Wonka Sinks Night Swim; Anyone But You Heats Up - Charts with Dan! 

Execs being completely out of touch with reality was best demonstrated when Sony saw all those Morbius memes and somehow thought that being loudly made fun of on the internet somehow meant "oh the internet actually loves it, we should definitely re-release it in theaters!" 😂

10+ hour video of Dan roasting executives plz?

The mint mobile hotline makes this feel like an awesome radio show. Great throwback segment.

From a contestant on the early 2000s teen reality show, Endurance, to a movie star who has been in some leggy films. Props to Glen Powell.

To the question on Barbie, it's also Mattel, not the movie producer. Mattel realized they can make money by selling the rights and increase the toy revenue. It's a win win, even if the future movie sucks. On Wonka's success -- just speaking from my experience, because Wish dropped out so quickly (literally not available once the winter holiday started here because it did so poorly), Wonka is also the only family film available for a lot of us. I didn't think I'd be taking my kids to watch it but it was literally all that was left.

Perhaps we need to introduce a new term ranking below "flop", such as "unmitigated disaster" to cover all our bases and keep people from complaining about how badly exactly their favorite movie did.

There actually is a long history of American Girl movies, mostly direct to video. In the early 2000s, they started with movies based on their historical characters, specifically Samantha, Felicity, Molly, and Kit. The stars of these movies included such names as AnnaSophia Robb, Shailene Woodley, and Abigail Breslin. They then turned to their Girl of the Year characters, starting with Chrissa in 2009. Then every Girl of the Year between 2012 and 2016 had a movie - McKenna, Saige, Isabelle, Grace, and Lea. The Grace movie starred Olivia Rodrigo. Since 2016, American Girl has teamed up with Amazon for a series of streaming specials, some based on historical characters and some on contemporary.

I enjoyed Night Swim. It tells you what kind of movie it is in the first 20 minutes when there is a close up on the pool man who randomly starts talking about how “our reptilian brains tell us we should fear the water but we go to it anyway”

That scene in ‘Big’ when the Executives just want Transformers… Tom Hanks asks, “What’s fun about playing with a building?”

@6:46 Iron Claw maintains a hold? Solid pun. It's a good dramatic movie and not a tragic biopic for pro wrestling fans.

It's so mad to me how Black Adam is going to end up in the top half of the DCEU films, this time last year we knew that things were bad but were still joking about how the movie did vs what the Rock was saying about it, heck we were even optimistic about the return of Henry Cavil.

I watched Wonka last weekend. I watch as many movies as possible, but Wonka was not on my list originally. However, since the people who went to see it were unanimously positively surprised how good it was, I decided to finally go watch it last Sunday. And even though here it was released one week before the US, there were still lots of people in the theater and the reactions after the movie were super positive. I guess, it still has legs left.

It felt weird not seeing the box office flashback being adjusted for inflation.

I saw Anyone But You by myself one afternoon because i just wanted an easy movie that didn't require me to think and it accomplished that. 😂 Then I saw Poor Things with my partner last night and it was great to enjoy together and discuss afterwards. There's room to enjoy both on my bingo card!

LMFAO! "Doll movie make money so more doll movie make more money". Please, put that on a pink t-shirt in the Barbie font. I'll buy it.

Bless you Dan, perfect timing for background noise during my 30 minute Everything Shower

I though Glen Powel was a highlight in Top Gun Maverick so I am glad Anyone but You is doing well and hopefully we will get to see more of him

Dan, pls make that executive voice into a recurring character. Your audience needs it. "Doll movie, make money. Need. New. Doll. movie"

Anyone but you is kind of a reminder that some movies play the long game, and I feel Hollywood has forgotten that, I also think it helps that there’s no competition and it’s winter.

That was a good question on the mint mobile hotline.

"Wonka sinks Night Swim!"........Good word play there!!😂😂👍🏾

I wonder how much Guinness paid to get more screen time than Nicole Kidman and Amber Heard?

