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The Secret Life of Pets 2

Saw this today. Thought it was a lot of fun and in some ways superior to the original - ultimately much funnier.

One thing that kept occurring to me... these characters/this IP are so well-suited for ride formats. They excel best in comedic/entertaining "incidents" that drive the bedrock of a good dark ride.
 
Saw this today. Thought it was a lot of fun and in some ways superior to the original - ultimately much funnier.

One thing that kept occurring to me... these characters/this IP are so well-suited for ride formats. They excel best in comedic/entertaining "incidents" that drive the bedrock of a good dark ride.
This one is superior because it has Harrison Ford. I have no plans to see the movie and I know that he has to make it better than the cringe-fest that was the original SLoP.
 
It truly is a next level step up and 3000x improvenment and what the first movie should've done. Three stories that come together in the end to form a cohesive storyline. Overall the story of the film at least for me was conquering your fear and overcoming adversity. Its not a perfect movie but it was at least for me really enjoyable and a nice relaxing popcorn flick. Getting into spoiler stuff.

Max and his fear for nearly everything and finding getting over his anxiety and his fear lead him to be the big hero in saving the tiger in the end. Gigi had to learn how to become a cat to overcome losing Max's toy which kinda was like a test in the relationship...what will you do to maintain the trust and relationship when your loved one hold you responsible of something. Snowball had to overcome being small to save the tiger and be a real hero. However, not gonna lie, Gidget's storyline was my favorite and the two best scenes were the ones with all the puppies doing puppy eyes to get what they wanted and when the cat lady ran over Sergei twice

But can I just say Illumination music director as the company really likes using R&B, soul, and hip hop in their films.
 
One of my favorite things about the first one was how I loved its use of "Welcome To New York" by Taylor Swift and "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers. Hope this one has some good music moments too.
 
One of my favorite things about the first one was how I loved its use of "Welcome To New York" by Taylor Swift and "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers. Hope this one has some good music moments too.

It's got some good needle drops and a lovely score by Alexander Desplat.
 
Film opens to only $47M as compared to the $106M opening the first movie had. That’s one of the lowest openings any Illumination movie has seen.
 
Film opens to only $47M as compared to the $106M opening the first movie had. That’s one of the lowest openings any Illumination movie has seen.

It didn't attract the 13-17 demo and didn't get as high of a performance from the 10-12 demo as the last film. Essentially what is happening is Illumination's problem is they are catering to the youngest demographics which doesn't help with retention for the higher levels so they will essentially be forced to make smarter movies or end up not making huge profits. (WW it has already covered the budget for this film and just needs about 60 million more to be in the black)

One thing about Illumination going forward is outside of Mario, all the films will be created by someone will worked with them from the beginning. They essentially want to promote in-house talent and only focus on stories they create themselves with Dreamworks being the adapted property division so it will be interesting what we see.
 
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It didn't attract the 13-17 demo and didn't get as high of a performance from the 10-12 demo as the last film. Essentially what is happening is Illumination's problem is they are catering to the youngest demographics which doesn't help with retention for the higher levels so they will essentially be forced to make smarter movies or end up not making huge profits. (WW it has already covered the budget for this film and just needs about 60 million more to be in the black)

One thing about Illumination going forward is outside of Mario, all the films will be created by someone will worked with them from the beginning. They essentially want to promote in-house talent and only focus on stories they create themselves with Dreamworks being the adapted property division so it will be interesting what we see.
Originals are great, but like you said, in order to get someone my age to go out and see it (mid-20’s), the movies need to be smarter. Pixar and WDAS do this great and that’s not meant to be a Uni/Dis thing, it’s just how it is. If you put out a quality product with a good story, I’ll go see it. Coco and Moana are great recent examples of this imo. Laika obviously has some you could point to as well.
 
I also think part of the reason this opened so low is because of how close it is to the release of Toy Story 4. Going to the movies with a family can be pretty dang expensive, so they're going to pick and choose what they see more carefully. So why not just wait for the bigger Pixar film, where most adults know they will get some enjoyment out of the film as apposed to SLoP which is aimed solely at small children.
 
I also think part of the reason this opened so low is because of how close it is to the release of Toy Story 4. Going to the movies with a family can be pretty dang expensive, so they're going to pick and choose what they see more carefully. So why not just wait for the bigger Pixar film, where most adults know they will get some enjoyment out of the film as apposed to SLoP which is aimed solely at small children.
Yup, and TS4 is tracking to opening over $200M. I think a better time to release this movie could've been over the Holidays. They could've used the release date that they used for The Grinch last year (although I believe Maleficent 2 is coming out on that date this year). Since it's an animated feature, it likely would've played strong through the Holidays, with the only other direct competition eventually becoming Frozen 2.

Tbh, the more ideal spot to release the movie would've been Feb/March, but that would've undercut HTTYD (Although I think HTTYD could've done well as a Summer release).
 
Yup, and TS4 is tracking to opening over $200M. I think a better time to release this movie could've been over the Holidays. They could've used the release date that they used for The Grinch last year (although I believe Maleficent 2 is coming out on that date this year). Since it's an animated feature, it likely would've played strong through the Holidays, with the only other direct competition eventually becoming Frozen 2.

Tbh, the more ideal spot to release the movie would've been Feb/March, but that would've undercut HTTYD (Although I think HTTYD could've done well as a Summer release).

This year relatively sucked for release dates because with the exception of January each month has a bunch of franchise releases/heavily anticipated remakes come out. However the date for The Grinch is is booked by Last Christmas (George Michael musical which will do boohoo money overseas) and their Oscar push film which is Queen and Slim both which are definitely not made for summer.
 
I think it's safe to say that this year has not been great for animated films in general. Lego Movie 2, Wonder Park, Missing Link, UglyDolls, and now Pets 2 have all underperformed massively. For anyone who was hoping that the upcoming SLOP ride would be cloned in Orlando, this could potentially put a hold on that.
 
It didn't attract the 13-17 demo and didn't get as high of a performance from the 10-12 demo as the last film. Essentially what is happening is Illumination's problem is they are catering to the youngest demographics which doesn't help with retention for the higher levels so they will essentially be forced to make smarter movies or end up not making huge profits. (WW it has already covered the budget for this film and just needs about 60 million more to be in the black)

One thing about Illumination going forward is outside of Mario, all the films will be created by someone will worked with them from the beginning. They essentially want to promote in-house talent and only focus on stories they create themselves with Dreamworks being the adapted property division so it will be interesting what we see.

"stories"

(hehe sorry I had to)

FTR I am not a fan of Illumination at all and find their films to be cookie cutter mediocrity bundled in a package of crowd pleasing cutesy, and SLoP was about the same. But it was a better film than Pets 2, which may be one of the laziest sequels I've ever seen. They barely tried, with the only compliment I can give is to Desplat's (still stellar) musical score and having some decent visuals. I applaud the underperformance even if it continues to fester the unfortunate fact that Disney is dominating the market in a scary way.

I think it's safe to say that this year has not been great for animated films in general. Lego Movie 2, Wonder Park, Missing Link, UglyDolls, and now Pets 2 have all underperformed massively. For anyone who was hoping that the upcoming SLOP ride would be cloned in Orlando, this could potentially put a hold on that.

I think the reception for the ride in USH will be the deciding factor, not the sequel's box office performance. At least the budget and design for Off the Leash is set in stone instead of being cut down to pieces after this, however. And this isn't an outright bomb, though it is underperforming. I'd be interested to see the global totals and eventual domestic take.
 
Imo This movie felt like secret life of pets TV show. The character arcs happened so fast. The trailer shows everything as well.
 
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