January 6, 2024 • 50 mins
We apologize. Our output in 2023 was rough, but it reflected the kind of year we had. We are ready to make 2024 our best one yet. This week Christopher flies solo by looking at what can be learned from the top ten highest-grossing 2023 movies in the domestic box office.
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Episode Transcript
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They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Barbra.
Welcome to the latest episode of theMovie Breakdown and Happy New Year, and
here we are in twenty twenty four. Now I should warn you while I'm
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calling this an episode of the MovieBreakdown, once again, it's just me
Christopher Spicer, and I want toapologize for how long it has been since
we have posted an episode twenty twentythree. As you're well aware of longtime
listeners, and that's well be awareof you that are beyond the balcony.
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It was not the greatest year formy career. There was quite a few
challenges and one of the things thatsuffered from that is the podcast and the
website, as we did not createas many podcasts, episodes, or as
many articles as we normally would wantto do. And another thing that we
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didn't do a lot of is watchmovies. We did not review as many
movies twenty twenty three movies, whichis unfortunate. It's twenty twenty three,
by most accounts, by most critics, was an amazing movie year, and
we just were not. We didn'thave our fingers on the pulse, and
that is why I announced it onsocial media. But for those that don't
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fall us on social media, youmade up aware of this, but you
probably guessed it is that for thefirst time since we started this podcast way
back in twenty thirteen, and forthe first time I'm in several years before
that, because I used to postthe best movies of the year list top
ten lists on my site and Ialso did one for Collective Publishing when I
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wrote for them for the first timesince then, there will not be a
best of the Year episode. There'snot gonna be looking at the best movies
of twenty twenty three, will nothave, for the first time ever a
list episode on the Movie Breakdown,and I announced it with great heartbreak on
social media, and I say,once again, I am really saddened to
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say that we're not gonna be doingthat episode. And the main reason is
just we don't feel like we'd beenough of an authority to make a proper
episode reflected upon what we think isthe best of the past year, because
we just did not see enough moviesand so it just would not be a
great list. There'll be just toomany holes. I ever see every movie,
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and there's always a best movie,a great movie that gets missed that
we eventually get to and it justis on the list because we haven't seen
it yet. But this year therewould have just been too much of that,
and so we decided, we madethe decision that we would not do
a best of episode this year,and I'm really sad about that, and
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my commitment is that that's not gonnahappen again, and that instead now we
are going to refocus and make surethat twenty twenty four is the best year
ever for the Movie Breakdown and thebest year ever for the Beyond on the
Balcony website, and just really recommitto adding to the conversation about movies and
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really trying to review and watch asmany movies and twenty twenty four and so
there will be a best of yearat the end of twenty twenty four,
and we're gonna stay on top ofsome of the hottest movies, hottest releases
throughout twenty twenty four. But ontop of that, I do want to
try to catch up on some twentytwenty three movies, and it's over Beyond
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the Balcony. They'll be reviews forthose twenty twenty three movies that were missed,
and maybe at some point of theyear, in one of the down
months, like in August or September, maybe we'll finally revisit and do that
best of twenty twenty three show,And so that could be something that we
eventually do, but for now we'renot in the place for that. And
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starting next week, we are goingto be back to what did not happen
much in twenty twenty four, butall previous years there was a lot of
it, and that is weekly episodeson the Movie Breakdown, and maybe once
in a while we'll throw in somebonus episodes, some special treats in there
as well. I hope you peoplehad a great twenty twenty three and I
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hope everyone is excited about twenty twentyfour. I'm excited about what the Movie
Breakdown will present this year. Andlike I said, we'll start next week
with our first episode. We'll havea review the first theatrical movie of twenty
twenty four, Night Swim, andbecause a listener really wanted to hear our
thoughts, we're also gonna review RebelMoon. So that's the episode to look
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forward to. They'll be Rebel Moonand they'll also be a Night Swim along
with some other fun stuff, likelooking at our most anticipated movies of twenty
twenty four and we'll see them andwe'll see where they land on the list
at the end of the year.Will these movies we anticipate will be one
of the best. Who knows.Before I get into sort of what I
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want to talk about in this sortof mini episode, I just want to
say that people who have read thisside or followed me on social media and
listen to a few episodes we didpost this year of the movie breakdown here.
I've talked about a lot about howhard twenty two twenty three was for
my career and for me emotionally andfor my mental health and relationships, because
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anytime you're struggling with mental health,it does a huge blow on a lot
of relationships. And I have sortof used this year as learning some lessons
and how I can improve myself.And I have started looking to some medical
help when it comes to my emotionaland mental well being, and so I've
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finally taken those steps. I amlearning the importance of actually asking for help
and not sort of just trying todo this on my own. I mean,
people always say, oh, it'sgood that You're so open about your
health, but I'm not open aboutactually asking for help and reaching out.
And I'm really trying to stop insultingthose people I love in my life and
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actually coming to them when I sayI need you or this is where I'm
at. And so those are thingsthat I'm hoping to pivot and make twenty
twenty four a better year. It'sjust recognizing there is people that love you
and they're there to help you.Another thing I want to talk about that
was significant about twenty twenty three wasand I'm not sure if I mentioned on
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the podcast, but I've talked aboutit some on Beyond the Balcony, is
this was the year that I returnedto the stage. I did drama classes
as a kid, and I didsome productions of plays in high school,
but this but then I took ahuge break, didn't do it for like
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twenty years, and we enrolled ourkids into musical theater in theater and Caaster
and our kids absolutely love it.And then Everett in twenty twenty three did
a big production of Newsy's Junior throughJunior Broadway, where you know, thousands
of people bought tickets to see him. It was a really big deal and
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on that seeing him on that stage, I kind of got the bug kind
of bit me and I said,I kind of miss beat Up on the
stage and I would love the opportunityto maybe share the stage with him this
year. And so we did asmall play for Brand Workshop, Brand Theater
Workshop here in Brantford. We didit at the Bell Homestead, which is
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where Oxeta Graham Bell lived at onetime, and so this historical venue and
we did this play and it didn'tquite go the way I wanted it because
several episodes ended up our several showingsended up being canceled, which was really
unfortunate when our league got injured,and so we only ended up doing one
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and a half shows, and sothat was a bit of a downer.
You put your heart into it andyou weren't able to do all the performances
he wanted. But it was nicebeing able to do that with Everett.
But then we saw this company calledPlayful Fox. I was like, well,
this is another chance. Let's trythem. They seem to be a
bit bigger, and they'll tour alittle bit and we'll really get me a
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taste of doing theater. It willbe a great experience forever it is.
Everet's really loving this to the pointwhere he sort of wants to pursue it
a bit see where it will go. He says he has dreams of Stratford
and even Broadway, and so Isupport him in that, and so we
uh did auditions for it. Butwhat I al sudden recognized was I was
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always like, I'll just do playsbecause that's all I've ever done. I
can't sing and dance. No onewants to hear me sing. This what
I believed, and so we wentto the auditions. But then I realized
that the only ones that would haveincluded my kids, the only ones that
would have been that Everett A.Dack would have been able to be in,
was the musicals. All the playerswere more adult centric because they didn't
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have any kid parts. So Iwent out of my comfort zone and I
sang at the audition as well asacted, and we landed some parts.
We landed some musical parts, andso we were in a production of Beauty
in the Beast that played at thehistoric Branford Sanderson Center, an absolutely incredible
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venue here my hometown holds about twelvehundred people, and this show did near
sellouts of four shows in December,and so I was in the ensemble.
Ever it was Chip and Emily,my wife, and my daughter Deka were
also in the production, and soas a family, we got to share
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this amazing experience performing at this amazingvenue. And it was just such a
great bonding experience for my family,such a great thing for us to share.
It was great to see the threeof them shine and be better than
they could think possible, and justthis great moment for all of us to
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really share this creativity and this imaginationtogether. And I also met new friends.
I met people who are also bigin the creative community, and so
that was huge and it was abig boon for my mental health. And
so now I have another thing thatI sort of love and want to throw
into my life. And so we'regonna be doing some more productions in twenty
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twenty four and I'm really looking forwardto it. We also it was two
weekends, so we were in theSaracen Center the first weekend, and then
the next weekend we were at theLittle Gwelth Theater and we did three shows
there right before Christmas, and soit was a really special experience. I
just wanted to share that that wasa huge thing for my mental health.
And I don't know where my listenersare at this point of your life and
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what struggles you've had. I oftentry to be vulnerable and share about my
challenges because I'm hoping in some wayit can encourage someone or help someone someone
who feels alone and realize they're goingthrough that too. And so I just
want to encourage people to again,like, if you need to seek medical
help, that's something I did,I encourage you to do that. I
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also encourage you to realize there ispeople that love you and they are here
to support you. But also findthings you love and push yourself. I
never thought I would do musical theater. I never thought I would sing in
dance, and I love it andit's also and I'm gonna do more of
it. I'm not saying I'm oneof the best at it, but I
want to grow and i want toimprove. And so maybe twenty twenty four,
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try something that you've always wanted totry and see what it could do.
