Cinema Issues: The Importance Of The Second Weekend For The Odyssey

As Sunday rolled into Monday many people were looking at the numbers of the Odyssey first weekend around 264 and going take that chuds.

However, the first weekend is not proof of anything and everything will be decided in the second and third weekend. Here’s how.

Firstly the film using Hollywood standard 2.5x the production budget needed to break even needs to make around 625 million dollars. Which is about 360-361 million dollars from where they are now.

Now normally Nolan films have a long stretch in cinemas without competition, not this time but we will get there.

Secondly, if you look at the breakdown of the reported 264 a lot of it came from premium formats, this is your IMAX and things like that. Now these tickets were sold way in advance and bring in much more money per ticket sale than a regular ticket. However, most of the people who cared deeply about the format will have seen it by now, meaning they went the first weekend potentially suggesting we could be seeing a front loaded movie. There will be some people who couldn’t get premium seats last weekend who may go in the week or even next weekend and there will be others who go again. The number of premium tickets however will be down in the second weekend both for the natural reason of less people going but also because the few who missed out on opening weekend and those who want to see it again will be a small group. This means the second weekend drop off will be reflective of a front loaded movie. A usual film that holds well will lose about 50% of its business but this has the added factor of being so dependent on premium formats as such it could see into the 60% or higher.

Going into the second weekend the film sits at 364 million dollars, as a lot of the stragglers after the first weekend went to see the film during the week, meaning they’ll likely be high drop off on the second weekend.

This would mean that the film would end its second weekend around 500 million when you account for the weekday ticket sales as well. This leaves the film with around a 125 deficit to break even. This would then become a central issue as it faces a lock out in the third weekend.

Basically if the Odyssey wants to break even it needs an incredibly strong second weekend.

In the film’s third weekend Spider-Man Brand New Day comes out. This means the premium IMAX screens will stop making any money for the Odyssey and will be handed to Sony for that film. This means that the male demographic is split as well. Both Spider-Man and The Odyssey lean towards men, older men say 25-40 will have an interest in both so there will be direct competition. Whilst the older crowd 60+ may still show up for the prestige epic and the cinephiles might go back for rewatches the core of the audience will be hollowed out.

As such the box office will likely see a significant downturn on the third weekend.

You are then left with two options, that the film sticks around and over a few long period of time maybe into September is able to crawl to that 625 million break even point, or it does not break even at all and the chuds win.

If you were Universal you would be watching that second weekend like a hawk the closer to 500 million you can get the easier it will be to survive post Spider-Man. If the film managed to barely drop at all in the second weekend it could comfortably break even at 625 over the later summer period.

As such for those celebrating it is too soon to call.

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Interstellar: Back In The 2010s Chris Nolan Was A Serious Filmmaker

Summary, a man goes on a mission to find a new home for his kids across the stars.

Unlike something like Project Hail Mary this film actually scienced it was hard science fiction from the off rather than wasting time with goofy elements.

The performances carried the film and there was a lot of weight to it, particularly the scenes wherein the main character sees his daughter again for the first time in decades.

The film does have some of the usual Nolan bloat as he likes to indulge in, the film would have been better sans the Matt Damon plotline, and sans the Cassie Affleck side quest but hey Nolan has to Nolan.

The film is visually great and the new worlds they explore look well realised and hold up even now 12 years later.

Overall, a sign of what Nolan can do when he’s not race swapping characters to bait the culture war.

3.5/5

Pros.

The world design

The human aspects

The science

The gravity of the situation

Cons.

Bloat

Needless subplots

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Ride Or Die Season 1 Overview: Amazon Keeps On Burning Money

Summary: two older ladies have their unlikely friendship rocked when one of them reveals they are an assassin.

Where to begin with why this doesn’t work, do we even need to say why the physicality of Waddingham makes the idea she is beating the snot out of dudes incredibly unlikely.

The usual places are saying this is wonderful for featuring older women representation, we’d say who is asking to see more action properties starring 50+ year old women? The counter argument of course is this is a comedy-action series. However, you wouldn’t know that from watching it the comedy doesn’t just not land it is outright painful.

The chemistry between Spencer and Waddingham also feels like two people forced to spend time together rather than two old friends, that doesn’t get better as the show progresses it remains immovable.

Overall, you seriously question why the studio head at Amazon Prime has a job left.

