Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Dolittle (2019 film)

I don't know why but I was actually completely indifferent about this movie UNTIL I saw the trailers. I think it actually looks like a good time.

Plus, this and Bad Boys 3 don't give me dumping-ground January movie vibes.
 
I’ve seen the trailer for this movie in front of every holiday movie this season. It’s absolutely terrible. I think the music is a big part of it. I also really hate the last shot of the trailer, with him going out a door. It holds no significance what so ever. It looks like POTC with talking animals.

THANK YOU. They're clearly trying to do Tolkien-style "hero leaves homestead" moment without any of the inherent iconography or emotional connection... and it's just a super awkward shot!
 
About exactly where I expected reviews to be at for this film. 13% on RT as of now.

Meanwhile, Bad Boys For Life is at 78% and has better overall brand recognition anyway.
 
About exactly where I expected reviews to be at for this film. 13% on RT as of now.

Meanwhile, Bad Boys For Life is at 78% and has better overall brand recognition anyway.

Early reviews for Bad Boys look positive. Many claiming it as the best of the series.
 
I retract my statements about it possible legging out a run to break even. Those reviews..... Woof...

I admit I was commenting from a place of some inside information, but yeah, there was never any chance of this turning out OK. Guessing Universal didn't nip this as production began to maintain a relationship with RDJ.
 
I retract my statements about it possible legging out a run to break even. Those reviews..... Woof...
Same. Even though, kids really don't care if the film is bad as long as it has funny cute animals. A lot of kids movies are terrible, looking at you Alvin, so this movie could eek out a break even. Maybe.

Probably not.
 
I lot of people I know who are casual movie goers and never really talk about movies have discussed seeing this and can't wait for it. So I could be wrong and taking a small sample size, but the casual audience who doesn't pay attention to these kind of things seems to be eating this up potentially. Might not break even but I don't think it'll be the utter flop everyone thinks it will be. Might be a "flop" but I don't see this being an unmitigated disaster like some do.
 
I actually found one good review.


But the headline of Vanity Fair's review cracked me up. "Dolittle: Well, It's Better Than Cats". And they say "As a children's movie, it's perfectly fine." Then they go on to savage it.

 
While I don't expect audiences to be gushing all over this film, I think this film is likely going to be one of those cases where critics hate it and audiences enjoy it. There are some films that show a clear division between them.
 
While I don't expect audiences to be gushing all over this film, I think this film is likely going to be one of those cases where critics hate it and audiences enjoy it. There are some films that show a clear division between them.
People said the same thing about Cats :lol:

That said, I do think this is the type of movie audiences will enjoy more than critics. I just don't think too many people are gonna go out to see it. It'll be interesting what it's CinemaScore is.
 
People said the same thing about Cats :lol:

That said, I do think this is the type of movie audiences will enjoy more than critics. I just don't think too many people are gonna go out to see it. It'll be interesting what it's CinemaScore is.
True haha. Maybe this will make up for what Cats didn't make haha. Until Sonic there really isn't a family friendly movie out there for a month so idk I think if this can make 40-45 out of the gate, it should be fine and cross $100 million here in the US or get to around $80 at least. Not going to be enough to profit or get all the $ back after marketing and such but not a disastrous loss like we may have thought. We shall see though. I have A list and finally and feeling better after being horribly sick for a month so I think I may catch it this weekend.
 
True haha. Maybe this will make up for what Cats didn't make haha. Until Sonic there really isn't a family friendly movie out there for a month so idk I think if this can make 40-45 out of the gate, it should be fine and cross $100 million here in the US or get to around $80 at least. Not going to be enough to profit or get all the $ back after marketing and such but not a disastrous loss like we may have thought. We shall see though. I have A list and finally and feeling better after being horribly sick for a month so I think I may catch it this weekend.
Over the four-day Holiday weekend, it's projected to make only $20-25M and only a $17M 3-day. Bad Boys 3 is projected at around $38-40M. 1917 is expected to come in second place behind Bad Boys and ahead of Dolittle.

You are right though that it will be the only family film out there for about 3 weeks. However, if it starts off so low (Jumanji and TROS are going to make around almost half of what Dolittle will make a month into their runs), then it really has no legs to help it get anywhere.
 
Last edited:
It's definitely doing decent numbers overseas in SK at least, although the Korean WOM is only soso. Still, if ever there was a movie that could pull a Warcraft style Overseas bailout, it's this one.
 
Top