Gabbing Geek Box Office Report: Just Read This.

Once again, I do not hide my general distaste for this weekly column. I don’t even think anyone reads it. Why should they? You can get box office numbers from any number of other websites, and I don’t offer the slightest bit of analysis on what these numbers mean because I really don’t care.

I mean, I may be the most prolific writer here at Gabbing Geek, but I rarely have an article that cracks the top ten for daily post views. Those usually go to Jenny’s stuff that she wrote who knows how long ago. Harley Quinn t-shirts have been a major hit source for us.

So, while Watson or Ryan or maybe even Jimmy could say a lot about this stuff, I’m still here as the one actually writing it. So, I will just do the column as I see fit. I doubt even putting “Just Read This” in the title will get me that much more attention anyway. Yeah, I’ll give you the numbers, but only after I say stuff about other stuff I find more interesting than how many people bought tickets to whatever.

So, I went to the movies a lot this past summer. More than I have possibly in years. I used to teach at a community college as an adjunct–which is a fancy word for “part timer”–and summers usually meant I had Fridays off and that usually meant I could go to see the big summer releases first thing for a matinee price when the theater was often empty or close to it. Those were good times.

Anyhoo, I saw a lot of stuff this summer, and much of it was at best dull and at worst bad. There were some gems here and there. I found myself smiling all through Ghostbusters, and find it disappointing that due to a lack of a Chinese opening, that movie will probably not get a sequel. Was Ghostbusters great? No, but it was fun. A lot of fun. More fun than, say, Warcraft, which the Chinese apparently couldn’t get enough of. We live in a world where a sleep-inducing movie based on an MMORPG may get another installment while a fun remake with some truly talented comedians will probably disappear. And I say this as someone who generally has no interest in remakes.

See, there are basically two types of movies: fun ones and artsy ones. Some talented directors can do both at the same time, like Steven Spielberg (well, prior to Schindler’s List) and Quentin Tarantino. It’s generally too early in the summer for the artsy stuff, since those movies are generally positioned late so Oscar voters can remember those movies exist, and so that means summers are for the BIG BLOCKBUSTERS.

But this summer has been full of lackluster blockbusters. There was no stand-out hit of summers past. No Mad Max: Fury Road or Guardians of the Galaxy that maybe comes out of nowhere, probably as a labor of love from some truly talented filmmaker, or at least a different take on something fun, and then just dominates the summer scene. Some of the animated family films did OK this year, maybe because they take longer to make and as a former television production instructor I had (I studied TV production in college–wanna make something of it?) fully planning a movie or TV show takes time, and being as exacting as possible while planning means a higher quality end product. When movies like Suicide Squad or Star Trek Beyond are doing re-edits or re-shoots with new cast members only weeks before opening (instead of, say, six months before opening like Rogue One did), then that may not be a good sign of anything for anyone. And maybe, just maybe, try making a movie featuring characters there seems to be a general interest for in the public eye. I’m looking at you, Legend of Tarzan.

OK, here’s your Box Office Report: