Moonbomb - Moonfall (2022) Discussion

[–] bozo_500 (13150) 3 years ago

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2022/02/04/box-office-jackass-forever-tops-moonfall-with-17-million-thursday/

Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall earned $700,000 in Thursday previews. The (expectedly) poorly reviewed disaster flick, starring Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry as astronauts trying to save the Earth as the moon comes hurtling toward us, is expected to perform no better than Dean Devlin’s Geostorm. That “Gerard Butler versus the weather” flick opened with just $13 million in late 2017 before earning $33 million domestic and $221 million worldwide on a $120 million budget. The independently financed $146 million sci-fi flick is being distributed domestically by Lionsgate. Once upon a time, Independence Day ($817 million in 1996), The Day After Tomorrow ($553 million in 2004) and 2012 ($791 million in 2009) were among the very highest grossing live-action originals of all time.

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[–] TheArgentinian (7106) 3 years ago

People don't go to the movies to watch something original unless it has a big star. Sad, isn't it?

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[–] JoWilli (20274) 3 years ago

yeah, pretty much. not sure how theaters are going to stay in business. everyone seems content to stream movies at home as well.

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[–] Satan2016 (25567) 3 years ago

Emmerich just recycles his old movies.

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[–] UncleRuckis (2627) 3 years ago

In what way is this original? As far as I can tell, it's derivative of every other disaster movie. Hell it rips like 3 of Emmerich's previous movies.

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[–] TheArgentinian (7106) 3 years ago

You know what I meant.

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[–] jamesdrax (44) 3 years ago

It has a big moon.

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[–] bozo_500 (13150) 3 years ago

10m opening
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2022/02/06/movies-box-office-jackass-forever-moonfall-knoxville-emmerich-lionsgate-paramount/

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[–] TandyMan (11119) 3 years ago

I was really pumped to see this until I saw all the trailers. What an unlikable cast they slapped together.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8755) 3 years ago

Funny, I watched the film last night and thought the cast was one of its strengths.

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[–] spurtle467 (1549) 3 years ago

Bad reviews, no top actors at the height of their game, people tired of Emmerich's disaster porn, it's not really a surprise is it? I think people in general are bored of disaster movies where the fate of life on Earth is in peril, unless there is a superhero involved. Should have been made 20 years ago when people could be bothered with his movies.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8755) 3 years ago

I still enjoy the disaster genre but it needs to be executed properly. Emmerich USED to know how to do this. Independence Day is still one of my favorite movies of all time. The Day After Tomorrow is at least not bad.

Moonfall has some cool visuals, but also has serious script issues.

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[–] spurtle467 (1549) 3 years ago

I think the timing may also be a factor for their successes. Independence Day back in the 90's was the first big budget alien invasion movie. Nothing on that scale had been done before and that generated large interest and anticipation, as well as perhaps the idea of alien invasion being more fresh. In the same sense, TDAT was the first big budget natural disaster movie back in the early 00's. 2012 was very successful too and that could play on the hysteria already going around about the Mayan prediction for 2012 being the year the world ends.

But yeah, probably the script is a little more ridiculous than his usual disaster fare, and Emmerich is past his best these days even when his best was never that high to begin with.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8755) 3 years ago

I'm sure you're right, at least to an extent. The fact that Independence Day looked like something we had never quite seen before undoubtedly helped lead it to success (similarly to what we saw with The Matrix a few years later).

Having seen it, I think that Moonfall COULD have been a fun movie if they had put more work into the script. Weirdly, even though the film is 2 hrs 10 mins long, it still feels rushed and it feels like a lot of the connective tissue that should exist to tie its scenes together just isn't there. Really, even though this is way too long for a disaster movie, to properly explore some of the ideas it introduces it probably needs to be more like 3 hours.

I would disagree that Emmerich's best "was never that high to begin with." Independence Day is a stone cold popcorn classic and I think that The Patriot is a great film, too. Sadly though, most of his films don't reach those heights, and his filmography overall is very uneven.

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[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Roland Emmerich needs to be "executed properly".

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[–] 123Guy (7379) 3 years ago

Why is this a shock when theaters are covid empty?

I don't know if our when theaters will ever be normal again. Maybe never

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8755) 3 years ago

Spider-Man: No Way Home has made almost $2 billion dollars. That's an insane amount of money even pre-covid. So clearly audiences will still get out to theaters if it's something they really want to see.

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[–] 123Guy (7379) 3 years ago

I knew this was coming. Spiderman. :) from a multibillion dollar franchise...I don't really see a good comparison to an original stand alone.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8755) 3 years ago

Well Spiderman at least does show that it IS possible to make a boatload of cash at the box office, even in the era of covid.

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[–] 123Guy (7379) 3 years ago

While I fully agree a large sequel universe movie does well, I feel like most other theater films are really tanking. This film doesn't look fantastic, so probably deserved, for sure, but it's not surprising.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8755) 3 years ago

I have my eye next on Death on the Nile. It should be a very interesting test case.

Murder on the Orient Express was a surprise hit in 2017, making over $350 million worldwide on a $55 million budget. However, I do distinctly remember that the audience very much skewed older, with the majority of that money coming from moviegoers 55+.

Will that same crowd come out now in the pandemic era to support Ken Branagh's next Agatha Christie adaptation? Or is it destined to be a box office failure? I guess we'll know very soon.

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[–] wrecche (631) 3 years ago

A rehashed and rewritten story, with no real enigma to it. People just like the MCU....

Or they wouldnt still be making more of the same ol' super powered non super powered human suddenly being able to fall 500 feet and just go Ouch.

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[–] MonStar (12990) 3 years ago

Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has been out for 55 days, has surpassed Moonfall, which has been out for 6 days, at the box office on Monday and Wednesday. (The Tuesday discount ticket prices may have brought Moonfall back up for that one day.)

The bad reviews and now bad word-of-mouth appear to be causing Moonfall to fall out of orbit.

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[–] wrecche (631) 3 years ago

Did you write that with a thinking brain?

A: Something that has been out 55 days
B: Something that has been out 6 days

A means it's better than B.

And with WW3 starting, who cares anyway. It was a decent enough movie. Kept me entertained, but then I'm not one of the hoi polloi.

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[–] MonStar (12990) 3 years ago

Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has been out for 56 days, surpassed Moonfall by 84% at the box office on Thursday. Moonfall is dropping so much that it is approaching Scream's receipts..

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[–] old3eyes (331) 3 years ago

Guess it will be on PPV streaming soon.

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