7
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How Universal burned a swath through the heartland and south, “sold fun” and propelled ‘Twisters’ to $80m+ opening
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- Authors
- Anthony D'Alessandro
- Published
- Jul 21 2024
- Word count
- 1139 words
The press definitely worked on me! I am almost never convinced to see a movie in theaters from press alone (aside from the Barbenheimer summer), but the buzz around Twisters got me in the door. Hell, I didn’t even know there was a movie when I saw the soundtrack promotion from the musicians I already follow.
[No spoilers]
No regrets in seeing the film, though. Perfectly campy, great pacing, honestly impressive camera sequences and realistic-looking weather effects all made for good entertainment. I found there was the just the right dose of everything. There was a little humor, a subtle commentary on climate change and severe weather, a nice bit of science, an engaging and complex female lead, and some solid character development from the rest of the cast. I went to see it ironically and left really liking it Unironically.
Wtf? This is the dumbest thing I've ever read.
I don't think it's dumb that this past week's turbulence, not just the attempt but everything else that's happened, has made people seek out escapism. It's why movies soared during The Great Depression and even The Great Recession.
That is a weird way to phrase it though.
Context-less, no. With context where every week Trump is doing something in the news, it does feel a bit tone-deaf.
that's the other issue. Theatres are down as a whole from the pandemic. That silver screen shifted to Netflix and D+ in a very short manner. You'd need something very exciting if you're going to go out for a show.
also, Twister is really the best a family can do to "escape" ? a remake of a drama-documentary about Storm Chasters? It's a pretty slow box office since all attention is on Deadpool x Wolverine, but still.
I think that’s minimizing how crazy this week has been. You just can’t compare the normal Trump news cycle with what went down these past few days.
It’s not really a remake, I don’t think you can classify Twister as a docu-drama either. It’d be like calling Fast and Furious (the original) a docu drama. Twister and Twisters are largely spectacles, that’s kind of what escapism is.
But it’s not a slow weekend at the box office, opening to over 80M is big. That’s what Dune 2 opened to. Twisters is a domestic hit. Twisters is also attracting a different demographic than what Deadpool and Wolverine will be attracting. Twisters is playing more middle America and is more walk up heavy than superhero movies are. It’s also skewing more female than Deadpool will.
It hadn't occurred to me until reading this phrase, but more standalone walk-up friendly movies have become somewhat rare, haven't they? The sorts of movies one might go out to watch on a whim used to be pretty common through the 90s and 2000s, but for a while now the box office has skewed towards sequels, extended universes, and other sorts of movies that don't work as well without having first watched associated media.
Well I doubt everyone rushed to the theatres today. And the Crowdstrike debacle wouldn't affect most people unless they were traveling or already at the hospital. Sure, an assassination attempt is crazy, but I didn't hear any huge surges over the presidental debate nor all the court proceedings.
It's just been a crazy year as a whole. When madness is the norm, you become desensitized.
my apologies, I read the theatre's description and it was described as a remake of the '96 version. I know it's not exactly historically accurate, but I don't really know the name for those "based on a true story" sorts of movies. docu-drama is what rang closest.
I mean, if that's what he meant, he should have just said it that way. It was an odd choice to shoe-horn Trump into one of the few articles that should have no mention of him. It's like they have a quota or maybe a contest to see if they could "get there".
As for the movie, it was predictable, but I enjoyed it. My wife and I love Twister so we were definitely going to see it and a movie about tornadoes is better on the big screen. Not a fan of all the country music and there were definitely some cringey moments but it had some touching moments and didn't rely too heavily on the original.
I could not get away from their commercials for the movie.