I love “Anyone But You”.. Sleeper Hit alert: The box office earnings of “Anyone But You”… On a $25 million budget, it has done a very solid $65 million worldwide as of 12 January and rising. Also it accomplished a “unicorn” feat at the North America box office: It had three successive weekends where in each weekend it made more money than the weekend before. This has created a lot of buzz among box office watchers on RU-vid and elsewhere…

Just in time for lunch! Thanks, Dan!

I love the RLM shoutout! Love the call in aspect!!

Great show as always!

“Primal executive brain”- ha!

Anyone but You is truly impressive, but Poor Things could really profit from the Award season

Dan, you continue to be the Man in 2024! 🎬👌

People seem to forget that executives aren't in the business of making movies, they are in the business of making money. They just happen to do that by making movies. So, the American Doll movie seems fairly obvious from an executive standpoint - if they don't overbudget it, and it pushes American Doll sales up, that's a win from the executive standpoint, even if it's a bit of a cultural blow to society (executives do not care about that at all).

Never been this early. Yay Dan! Love the show.

Lot of theaters are about to drop Aquaman like a box of rocks. I know we are for sure. There was a 3 week mandatory agreement and those three weeks are UP 💅

Thank you for these charts

I love the new year because Dan breaks out the 'calendar year' top 10 charts on top of all the other charts and i love seeing everyone duke it out. How fun :)

no one else noticed Dan kept calling it "Aquaman and the LAST Kingdom"? was that intentional?

I want to call the hotline but can't imagine how much it'd cost to call from New Zealand

Just came back a few hours ago from seeing anyone but you and loved it so much, it made realize how much missed my rom coms. ❤❤❤ I hope anyone but you definitely puts them back in fashion, it was very pleasant way to spend my Sunday afternoon at the theaters, gave me so much nostalgia for my late 90s early 00s films. The chemistry between Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell was amazing and definitely had some Laugh out loud moments. I loved that movie hope it stays strong at the box office to see more movies like that more often

I cant beleive it has already been 10 years since the 2nd Hobit movie and Wolf of wall street came out. It also is about 10 years since I started watching honest trailers too.

Barbie was one of those rare blockbusters that you can actually see that a director had a say in what to do and how, that's why I liked it..

American girl would probably be the best choice for a toy based movie , though. There is a book series for each doll, telling her story and teaching simple history lessons. So there is a built in plot if they want. Movies have been based on toys or games with less

Hopefully we’ll get more theatrically released romcoms in the future.

Regarding execs misunderstanding Barbie's success, it's also a problem for execs of power and ownership. Mattel OWNS the Barbie brand and other brands, but they can't completely own or control the artists (Gerwig, Robbie, and others) who made the movie special. They want to, almost have to, chalk up the success to factors they can own, control, and replicate on demand. Crediting the creatives would require ceding control and compensating them accordingly.

Brilliant video Dan!

In regards to the American Girl doll movie, while I understand the concern about green lighting more toy movies, it’s not that bizarre of a choice. There has already been a theatrical American Girl doll movie and several tv movies. The dolls do have books that accompany them so there is source material. My concern is that they may try to do something more meta like Barbie and it won’t land the same way.

I would love to witness the timeline where Aquaman 2 and The Flash swapped places on the calendar.

I'm disappointed that this week's Mint Mobile line question was about the movie industry. I was hoping that it was gonna be a segment where we could see Dan rant about a random topic, like last week's rant on college football.

