Lightyear

[Leo Enticknap]

Heck, the UK still has a monarch (I know with very little power)

Give the old girl some credit - she managed to kick the daughter-in-law from Hell out of the country! Problem is, we're now stuck with her (and her milquetoast husband) in SoCal....

[Mike Blakesley]

That's something I don't understand about the monarchy. First, how did that family get to be the monarchs? Was there a big war and they came out on top? And, if the queen has very little power, then why is she still .... the queen? I mean, if she is just a figurehead, then why does everyone worship that family and what is the actual point of her (and them) even being there?

I realize this is a typical American post by a guy who should probably know more about "the old country" and could probably find the answers to my questions by reading Wikipedia.... I just decided to make a list of the questions I've always had, but haven't felt enough of the urge to go look for the answers, yet. Clearly (and sadly), I didn't pay attention in world history class.

By the way... how about that second-week drop on Lightyear, eh?!

[Darin Steffl]

Did any of you drop lightyear for week 3? We were approved on Monday to drop it after only 2 weeks and we're bringing back Top Gun for a week.

We're also opening Minions the same day on Friday. I'm loving what our new second screen is doing for us by allowing us to have 2 different movies at once, even with only 9 seats. Our customers think it's pretty cool so far.

[Marcel Birgelen]

At most smaller cinemas around here, Lightyear left the building already last week, while Elvis entered...

That's something I don't understand about the monarchy. First, how did that family get to be the monarchs? Was there a big war and they came out on top? And, if the queen has very little power, then why is she still .... the queen? I mean, if she is just a figurehead, then why does everyone worship that family and what is the actual point of her (and them) even being there?

The "short" and rather incomplete and generalized version looks something like this:

Most of the old countries were established as "kingdoms", where one quasi dictator, aka "the King" and/or "the Queen" was the lord supreme of the land he/she conquered and/or inherited. Control over this land was usually passed down the family tree, because nepotism was such a success formula...

If you were lucky, your local ruler was somewhat benign and you could mostly do your thing, without too much interference, but if that wasn't the case, well... bummer...

Over the years, many citizens of many countries realized that dictatorial powers handed out by nepotism and other corrupt formulas may not be the most ideal form of government for most of the people living in the country, so they decided to take matters in their own hands. How that materialized, varied between countries. France, for example, decided they don't needed their ruling class anymore and got rid of them quite efficiently by the way of the guillotine. As a result, France now is a republic and not a kingdom anymore.

Other countries decided to go a less drastic route in dismantling the quasi-dictatorial powers of many of their local rulers and demoted them to more or less ceremonial functions, where they still have a representative function for the country, but little to no power in the actual decision making. That's what essentially happened in countries like the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Spain, Luxemburg, Belgium, Denmark but also the Netherlands.

It is what it is. Heck, the UK still has a monarch (I know with very little power). Talk about "outdated."

I guess a constitutional monarchy like the UK is a nice example of how you can structure a democracy around a monarchy and achieve some progress, while also respecting the past. While I personally think the age of kings and queens may have outlived it's welcome, many people still seem to be fan of "the Royals" in their current function. Progress in politics is a slow process, but it's needed. Stagnation is synonymous with decline in this context.

I can't remember which but one of the US founding fathers said that the ideal government was a benevolent dictatorship and that since that wasn't likely in reality, what they came up with was the next best thing.

Even the ancient Greeks deemed a dictatorship with a "benevolent dictator" to be the best form of government. Plato has written and extensive essay about what he called the "Philosopher King". As "they" say: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It seems to be hard for men to deal with so much power in one location and "a benevolent dictator is still a dictator"... Democracy has been proven to be one of the best compromises we have. It's not perfect and never will be, but for any democracy it's also important to keep re-inventing itself, fix things that are broken and can be abused, or otherwise, it will eventually revert back into some form of dictatorship.

It was a "more perfect union" between the individual states. It's managed to last almost 250 years. Whether it lasts another 250 I can't predict but I won't likely be around to see if/when it ends.

