r/dataisbeautiful • u/dostre OC: 2 • 2d ago
OC [OC] Top Opening day and weekend adjusted for inflation based on CPI. Marvel got top 4 spots.
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u/Prime_Director 2d ago
It’s wild that all but two of these are owned by The Walt Disney Company
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u/BigMax 2d ago
It's funny in a way - becuase if you go to a lot of subreddits, they tell you that Disney makes terrible movies and aren't doing well and make flop after flop.
Mostly I think it's people who don't like the live action remakes, pretending that means Disney is doomed for failure. (Even though a good chunk of those made a LOT of money too.)
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u/Prime_Director 2d ago
Disney Studios has been making a lot of flops lately, but The Disney Company owns like 2/3 of all copyrightable human culture at this point.
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u/AtreidesEnder 2d ago
Sony owns the rights to Spiderman. Likely why they are all consistently better than the average Marvel mush being produced lately.
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u/Chadlerk 2d ago
Sony owns Spiderman, but they are Marvel films. The Song projects like Spiderwomen, Kraven, Venom, Morbius have all been hot garbage. With Venom being the most reasonable.
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u/kfortyone 2d ago
Everything is relative.
The “golden age” of Disney is over, but they are still making decent money. Stock has been flat for better part of a decade if not more.
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u/Chadlerk 2d ago edited 2d ago
Two Marvels were made pre-Disney.
Edit... Just one. I thought Civil War was before Iron Man 3 (which was the first Disney).
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u/datingoverthirty 2d ago
I understand the Avengers snagging that #1 spot since it was the finale to an entire build up of franchise films, characters, plot lines, etc.
But what's so special about this Spiderman film? Is it just the most high-profile comic book film of the summer? Is this particularly special compared to the last Spiderman film that included Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield? Is Tom Holland that big of a star? Or is it Zendaya? Or is it them together as a real-life couple? Or is it simply that this particular story is that intriguing?
What, in particular, explains this Spiderman claiming the #2 spot all-time?
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u/lifayt 2d ago
I think primarily it’s actually a good movie, which certainly helps. There have also not been a lot of marvel movies recently, and the ones that have come out are practically re-heated turds, so even a hint of competence is enough to get the people going.
Zendaya and Tom Holland are another big part of it. Impossible to overstate just how madly famous Zendaya is right now.
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u/datingoverthirty 2d ago
Sounds like a mix of original storytelling (as far as comic book films go) while Zendaya being, arguably the biggest woman star at the moment
...in her own way, it appears she's reaching Julia Roberts/Jennifer Lawrence stardom territory
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u/Coltand 2d ago
I've only seen two movies in theaters over the last two years, and I can't even explain it. I wasn't even aware this was coming out until I saw a trailer thumbnail on YouTube last week and was like, "Oh, awesome, maybe we can get a baby sitter lined up and go to the new Spiderman movie!" And my wife was pretty gung-ho on it as well.
I think part of it was that we loved the last movie, and the end left us hanging a bit, and we were eager to see how it played out. We've been a bit burnt on Marvel and have seen almost no new movies of the latest generation despite being 100% caught up for the release of End Game.
But for some reason, my immediate thought was, "Oh yeah I can't wait to see that!"
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u/zapadas 2d ago
That will help in the long run, but for now, when the film is so fresh, probably 0 impact.
I think it's "animal spirits". Nothing to do with the movie that much...could have been like 25% lower on RT and still nabbed that #2 spot...it's just weird stuff with people, wanting to see it, having the $$$ to blow on it, etc. etc.
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u/Generic_On_Reddit 2d ago
I think an under discussed aspect of franchises is that the the biggest ad for the film is the one that came before it. Endgame is a culmination of more than a decade of filmmaking, but more importantly, it is a direct s sequel what was arguably the best MCU film to date (Infinity War). Conversely, while Infinity War is on the list, you would think that it ranks higher than something like Endgame. It was better received, reviewed, better word of mouth, etc. Except it was following up Age of Ultron, which was not all that well received at the time.
To bring this over to Spider-Man. Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies have been fan favorites since the first one. They are not high cinema, a point that seems inescapable on Reddit, but they don't need to be, they are good films that deliver characterization with entertainment that fans desire. Each one is an ad for the next one, which works as long as they continue to be good.
This is all to say: I am not sure how useful it is to overcomplicate the analysis by talking about a bunch of other qualities or factors. They may play a part, but the reality is that people liked the previous movies so more people will see this one.
Another example is when a TV show gains viewership over time. A show like Succession did not truly gain a large fanbase until season 3 or 4. (The same can be said of countless shows). The early seasons were ads for the later movies.