0.5/5

Pros.

It is once or twice unintentionally hilarious

Cons.

The comedy is DOA

Waddingham and Spencer have no chemistry

No one asked for this

It is dull and predictable

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Evil Dead Burn: Is That It?

Summary: the deadities go after a family after they discover an ancient weapon that can kill them.

So this film was watchable and had some good gore but that’s really it, it didn’t do much of anything new either in terms of horror more broadly or in terms of the franchise.

Another thing that was odd was that the humour which is a staple of the Evil Dead franchise was mostly missing as the film played it straight, this was a bad choice.

The film once again showed the evil side of the nuclear family and turned the film into a depressing PSA on domestic abuse.

Crucially it was an Evil Dead film that wasn’t fun.

Overall, watchable if the low point for the franchise.

2/5

Pros.

The gore

It is watchable

Cons.

The lack of humour

The return of Ellie is fairly meh

It is something you have seen before

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Cinema Issues: A Surprisingly Barren July (26)

If one looks at the release schedule for July you see the early big hitters of Minons and Moana and then the Odyssey takes up the middle of the month, but then there is a gap between the Odyssey and Spiderman Brand New Day that would be unthinkable for prime summer movie season.

One explanation could be that Nolan asked the other studios and cinema to give him two weekends with his latest venture and they let him, which would be dumb, or they want to see him fail in real time.

Another could be that there just isn’t that much to release as the after effects of the strikes and the downsizing in Hollywood are starting to cut the output. The weeks between the Odyssey and Brand New Day would be the perfect time to launch a sleeper hit horror movie but people are staying away.

The summer box office this year has been erratic, with obvious flops like He-Man, The Mandalorian and Grogu and Supergirl all crashing and burning, but also with films like Minions and Monsters opening softly. You can feel Hollywood shaking, they are out of touch and aren’t connecting and don’t know why. Moana and the Odyssey won’t save them and neither will an ever shrinking summer schedule.

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Moana (Live Action): Disney Doesn’t Respect You

Summary, a film that is barely 10 years old is repackaged to you by Disney as they think you’ll just buy anything.

This film is insulting, not in that it’s bad it’s incredibly mediocre, but in how cynical it is. This film was simply made to mine an IP there was no need for it and they didn’t change much about it, it was made as Disney thought kids would just watch anything. Gone are the days of Walt’s standards.

There is precious little to say about the film as they change very little about it, you’ve seen it all before as once again the film is barely 10 years old and most people can remember it. At times it feels like a parody of the original film but you realise it is played too serious for that, a parody would have been better.

Overall, if your kid like Moana just put the original on.

2/5

Pros.

The adventure is still the same

The songs are still mostly the same

Cons.

It doesn’t need to exist

It does nothing new

It is the worst version

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The Odyssey: Greece Is A Country In Africa

Summary, a modern audience adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey with renewed female focus.

Sadly the Editor demanded that someone cover this film and that fell to me so here we are. The film didn’t look good from the trailers and from the other marketing materials but there is still further to fall.

Firstly, not only is Helen of Troy black but also Troy has a black princess. This makes no sense for the region or the time period but hey Troy is clearly Wakanda lite.

Secondly, to address the evil nature of Homer’s original text and how it didn’t focus enough on the female perspective despite being written about a war and return home from it, things only men would have had experience with at the time, we get lots of Penelope action. She is a girlboss running Ithaca turning down all the marriage proposals, as she is married and believes her husband is still alive. This wastes a lot of the film’s runtime goes on for far too long, but hey we needed more female perspective so forced marriages and suitors is the way to go, very progressive Chris.

Thirdly, the idea of Ellen Page as a greek warrior is laughable. If a male child was born like that in ancient Greece it likely would have been left for dead, she has the normal portions for a woman, but hey ho this clearly a very tolerant and progressive ancient Greece.

Fourthly, as is customary of Hollywood you can’t really have villains they have to be misunderstood. Charlize Theron’s Circe both helps the gang but also keeps and rapes Odysseus for 7 years but is not treated like the out and out villain she is. The woman uses a man for her pleasure and that is all that matters in these modern days where marriage is oppressive and men the enemy.

