'The Social Reckoning' Bombs with $5.5 Million Opening (indiewire.com) 40
Why didn't The Social Reckoning enjoy the box office success of 2010's The Social Network, asks IndieWire/A>:
[T]here wasn't the same urgency in the story being told. The Social Reckoning focuses less on Zuckerberg, and more on data engineer Frances Haugen's decision to blow the whistle on how Facebook's algorithms were promoting political content that radicalized users, as well as the company's awareness of how its products were contributing to a rise in bullying and teen suicide... [B]ut The Social Reckoning arrives as a much greater threat has emerged from Silicon Valley. Artificial intelligence is dominating the headlines, as fears mount about the economic disruptions it will unleash when millions of jobs are replaced by machines, and, graver still, its potential to trigger a world-ending event... And it's not like Haugen's testimony led to lasting change at Facebook... As IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio put it, "'The Social Reckoning' argues that the aftermath of their whistleblowing is still somehow felt today. In actuality, living as we do in 2026, it pretty much feels like... no one cared, and nothing changed?"
After the first movie's director bowed out, Sony Pictures shied away from selling it as a sequel — but the problems run deeper, the article adds. "The Social Reckoning isn't just a financial failure, it's a critical one, too. The reviews were blistering..." Although on the bright side, "Sony wisely kept The Social Reckoning's budget at $30 million, meaning it won't face losses on the scale of a Digger... "
Variety writes that Digger "cratered in its second weekend with $3.2 million from 3,321 theaters, a 60% decline from its dismal $8 million debut. So far, the Tom Cruise satire has limped to $14 million domestically and $35.3 million globally. Warner Bros. spent above $160 million to produce the film, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest bombs ever..."
After the first movie's director bowed out, Sony Pictures shied away from selling it as a sequel — but the problems run deeper, the article adds. "The Social Reckoning isn't just a financial failure, it's a critical one, too. The reviews were blistering..." Although on the bright side, "Sony wisely kept The Social Reckoning's budget at $30 million, meaning it won't face losses on the scale of a Digger... "
Variety writes that Digger "cratered in its second weekend with $3.2 million from 3,321 theaters, a 60% decline from its dismal $8 million debut. So far, the Tom Cruise satire has limped to $14 million domestically and $35.3 million globally. Warner Bros. spent above $160 million to produce the film, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest bombs ever..."
Bring on AI scripts (Score:1)
Re: Bring on AI scripts (Score:2)
Aaron Sorkin wrote the script - he's a good writer, but this was just a hot mess.
Because we already know Zuck is a sociopath (Score:2)
We don't need to be 'entertained' to find that out, even if this is really a story about an heroic whistleblower...
Re: (Score:2)
We don't need to be 'entertained' to find that out, even if this is really a story about an heroic whistleblower...
Would have been a better FP than the AI thing. Yeah, I know I tend to tangents, but there's such a thing as too tangential...
Your brevity makes your intention unclear, so I better start by explaining how I'm reading it. I think you're saying the movie was too anticlimactic because we already knew this. Also you are indicating that you believe this is the main theme of the movie. Does that mean you've actually seen it?
My take is different, though I'm actually going to bring AI back into it, but hopefully wit
Re: (Score:2)
Your brevity makes your intention unclear, My point was why I have zero interest in that movie, and by extrapolation why I think most people have zero interest in that movie. The focus of the referenced article was 'audience reaction', and the starting element of audience reaction is a desire to watch the movie in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
Well now I think you're claiming that advertising doesn't work to create demand, but I think that is the main function of most advertising these years. Especially in cases where the underlying good or service has little intrinsic value.
So from that perspective, I wonder how you decided the movie wasn't of interest to you. If you watch lots of movies, then it becomes interesting that you decided against seeing this one, whereas if you almost never watch movies (which is my situation) then it's a completely d
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Well, I generally don't have much interest in biopics. But for this particular movie, I heard a couple interviews and reviews talking about the content, and decided "Ugh! I am NOT INTERESTED in that -at all-.!"
A long time ago I had a Facebook account. Facebook threw me off by forcing me to go to 2-factor, and none of their 2nd factor mechanisms were acceptable to me. But I had been growing increasingly disgusted with Facebook when used to support 'latest posts' (by connections) for their fucking algori
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yup.
The only question is: Was he a sociopath before the money or only after? [pluralistic.net]
Hey US voters! Have you figured it out yet?
Trump does not care about you in anyway EXCEPT for your vote. And he'll lie, scam and grift to get it.
A vote for any republican is a vote for more endless wars, traitorous Putin deals, inflation, mortgage rate rises, and smaller and smaller real pay for you.
Want to know why only suckers work for a living? Read The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy. [goodreads.com]
Re: Because we already know Zuck is a sociopath (Score:4, Informative)
The only question is: Was he a sociopath before the money or only after?
Before the money, Zuck created the "Hot or Not?" Website ranking women on his college campus - he was clearly a sociopath before the money.
Re: (Score:2)
Before the money That would be my perspective, too. The original movie explores how such a sociopath builds such a successful company. This movie just shows the company is sociopathic, behavior inherited from its founder.
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Zuck created the "Hot or Not?" Website ranking women on his college campus - he was clearly a sociopath before the money.