And definitely take on creative projects andlet your imagination sear. I really
think it's good for the soul andso I ended up talking quite a bit
about that, and I hope youstick around because there's one other thing I
wanted to talk about in this littlemini episode that just me is that,
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even though we didn't see a lotof movies in twenty twenty three, and
this was a pretty pathetic year,when it came to me actually trying to
be a movie critic, I wantedto look at the top ten highest grossing
domestic movies of twenty twenty three,just the twenty twenty three releases, though
so Avatar is not on this list, movies that were released in twenty twenty
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three, and the ten highest grossingones, because I think that's a good
idea of us sort of understanding whereis the theatrical movie experience going, What
is the future? What are thethings that people are gravitating towards. What
is the future of the blockbusters?What is the future? What should the
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studios learn from twenty twenty three year, at least from my opinion observing the
top ten movies? What is ourchances of having a healthy theatrical experience of
twenty twenty four and beyond, Andwhat do twenty twenty three can I teach
us about that. So I justwant to quickly hear. Look at what
were the top ten highest grossing picturesof the year, and the first one
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the highest grossing domestic movie of theyear. I don't think anyone predicted this
at the beginning of twenty twenty three. There's no way that just wasn't in
the conversation as one of the highestgrossing movies that. I mean, there's
people that thought it would do wellbecause it's a recognizable ip, but I
don't think anyone thought it was goingto be the champion of twenty twenty three,
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and that's Barbie. Barbie ended upbeing the highest grossing movie of the
year, number one, and Ithink that was a big shocker. But
now we look and say, whyis it that Barbie was number one?
What is something that studios can learn. I think one thing we learned obviously
now is that big, expansive superherospecial effects spectacles are not your guaranteed number
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one. They're not necessarily the moviesthat you have to do the audiences are
going to come see. I'm notnecessarily saying superhero fatigue, but I think
this is a sign that what werethe highest grossing movies of past years,
what were the typical sort of guarantees, they're not the guarantees anymore, and
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that the certain style of movies thatevery sort of studio was greenland and trying
to put out those aren't necessarily thoseguaranteed hits, especially when a lot of
those movies come with a really highbudget. And so you have a case
swear in twenty twenty three, there'sa lot of movies that maybe they did
okay in the theater, but theydidn't do great when you compare it to
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the budget, to a point wherethey became flops. And so this idea
of like, oh, you gottago with the safe bets Barbie sort of
shows that that's a movie. Theway it was made and the way the
director Gretor Gerrigg framed that picture,there's nothing about that that's a safe bet.
There's nothing about that that is safe. Yet it became the highest grossing
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movie of the year, and soI think it's time for studios to sort
of reanalyze what a safe bet is, what is it that's drawing people out.
And of course I think there wasalways sort of this idea that the
highest grossing movies are going to sortof gear towards males and are gonna be,
like I said, big action pictures, big sort of event pictures,
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big special effect pictures, and Barbiegoes against that. This one shows that
you make a movie that is goingto draw in a female crowd, appeal
to females, it could do reallywell, not just really well. It's
gonna be the highest grossing move ofthe year and be a smash hit.
And I think it is time tostart recognizing that serving other demographics and just
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what had been in the past isthe smart direction to go. I mean,
in the comic book Realm Black PantherProof, you make a picture that's
going to appeal to African Americans,you're gonna get a smash hit. It
was one of the best movies ofvinc year, and so I think Barbie's
yet another lesson it's time to bea bit more diverse, appeal to different
demographics. And the other thing is, obviously Barbie did well because it's based
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off a very popular toy line.That is how it got through the marketing.
That's off how it breaks through thenoise. There's so many movies being
released, but I do not believethat's what gave it legs, and I
don't believe it being based on Barbieis why it became a smash hit,
like a super smash hit. Ithink it grossed well, had a great
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opening weekend because it's Barbie. ButI don't think we're looking at the highest
grossing movie just because it's Barbie.I will say that it helped a lot,
like sort of Top Gun Maverick theyear prior. I think Top Gone
Maverick wasn't necessarily smash hit because itwas a sequel to Top Gun. I
think that's what but I think ithelps a little bit. But the bigger
story is the actual movie that wascreated. And Barbie is a director driven
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picture. This isn't our tour picture. This is a case of Greta Gerwik
having a story that she wanted totell that just happened to be based off
a plastic toy line, a toyline of dolls. She just happened to
tell a movie that was about apopular toy. This is definitely a case
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where I think the director had theidea and then they green lit the movie,
rather than a thing of like,oh, we have this popular toy
line, We've got these robots indisguise that then can transform into cars.
Let's make a movie about it.And so just this idea that the product
first, and then you sort oftry to come up with a story.
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This is story first. This islike the situation which happened with Creed,
where Ryan Coogler had an idea andhe went to the studios and said,
I want to do a new Rockymovie, but look at the Sun of
Apollo Creed, because that's how thatstory goes. That I've read about is
the fact that he kind of cameup with the story that was set in
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a popular universe. I think thisis the situation with Barbie, and I
really think this is what studios.This is a hard lesson for them to
learn as the recognize. I thinkthat's kind of the future here is you
need to have the story first.You need to have directors. They're actually
passionate about the material, they havesomething to say, they got a little
bit of creative control, and theycan tell unique, fresh stories. Barbie
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was a hit because there wasn't reallyanything else like Barbie. There wasn't anything
else that looked like Barbie. Therewasn't anything else had the energy of Barbie.
There wasn't anything else to sort ofuse that message while also being fun
and uplifting. It didn't have itdidn't do this female empowerment is sort of
a funny but powerful way. Thereis a freshness to Barbie, and that
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is why Barbie was a hit becauseit was unique. Yes, there's that
importance of IP, but the mainI think appeal, the main lesson coming
from here is the importance of lettingdirectors and screenwriters tell their story and to
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try to actually think a little bitoutside the box. There is just so
much out there now with the streamingservice, in video games, there's so
many things grabbing our attention. Youneed to cut through the noise in order
to be a hit. Barbie didthat. That is the lesson I think
that is here. Trust your creators, and I just feel that as like
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the last lesson studios ever want totake. But I think that's why you've
got to hit here with Barbie aswell as again appealing to different demographics.
Number two Super Mario Bros. MovieThat was the second highest grossing movie of
the year. And I think obviously, first off is there's been talk of
sort of ame movies, of takinga hit and they're not as pulp as
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there used to be. And here'sSuper Mario Brothers saying, hey, look
I'm number two. So that's notthe case. What this, though,
is a movie that I think hittwo things. One, this is definitely
a case of hitting the nostalgia buttons. This is a case of appealing to
an older demographic and say this isthe Super Mario you always wanted. It's
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appealing to a very well known videogame series, and it leaned into the
nostalgia. It leaded to people myage, They're like, this is the
Mario that I wanted. This ishitting all the beats. So this movie
was very faithful to create the Marioworld. I think that's part of it.
But I also think that they madea very colorful, fun, uplifting,
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energetic movie that will appeal to kidsand families that don't really know they
about Super Mario. And that's thething is. You can say that,
yeah, this movie has a lotof fan service, and it leaned into
that. But the colorfulness and theenergy and the optimism and the fun characters,
they're appealing even if you've never playedthe Super Mario game. I know
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several families that don't really have anyattachment to Nintendo or Super Mario that we're
excited to see this movie. Andso to me, that's the proof.
This is the key is one youdo have to at some level recognized when
you've got this big giant intellectual property, this big giant brand, this big
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giant sort of form of entertainment thateveryone knows that you need to appeal to
those fans, and there is somepower to the nostalgia, but you still
have to craft something that has wideappeal, and Super Mario Bros. Movie
Pulled that off. It blended thepower of IP meet something that is going
to then connect to even a broaderaudience to those people who don't necessarily play
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video games. That was the geniusof Super Mario Bros' movie, and He'll
be really interesting to see sort ofif they can keep that going with the
obvious sequels that are coming and theother movies that Nintendo wanted to make.
I also think it helps that youhave that early nineties Super Mario Brothers movie
that was just absolutely horrible and itbasically made Nintendo not trust Hollywood anymore.
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I think the fact that Nintendo wasprobably very nervous about entering into the movie
realm very protective of their characters thatthis sort of I guess they had their
hand on this and they really wantedto make sure that this was properly telling
the story they wanted it. SoI think that helps too that there was
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more than a cash grab. Thisis something that they wanted to make,
something that the fans would really love. Number three, Spider Man across the
Spider Verse. Is why I'm sayingthat I'm not gonna jump on the superhero
fatigue thing. We had a lotof superhero movies that flop this year.
We had a lot of big blockbustersthat flopped. I think again. But
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the lesson is people are tired ofbuy the numbers superhero movies, just like
they're tired of buy the numbers blockbusterpictures. Things that just kind of they
just do the usual thing. SpiderMan is unique. It's visual style alone.
How the animation you is the factthat it looks like it's leaping off
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a comic book that's appealing. Thatmakes it something fresh, It makes it
something that stands out. It's easyto remember because visually it looks different than
almost anything on the big screen intwenty twenty three and so that I think
is a big purpose. Also,I think that the first one was such
a great movie that this one hada lot of good will, and so
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that's going to draw people out.It created some really interesting characters. People
really like Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales. They were characters that we were drawn
to the first one, and sowe wanted that story to continue. And
they did the multiverse right. Theydid it in a way that isn't as
confusing and it's compelling, and sothere was a good story here, and
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it's a word of mouth expanded.Despite the fact that this isn't really a
full movie it ends with basically it'salmost like a bee continue. It clearly
set up another one. I thinkthe story it was good, and the
fact that we cared about the charactersand that there was some satisfying things throughout
the picture that that helped. Thefact that sort of they didn't necessarily get
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the full story here, there ismore to tell, but the story they
told is something that connected with audiences. And so this is the one you
point to when people say superhero fatigue. You say, well, it's not
like everyone's tired of superheroes. They'vetired of a certain type. They might
be tired of what the MCU isbringing out, and they're definitely tired of
what DC's bringing out. But Sony, believe it or not, they got
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the biggest hit when it came toa comic book movie. And again,
I think it's because of that uniquelook and creating characters that you care about.