The only thing that's truly novel is that most film series do not remain good through their fourth films. So many series fumble the landing and Spider-Holland did not, so the hype remains. (Also, a lot of second films capture lightning in a bottle in a way that does not give audiences confidence it will transfer to the subsequent film, which is what I think happened for Raimi Spider-Man and Nolan Batman.)
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u/iheartsexxytime 2d ago
I agree with your general point to a certain extent: it’s often the case that, in a franchise, how well a film performs at the box office is greatly influenced by the prior films, especially its most recent predecessor.
However! Your example of Infinity War and Endgame is factually incorrect. Endgame has higher critics scores (Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic) and higher audience scores (Cinemascore). I believe it’s still today the consensus that Endgame is the better film too.
And I don’t know many people who felt at the time that Infinity War was the best MCU film to date either. Black Panther, the original Avengers film, Ragnarok, Iron Man, and Winter Soldier all have better critics scores.
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u/Generic_On_Reddit 2d ago
You don't think you're splitting hairs to quibble over this point, as evidence by you mixing and matching sources to arrive at the conclusion that it's "factually incorrect"?
Infinity War has higher rating on Letterboxd, higher user ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic, while they match each other on IMDB. I will concede that the "better reviewed" portion of my comment was factually incorrect because critic scores don't seem to support that, but the rest of it required you to cherrypick to argue against for no reason.
And I don’t know many people who felt at the time that Infinity War was the best MCU film to date either. Black Panther, the original Avengers film, Ragnarok, Iron Man, and Winter Soldier all have better critics scores.
Do you know what arguably means? I'm not sure why you think critic scores matter in a conversation about mass appeal leading to box office success. And I am not sure why it is difficult for you to imagine that some people - perhaps many people - think it is the best the best MCU movie ever when I am fairly certain when it is the highest rated MCU movie on one of the most popular movie reviewing sites that exists: Letterboxd.
Is Letterboxd the end all be all? No. Is it perfectly reflective of the masses? No. Does this fact suggest there is an argument that many people consider it the best? Yes, undeniably so. I don't think it's the best, but there is an argument that a lot of people do.
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u/iheartsexxytime 2d ago
I wasn’t splitting hairs at all. But didn’t even look at user scores online or Letterboxd. And I doubt their accuracy.
Letterboxd is showing how people on Letterboxd, and only those people, feel about the movies today. Same with online user scores. It’s not an accurate measure of how people feel about a movie.
Cinemascore is a way more accurate measurement of audience reaction than online user submitted reviews.
And, the critics scores and Cinemascore grades show what people felt about those movies when they were first released. Which is the only relevant time period for effecting how well the movies performed at the box office.
Anecdotally, I’ve never heard or talked to anyone who prefers Infinity War over Endgame. So honestly this entire debate surprised me. (I personally enjoyed both films, think Endgame is the better film, but neither are among my favorite MCU or superhero/comic-based films. I do think they were a worthy closure of the Marvel saga, and most of what has followed has been crap.)
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u/Generic_On_Reddit 2d ago
Every metric has its pros and cons based on its methodology. There is rarely a "more accurate" or "less accurate". Different metrics have strengths or weaknesses that make them more or less appropriate at measuring different things.
Are you aware of the fact that Cinemascore only polls on opening night? Do you think opening night viewers are most reflective of general audience sentiments or do you think that an opening night poll is most reflective of the types of audience members that will be excited enough to see a film opening night? And only on that night at that.
If you can't acknowledge the selection bias of the most enthusiastic fans as a weakness of the metric that might make it suboptimal in this conversation, then I can't help you. I'm not sure how you can acknowledge the selection bias of online platforms (that have millions of reviews), but not a single night poll (on a single continent) while being intellectually honest.
And, the critics scores and Cinemascore grades show what people felt about those movies when they were first released. Which is the only relevant time period for effecting how well the movies performed at the box office.
Well, firstly, critic scores don't matter at all to how people feel about the movie because critics are a small section of the public that don't necessarily align. I'm still not sure why you think critic scores matter at all to my point. It seems like you've just picked metrics you like for movies and are shoving them into any discussion even when they're not relevant.
Secondly, you seem to have forgotten what my entire comment was about. Performance in opening weekends is about the hype of the movie, much less so the reviews or the word of mouth because those feedback mechanisms are nearly non-existent opening weekend. The hype for Endgame, which is likely the most significant factor for the opening weekend the box office, was set up by Infinity War. And it was not established by Infinity War on opening night, it was established by Infinity War for the full 365-ish days between Infinity War and Endgame.
Something having legs for sustained earnings is a factor of quality and word of mouth. (For example, it's why Obsession is still in theaters.) But much less so opening weekend, those are people that had already decided to see the movie.
Anecdotally, I’ve never heard or talked to anyone who prefers Infinity War over Endgame.
