Judging media

[NeuroTypical]

Y'all traumatized by Guardians of the Galaxy 3?   I think that means you're good people.   The movie delved into some traumatic stuff on purpose.  Torture, slavery, mutilation and murder are heavy subjects.  The show is less entertainment, and more a halfway decent commentary into how childhood trauma molds a personality, and various ways broken people strive for redemption and love.

If folks saw the value in this movie, you may want to consider Good Will Hunting.  If not, stay away from GWH.

If my kiddos were younger, I wouldn't take them to this one.  These days we're made of stern enough stuff to handle the content, and we appreciated the movie.  Anything less would not have been an appropriate backstory for Rocket.

 

 

#Floor

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by NeuroTypical

[Ironhold]

4 hours ago, Backroads said:

And this is one of the reasons I was talking to people: heard it was dark, it upset Friend, etc. 

I'm not still sure how to judge it on that rating scale (you likely have a better frame of reference than myself). I personally thought Multiverse of Madness pushed the envelope further.

So, yeah, I was definitely wondering about taking the kids to it and trying to get a better feel for exactly what that meant.

Visually I'd say I found Multiverse of Madness darker, at least as far as stuff one could see. Thematically this one was darker and more disturbing. 

@Ironhold still has better training on me to decide. 🙃

Overall I really enjoyed it and as a person who tends to enjoy Marvel movies (not the greatest of art but I know what to more or less expect and find it entertaining) I thought it was their best film in years, but it really did get me thinking about what goes into ratings and that those advance reviews were definitely into something.

Every single entertainment writer has their own personal set of metrics they use when looking at movies. 

In my case, I started delivering papers to pay for B-school after the 2008 recession cost me my entry-level office job and several offers from insurance companies. I worked my way up to doing stringer work, and was randomly offered the position of entertainment writer from there. I'm basically just an everyday dude who likes movies, and that's the approach I take: did I enjoy this film enough to compensate for the time and money I spent on it? 

The Film Theorists channel on YouTube recently did a video about the way many entertainment writers review movies, and noted that the system is actually pretty broken. Writers who come up "in the system" of journalism school or the fine arts look for far different things out of movies and so are often out of touch with what the general public is seeking. 

[Ironhold]

That all being said - 

In order to understand box office numbers:

1. Take a movie's stated budget and double it. That will cover promotional expenses and other expenses. 

2. Take a movie's stated box office gross and knock 25% off the top. That will cover what the theaters and distributors take as their cut. 

 

How does this work? 

As an example, consider Ant-Man & Wasp: Quantumania - 

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3195306753/?ref_=bo_yld_table_4

The estimates I've seen suggest a $200 million budget. As of today's listed take on Box Office Mojo, running the numbers leaves Disney $23 million in the hole on this one. 

 

Or we have the most recent Dungeons & Dragons movie - 

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1879410177/?ref_=bo_yld_table_12

I've seen a $150 million budget listed. So that leaves Entertainment One, Hasbro, and Paramount $143,884,853 in the hole. By all rights, this should put it on Wikipedia's list of biggest box office bombs, but it would appear that the list has not been updated since the end of last year. 

 

As such, if we presume a $250 million budget for the current Little Mermaid remake - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1913750273/?ref_=bo_yld_table_7 - then it still has $461 million to go just to break even. 

[Backroads]

47 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

 

#Floor

*Bawls in trauma*

[Backroads]

52 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Y'all traumatized by Guardians of the Galaxy 3?   I think that means you're good people.   The movie delved into some traumatic stuff on purpose.  Torture, slavery, mutilation and murder are heavy subjects.  The show is less entertainment, and more a halfway decent commentary into how childhood trauma molds a personality, and various ways broken people strive for redemption and love.

If folks saw the value in this movie, you may want to consider Good Will Hunting.  If not, stay away from GWH.

If my kiddos were younger, I wouldn't take them to this one.  These days we're made of stern enough stuff to handle the content, and we appreciated the movie.  Anything less would not have been an appropriate backstory for Rocket.

 

Honestly, my kids handled it better than, after all I mused about here, I thought they would.

[Vort]

2 hours ago, Carborendum said:

I prefer the Critical Drinker.

I remember that guy. Quite funny, if you can get past the constant and casual profanities.

[mordorbund]

2 hours ago, Ironhold said:

Or we have the most recent Dungeons & Dragons movie - 

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1879410177/?ref_=bo_yld_table_12

I've seen a $150 million budget listed. So that leaves Entertainment One, Hasbro, and Paramount $143,884,853 in the hole. By all rights, this should put it on Wikipedia's list of biggest box office bombs, but it would appear that the list has not been updated since the end of last year. 

Any DnD-based film faces an uphill battle so long as Dark Dungeons remains in the public conscience.

[Ironhold]

4 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

Any DnD-based film faces an uphill battle so long as Dark Dungeons remains in the public conscience.

It launched in the wake of Wizards of the Coast, the company that currently produces D&D, trying to claw back the Open Gaming License they themselves issued in the late 1990s that allowed third parties to use their then-recent d20 system rules for their own products so that they could implement a paid licensing system which would have gouged users and allowed Wizards free access to anything anyone created under the new license w/o compensating the original creator. Everyone from regular fans to actual gaming-related companies were calling for boycotts of the movie in order to punish Wizards, and by extension parent company Hasbro, for this incident. 

[Carborendum]

1 hour ago, mordorbund said:

Any DnD-based film faces an uphill battle so long as Dark Dungeons remains in the public conscience.

Have you seen the Dead Ale Wives video?

[mordorbund]

9 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Have you seen the Dead Ale Wives video?

Not yet. I'll look it up later.

[Carborendum]

Just now, mordorbund said:

Not yet. I'll look it up later.

There was only a minor call-back.

The Dead Ale Wives was a skit team from Dr. Demento's show.  One excerpt:

Wiz: I cast magic missile.
DM: Cast it at what?  There's nothing here.  
Wiz: I cast it at the darkness.

(laughter).