There needs to be a story inyour big blockbusters. That's sort of
what we're gonna learn here. Aswe could tell you to go down here.
There needs to be something that connectswith audiences more than just great special
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effects. Number four continues the storythat super hero fatigue maybe not totally exists
because Guards of the Gapsley Volume threeis there, and this was by far
the best MCU movie of the year, and so it's the most worthy of
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making it to this list of highestgrossing And so it's a case of a
great movie actually caused audiences to comeout. And I think one of the
things about this one is that thisis a case where James Gunn was willing
to make people feel uncomfortable, hewas willing to make people cry, he
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was willing to tell a really emotional, heartbreaking story. When it came to
rocket raccoon, and when we learnedabout the fact that he was experimented on
and these horrible things happened to thesefriends that he loved, these other animals,
it actually allowed some nuance and someheartbreak to come in. And I
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feel that's something that so many MCUmovies have shied away from. Anytime they
tell an emotional story, they wantto chuck in some laughs and they want
to just drench it with comedy.They're scared of people actually having to feel.
It seems like with these MCU movies, definitely the four thing where it's
a laugh a minute, but we'redealing with Jane dying of cancer, and
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so that type of thing is Ithink it really hurt the storytelling where the
MCU is just lean so heavy onsort of this self referential and this fourth
wall breaking humor. That's something thatI believe guards A Galaxy three Volume three
found a better balance. It balanced. It's still had a lot of humor,
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it's still had the wit, it'sstill had the comedy, and it's
by far from a perfect movie.I mean, I gave you three out
of four, and so it definitelyhad its issues. But I think the
fact that it actually had had thingsyou could talk about when you leave the
theater rather than just say, oh, that was cool, but it actually
had some themes. I think it'sshowing that the audiences are hungering for pictures
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with substance. They want the specialeffects, they want the comedy, they
want the engaging characters. But alot of these pictures that are making this
top ten list, they have somethingto say, and so that's a lesson.
I think for the number four guardsthat got the volume three, number
five has gotta be a big shocker. I don't know if anybody was predicting
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this. Number five is Christopher Nolan'sOppenheimer. I mean, I thought it
would do decent, but I thinkit was gonna be top ten. I
mean, this is a picture thatobviously is what you would call an adult
picture, a picture that's geared moretowards adults. It's a historical picture.
I mean it's set during the atomicbomb, so obviously, like the main
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demographic that studios target, they werenot alive during this period. Even most
adults now we're not alive during thisperiod. I mean, I got face
a fact, I'm forty six,I'm an adult. I was born nowhere
near what the time period this movieis talking about. This is most definitely
an historical picture. It's most definitelya biopic, and so what it is,
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it's the type of movie that wasconsidered a blockbuster in the sixties,
seventies and eighties, back when youweren't just marketing towards those teenagers, in
those kids in their twenties, whenyou were marking towards adults, when you
were trying to make substantial pictures butwould still appeal to the audience. That's
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what I've been Heimer is. Andso there's some people saying that like,
oh, those movies from a differenttime, like an Ama Daeis or like
a Gandhi or those pictures that weresort of hits from another time that they
would never translate today. Oppenheimer saying, it all depends about how the marketing,
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because I think one of the bigthings we're learning is it's not just
people aren't necessarily starving for sort ofbig special effects, a big spectacle.
What people want is movies that feellike you can't miss. They want to
catch those movies that feel like youneed to be part of something where it
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has a conversation, where it's thispicture that it feels like it's an embedded
part of our culture. I feelthat is what happened here, especially when
you look at Barbenheimer, the factthat Oppenheimer Barbie, they came up with
this unique thing where it could bethis double bill of these two movies.
It took off and it made peoplebelieve that both these movies are major parts
of the conversation. If you wantto be part of the cultural conversation,
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you need to see these movies.And they became a major part of the
summer. And I think that isthe thing that has to be recognized as
it's not about special effects. It'sabout is this a movie that's a part
of the conversation. Is this somethingthat just feels like it is groundbreaking,
It's something unique, it's something thatneeds to be seen, and that's what
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Oppenheimer, being paired with Barbie,was able to pull off. And then
on top of that, I thinkit's this movie that does have some special
effects and it does look feel likesomething that needs to be in the theater,
but most of it is just it'sa conversation movie. It's it's people
talking. But it is one thatonce again it has things to say,
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and so when you're leaving that theater, you have these conversations, and that
conversations then kind of bleed their wayinto people who haven't seen the movie yet.
Now they want to be part ofit. And I think that's why
Oppenheimer improved. And I think Oppenheimeralso is evidence that let's not push away
the adult movie, not push awaythe historical pictures. Let's not push away
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dramas. Let's not just shove allthese dramas and biopics and movies geared towards
adults on streaming because you're not gonnamake any money on just put them on
streaming, and they're not gonna bepart of the conversation. That's pretty evident.
The most movies that go on streamingjust go there to sort of just
fill the algorithms and really never apart of the conversation. Oppenheimer is evidence
(32:27):
that, you know, these moviescan work in the theater. You just
need to be smart about the marketing, and you need to have a story
that somehow is going to connect topeople. And I think the way the
society is right now, and withsort of these horrendous wars that are going
on and just the idea that everythingfeels so fragileless point in politics, and
(32:50):
the system just all seems to beready to crumble. Oppenheimer speaking to something
that resonated to people, because goodhistorical movies can be timeless, they can
have something to say about today.And Oppey Heeimer did all those things.
And I think this is a bigwin, a big win for people like
me who want a diverse set oftheatrical pictures. We don't just want special
(33:14):
effects pictures. We don't just wantsuperhero movies. We want lots of different
stories. We want variety on thatbig screen. So Oppenheimer is a huge
win for people who want different thingson there. The people who say they
don't make movies like they used to, well, I hope you went to
see Oppenheimer. I hope you werepart of that. That sort of commits
(33:35):
studios. Wait a second, weneed to make movies for more than just
one group of people. Number sixis an interesting one. It's The Little
Mermaid. And I say interesting becausethis is one of those cases where you've
got ballooning budgets and studios are gettingridiculous with sort of the size of the
(33:57):
budgets. That they're doing here tothe point where I've seen a Little Mermaid
in the conversation of flops and moviesthat didn't quite sort of take off,
despite the fact that it's the numbersix highest grossing domestic movie. And so
there's something wrong if you're the sixthhighest grossing movie but people aren't calling it
a hit. I haven't necessarly donein depth research to really analyze is this
(34:21):
movie actually a flop? I mean, it did do better domestically than it
did it to nationally, so thatmight be part of the issue there,
But I think I mean, I'mnot necessarily someone who's all gun ho about
Disney remaking all their animated movies.Quite a few of them I felt like,
(34:44):
just we're unnecessary. Lion King Beata big one where I just felt
like, it's just a movie,redone. We didn't need that. Though
I did like some of them,I thought something like Jungle Book and Cinderella,
they were distinct enough that I thinkit was a story worth telling.
I'd like The Little Mermaid a lotmore than other people. I also think
that this one, when in adifferent approach with certain things. I thought
(35:06):
they made the Aerial and Prince ericrelationship more believable, and you understood why
they would connect with each other.They gave Prince Eric a more thorough backstory,
and so there were elements of thisand I thought it told enough different
things. I was kind of worthcoming to the big screen. But I
don't want the lesson here to beoh, we got to make more live
action movies. I want to goagain with a lesson of diversity, and
(35:31):
it's okay to change up the storya bit. And so that is sort
of what I like here, isthat you have something that that comes off
as a little bit different when youhave a lead like Halle Bailey, who
here is again not a redheaded whitegirl. It's someone of African American background.
(35:57):
And there was a lot of reallysweet TikTok YouTube videos that showed these
little young black girls that were justabsolutely captivated that a Disney princess looked like
them, and there's established princess likeAriel looked like them, and I thought
that was really sweet, and Ithink that is something that is important.
(36:19):
I just think of like my daughterwho gravitates towards Milan and Riya the last
Dragan because they look more like her, and I think that is an important
thing with family movies is doing that. And I mean the reality is,
with this atrocious conversation about woke andhow Hollywood is, the reality is most
(36:42):
of the movies still have white leads, and most of them still have white
male leads. I mean, lookat the releases. It's still there.
And I think just the fact thatthere's a few obvious cases of diversity and
the fact that some small minority pushedback to that, it kind of shows
you what the problem is and showsyou that issue. And I hope they
(37:05):
need to continue to go forward.So Little Mermaid did well. So if
this ends up, if this issomething where it's a flop, the lesson
is, hey, cut down yourbudgets. I mean, you think of
something like God'szilla minus one, whereit had such a smaller budget than any
blockbuster but looked like a big eventmovie. Now, I get it was
made in Japan and there is differentregulations and laws and things that they can
(37:31):
get away with, and they don'thave to pay as much to their crew,
and so there is a way wherea God's Ill minus one can never
be made in America with a budgetthat was made in Japan. But I
mean, it's one of those caseswhere I bet they can get closer to
maybe one hundred million instead of athree hundred million dollar picture. And so
(37:52):
there is some lessons there definitely tobe learned. But the pauseive one here
is one that I've were talking abouta bit, and I think that is
the importance of diversity. Number sevenis that man the loss Quantum Mania movie.