As much as I hate to defend the lizard man, a) the site was called "Facemash" and was just a clone of plenty of Hot or Not concepts of the time, and b) He was 19, and a nerd. I'd be more concerned if he didn't create that website. It's precisely the kind of dumb shit teenage males do on the regular, the only difference is he put it on this amazing thing called the internet.
That said he almost certainly was a sociopath before the money, I just don't think your evidence points towards anything more than the g
The guy built a website to slag women (Score:2)
Also our news media is completely captured (Score:2)
On the other hand I heard Ukraine hit Russia's data centers taking their bot networks offline. So at least for the next few days this website should be slightly less stupid.
Re: Also our news media is completely captured (Score:1)
What a silly take - this wasn't an 'indie film' that was self-financed and the suppressed/held back by "the Epstein Class" (whatever the fuck that is), a major studio spent $30M to make this movie - that $30M CAME FROM "The Epstein Class"... why would they fund a movie, film it, then put it in theaters only to suppress it?
This monomaniacal focus on the rich being responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world is a bit childish...
Re: (Score:2)
My understanding is that "the Epstein Class" is a reference to a small group of families and individuals that hold extremely concentrated wealth. This amalgamation functions as a layer of global control above and spanning basically all national governments. I would also mention swarm theory, where their interests align in a way that allows cooperation to maintain and enhance the status quo without the need for explicit communications or anything like an
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
On the other hand I heard Ukraine hit Russia's data centers taking their bot networks offline. So at least for the next few days this website should be slightly less stupid.
Nope. We still have the domestically trained marxist socialists.
I saw it... (Score:3, Informative)
I saw it, it was mildly interesting, but the movie didn't really engage me... it wasn't really about the whistleblower, it wasn't really about the journalist, it wasn't really about Zuck/Facebook, it wasn't really about J6 - it was just an exercise telling multiple parallel stories.
I think there was an interesting movie in there, but the editing made it a confusing movie.
I saw Digger too, what a horrid hot mess that movie was...
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They did a better job of making Zuckerberg seem more human in the original movie. In this one, he kind of felt more like a soulless profit obsessed comic book villain.
Sure, he wasn't a likeable character in either movie, but at least he was an Interesting character in the original movie. They could have added some fun portraying this Facebook timeline, and added a scene where the Internet was making fun of him while he was grilling meats in his backyard. Or, perhaps they could have added a scene where he wa
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You set up that they're making ungodly amounts of money, but maturing into a larger company.
A side story about misinformation promoting the end outcome of the 2016 election.
The attempt to promote Libra against bitcoin. Resistance, flops.
COVID hits, and they pan heavily into the metaverse. Do some goofy VR headset shit. Show it not panning out.
Re: I saw it... (Score:1)
They thought they were making a whistleblower movie, not an indictment of Zuck/Facebook/Meta. They thought she was the the next "Deep Throat" from Watergate, found out no one cared, really.
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What this movie retells is way less interesting. It's conceptually interesting, but the concept that the alt right got ground on social media, that facebook under moderated p
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Does it mention Brexit? We finally had confirmation from the British government over the weekend that Russia heavily interfered with the Brexit vote, much of it via Facebook. Then there was Cambridge Analytica...
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Everything is bombing (Score:2)
https://www.the-numbers.com/we... [the-numbers.com]
The movies suck and the prices are too high.
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Re: Everything is bombing (Score:1)
"Musk" was shown on exactly 4 screens world-wide, "The History of Concrete" was on considerably more screens...
I saw "Concrete", it was a very east coast intellectual almost art film. It was enjoying, but it is aimed at a very particular audience, a very New York audience (it's a very New York movie, and if you don't know what that means, it means the city plays an integral part in the movie, relying on inside jokes New Yorkers would be familiar with, for examples see any of Woody Allen's early movies).
Re: Everything is bombing (Score:2)
Is that a Trick question or something? (Score:2)
The Social Network is a brilliant masterpiece of a movie by a top ten director, one of best the World has seen, David Fincher. Written by the best screenwriter there is, Aaron Sorkin. Fincher is borderline autistic in his perfection, some scenes were shot more than 130 times, an unusual high count even for Fincher. The famous Eduardo Rage scene was shot roughly 50 times IIRC. The music won an Oskar.
The movie is mostly a work of fiction, based around true events, but every "real thing" likely will fall short
Looking at their phones (Score:2)
I'm usually down for most things listed as horror, . but this one read to me as "people looking at their phones, the movie".
A first for Tom Cruise (Score:2)
This would be his first flop: Even, Magnolia (1999) and Tropic Thunder (2008) had some approval.
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Re: A first for Tom Cruise (Score:1)
"Tropic Thunder" is a great movie, dare I call it the "Airplane!" or "Police Squad" of a new generation, right up there with "Zoolander" and "Dodgeball"
Go see Digger (Score:2)
Itâ(TM)s quite the performance by several actors and youâ(TM)ll find yourself contemplating it afterwards.
The Social Dilemma (Score:2)
It bombed because.. (Score:2)
Painful truths are unpopular (Score:2)
Both "Digger" and "Social Reckoning" nod at something, an institutional insanity we might see in the news everyday and feel helpless to resist. It's not entertaining to be reminded you are a helpless shmuck.
The better film to make, is how the fuck do we get off this train back to sanity?
trite doesn't sell (Score:2)
The Social Network was all about a new thing. The Social Reckoning is (a) derivative of The Social Network, and (b) about something that is old hat and boring.