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JohnErle wrote:Four of his five films to date, including Hannah, have been for Focus Features, and he delivered three of the top 10 highest grossing Focus films of all time. I'd say that he did very well considering the budgets, subject matter, stars, and marketing he was working with. His only studio film to date was the Soloist, and that was clearly an adult drama and not a summer tentpole, so again the expectations were different.

You're right that this is uncharted territory for him, but I suspect the producers will make sure those "Lynchian" moments you're talking about will not be a part of this production considering how much they've invested in the project, and I'm betting on him being able to deliver a big, studio tentpole that'll keep the kids happy as well as the critics. Hell, even David Lynch's Dune would have been a respectable pick had we been playing this game in 1984.

And for the record, I haven't seen Hannah because the entire concept sounded so stupid to me, but when you're talking about an original movie starring Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana vs. a Peter Pan movie with Hugh Jackman and Amanda Seyfried, the expectations are, again, completely different.

Chienfantome wrote:Les Misérables is a good comparison, except I think on the paper Les Misérables is much stronger than Into the Woods. Les Misérables was like the biggest Broadway musical, with written all over the posters and trailers "From the director of The King's Speech", and starring Wolverine and Catwoman.
Into the Woods, many people don't know what it's about, the director's last musical was a disaster, and its biggest star is Johnny Depp who's coming off Transcendence and Lone Ranger.
The only thing going for it is that Disney is written on the poster, but sometimes it doesn't do much.
I really think Into the Woods should easily clear 75 million dollars, but it won't come near Les Misérables numbers.

Spectre wrote:You guys have WAY better logic than I do for including/excluding Into the Woods. I first saw the trailer in theaters and thought it was absolutely awful. Then, my wife turned to me and said "What the hell was that?" I almost never get a negative reaction like that from her so from then on, I've been down on it.

BanksIsDaFuture wrote:You guys keep mentioning Meryl and Johnny Depp, I think Disney will be pushing "Anna Kendrick as Cinderella" for that 18-24 demo.

numbersix wrote:

Spectre wrote:You guys have WAY better logic than I do for including/excluding Into the Woods. I first saw the trailer in theaters and thought it was absolutely awful. Then, my wife turned to me and said "What the hell was that?" I almost never get a negative reaction like that from her so from then on, I've been down on it.

Sometimes that can be the best indication. I remember my mother's interest in The Help made me think it would do well, as she only goes to see a handful of films every year. It was a good sign!

JohnErle wrote:I was saving that for my knock-out punch against Chien, but since he's already admitted to only arguing for the sake of it and not really believing half the crazy nonsense he's been saying, what's the point?

JohnErle wrote: Is this the same mother who convinced you to draft The Book Thief?