I was not a fan. Andthere's another one that was considered a
(38:12):
big disappointment to the MCU. Sothis is another case of you're the number
seventh highest grossy movie, you're considereda disappointment by the studio. It's time
to figure out these budget things.That's the big lesson here is you shouldn't
be in the top ten highest grocymovies and be considered a disappointment. And
(38:35):
I mean it did over two hundredmillion in the in the box office domestically,
Yeah, it's considered a disappointment.And maybe that's a sign that maybe
some other movies, there's a lotof movies that just didn't hit their mark,
and maybe it's not wasn't the mostlucrative year in Hollywood and things like
the strike and stuff. I'm sureit didn't help, but this is just
(38:58):
another example of you control that budget. Number eight is john Wick Chapter four,
and isn't that crazy? The firstone was a movie. The original
was gonna originally be kind of straightto video. They're just gonna toss that
away. There was barely any marketingfor the first john Wick. I remember
going to see it and not reallysure what it was and walking away and
(39:21):
really liking it. And then it'sone of those ones where after every rewatch,
I've really loved the john Wick andit's just this to be. I
mean, obviously Chapter four is asequel, but I think what shows here
is let's start trying to do originalstories because you don't know what will be
the next franchise. You won't beyou don't know the next thing that is
(39:42):
going to build and be able todo sequels. They created a captivating character
in John Wick. They created aninteresting world, and it's made people want
to return to it for a fourthinstallment. A fourth installment that is over
two hours long. It's this big, massive months st of a movie.
It's incredibly long. But that obviouslydidn't scare people away because they cared about
(40:07):
this story. They love the action. And they're engaged. Number nine is
intriguing one because it's Sound of Freedom. And this is an example of when
we start talking about the death ofthe mid budget movie, we talk about
the death of these smaller movies,or we talk about this whole idea of
(40:29):
sort of the one and done openingweekends all that matters, and then you
move on. Sound of Freedom isagainst all of that because you've got a
small budget picture, You've got amovie where it wasn't the opening weekend that
made a big smash hit. Itwas word of mouth and it was something
(40:50):
where people were talking about this picturefor weeks months. And I don't particularly
think this movie was great, butI do think this movie was a win
for cinema. Not necessary for themovie itself, but what it did.
(41:12):
And the sign that is for studiosand it's let's make things that could build
up a word of mouth. Let'sstop worrying about the opening weekend and make
stuff that is going to capture theconversation and build up over time. This
is a sign that independent movie smallerpictures have the potential to make a lot
of money. Mid budget, lowerbudget. They can connect with people.
(41:36):
If you have a smart marketing strategyand you have a way of connecting with
groups that will then discuss and makethis important. This is also a movie
where it's really tough subject matter,and so it's not I mean it's it's
not the type of subject matter thatis going to normally connect with people.
(41:59):
I mean, this idea of humantrafficking, child trafficking, it's not material
that typically you think, oh,this is going to be a great night
for the family out, this isgonna be blockbuster material. But it's showing
that tough material can work. Toughmaterial can connect with people because sometimes they
(42:20):
need to see it. I don'tthink this is a sign of oh we
got to do some more child traffickingpictures. I think there is this point
where sort off you see it onceyou're gonna start getting desensitized. It's not
going to have the same impact.So the thing is, well, what
are other challenging topics, What areother things that need to be discussed right
now that we're ignoring that can havea compelling story and connect with people.
(42:44):
And I think that's the less ofsound of freedom and don't shy away from
tough material because they can connect withpeople. This also obviously had the advantage
of church groups and churches connecting withthis and religious groups promoting and telling people
to go out there. But Ithink even a non religious movie has a
potential to be successful if again,you have a topic that connects with people
(43:07):
and you have that word of mouth. To me, the big takeaway from
this one is it's time to stopshine away from mid budget movies. It's
top It's time to stop thinking thatdramas and definitely one well tough topics should
just go on streaming Sound of Freedomshows. No, no, that's actually
not the case. They could doreally well in the theater. And I
(43:30):
mean twenty twenty four, we aregoing into a year where you're gonna feel
the effects of the strike that happenedfor half of twenty twenty three because a
lot of movies were delayed. There'sa lot of big tent poles that are
not coming out in twenty twenty fourthey're originally supposed to, And so I
think this is the year the studiosreally need to find those intriguing, independent,
(43:57):
smaller pictures that could connect with anaudience. At twenty twenty far as
any chance of being a robust yearand a successful year for the box office.
You gotta find those sound of freedoms, you gotta sound of Freedom,
you gotta find those smaller pictures thathave something to say I can't connect and
obviously be smart in your marketing.There is some value that whole slow release
(44:20):
thing. A smaller movie that doesn'thave a big marketing budget. You've got
to rely on the moviegoers to bepart of your marketing tool. And so
you do. You do that wholeslow release. You go to New York,
you go to la you go toToronto, and then you slowly spread
out. So by the time inabout a month when it's coming to places
(44:42):
like here in Bramford, there's beena conversation about it, there's an energy
about it, and so it becomessort of this must see movie. Sound
of Freedom did make it to Bramford, and it was one that I saw
on a lot of people's social media. And again, maybe it's a movie
that I don't necessarily I think thatit had an important message, but maybe
(45:02):
it wasn't told in the greatest way. But I do think that this is
a movie worth acknowledging because of whatit showed of the potential of the box
office and then number ten. Youwant to talk about something that's gonna scare
studios, because this was not abig studio movie in any way. Taylor
(45:23):
Swift The Eras Tour became a massivehit. Taylor Swift just decided to release
this movie on herself, made ita big event, tenth highest grocery movie
of the year. I'm sure Ihad a very small budget because a lot
of the budget would have been justgoing into her actual concert tour. And
you film this thing, you packagedit up and out, you put it
(45:43):
in theaters and it was just abig, massive hit that felt like a
big event, felt like something youhad to see on the big screen.
And again this shows the importance ofdiversity. I remember in the eighties,
Eddie Murphy's Raw was considered a bigtheatrical picture. Basically a stand up routine
(46:04):
went wide on the big screen.There was a time when there was a
lot of different type of stuff thatwas coming out on the big screen to
coming to theaters. And if twentytwenty four, like I said, it's
any chance of being a healthy yearin the box office, because there isn't
going to be a lot of thosetent pools. You need that diversity.
(46:27):
You need those different type of movies. You need your concert movies, you
need your comedies, you need everything. And I think all those genres can
work on the big screen. Ithink they can become hits if you're smart
about the budget, if you packagein a way where it's something where it
seems like it's a conversation starter,something people want to be a part of.
(46:50):
And the reality is you make moviesthat are going to connect with people,
and so they recommend it. That'sthe thing. Make good stuff.
That's my lots of the studios.That's a big takeaway, make good movies.
Not every movie on this top tenlist is a movie I liked or
I recommended, but that I thinkis a major takeaway. And so those
(47:15):
were the ten high stcrossing movies oftwenty twenty three. In a few weeks,
me and Scott are gonna be talkingabout some of the trends that we
have noticed from twenty twenty three andwhat we think that means, and what
Hollywood should get out of this,and sort of what is the future of
(47:35):
theatrical pictures. We'll be talking aboutthat in a few weeks, and so'll
you'll get that and as well,I asked that you here come back next
week and Scott will be back withme. It'll be our first sort of
discussion episode, traditional episode movie reviewepisode quite a while, so we're excited
to get back going and provide youthe best episodes we possibly can. And
(47:59):
since I have here, I alsohumbly ask that you check out my website
Beyond the Balcony Beyond Balcony dot com. I have a little tribute to my
son who has now turned twelve,and as well reveal the latest amazing cake
made by my wife. And Ialso look at what were the most viewed
(48:22):
articles of twenty twenty three, Sothere's stuff up there and they'll continue to
be stuff up there. I'll beposting lots of reviews and think pieces and
maybe some silly fiction and things throughoutthe year. So check out the site,
stick with the podcast. You guysare amazing. Thank you so much
(48:42):
for your support and for all thosepeople that have reached out to me and
what was a really tough year.You guys are amazing, and some of
you sent some financial support for me, as you know that wasn't okay as
much work and I really appreciate thatit's just it's incredible, and that one
thing I did mention on the site, and I still haven't quite worked it
(49:04):
all out, but I likely planneddoing a Patreon for Beyond the Balcony,
which in some way may also beconnected with the movie breakdown. That is
a thing that will happen this year. I'm waiting until I know for sure
that I have people that are interestedin taking part in it, because the
idea is you want a few subscribersright when you launch, because then people
sort of see, oh, thisis maybe something worth subscribing to, because
(49:28):
there's always people that have done it. So as part of that, I
want to make sure is in place. But also I sort of want to
have tears and figure out what willbe the tiers. So that's something that
you could look forward to twenty twentyfour if you want to support us,
and if you like the stuff Iwrite and the stuff I yamber about.
And I don't know what a yamberis, but Yamber Jamber. Anyways,
(49:51):
you could tell that this is nearthe end of the show because I'm just
making up words now. But anotherbig thing too is we're likely trying to
jump into video this year too,and YouTube so lots of plans this year,
will slowly roll it out because sometimesyou get too ambitious and you burn
yourself out. But thank you forlistening to just Me talk for a very
long time, and I'll see younext week, as Scott joins me,
(50:14):
so have a fantastic day and havea great week at the movie
They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Barbra.
