was the one I felt most comfortable recommending to regular folks like my family members. But then... how do you sell them on it? I struggled to get them excited. Neither the Spielberg filmmaking origin story nor the drama about a rocky marriage are all that hooky, much as those elements play out together so beautifully in the film. I guess we can just be glad it was made and move on!
Yeah, the best I could do was say it was a warm, humanistic movie about the ups and downs of a family's relationships with each other. I hope maybe it gets a Best Picture nom and a re-release that will maybe pad its BO totals (a bit anyway).
aside from the Hanukkah scenes at the beginning and the anti-semitic bullying at the high school, and Judd Hirsch's entire scene.... ok, it's pretty jewish, I guess. but doesn't every movie about a quirky family have some details that people will find foreign? it's not something I thought about at all while watching it.
I'd honestly compare it to something like The Ice Storm, which was pretty highly acclaimed and popular in an art-house sense, and (according to wikipedia) only grossed $8m?? in '97! so is it really doing so bad?
My minor, MINOR source of encouragement is it's now up to $12.6M after a terrible opening. My initial fear was it would be She Said (horrible opening, absolutely nothing after either). But it has inched up a TINY bit, which means some of us are convincing at least a few people to see it.
When I was reading James’s Heaven’s Gate comparison it struck me as unexpected, inevitable, and spot-on. I don’t think people expected a straight-A student like Chazelle to turn in such an assaultive piece of work, and consequently he seems to have burned a lot of goodwill in addition to a mountain of cash. I’m a pretty big fan, but his next movie will probably be somewhat deformed by the reception this one got.
It’s really too bad that Fabelmans was hard to market. The trailer made it look like a crass parade of Spielbergian tics rather than the mature apotheosis of them. People will see it eventually, and they’ll love it, and this Spielberg kid is gonna be just fine, but I’m nervous that there are now several generations of directors underneath him who aren’t going to get the opportunities to make movies like that anymore because audiences just don’t show up for them. Hollywood used to be a place for transforming money into prestige which you could then use to get more money. Now the money is the prestige and the cohort of executives running the place don’t seem to enjoy movies at all.