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The Grinch (2018)

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Keep in mind - distributors would prefer movies make their money domestically versus internationally; they get a far higher percentage take of the box office gross in the USA versus foreign territories. So something like Grinch overperforming domestically versus internationally is actually better for Universal.

I still think The Grinch should've performed better, but Illumination has been slowly tanking their brand of anything non-Minions, in my opinion.
 
Just for reference if we want to compare titles like Ralph breaks the Internet vs The Grinch let’s keep in mind the budgets not including promotional advertising.

Ralph Breaks the Internet-185 million

The Grinch-75 million

a little extra to go on

Coco-175 million

Incredibles 2-220 million

Moana-150 million


And rule of thumb is for a movie to make 2.5 times its budget to break even, domestically mind you.

Studios get 50 percent take domestic, 25 percent overseas, and whatever the Chinese feel like(kidding but not really)

Just some food for thought enjoy.
 
I saw it yesterday with a free ticket, so I had a very open mind (give blood whenever you can folks). Definitely on the lower end of Illumination's offerings for me. Most of time, I at least laugh during their movies. Here, I rarely did since they gave away a lot of the best jokes during the trailers.

My biggest problem with Illumination movies is usually that the screenplays are filled with so many subplots that they don't tell a singular story properly. Despite The Grinch streamlining a lot of that this time, it still felt like there was a lot of needless filler. Even with an 86-minute long runtime, I had to check my watch around the 2/3 mark.

Whoever says the company values marketing first has it on the nose, especially with the opening logo they chose for this movie.

At least the cast was well-chosen and clearly giving it everything they had. Maybe I'll warm up to it down the road like I did with Pets.
 
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Grinch keeps its number 2 position this weekend with a $12 million dollar intake at the Box office and a running total of and a running total of $220.8M domestic. which now put the film in the black to include worldwide promo campaign costs.
 
Grinch keeps its number 2 position this weekend with a $12 million dollar intake at the Box office and a running total of and a running total of $220.8M domestic. which now put the film in the black to include worldwide promo campaign costs.
Should come in well above estimates.

Grinch almost matched Ralph on Thursday, so weekend should be very close. These holds are really superb for a 5th weekend; the Christmas effect in full display. Even with the big onslaught of new movies coming, it should hold well through Christmas Day.
 
Should come in well above estimates.

Grinch almost matched Ralph on Thursday, so weekend should be very close. These holds are really superb for a 5th weekend; the Christmas effect in full display. Even with the big onslaught of new movies coming, it should hold well through Christmas Day.

An article just came out saying it looks like it may surpass Ralph. Also boding well for the Grinch legs is the fact more theatres are showing the Grinch in the fifth week (3,841) than Ralph (3, 795)in its third.


The weekend box office is so slow that Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet and Universal/Ilumination’s The Grinchare now in a staring contest for first place with a little over $15M a piece. Ralph 2 has a bit of the edge over Grinch with a Friday take of $3.5M to $3.3M. The toon throw-down may even extend into Sunday since both Ralph 2 and Grinch could tie Saturday with $7.1M a piece.

‘Ralph Breaks The Internet’ Rules Slow Pre-Holiday B.O. Weekend | Deadline
 
Grinch became the highest grossing Dr. Seuss film worldwide after another good hold (now at $373 million worldwide). In the US, it's at $239 million and should cruise above $260 million to beat the Jim Carrey film domestically.

I think it will end up somewhere around $455-465 million when all is said and done; looks like $265-275 million domestic with another $190 million overseas.

That's about as good as any Dr Seuss film can realistically do given that it doesn't really have much sway outside of English speaking territories where the Seuss brand does well. That's a solidly profitable film for Universal, and it should earn lots of ancillary profits in years to come as a Christmas TV/streaming movie.


This also shows why Universal was happy to give up the Dr. Seuss rights to Warner. I'm not sure how a Dr. Seuss movie can do better than the Grinch has done here: $500 million feels like an absolute ceiling for the Dr. Seuss brand with more likely grosses around $300-350 million for future Dr. Seuss movies based on characters less well known than the Grinch.

Universal wants to focus on animation projects that can earn much more than that, so they're happy to add a final Grinch movie to their library for decades of extra Christmas revenue.
 
Maybe this belongs in the Grinchmas thread, but what do we think the odds are of a new Grinchmas next year that hews closer to the new version?
 
Maybe this belongs in the Grinchmas thread, but what do we think the odds are of a new Grinchmas next year that hews closer to the new version?
Just a guess, but I'd think with a brand new set and some freshening up in the show itself this year, that a major change wouldn't be imminent. It's still extremely popular. We went 4 times during a slow crowd week and every seat was filled for each showing. It must be tough to get a seat once Christmas week crowds arrive. The present version is really a fantastic entertaining production with excellent music.
 
Just a guess, but I'd think with a brand new set and some freshening up in the show itself this year, that a major change wouldn't be imminent. It's still extremely popular. We went 4 times during a slow crowd week and every seat was filled for each showing. It must be tough to get a seat once Christmas week crowds arrive. The present version is really a fantastic entertaining production with excellent music.
Ah, I didn't realize it was changed up this year, as we just saw it for the first time today. I loved it.
 
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Illumination is able to cut costs by limiting story and animation budgets. Usually the films cost around $70, I assume the extra $5 mil was due to the rewrite, which is rare but hilariously it was of course done to make the main character more likable. Because THE GRINCH needs to be likable yknow.

Anyways, it's not a shock that it's profitable as hell. Wake me up when one of these films finally bombs.
 
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Illumination is able to cut costs by limiting story and animation budgets. Usually the films cost around $70, I assume the extra $5 mil was due to the rewrite, which is rare but hilariously it was of course done to make the main character more likable. Because THE GRINCH needs to be likable yknow.

Anyways, it's not a shock that it's profitable as hell. Wake me up when one of these films finally bombs.
Exactly, that’ll be a real story. It’s next to impossible for Universal to lose money on one of these films.
 
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And this is the run that Grinch will be joining as its theatrical run closes the next couple of weeks:

From yesterday's TV ratings:

"NBC’s broadcast of 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (0.9, 3.116M) slipped from last year’s 1.3M in the demo. But, NBC noted it’s the top rated Big 4 theatrical or made-for broadcast of the past six months in the demo. The Jim Carrey starrer followed NBC’s encore telecast of the 1966 animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas (0.7, 3.025M) from 8-8:30 PM ET."


I'd imagine this movie will get slotted in before the Jim Carrey airing on future Christmas Days with the '66 special being bumped up 90+ minutes.
 
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really late to the party here..but finally saw this. I found it to be completely boring. I should have turned it off when the new Grinch rap theme song came on, that was the early warning sign. The whole movie just left a bad taste in my mouth. Possible I'm just too old to appreciate it. The original cartoon means so much to me, so possible I just can't let that go.
 
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