Welcome to the latest episode of theMovie Breakdown and Happy New Year, and
here we are in twenty twenty four. Now I should warn you while I'm
(00:36):
calling this an episode of the MovieBreakdown, once again, it's just me
Christopher Spicer, and I want toapologize for how long it has been since
we have posted an episode twenty twentythree. As you're well aware of longtime
listeners, and that's well be awareof you that are beyond the balcony.
(01:02):
It was not the greatest year formy career. There was quite a few
challenges and one of the things thatsuffered from that is the podcast and the
website, as we did not createas many podcasts, episodes, or as
many articles as we normally would wantto do. And another thing that we
(01:25):
didn't do a lot of is watchmovies. We did not review as many
movies twenty twenty three movies, whichis unfortunate. It's twenty twenty three,
by most accounts, by most critics, was an amazing movie year, and
we just were not. We didn'thave our fingers on the pulse, and
that is why I announced it onsocial media. But for those that don't
(01:48):
fall us on social media, youmade up aware of this, but you
probably guessed it is that for thefirst time since we started this podcast way
back in twenty thirteen, and forthe first time I'm in several years before
that, because I used to postthe best movies of the year list top
ten lists on my site and Ialso did one for Collective Publishing when I
(02:12):
wrote for them for the first timesince then, there will not be a
best of the Year episode. There'snot gonna be looking at the best movies
of twenty twenty three, will nothave, for the first time ever a
list episode on the Movie Breakdown,and I announced it with great heartbreak on
social media, and I say,once again, I am really saddened to
(02:37):
say that we're not gonna be doingthat episode. And the main reason is
just we don't feel like we'd beenough of an authority to make a proper
episode reflected upon what we think isthe best of the past year, because
we just did not see enough moviesand so it just would not be a
great list. There'll be just toomany holes. I ever see every movie,
(03:00):
and there's always a best movie,a great movie that gets missed that
we eventually get to and it justis on the list because we haven't seen
it yet. But this year therewould have just been too much of that,
and so we decided, we madethe decision that we would not do
a best of episode this year,and I'm really sad about that, and
(03:21):
my commitment is that that's not gonnahappen again, and that instead now we
are going to refocus and make surethat twenty twenty four is the best year
ever for the Movie Breakdown and thebest year ever for the Beyond on the
Balcony website, and just really recommitto adding to the conversation about movies and
(03:46):
really trying to review and watch asmany movies and twenty twenty four and so
there will be a best of yearat the end of twenty twenty four,
and we're gonna stay on top ofsome of the hottest movies, hottest releases
throughout twenty twenty four. But ontop of that, I do want to
try to catch up on some twentytwenty three movies, and it's over Beyond
(04:10):
the Balcony. They'll be reviews forthose twenty twenty three movies that were missed,
and maybe at some point of theyear, in one of the down
months, like in August or September, maybe we'll finally revisit and do that
best of twenty twenty three show,And so that could be something that we
eventually do, but for now we'renot in the place for that. And
(04:33):
starting next week, we are goingto be back to what did not happen
much in twenty twenty four, butall previous years there was a lot of
it, and that is weekly episodeson the Movie Breakdown, and maybe once
in a while we'll throw in somebonus episodes, some special treats in there
as well. I hope you peoplehad a great twenty twenty three and I
(04:57):
hope everyone is excited about twenty twentyfour. I'm excited about what the Movie
Breakdown will present this year. Andlike I said, we'll start next week
with our first episode. We'll havea review the first theatrical movie of twenty
twenty four, Night Swim, andbecause a listener really wanted to hear our
thoughts, we're also gonna review RebelMoon. So that's the episode to look
(05:19):
forward to. They'll be Rebel Moonand they'll also be a Night Swim along
with some other fun stuff, likelooking at our most anticipated movies of twenty
twenty four and we'll see them andwe'll see where they land on the list
at the end of the year.Will these movies we anticipate will be one
of the best. Who knows.Before I get into sort of what I
(05:41):
want to talk about in this sortof mini episode, I just want to
say that people who have read thisside or followed me on social media and
listen to a few episodes we didpost this year of the movie breakdown here.
I've talked about a lot about howhard twenty two twenty three was for
my career and for me emotionally andfor my mental health and relationships, because
(06:08):
anytime you're struggling with mental health,it does a huge blow on a lot
of relationships. And I have sortof used this year as learning some lessons
and how I can improve myself.And I have started looking to some medical
help when it comes to my emotionaland mental well being, and so I've
(06:31):
finally taken those steps. I amlearning the importance of actually asking for help
and not sort of just trying todo this on my own. I mean,
people always say, oh, it'sgood that You're so open about your
health, but I'm not open aboutactually asking for help and reaching out.
And I'm really trying to stop insultingthose people I love in my life and
(06:53):
actually coming to them when I sayI need you or this is where I'm
at. And so those are thingsthat I'm hoping to pivot and make twenty
twenty four a better year. It'sjust recognizing there is people that love you
and they're there to help you.Another thing I want to talk about that
was significant about twenty twenty three wasand I'm not sure if I mentioned on
(07:15):
the podcast, but I've talked aboutit some on Beyond the Balcony, is
this was the year that I returnedto the stage. I did drama classes
as a kid, and I didsome productions of plays in high school,
but this but then I took ahuge break, didn't do it for like
(07:35):
twenty years, and we enrolled ourkids into musical theater in theater and Caaster
and our kids absolutely love it.And then Everett in twenty twenty three did
a big production of Newsy's Junior throughJunior Broadway, where you know, thousands
of people bought tickets to see him. It was a really big deal and
(07:56):
on that seeing him on that stage, I kind of got the bug kind
of bit me and I said,I kind of miss beat Up on the
stage and I would love the opportunityto maybe share the stage with him this
year. And so we did asmall play for Brand Workshop, Brand Theater
Workshop here in Brantford. We didit at the Bell Homestead, which is
(08:16):
where Oxeta Graham Bell lived at onetime, and so this historical venue and
we did this play and it didn'tquite go the way I wanted it because
several episodes ended up our several showingsended up being canceled, which was really
unfortunate when our league got injured,and so we only ended up doing one
(08:37):
and a half shows, and sothat was a bit of a downer.
You put your heart into it andyou weren't able to do all the performances
he wanted. But it was nicebeing able to do that with Everett.
But then we saw this company calledPlayful Fox. I was like, well,
this is another chance. Let's trythem. They seem to be a
bit bigger, and they'll tour alittle bit and we'll really get me a
(09:00):
taste of doing theater. It willbe a great experience forever it is.
Everet's really loving this to the pointwhere he sort of wants to pursue it
a bit see where it will go. He says he has dreams of Stratford
and even Broadway, and so Isupport him in that, and so we
uh did auditions for it. Butwhat I al sudden recognized was I was
(09:20):
always like, I'll just do playsbecause that's all I've ever done. I
can't sing and dance. No onewants to hear me sing. This what
I believed, and so we wentto the auditions. But then I realized
that the only ones that would haveincluded my kids, the only ones that
would have been that Everett A.Dack would have been able to be in,
was the musicals. All the playerswere more adult centric because they didn't
(09:41):
have any kid parts. So Iwent out of my comfort zone and I
sang at the audition as well asacted, and we landed some parts.
We landed some musical parts, andso we were in a production of Beauty
in the Beast that played at thehistoric Branford Sanderson Center, an absolutely incredible
(10:05):
venue here my hometown holds about twelvehundred people, and this show did near
sellouts of four shows in December,and so I was in the ensemble.
Ever it was Chip and Emily,my wife, and my daughter Deka were
also in the production, and soas a family, we got to share
(10:28):
this amazing experience performing at this amazingvenue. And it was just such a
great bonding experience for my family,such a great thing for us to share.
It was great to see the threeof them shine and be better than
they could think possible, and justthis great moment for all of us to
(10:48):
really share this creativity and this imaginationtogether. And I also met new friends.
I met people who are also bigin the creative community, and so
that was huge and it was abig boon for my mental health. And
so now I have another thing thatI sort of love and want to throw
into my life. And so we'regonna be doing some more productions in twenty
(11:09):
twenty four and I'm really looking forwardto it. We also it was two
weekends, so we were in theSaracen Center the first weekend, and then
the next weekend we were at theLittle Gwelth Theater and we did three shows
there right before Christmas, and soit was a really special experience. I
just wanted to share that that wasa huge thing for my mental health.
And I don't know where my listenersare at this point of your life and
(11:31):
what struggles you've had. I oftentry to be vulnerable and share about my
challenges because I'm hoping in some wayit can encourage someone or help someone someone
who feels alone and realize they're goingthrough that too. And so I just
want to encourage people to again,like, if you need to seek medical
help, that's something I did,I encourage you to do that. I
(11:52):
also encourage you to realize there ispeople that love you and they are here
to support you. But also findthings you love and push yourself. I
never thought I would do musical theater. I never thought I would sing in
dance, and I love it andit's also and I'm gonna do more of
it. I'm not saying I'm oneof the best at it, but I
want to grow and i want toimprove. And so maybe twenty twenty four,
(12:13):
try something that you've always wanted totry and see what it could do.
