Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

April 22, 2015

He's shocked that people actually still like him.

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Ryan Kyle: This is a major win for the studio. In fact, any number would be a major win with how dirt cheap the production budget is. I saw this movie and was really impressed by the story, acting, and over-all style, and the strong reviews matched my sentiments. While It Follows was a genre-throwback, Unfriended (like Paranormal Activity) propels the genre of horror, for better or for worse, with its computer screen presentation. I am unsure how strong the legs will be given that it skews younger and I don't see older folks being swayed by the positive reviews for a film that is essentially a Skype call, but it's all pure profit at this point for Universal, who has had an incredible spring and a very strong summer slate around the corner.

Kim Hollis: Monkey Kingdom, which is not an awesome kung fu movie but rather a Disneynature documentary, earned $4.6 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Edwin Davies: This is nearly identical to the amount that Bears earned on the same weekend last year, and only half of what Chimpanzee earned in 2012. To me, that says that the Disneynature strand has more or less settled in to the range that ensures that the films will never break out, but they'll never out and out flop because they're pretty cheap to produce, and they're more a way of enhancing Disney's image by associating them with environmental issues. Disney probably had pretty modest expectations for this one, and if the final falls in the same $15-20 million range these films usually end up with, that will probably justify putting out another documentary like this over the same weekend next year.

Jason Barney: The budget numbers for Monkey Kingdom are difficult to come by, but at this point in time Disney knows how much money to put behind these projects, and they know what the cost benefit numbers are. I do find it sad that even though Disney chooses to put these out there once a year, they don’t make much money against big animation, etc. This market place is the perfect example - no real big openers, no real kids' competition except Home, which has been out for several weeks, and a “real” project like this still only brings in relatively small amounts of cash. Not to be pessimistic, but perhaps the lack of support for this film is a statement about where a good deal of our entertainment values currently stand.




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Felix Quinonez: These disney nature documentaries seem a little superfluous to me. But I guess they're making enough money. And if the opening of the last one was fine and this one pretty much matched it, then it should be in good shape. I guess.

Michael Lynderey: These Disneynature films are incorrigible! They're like Saw sequels, with a slightly more consistent gross (and a higher body count). I wonder how long they'll keep releasing them consecutively like this? Which year will be the first to be Disneynature-less? If anyone wants to take any bets, I'll say 2018, but something tells me I should have gone for the 2020s.

Ryan Kyle: I am a bit surprised this didn't open a bit higher since the documentary grosses seemed to be swayed by the subject matter, but for what is essentially a reissue of footage from the documentary "Earth," this result is a win. Paul Blart, sadly, might have stole away a million or two with it's stronger than expected performance. It seems as if $5 million is the ceiling for these films, but I guess Disney is happy with the result if they keep rolling these out year after year.


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