I would have liked to see a Soderbergh Star Wars movie.
But Disney is a corporation only allowing the broadest success possibilities according to market research and their own beancounters.
5 Likes
Completely fine with Disney’s decision there. Star Wars is overextended enough as it is. They don’t need to bring Solo back to life in order to overextend it even more with another unnecessary spinoff.
4 Likes
Just looking at the US box office one immediately can understand what drives it: teenagers and young adults having no interest in anything that resembles real life.
The rest is barely scraping by, even with a famous rock icon like Bruce Springsteen attached.
Mature adults just don’t go to the cinema anymore.
Maybe cinema is changing into a carnival (again) and a PR platform for streamers.
1 Like
People are afraid that they might get arrested for watching the Springsteen movie, because Springsteen offended You-know-who.
3 Likes
It probably has more to do with it not looking like a particularly good film and being focused on an overrated artist that doesn’t have much relevance to younger generations. Even A Complete Unknown, with all of its Oscar buzz, only reached $11 million in its opening weekend, even with a star like Timothee Chalamet starring in it.
2 Likes
„A complete unknown“ did very well with a world wide box office of about 140 millions, mainly due to Chalamet attracting young viewers who didn‘t even know who Bob Dylan is.
As for Bruce, different opinions are respected, so I want to add that he is an artist who cannot be overrated, and the film looks fantastic to me.
The manga adaptation about a guy resurrected and able to turn body parts into chainsaws, however, could be a SNL skit lampooning the state of the film industry now. Sadly, it is what will get greenlit.
So long, human condition.
2 Likes
I don’t think the chainsaw thing is going to do overly well. The article says that it could beat last week’s winner, The Black Phone 2, which is only expected to haul in $10-12 million. The box office has been slow for the past couple of weeks, I would expect that to continue this weekend as well. With there not being much in the way of quality released here lately, something has to come out on top.
1 Like
I have yet to read a genuinely positive review of the Springsteen biopic. Granted, most of the moviegoing public these days may not even read reviews. That said, having never been a fan of his music, I was not drawn to the subject matter. Likewise, I am not a particularly big fan of Bob Dylan’s music either (though I do have the distinction of sharing an elevator with him in the hotel during the reception for my first wedding in 1987, and yes, I spoke to him briefly). However, the Dylan biopic’s trailer intrigued me whereas Springsteen’s did not. Politics plays no part in my response to either trailer.
4 Likes
I’d also add biopics are a particular genre one has to be interested in. I have yet to see ROCKETMAN and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY despite being a fan of both artists. I liked the Kurt Russell ELVIS vehicle back then - but I likely wouldn’t have watched it had it not been on tv in the early 80s.
2 Likes
The same is true for me. And for the record, I have not seen the Dylan biopic in spite of being intrigued by its trailer. ELVIS had the distinction of starring Kurt Russell and being directed by John Carpenter. And it was free to watch on TV. That’s a pretty dynamic combination!
2 Likes
Kurt Russell was great as Elvis and did it again really cool in 3000 Miles to Graceland where Costner too gave a great performance in an otherwise mediocre film….you have to watch Rocket Man, Egerton is brilliant as Elton. Rhapsody is nice for Queen fans
3 Likes
If Springsteen is an “overrated artist”, I don´t know who isn´t….unless you forgot to write IMO?
2 Likes
Can you blame them? Life has been pretty crap for teenagers and young adults so far, and future prospects aren’t looking great either. I don’t blame them for seeking escapism.
1 Like
I don´t blame them. I blame studios only catering to one target audience for so long that the others don’t go to the cinema anymore and the teenagers don’t even recognize that realistic films can be uplifting and rewarding, too.
Also: I don´t see it as an antidote to a bleak reality, watching that chainsaw guy lead his dreary existence. And really, did teenagers have it so much better in previous times?
3 Likes
Haven’t we’ve been speculating in the other thread how the Bond pendulum would possibly/likely strike out into the escapist field again after the Craig run? Some believe that’s also why horror films seem to have a run right now…
1 Like
I really don’t think that this chainsaw movie is going to be this big box office juggernaut that means the end of civilization is upon us. It’s potentially getting a bump because it’s being released in a month that has been quite weak for films, where probably the biggest release was a “film” that contained a music video and some lyric videos that would otherwise have appeared on YouTube for free. Even with that bump, it doesn’t seem to be on pace for a huge weekend, where the estimates I’ve seen have it potentially on pace for, at the high end, around $15 million. This would put it in a neck-and-neck race for first place with a film that was released a week ago.
The “real world” has been brutal for the youth of this generation, so I certainly can’t fault them for wanting to indulge mostly in escapism. Things are bad for the youth of every generation, that’s certainly true, but I think the current crop of youth have it far worse than previous generations. They have it worse than I did, far worse I think.
5 Likes
Yes. Isn’t that the boast of previous generations these days, how much better they had it?
But even putting that aside, we’re talking about the generation that lost key years of their life to COVID and lockdowns. Who are enduring ongoing financial/economic hardships. Who face an increasingly bleak and uncertain future.
While I’m not the one to have made this observation, but I watched an interesting video recently about how the concept of nostalgia may be on the way out, because the current generation have nothing to be nostalgic for.
I graduated from university in 2008, the same year as the financial crash. It’s been a struggle, and subsequent generations seem to be having an even tougher time.
I am not a young person, and I am also not familiar with Chainsaw Man, so I don’t know what the appeal is. But it seems to be striking a chord.
4 Likes
It’s ironic, my generation grew up during the 70s/80s, what’s considered now the height of the Cold War (while that actually had simmered down by then after the Cuba crisis and the comparatively non-expansionist Kremlin agenda under Brezhnev). The confrontation between the West and the Warsaw Pact was still dangerous, but there was already a Washington-Moscow hotline in place and the playbook of nuclear deterrence, of moves and countermoves and the necessary clarity of communication was such a reliable system of coordinates even the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan didn’t significantly increase the risk of an accidental nuclear exchange. Western democracies, while as much all over the place, as challenged by economic circumstances as today, were still comparatively resilient and on the whole provided a modicum of stability. Yet, my/our generation wore the ‘no future’ badges. And had a brighter one than any before us.
Today’s youth looks at dire economic perspectives, has to face extremism, zealotry, the surrender of reason, a growing anti-science, anti-Enlightenment sentiment that just declares whatever lies it deems profitable as truth and corrupts society to the core. On top of environmental and security challenges that threaten to collapse every form of stability we’ve come to take for granted. There’s no reason to expect they’ll have it better than their parents.
And still, they don’t seem to wear ‘no future’ badges. If watching horror films helps them preparing for their challenges that’s probably a good thing then.
4 Likes
I may actually watch this at the cinema…
3 Likes
Not at all surprising, the chainsaw movie slipped after a so-so opening weekend.
Overall, October 2025 looks to be a month to forget at the cinema.