And definitely take on creative projects andlet your imagination sear. I really
think it's good for the soul andso I ended up talking quite a bit
about that, and I hope youstick around because there's one other thing I
wanted to talk about in this littlemini episode that just me is that,
(12:35):
even though we didn't see a lotof movies in twenty twenty three, and
this was a pretty pathetic year,when it came to me actually trying to
be a movie critic, I wantedto look at the top ten highest grossing
domestic movies of twenty twenty three,just the twenty twenty three releases, though
so Avatar is not on this list, movies that were released in twenty twenty
(12:58):
three, and the ten highest grossingones, because I think that's a good
idea of us sort of understanding whereis the theatrical movie experience going, What
is the future? What are thethings that people are gravitating towards. What
is the future of the blockbusters?What is the future? What should the
(13:20):
studios learn from twenty twenty three year, at least from my opinion observing the
top ten movies? What is ourchances of having a healthy theatrical experience of
twenty twenty four and beyond, Andwhat do twenty twenty three can I teach
us about that. So I justwant to quickly hear. Look at what
were the top ten highest grossing picturesof the year, and the first one
(13:46):
the highest grossing domestic movie of theyear. I don't think anyone predicted this
at the beginning of twenty twenty three. There's no way that just wasn't in
the conversation as one of the highestgrossing movies that. I mean, there's
people that thought it would do wellbecause it's a recognizable ip, but I
don't think anyone thought it was goingto be the champion of twenty twenty three,
(14:11):
and that's Barbie. Barbie ended upbeing the highest grossing movie of the
year, number one, and Ithink that was a big shocker. But
now we look and say, whyis it that Barbie was number one?
What is something that studios can learn. I think one thing we learned obviously
now is that big, expansive superherospecial effects spectacles are not your guaranteed number
(14:37):
one. They're not necessarily the moviesthat you have to do the audiences are
going to come see. I'm notnecessarily saying superhero fatigue, but I think
this is a sign that what werethe highest grossing movies of past years,
what were the typical sort of guarantees, they're not the guarantees anymore, and
(14:58):
that the certain style of movies thatevery sort of studio was greenland and trying
to put out those aren't necessarily thoseguaranteed hits, especially when a lot of
those movies come with a really highbudget. And so you have a case
swear in twenty twenty three, there'sa lot of movies that maybe they did
okay in the theater, but theydidn't do great when you compare it to
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the budget, to a point wherethey became flops. And so this idea
of like, oh, you gottago with the safe bets Barbie sort of
shows that that's a movie. Theway it was made and the way the
director Gretor Gerrigg framed that picture,there's nothing about that that's a safe bet.
There's nothing about that that is safe. Yet it became the highest grossing
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movie of the year, and soI think it's time for studios to sort
of reanalyze what a safe bet is, what is it that's drawing people out.
And of course I think there wasalways sort of this idea that the
highest grossing movies are going to sortof gear towards males and are gonna be,
like I said, big action pictures, big sort of event pictures,
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big special effect pictures, and Barbiegoes against that. This one shows that
you make a movie that is goingto draw in a female crowd, appeal
to females, it could do reallywell, not just really well. It's
gonna be the highest grossing move ofthe year and be a smash hit.
And I think it is time tostart recognizing that serving other demographics and just
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what had been in the past isthe smart direction to go. I mean,
in the comic book Realm Black PantherProof, you make a picture that's
going to appeal to African Americans,you're gonna get a smash hit. It
was one of the best movies ofvinc year, and so I think Barbie's
yet another lesson it's time to bea bit more diverse, appeal to different
demographics. And the other thing is, obviously Barbie did well because it's based
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off a very popular toy line.That is how it got through the marketing.
That's off how it breaks through thenoise. There's so many movies being
released, but I do not believethat's what gave it legs, and I
don't believe it being based on Barbieis why it became a smash hit,
like a super smash hit. Ithink it grossed well, had a great
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opening weekend because it's Barbie. ButI don't think we're looking at the highest
grossing movie just because it's Barbie.I will say that it helped a lot,
like sort of Top Gun Maverick theyear prior. I think Top Gone
Maverick wasn't necessarily smash hit because itwas a sequel to Top Gun. I
think that's what but I think ithelps a little bit. But the bigger
story is the actual movie that wascreated. And Barbie is a director driven
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picture. This isn't our tour picture. This is a case of Greta Gerwik
having a story that she wanted totell that just happened to be based off
a plastic toy line, a toyline of dolls. She just happened to
tell a movie that was about apopular toy. This is definitely a case
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where I think the director had theidea and then they green lit the movie,
rather than a thing of like,oh, we have this popular toy
line, We've got these robots indisguise that then can transform into cars.
Let's make a movie about it.And so just this idea that the product
first, and then you sort oftry to come up with a story.
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This is story first. This islike the situation which happened with Creed,
where Ryan Coogler had an idea andhe went to the studios and said,
I want to do a new Rockymovie, but look at the Sun of
Apollo Creed, because that's how thatstory goes. That I've read about is
the fact that he kind of cameup with the story that was set in
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a popular universe. I think thisis the situation with Barbie, and I
really think this is what studios.This is a hard lesson for them to
learn as the recognize. I thinkthat's kind of the future here is you
need to have the story first.You need to have directors. They're actually
passionate about the material, they havesomething to say, they got a little
bit of creative control, and theycan tell unique, fresh stories. Barbie
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was a hit because there wasn't reallyanything else like Barbie. There wasn't anything
else that looked like Barbie. Therewasn't anything else had the energy of Barbie.
There wasn't anything else to sort ofuse that message while also being fun
and uplifting. It didn't have itdidn't do this female empowerment is sort of
a funny but powerful way. Thereis a freshness to Barbie, and that
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is why Barbie was a hit becauseit was unique. Yes, there's that
importance of IP, but the mainI think appeal, the main lesson coming
from here is the importance of lettingdirectors and screenwriters tell their story and to
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try to actually think a little bitoutside the box. There is just so
much out there now with the streamingservice, in video games, there's so
many things grabbing our attention. Youneed to cut through the noise in order
to be a hit. Barbie didthat. That is the lesson I think
that is here. Trust your creators, and I just feel that as like
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the last lesson studios ever want totake. But I think that's why you've
got to hit here with Barbie aswell as again appealing to different demographics.
Number two Super Mario Bros. MovieThat was the second highest grossing movie of
the year. And I think obviously, first off is there's been talk of
sort of ame movies, of takinga hit and they're not as pulp as
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there used to be. And here'sSuper Mario Brothers saying, hey, look
I'm number two. So that's notthe case. What this, though,
is a movie that I think hittwo things. One, this is definitely
a case of hitting the nostalgia buttons. This is a case of appealing to
an older demographic and say this isthe Super Mario you always wanted. It's
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appealing to a very well known videogame series, and it leaned into the
nostalgia. It leaded to people myage, They're like, this is the
Mario that I wanted. This ishitting all the beats. So this movie
was very faithful to create the Marioworld. I think that's part of it.
But I also think that they madea very colorful, fun, uplifting,
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energetic movie that will appeal to kidsand families that don't really know they
about Super Mario. And that's thething is. You can say that,
yeah, this movie has a lotof fan service, and it leaned into
that. But the colorfulness and theenergy and the optimism and the fun characters,
they're appealing even if you've never playedthe Super Mario game. I know
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several families that don't really have anyattachment to Nintendo or Super Mario that we're
excited to see this movie. Andso to me, that's the proof.
This is the key is one youdo have to at some level recognized when
you've got this big giant intellectual property, this big giant brand, this big
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giant sort of form of entertainment thateveryone knows that you need to appeal to
those fans, and there is somepower to the nostalgia, but you still
have to craft something that has wideappeal, and Super Mario Bros. Movie
Pulled that off. It blended thepower of IP meet something that is going
to then connect to even a broaderaudience to those people who don't necessarily play
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video games. That was the geniusof Super Mario Bros' movie, and He'll
be really interesting to see sort ofif they can keep that going with the
obvious sequels that are coming and theother movies that Nintendo wanted to make.
I also think it helps that youhave that early nineties Super Mario Brothers movie
that was just absolutely horrible and itbasically made Nintendo not trust Hollywood anymore.
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I think the fact that Nintendo wasprobably very nervous about entering into the movie
realm very protective of their characters thatthis sort of I guess they had their
hand on this and they really wantedto make sure that this was properly telling
the story they wanted it. SoI think that helps too that there was
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more than a cash grab. Thisis something that they wanted to make,
something that the fans would really love. Number three, Spider Man across the
Spider Verse. Is why I'm sayingthat I'm not gonna jump on the superhero
fatigue thing. We had a lotof superhero movies that flop this year.
We had a lot of big blockbustersthat flopped. I think again. But
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the lesson is people are tired ofbuy the numbers superhero movies, just like
they're tired of buy the numbers blockbusterpictures. Things that just kind of they
just do the usual thing. SpiderMan is unique. It's visual style alone.
How the animation you is the factthat it looks like it's leaping off
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a comic book that's appealing. Thatmakes it something fresh, It makes it
something that stands out. It's easyto remember because visually it looks different than
almost anything on the big screen intwenty twenty three and so that I think
is a big purpose. Also,I think that the first one was such
a great movie that this one hada lot of good will, and so
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that's going to draw people out.It created some really interesting characters. People
really like Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales. They were characters that we were drawn
to the first one, and sowe wanted that story to continue. And
they did the multiverse right. Theydid it in a way that isn't as
confusing and it's compelling, and sothere was a good story here, and
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it's a word of mouth expanded.Despite the fact that this isn't really a
full movie it ends with basically it'salmost like a bee continue. It clearly
set up another one. I thinkthe story it was good, and the
fact that we cared about the charactersand that there was some satisfying things throughout
the picture that that helped. Thefact that sort of they didn't necessarily get
(25:11):
the full story here, there ismore to tell, but the story they
told is something that connected with audiences. And so this is the one you
point to when people say superhero fatigue. You say, well, it's not
like everyone's tired of superheroes. They'vetired of a certain type. They might
be tired of what the MCU isbringing out, and they're definitely tired of
what DC's bringing out. But Sony, believe it or not, they got
(25:36):
the biggest hit when it came toa comic book movie. And again,
I think it's because of that uniquelook and creating characters that you care about.
