Disney's first film with LGBTQ+ lead bombs at box office – and fans have thoughts (gay fans accuse Disney of purposely trying to sabotage the movie through lack or marketing to justify lack of gay representation in future movies)

submitted by Alienhunter糞大名 from pinknews.co.uk

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[–]ClassroomPast6178 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Except Top Gun Maverick is heading for what, $2billion? People will go out to see stuff they want to see, and will go again if they like it.

Disney plus is losing billions, apparently it’s bundled with other products really heavily so it doesn’t actually pull in the money to cover the costs of production. I get my sub free with my mobile phone contract.

[–]bopomofodojo 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It can absolutely be both.

10 years ago, people might go to a movie, what, every 2-3 weeks, if there were things showing, and there was a ton of choice every week. It was just a "thing people did".

Streaming and COVID lockdowns killed most of that, coupled with the consistent rise in streaming, leaving many people to having 2 years where nobody did that "thing people did". Add to that the endless rising costs of everything where a ticket is now $20.

And now we're coming out of it, and instead of jumping right back into a movie every 2-3 weeks, people might be going every 2-3 months instead, if that. Thus they're far more stingy on what they see. "A big budget sequel to a great movie from 30 years ago which hasn't already been ground into fine mist for sequels? Sounds appealing for my one movie these few months. Some random crap from Disney that's got an 'LGTBTQWTF protagonist'? Why bother, trailer looks like shit, I'll catch it on Plus later for free and if it sucks I'm not out $20 and a trip to the theater."

People have been saying that for years because it's been a trend for years. It's just been masked by the fact that fewer and fewer movies are being made every year as studios consolidate behind basically 2 giant ones, and that the movies that do get made are all these giant-budget blockbusters. What's different now is that we're seeing blockbuster after blockbuster from the studios underperform, which if that trend continues will certainly trigger some sort of correction.

[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Yeah people have been talking about the movie industry dying for years but frankly I don't think that's the case. Downsizing? Shifting? Definitely. I think these animated family movies especially will do worse and worse due to costs. But pop them up at a budget theater that charges $5 a pop? They'll do ok.

I think for the top cost high budget movies they need to lean into the big screen spectacle to attract people to the theater. But I think people will still go see movies in the theater even with the prominence of streaming, you just have to make movies that people actually are willing to pay to watch.

[–]LyingSpirit472 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Honestly, the problem ties into u/ClassroomPast6178 's example, as well as examples like how anime movies have grown from "special event showings" to getting regular theatrical releases- the movies that are succeeding now are the type of thing that ties to a fanbase who's dedicated and hardcore enough they will still go to the theater to see. (This even ties to Top Gun Maverick, since a high-action, high-spectacle, high- 'MURICA movie like Top Gun is the type of thing people who think COVID is a lib'rul plot to take mah FREEDOM and everyone who died of it is secretly alive and chilling out on a island near where the earth's edge is would jump at seeing.)

The spectacle aspect is going to be a good question for the Avatar sequels, since the first Avatar was basically 100% spectacle and effectively nothing else and even people who see it know that (and 3D movies going out of style in recent years ties into this, since Avatar's sequels can't possibly be as much of a spectacle as the first one without 3D.)

[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The anime stuff is a weird one. Ghibli movies were quite good and I think had a potential for mass market western appeal as they seem to have done. They are somewhat reminiscent of the older Disney movies back when they weren't afraid of giving Pinnochio cigars and having scary imagery and the like before they morphed into the super family friendly sterile image they have today. Though I'm not sure American audiences would appreciate going to see a Ghibli movie in theaters like, princess mononoke, and seeing samurai getting decapitated and the like since the whole sex violence and whatever standards in Japan are quite different than the west.

I think the Makoto Shinkai movies have been doing fairly good in the west recently. I think that's mostly on weebs though. I like his movies and they aren't bad but they are so"Japanese" that I don't really get why they've become popular otherwise. They're fairly decent compared to the loads of really shit anime that exists but they are definitely not made with a western audience in mind.

Avatar will be interesting to see how it performs. Frankly I'm going to skip it. Because I didn't really care for the first one beyond the "these graphics are cool" sort of way. Does it still look cool? Sure. Do I want to watch 3 hours of blue smurf people doing stuff I don't care about? Not really.

[–]LyingSpirit472 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Well, first off when I say anime movies getting theatrical release- even Ghibli films (which already got that) or Shinkai movies (which could flirt with it) are different than what I'm saying. They could get those releases.

I'm talking about movies like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, like Dragon Ball Z movies, the Jujutsu Kaisen movie, One Piece: RED which was recently out...IIRC, the Quintessential Quintuplets movie is about to come out in December for the same, which isn't even a action film. This is the much more weeb shit than the Ghibli/Shinkai films. They're Movies that are forgettable throwins to popular series (or in the Quintuplets' case, the end of the story). Before the pandemic, movies like these would be a special appearance at theaters at best and wouldn't be given a second thought for even limited releases. After the pandemic, they're getting wide releases and even succeeding at the box office. Mugen Train was a huge hit in 2021 Stateside, a DBZ movie even hit number 1 in theaters for a week, and the other two got wide releases.

This type of thing would have NEVER happened before the pandemic, and yet it happens regularly enough to say that there's been a notable change somewhere for movies in the theater...and it's not like "anime is bigger, a rising tide lifts all boats", but much more likely "theaters are shrinking, a draining lake reveals more islands."

[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Interesting. Wasn't aware of that. I'm surprised the shonen stuff is doing well but I guess the kids that grew up with DBZ and the like on TV are all adults now.

Makes sense the shonen is doing well since it's usually right in line with the Superhero movies that keep getting made over and over again.

I heard that one of the Shinkai movies did well in the states, I think it was Kiminonawa? Kind of surprised it did but I guess that was before the trans stuff hit the culture wars.

Saw the newest Shinkai movie recently and must say I enjoyed it but I don't think it can do well in the west. Too Japanese for mass market appeal I think, don't think the average westerner will understand 3/11 by just the numbers.

[–]LyingSpirit472 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah. Shinkai would be similar to the Ghibli directors in "they're respected enough as directors they'll succeed no matter what."

To me, the big test to see if this rise will succeed would be if the "Quintuplets" movie can take hold; we're seeing the shonen series do well due to its action/superhero stuff and how kids grew up with DBZ and the like, but we have yet to see if an anime romance can take in theaters. If even THAT does well enough, the floodgates will open and we'll see the weebest of the weeb shit get regular release.

[–]Countach_3D 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It does appear that Avatar 2 will be in 3-D though.