For your point (and Magum’s) about the suits just not getting “IT”, I think the problem is they see the audience as mindless plebs that will accept anything if there are enough bombs, sex, or frilly dresses. And for the last few decades we have, but we want more now. We’re 4 years into a new decade, and usually that comes with new innovation in the way of artistry and popular culture. Gen Z (including myself) have grown/are grown up (I’ll be 26 this year for gods sake?) - the old formulas, the same content mills, the grasping for the last threads of Y2K shit to capitalize on and turn into a franchise or subscription service are all PAST getting very old. They keep beating an older mutilated horse with their obnoxious attempts at “paint-by-number franchise = $billions” model. The suits don’t know or seem to understand how obvious and tired of them we are. That’s why they have gotten it into their simple and perhaps rotten minds (that are devoid of [actual] creativity) that because us plebs loved Barbie (the messaging, the plot that really went over their heads - if they even watched it, like you said) that we’ll accept *anything* and continue to make their insane, unnecessary, and truly undeserved salaries even fatter. And when many or most of their attempts at turning toys into franchise movies flops and they’re holding the bag, they’ll find a way to point a finger at the little people that work below them when shareholders come to the office with their pitchforks and pink slips/torture devices. It’s all very rinse and repeat, and annoying. And it’s why music, film, and other art forms are suffering so badly now. They just can’t accept that no gravy train is guaranteed and the average audience goer isn’t THAT stupid. And it’s time suits accept that no one can be Peak Marvel anymore, not even Marvel. It’s time to give the franchises a break and just make great movies.

Always a pleasure, friends.

I am one of those people who watched Anyone But You this past week. Wanted to see it earlier, but waited until theaters had less showings of Aquaman because the noise bleed from Aquaman has been ruining other movies I attendend.

@dan, agree with your take on the executives on the hotline question. I would add that there is for sure a subset of executives that just don't care. They know that Barbie created a wave. They can make a doll movie for cheap, ride the wave, piss off the fans, and still make 10% on their money. All they want to do is take money and make it more money. Someone else will take the risk (good call you), they'll get a hit, and then we'll ride that wave again. Yuck.

Love these charts. Im on the lookout for the reviews of Beekeeper (my gf wants to see this after seeing a trailer) and Book of Clarence (this one is what i want to see).

I liked Glen Powell in Top Gun Maverick (the whole Maverick cast), so I wouldn't mind seeing him in more roles, the whole cast too...

As a fan of "Anyone But You," this news makes me HAPPY. 😊😊😊

I’m going to see Oppenheimer in IMAX one more time this week.

You forgot to press the inflation button for that box office flashback segment...🐱🐰

Changing your desk is such a hassle 😂. Yes, executive brains 🧠 are under great stress 😩, no wonder they need stability and safe movies. 😅

Next week Oppenheimer is coming back on IMAX and 70mm IMAX

I agree most likely the studio executives were just thinking lets make another doll movie with American Girl. However, making a American Girl movie is very interesting. There is a lot to work with. This is a smart idea from the studios. The dolls are diverse and have interesting background stories.

Is "The Boys in the Boat" doing better than expected or worse than expected? Or just as expected? Nobody really seems to talk about that movie's performance.

You forgot inflation in flashback, but otherwise love the show!

I wonder if the poster for Anyone But You poster has helped the movie at all, , it seems to be everywhere

We know ad revenue is low this month, so extra thank you for making videos!

Sent in my question to the hotline! Hopefully my awkward voicemail energy doesn't ruin my chances of getting on the air haha! Oh well.

13:09 "earlier this year?" Earlier than last week?

Impatience for Victory will Guarantee Defeat

21:08 🤣🤣🤣 loved this 🤭

Anyone But You is light, fun, well cast, and cheeky. Glad it has real legs

Worth pointing out Black Adam didn’t get a Chinese release. Aqua-man is getting a big boost from there.

It's a wasted opportunity not saying Migration had really good Wings instead of legs

I'm here for Dan's anime arc. Just kidding, great video and info as always. Keep up the great work! 👍

My perspective on American Girl Greenlight is that, even if they know they can't do Barbie again, they are hearing from shareholders who aren't movie people that say "doll movie make money"

Told you guys that Madame Web will be a lowkey hit, it has probably the most popular actresses under 40 today, Sydney Sweeney is a legit B list celeb now and people are getting hip to her.

I went to see The Marvels on its 3rd week and out of 400 seats in a CENTRAL TOKYO theater, there were only 20-30 people that I can count of! Even though I went on a mid-afternoon, Wednesday is usually the “cinema day” for Japanese cinemas so it’s very concerning. (I know CBM isn’t big here unless it’s Spider-Man or a big event like Endgame)

I think she interesting chart would be: opening weekend vs trial gross... What movies made the highest percentage/$ on the back end?