There needs to be a story inyour big blockbusters. That's sort of
what we're gonna learn here. Aswe could tell you to go down here.
There needs to be something that connectswith audiences more than just great special
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effects. Number four continues the storythat super hero fatigue maybe not totally exists
because Guards of the Gapsley Volume threeis there, and this was by far
the best MCU movie of the year, and so it's the most worthy of
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making it to this list of highestgrossing And so it's a case of a
great movie actually caused audiences to comeout. And I think one of the
things about this one is that thisis a case where James Gunn was willing
to make people feel uncomfortable, hewas willing to make people cry, he
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was willing to tell a really emotional, heartbreaking story. When it came to
rocket raccoon, and when we learnedabout the fact that he was experimented on
and these horrible things happened to thesefriends that he loved, these other animals,
it actually allowed some nuance and someheartbreak to come in. And I
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feel that's something that so many MCUmovies have shied away from. Anytime they
tell an emotional story, they wantto chuck in some laughs and they want
to just drench it with comedy.They're scared of people actually having to feel.
It seems like with these MCU movies, definitely the four thing where it's
a laugh a minute, but we'redealing with Jane dying of cancer, and
(27:25):
so that type of thing is Ithink it really hurt the storytelling where the
MCU is just lean so heavy onsort of this self referential and this fourth
wall breaking humor. That's something thatI believe guards A Galaxy three Volume three
found a better balance. It balanced. It's still had a lot of humor,
(27:47):
it's still had the wit, it'sstill had the comedy, and it's
by far from a perfect movie.I mean, I gave you three out
of four, and so it definitelyhad its issues. But I think the
fact that it actually had had thingsyou could talk about when you leave the
theater rather than just say, oh, that was cool, but it actually
had some themes. I think it'sshowing that the audiences are hungering for pictures
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with substance. They want the specialeffects, they want the comedy, they
want the engaging characters. But alot of these pictures that are making this
top ten list, they have somethingto say, and so that's a lesson.
I think for the number four guardsthat got the volume three, number
five has gotta be a big shocker. I don't know if anybody was predicting
(28:37):
this. Number five is Christopher Nolan'sOppenheimer. I mean, I thought it
would do decent, but I thinkit was gonna be top ten. I
mean, this is a picture thatobviously is what you would call an adult
picture, a picture that's geared moretowards adults. It's a historical picture.
I mean it's set during the atomicbomb, so obviously, like the main
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demographic that studios target, they werenot alive during this period. Even most
adults now we're not alive during thisperiod. I mean, I got face
a fact, I'm forty six,I'm an adult. I was born nowhere
near what the time period this movieis talking about. This is most definitely
an historical picture. It's most definitelya biopic, and so what it is,
(29:23):
it's the type of movie that wasconsidered a blockbuster in the sixties,
seventies and eighties, back when youweren't just marketing towards those teenagers, in
those kids in their twenties, whenyou were marking towards adults, when you
were trying to make substantial pictures butwould still appeal to the audience. That's
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what I've been Heimer is. Andso there's some people saying that like,
oh, those movies from a differenttime, like an Ama Daeis or like
a Gandhi or those pictures that weresort of hits from another time that they
would never translate today. Oppenheimer saying, it all depends about how the marketing,
(30:07):
because I think one of the bigthings we're learning is it's not just
people aren't necessarily starving for sort ofbig special effects, a big spectacle.
What people want is movies that feellike you can't miss. They want to
catch those movies that feel like youneed to be part of something where it
(30:29):
has a conversation, where it's thispicture that it feels like it's an embedded
part of our culture. I feelthat is what happened here, especially when
you look at Barbenheimer, the factthat Oppenheimer Barbie, they came up with
this unique thing where it could bethis double bill of these two movies.
It took off and it made peoplebelieve that both these movies are major parts
of the conversation. If you wantto be part of the cultural conversation,
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you need to see these movies.And they became a major part of the
summer. And I think that isthe thing that has to be recognized as
it's not about special effects. It'sabout is this a movie that's a part
of the conversation. Is this somethingthat just feels like it is groundbreaking,
It's something unique, it's something thatneeds to be seen, and that's what
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Oppenheimer, being paired with Barbie,was able to pull off. And then
on top of that, I thinkit's this movie that does have some special
effects and it does look feel likesomething that needs to be in the theater,
but most of it is just it'sa conversation movie. It's it's people
talking. But it is one thatonce again it has things to say,
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and so when you're leaving that theater, you have these conversations, and that
conversations then kind of bleed their wayinto people who haven't seen the movie yet.
Now they want to be part ofit. And I think that's why
Oppenheimer improved. And I think Oppenheimeralso is evidence that let's not push away
the adult movie, not push awaythe historical pictures. Let's not push away
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dramas. Let's not just shove allthese dramas and biopics and movies geared towards
adults on streaming because you're not gonnamake any money on just put them on
streaming, and they're not gonna bepart of the conversation. That's pretty evident.
The most movies that go on streamingjust go there to sort of just
fill the algorithms and really never apart of the conversation. Oppenheimer is evidence
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that, you know, these moviescan work in the theater. You just
need to be smart about the marketing, and you need to have a story
that somehow is going to connect topeople. And I think the way the
society is right now, and withsort of these horrendous wars that are going
on and just the idea that everythingfeels so fragileless point in politics, and
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the system just all seems to beready to crumble. Oppenheimer speaking to something
that resonated to people, because goodhistorical movies can be timeless, they can
have something to say about today.And Oppey Heeimer did all those things.
And I think this is a bigwin, a big win for people like
me who want a diverse set oftheatrical pictures. We don't just want special
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effects pictures. We don't just wantsuperhero movies. We want lots of different
stories. We want variety on thatbig screen. So Oppenheimer is a huge
win for people who want different thingson there. The people who say they
don't make movies like they used to, well, I hope you went to
see Oppenheimer. I hope you werepart of that. That sort of commits
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studios. Wait a second, weneed to make movies for more than just
one group of people. Number sixis an interesting one. It's The Little
Mermaid. And I say interesting becausethis is one of those cases where you've
got ballooning budgets and studios are gettingridiculous with sort of the size of the
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budgets. That they're doing here tothe point where I've seen a Little Mermaid
in the conversation of flops and moviesthat didn't quite sort of take off,
despite the fact that it's the numbersix highest grossing domestic movie. And so
there's something wrong if you're the sixthhighest grossing movie but people aren't calling it
a hit. I haven't necessarly donein depth research to really analyze is this
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movie actually a flop? I mean, it did do better domestically than it
did it to nationally, so thatmight be part of the issue there,
But I think I mean, I'mnot necessarily someone who's all gun ho about
Disney remaking all their animated movies.Quite a few of them I felt like,
(34:44):
just we're unnecessary. Lion King Beata big one where I just felt
like, it's just a movie,redone. We didn't need that. Though
I did like some of them,I thought something like Jungle Book and Cinderella,
they were distinct enough that I thinkit was a story worth telling.
I'd like The Little Mermaid a lotmore than other people. I also think
that this one, when in adifferent approach with certain things. I thought
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they made the Aerial and Prince ericrelationship more believable, and you understood why
they would connect with each other.They gave Prince Eric a more thorough backstory,
and so there were elements of thisand I thought it told enough different
things. I was kind of worthcoming to the big screen. But I
don't want the lesson here to beoh, we got to make more live
action movies. I want to goagain with a lesson of diversity, and
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it's okay to change up the storya bit. And so that is sort
of what I like here, isthat you have something that that comes off
as a little bit different when youhave a lead like Halle Bailey, who
here is again not a redheaded whitegirl. It's someone of African American background.
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And there was a lot of reallysweet TikTok YouTube videos that showed these
little young black girls that were justabsolutely captivated that a Disney princess looked like
them, and there's established princess likeAriel looked like them, and I thought
that was really sweet, and Ithink that is something that is important.
(36:19):
I just think of like my daughterwho gravitates towards Milan and Riya the last
Dragan because they look more like her, and I think that is an important
thing with family movies is doing that. And I mean the reality is,
with this atrocious conversation about woke andhow Hollywood is, the reality is most
(36:42):
of the movies still have white leads, and most of them still have white
male leads. I mean, lookat the releases. It's still there.
And I think just the fact thatthere's a few obvious cases of diversity and
the fact that some small minority pushedback to that, it kind of shows
you what the problem is and showsyou that issue. And I hope they
(37:05):
need to continue to go forward.So Little Mermaid did well. So if
this ends up, if this issomething where it's a flop, the lesson
is, hey, cut down yourbudgets. I mean, you think of
something like God'szilla minus one, whereit had such a smaller budget than any
blockbuster but looked like a big eventmovie. Now, I get it was
made in Japan and there is differentregulations and laws and things that they can
(37:31):
get away with, and they don'thave to pay as much to their crew,
and so there is a way wherea God's Ill minus one can never
be made in America with a budgetthat was made in Japan. But I
mean, it's one of those caseswhere I bet they can get closer to
maybe one hundred million instead of athree hundred million dollar picture. And so
(37:52):
there is some lessons there definitely tobe learned. But the pauseive one here
is one that I've were talking abouta bit, and I think that is
the importance of diversity. Number sevenis that man the loss Quantum Mania movie.