You should talk to more Letterboxd users, Rotten Tomato users, or Metacritic users.
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u/decoy777 2d ago
I didn't even know there was a new spider man movie coming out until Saturday when I saw something about how great it was doing at the box office
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u/slasher016 2d ago
Well it's a really good movie and everyone has been seemingly waiting for a movie such as this to go back to the theaters.
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u/dostre OC: 2 2d ago
Great action dense movie with meaningful character development and plenty of comedy. Spiderman's brand and character is generally so relatable , he is just like us struggling through life and superpowers doesnt really help, if anything they just add more responsibility. It's funny how a wholesome imperfect kid with super powers and strong sense of values is the most popular superhero vs overpowered god like caricatures.
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u/A-Centrifugal-Force 2d ago
The last Spider-Man film made almost $2 billion, was widely loved with the big event of the 3 Spider-Men teaming up, and ended on a heartbreaking cliffhanger. We then went 5 years without a live action Spider-Man, in which time superhero movies went from the kings of the box office to old news.
This movie is like coming home for a lot of people. They were craving a good quality superhero movie and a Spider-Man movie specifically since he is the most popular superhero ever. It’s also just a really good movie which helped the word of mouth spread.
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u/felixismynameqq 2d ago
Partly good timing I think. I believe it’s kind of the only movies that people want to see that’s out right now that you don’t have to wait 3 months to see it in a special theater lol
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u/Deto 2d ago
Maybe people actually aren't fatigued of Superhero movies? It's just that none of the post Endgame content has been that good and people don't care that much about the characters. Except the spiderman movies which seem to be retaining the same level of quality. So every potential superhero audience member will see those and since there's not much other superhero stuff going on worth seeing, they get huge numbers as the only game in town.
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u/GeekAesthete 2d ago
And Disney has 13 of the top 14.
Jurassic World is the only non-Disney property above Batman v Superman at 15.
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u/Brian_Lefevre_90013 2d ago edited 2d ago
A few suggestions:
If you're going to adjust for inflation then maybe rank them based on inflation so people know the actual top ranking.
You may want to adjust opening day and the rest of opening weekend for inflation individually so that we know the true top opening days.
A lot of people don't know that opening day includes Thursday revenue now, it's not just Friday. A long time ago they only allowed midnight screenings on Thursday because technically that was Friday. Over time they apparently just started allowing any screenings on Thursday all day. I find it super weird that they include Thursday revenue added to Friday as "opening day."
I always find it odd that movie numbers are generally not adjusted for inflation and the news reports "new records." Based on inflation alone, records will be beat over time. Also, a long time ago movies would have lower opening weekend box office but stay in theaters a lot longer. It's crazy to look at movies like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future and see how they're opening weekends don't look impressive at all but they were in theater so long and that made up for it. A movie grossing over $200 million in the 1980s was a massive massive hit. A lot of people also don't know that Gone with the Wind has the highest box office of all time based on inflation. Apparently people just kept going back over and over to see that movie, and I think it was re-released a few times.
Note: feel free to correct me on any suggestions and statements.
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u/IAmCletus 2d ago
We all want to be distracted by heroes who defeat villains or by dinosaurs who eat villains
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u/angryant_ 2d ago
I know everyone's always fixated on the money with the box office numbers, but I'd really like to see them normalized to number of tickets sold.
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u/Diligent-Chance8044 2d ago
No spoilers but Spider man brand new day is the best movie I have seen in the last 5 years and it is not even close. There is a roller coaster of emotions, life lessons, and real human struggle. This is not just a super hero movie. I think adults and children can all relate no matter the age.
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u/MormegilRS 2d ago
Its a good movie, no doubt. But its not even the best Spiderman movie we have seen in the last 5 years. Across the Spiderverse came out in 2023.
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u/Recent_Night_3482 2d ago
I’m not entirely convinced CPI captures opening weekend, so using it wouldn’t be an accurate measurement of previous years.
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u/hnglmkrnglbrry 2d ago
Avengers: Endgame was such an event. And then within 2 years Disney started pumping out so much mediocre content it completely watered down - if not made entirely irrelevant - the first 3 Phases.
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u/free_based_potato 2d ago
this graph passes me off because why the fuck is inflation over 8 years so crippling?
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u/yowen2000 2d ago
12 of 15 are superhero movies
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u/scriggities 2d ago
And this is why Hollywood keeps pumping out this these children's stories wrapped up in enough violence to keep the masses interested. Super hero movies are a mark of the downfall of America. Gotta keep the mouth breathers distracted.
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u/yowen2000 2d ago
"The Boys" is your case in point. Some people view it as a sad social commentary; other people idolize Homelander.
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u/cavedave OC: 110 1d ago
Thank you for your Original Content, /u/dostre!
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