My man crush on Glen Powell has finally paid off

Bummer that I wanted to see Anyone But You with my girlfriends next weekend after hearing good word of mouth but they're dropping it from most of my theaters Wednesday 🤦🏼‍♀️

What happened to the inflation calculator for the past box office numbers?

For the Road to Recovery chart, could you show what the red line looked like before you averaged in 2023? Just curious.

Here for the Levi shirt 📢

Dan has great philosophical chops as well! I don't think I've heard the phrase, but "illusion of competence" is something he explained very well, and you see in certain fields like Hollywood, way too much.

Dan, I'm curious about the Mint Mobil Hotline. Was the idea brought to you by Mint? Or did you suggest it to them? Oh, and why didn't you hit the inflation button for the 2014 weekend grosses? But even with forgetting that, I love the show. Keep it up!!!

I've got a question regarding Oscar's. This year, and end of last, I've been seeing loads of "for your consideration" adverts, for various films. I can't remember seeing these ever before on my own social media. Are they new or new to the UK?

ewww... I hate movie posters that have the actors/actresses names opposite of where they are

Birds have wings, not legs.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Migration globally. Unusually, it doesn't even open in the UK until February, and there seems to be a few markets where it will open even later, so internationally it could have pretty long legs.

Not surprisingly, Night Swim already made its money back

Damn now I want a RLM/Dan BOTW crossover and fuck it invite Caulkin too!

Took me a second to notice dan was wearing a Levi shirt

Mmmm seeing Disney fumble 😂

Hey Dan I have a question. Is The Marvels the biggest flop of all time? Could you name any movie that lost more than $225 million?

Iron claw baybeee

Previous films not-withstanding (there was already an AG theatrical movie from 2008, and there have been a number of direct to video movies as well), American Girls has the potential to be a better movie than Barbie, but only if they stick to what made American Girls so endearing an alternative to Barbie in the first place. For one, the dolls are meant to represent their owners or be their peer/friend--they are not aspirational of adulthood but of what the girls can do now. Add to that an extensive body of self-care literature (including one of the most well-regarded books on puberty for pre-teen girls), and a new AG movie could be another Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret--a well-regarded movie for pre-teens and their mothers to watch together--but there's no way in hell it'll make Barbie bank. Part of what made Barbie work was that it was a farce; I don't see what there is to farce with American Girls themselves (outside of the character dolls with their own novels, most American girl dolls are customized to look like their owners, so basically, you'd be farcing girlhood), and the farce they inevitably produce to imitate the Barbie movie will just as inevitably be groan-inducing and terrible. But. Big BUT. Maybe they won't fuck it up. Maybe they'll get a filmmaker who knows how to make the right kind of movie to represent the American Girl brand, or who can see the potential for farce that I don't.

Still waiting for a lot of these films in europe, have been excited for Poor Things ever since it got a trailer and went into festivals and interviews/promotion so many weeks back, yet its releasing a month from now, i dont understand it, movies make so much more money through a widespread international release yet nowadays they keep delaying anything outside of the US until the movie has lost all buzz and relevance and momentum online

I am wondering if this could be a fumble for Blumhouse. Night Swim was pretty much a par for the course January horror film in my opinion. Others in my theater had higher expectations.

What's the song at the entrance of the video?

Hi Dan! I love this show, I watch it religiously, but I have a question: whenever you’re saying how much money a movie needs to make to break even, I think you mean how much NET money they need to break even, right? Or am I just interpreting it wrong?

That exec question was a great one. But yeah all execs are disconnected with reality because they don't live in reality with the rest of us normies. Same with politicians.

I would recommend a movie called 12th fail

Have you seen anyone but you? I don't recall you saying if you have. I'm going to try to see it today.

Did you watch Anatomy of a fall? It was recomended to me