I was not a fan. Andthere's another one that was considered a
(38:12):
big disappointment to the MCU. Sothis is another case of you're the number
seventh highest grossy movie, you're considereda disappointment by the studio. It's time
to figure out these budget things.That's the big lesson here is you shouldn't
be in the top ten highest grocymovies and be considered a disappointment. And
(38:35):
I mean it did over two hundredmillion in the in the box office domestically,
Yeah, it's considered a disappointment.And maybe that's a sign that maybe
some other movies, there's a lotof movies that just didn't hit their mark,
and maybe it's not wasn't the mostlucrative year in Hollywood and things like
the strike and stuff. I'm sureit didn't help, but this is just
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another example of you control that budget. Number eight is john Wick Chapter four,
and isn't that crazy? The firstone was a movie. The original
was gonna originally be kind of straightto video. They're just gonna toss that
away. There was barely any marketingfor the first john Wick. I remember
going to see it and not reallysure what it was and walking away and
(39:21):
really liking it. And then it'sone of those ones where after every rewatch,
I've really loved the john Wick andit's just this to be. I
mean, obviously Chapter four is asequel, but I think what shows here
is let's start trying to do originalstories because you don't know what will be
the next franchise. You won't beyou don't know the next thing that is
(39:42):
going to build and be able todo sequels. They created a captivating character
in John Wick. They created aninteresting world, and it's made people want
to return to it for a fourthinstallment. A fourth installment that is over
two hours long. It's this big, massive months st of a movie.
It's incredibly long. But that obviouslydidn't scare people away because they cared about
(40:07):
this story. They love the action. And they're engaged. Number nine is
intriguing one because it's Sound of Freedom. And this is an example of when
we start talking about the death ofthe mid budget movie, we talk about
the death of these smaller movies,or we talk about this whole idea of
(40:29):
sort of the one and done openingweekends all that matters, and then you
move on. Sound of Freedom isagainst all of that because you've got a
small budget picture, You've got amovie where it wasn't the opening weekend that
made a big smash hit. Itwas word of mouth and it was something
(40:50):
where people were talking about this picturefor weeks months. And I don't particularly
think this movie was great, butI do think this movie was a win
for cinema. Not necessary for themovie itself, but what it did.
(41:12):
And the sign that is for studiosand it's let's make things that could build
up a word of mouth. Let'sstop worrying about the opening weekend and make
stuff that is going to capture theconversation and build up over time. This
is a sign that independent movie smallerpictures have the potential to make a lot
of money. Mid budget, lowerbudget. They can connect with people.
(41:36):
If you have a smart marketing strategyand you have a way of connecting with
groups that will then discuss and makethis important. This is also a movie
where it's really tough subject matter,and so it's not I mean it's it's
not the type of subject matter thatis going to normally connect with people.
(41:59):
I mean, this idea of humantrafficking, child trafficking, it's not material
that typically you think, oh,this is going to be a great night
for the family out, this isgonna be blockbuster material. But it's showing
that tough material can work. Toughmaterial can connect with people because sometimes they
(42:20):
need to see it. I don'tthink this is a sign of oh we
got to do some more child traffickingpictures. I think there is this point
where sort off you see it onceyou're gonna start getting desensitized. It's not
going to have the same impact.So the thing is, well, what
are other challenging topics, What areother things that need to be discussed right
now that we're ignoring that can havea compelling story and connect with people.
(42:44):
And I think that's the less ofsound of freedom and don't shy away from
tough material because they can connect withpeople. This also obviously had the advantage
of church groups and churches connecting withthis and religious groups promoting and telling people
to go out there. But Ithink even a non religious movie has a
potential to be successful if again,you have a topic that connects with people
(43:07):
and you have that word of mouth. To me, the big takeaway from
this one is it's time to stopshine away from mid budget movies. It's
top It's time to stop thinking thatdramas and definitely one well tough topics should
just go on streaming Sound of Freedomshows. No, no, that's actually
not the case. They could doreally well in the theater. And I
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mean twenty twenty four, we aregoing into a year where you're gonna feel
the effects of the strike that happenedfor half of twenty twenty three because a
lot of movies were delayed. There'sa lot of big tent poles that are
not coming out in twenty twenty fourthey're originally supposed to, And so I
think this is the year the studiosreally need to find those intriguing, independent,
(43:57):
smaller pictures that could connect with anaudience. At twenty twenty far as
any chance of being a robust yearand a successful year for the box office.
You gotta find those sound of freedoms, you gotta sound of Freedom,
you gotta find those smaller pictures thathave something to say I can't connect and
obviously be smart in your marketing.There is some value that whole slow release
(44:20):
thing. A smaller movie that doesn'thave a big marketing budget. You've got
to rely on the moviegoers to bepart of your marketing tool. And so
you do. You do that wholeslow release. You go to New York,
you go to la you go toToronto, and then you slowly spread
out. So by the time inabout a month when it's coming to places
(44:42):
like here in Bramford, there's beena conversation about it, there's an energy
about it, and so it becomessort of this must see movie. Sound
of Freedom did make it to Bramford, and it was one that I saw
on a lot of people's social media. And again, maybe it's a movie
that I don't necessarily I think thatit had an important message, but maybe
(45:02):
it wasn't told in the greatest way. But I do think that this is
a movie worth acknowledging because of whatit showed of the potential of the box
office and then number ten. Youwant to talk about something that's gonna scare
studios, because this was not abig studio movie in any way. Taylor
(45:23):
Swift The Eras Tour became a massivehit. Taylor Swift just decided to release
this movie on herself, made ita big event, tenth highest grocery movie
of the year. I'm sure Ihad a very small budget because a lot
of the budget would have been justgoing into her actual concert tour. And
you film this thing, you packagedit up and out, you put it
(45:43):
in theaters and it was just abig, massive hit that felt like a
big event, felt like something youhad to see on the big screen.
And again this shows the importance ofdiversity. I remember in the eighties,
Eddie Murphy's Raw was considered a bigtheatrical picture. Basically a stand up routine
(46:04):
went wide on the big screen.There was a time when there was a
lot of different type of stuff thatwas coming out on the big screen to
coming to theaters. And if twentytwenty four, like I said, it's
any chance of being a healthy yearin the box office, because there isn't
going to be a lot of thosetent pools. You need that diversity.
(46:27):
You need those different type of movies. You need your concert movies, you
need your comedies, you need everything. And I think all those genres can
work on the big screen. Ithink they can become hits if you're smart
about the budget, if you packagein a way where it's something where it
seems like it's a conversation starter,something people want to be a part of.
(46:50):
And the reality is you make moviesthat are going to connect with people,
and so they recommend it. That'sthe thing. Make good stuff.
That's my lots of the studios.That's a big takeaway, make good movies.
Not every movie on this top tenlist is a movie I liked or
I recommended, but that I thinkis a major takeaway. And so those
(47:15):
were the ten high stcrossing movies oftwenty twenty three. In a few weeks,
me and Scott are gonna be talkingabout some of the trends that we
have noticed from twenty twenty three andwhat we think that means, and what
Hollywood should get out of this,and sort of what is the future of
(47:35):
theatrical pictures. We'll be talking aboutthat in a few weeks, and so'll
you'll get that and as well,I asked that you here come back next
week and Scott will be back withme. It'll be our first sort of
discussion episode, traditional episode movie reviewepisode quite a while, so we're excited
to get back going and provide youthe best episodes we possibly can. And
(47:59):
since I have here, I alsohumbly ask that you check out my website
Beyond the Balcony Beyond Balcony dot com. I have a little tribute to my
son who has now turned twelve,and as well reveal the latest amazing cake
made by my wife. And Ialso look at what were the most viewed
(48:22):
articles of twenty twenty three, Sothere's stuff up there and they'll continue to
be stuff up there. I'll beposting lots of reviews and think pieces and
maybe some silly fiction and things throughoutthe year. So check out the site,
stick with the podcast. You guysare amazing. Thank you so much
(48:42):
for your support and for all thosepeople that have reached out to me and
what was a really tough year.You guys are amazing, and some of
you sent some financial support for me, as you know that wasn't okay as
much work and I really appreciate thatit's just it's incredible, and that one
thing I did mention on the site, and I still haven't quite worked it
(49:04):
all out, but I likely planneddoing a Patreon for Beyond the Balcony,
which in some way may also beconnected with the movie breakdown. That is
a thing that will happen this year. I'm waiting until I know for sure
that I have people that are interestedin taking part in it, because the
idea is you want a few subscribersright when you launch, because then people
sort of see, oh, thisis maybe something worth subscribing to, because
(49:28):
there's always people that have done it. So as part of that, I
want to make sure is in place. But also I sort of want to
have tears and figure out what willbe the tiers. So that's something that
you could look forward to twenty twentyfour if you want to support us,
and if you like the stuff Iwrite and the stuff I yamber about.
And I don't know what a yamberis, but Yamber Jamber. Anyways,
(49:51):
you could tell that this is nearthe end of the show because I'm just
making up words now. But anotherbig thing too is we're likely trying to
jump into video this year too,and YouTube so lots of plans this year,
will slowly roll it out because sometimesyou get too ambitious and you burn
yourself out. But thank you forlistening to just Me talk for a very
long time, and I'll see younext week, as Scott joins me,
(50:14):
so have a fantastic day and havea great week at the movie
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