Finally, Odysseus is made out to be a monster for killing innocent people during the Trojan war, once again despite the left’s refusal to accept reality innocent people die in war all the time. He is punished repeatedly by Zendaya, whose presence in this film reminds us all that you don’t need to be able to act to be an actor.

You can tell at times this is adapting the translation and not the original text, the message is very clear. Women are made to rule, to use and punish men as they see fit, and that men are only after power and use women for it and that war is bad.

Christopher Nolan used to be a serious filmmaker this is not serious filmmaking it is a vandalisation of Greek mythology, but hey they refuses to do the press tour in Greece so what does it matter.

1/5

Pros.

There are a few aspects of the classic text it leaves alone.

Cons.

The modern dayisms

Expecting people to believe that Ellen Page is a greek soldier

The terrible acting at times

The pacing and bloat

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Cinema Issues: The Cowardice Of The Odyssey

As many of you may know the new Christopher Nolan film is mere days away from release, yet unlike other Nolan offerings this one is wrapped up in controversy. Whether that is the vandalisation of greek mythology, casting a woman to play a man’s role (Ellen Page), the race swap of Helen of Troy, or possibly having Lupita N’yongo Karensplain female perspective to Homer thousands of years later. The latter is particularly egregious when you think the Odyssey has some of the most developed female characters in the ancient literature, but surely you don’t expect N’yongo to bother reading it.

The beginnings of the cowardice began when they announced a worldwide press tour for the film, but that it wouldn’t stop in Greece. This is important as the Greek Government has publicly criticised the film for not featuring Greek actors. Moreover, knowing what they have on their hands Universal has taken to turning off comments on any new marketing material they release in order to make sure they only platform positive comments and docile bot accounts. The ratio of the trailers shows a very different story.

The fact remains this may have been one of Christopher Nolan’s greatest mistakes as a director and this may well cost him professionally if it doesn’t land well over the 600 million needed break even point

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Cinema Issues: The Demonisation Of The Nuclear Family

When leaving Olivia Wilde’s latest film the Invite a thought occurred, why is it we have so many films showing the death of love or of families but so few these days showing love and happiness.

Could it be the idea that a lot of people in Hollywood are unhappy in their relationships and so reflect that on the big screen perhaps. However, there is also an underlying cynicism that suggests that there is something problematic about straight couples getting together in 2026 and that the nuclear family is a tool for oppression. Hence you see far less of it, to show a woman happy within a nuclear family unit is to suggest that it isn’t the toxic, freedom stealing experience characters such as Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 3 say it is.

You also have the open promotion of alternative lifestyles where people are shown as happier because they aren’t married. This can be seen in the Invite with the promotion of swinging culture, many modern films have suggested having multiple partners or having meaningless hook ups with no commitments is the only way to be happy, looking at you Splitizville. This reflects the cynicism we have been talking about rather than believing in love and commitment and loyalty, these are all seen as tools of oppression, the only way Hollywood thinks they can be free is to pursue their own meaningless self pleasure from meaningless sex where they can throw the person away at the end.

Look at Charlize Theron who in a Call Her Daddy episode said that she is glad she isn’t married as she could have sex with a man half her age. This is just as problematic as Leonardo DiCaprio throwing away girls when they get too old for him in their early twenties.

The cynicism we have talked about is a reflection of the deeply jaded, perverse nature of Hollywood’s ideas on sex but also the rejection of the love story, in its most traditional form as they view it as oppressive

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The Invite: A Lonely Woman’s Take On Marriage

Summary: an unhappily married couple are swayed into the swinging lifestyle

So of course Olivia Wilde a woman who ran out of a relationship to get with a much younger man, is going to tell you being in a long term monogamous relationship makes you unhappy.

Of course she is going to fetishize swinging and act like the swinging couple has a great relationship, when in fact it is an unethical therapist, Cruz, taking advantage of a man who lost his wife, Norton.

The film ends with the monogamous couple looking at slipping up, because of course they would be happier single.

The central characters are incredibly irritating and unlikeable and a collection of some of the worst modern cliches and neurosis.

The cringe comedy does manage to get a laugh from you before the loveless husk of a marriage manages becomes too much to bare and sucks all the joy from the room.

Overall, a depressing experience.

1.5/5

Pros

A few funny jokes

Okay pacing

Cons.

Deeply unlikeable characters

Yet more monogamy bad nonsense

Hollywood’s sheer lack of morals

It’s depressing

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