I think as part of our legacy, we should try to leave the earth a little better than when we got it. While given circumstances may not make that quite that simple and even though you won't be around to see it, the intent should be to make it last at least another 250 years.

[Leo Enticknap]

That's something I don't understand about the monarchy. First, how did that family get to be the monarchs? Was there a big war and they came out on top?

Two big battles, essentially. This one kicked the Vikings out of Great Britain, but the guy who won it didn't have long to celebrate, because three weeks later, this one saw him kicking the bucket, courtesy of Norman (French) invaders. Today's British royal family trace their ancestry directly back to William the Conqueror, although a lot of inbreeding with other European royal families took place along the way. A civil war briefly ended England's status as a constitutional monarchy (and resulted in the only execution of a monarch on the throne - Charles I in 1649), but the effort ultimately failed, and the monarchy was restored.

And, if the queen has very little power, then why is she still .... the queen? I mean, if she is just a figurehead, then why does everyone worship that family and what is the actual point of her (and them) even being there?

The UK is not the only European nation with a constitutional monarchy - Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, and Spain, are other notable examples. The point of keeping it is theoretically a separation of powers safeguard: if the politicians did something seriously stupid, so the theory goes, Big Liz could swing her handbag about and restore sanity. However, the unwritten rule is that the royal family stays out of politics, and essentially acts as a "brand ambassador" for the country. This is a big part of the reason why Harry and Meghan were kicked out: they have both become heavily involved in political activism of the sort that would have half the country loving them and the other half hating them, which is the exact opposite of what a constitutional monarchy (as distinct from an actual power wielding monarchy, e.g. the one in Saudi Arabia) is supposed to do.

Apart from a few slightly unhinged royal nerds, I don't think anybody worships them, but would venture to suggest that most Brits accept that, most of the time at least, they operate as a pretty effective and good value national PR outfit.

[Jon Dent]

Did any of you drop lightyear for week 3? We were approved on Monday to drop it after only 2 weeks and we're bringing back Top Gun for a week.

We're also opening Minions the same day on Friday. I'm loving what our new second screen is doing for us by allowing us to have 2 different movies at once, even with only 9 seats. Our customers think it's pretty cool so far.

Nope. Even though our numbers sucked they were 'the best in the circuit' according to our booker. Yay?

Thankfully Universal is letting us drop Jurassic World for Minions.

We couldn't pick up Elvis due to Thor coming in next week.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Elvis is doing pretty fine around here, but obviously, if you have to choose between Elvis and Thor, I'd go for the latter, even though I'm not convinced this female Thor thing will be the same box office hit as previous Thor movies...

Apart from a few slightly unhinged royal nerds, I don't think anybody worships them, but would venture to suggest that most Brits accept that, most of the time at least, they operate as a pretty effective and good value national PR outfit.

I guess the time of any form of general worship for those royal families has gone decades ago if not even longer.

My grandmother used to be a "royal freak", no idea where that came from, but she knew all the ins and outs and went into frenzy mode for weeks on-end when Princess Diana died back in 1997... Otherwise, I know not a single person that really bothers about the entire show at all. Personally, I think we'd do ourselves a favor with bringing the thing to an end... which is actually a constitutional option.

[Mark Lane]

We have Lightyear booked for after Minions. We are required to take it for two weeks but considered the lack of movies to show, two weeks was acceptable.

I asked our Disney rep why it is doing poorly at the box office.. she said there is a lot of talk as to why the "movie didn't work". She gave us the option of canceling the booking or to show it one week and if it did not work for us, she would let us out of our agreement to show it the second week.

I knew there was a scene in it before booking the movie and I knew we would alienate a few customers but I grew up around the Free Love Generation. I watched Star Trek and saw the first interracial kiss, and same sex couples holding hands, I watched the sitcom SOAP because the church told me not to. I laughed at Archie Bunker. We watched Willow Kiss her female partner during prime time in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.. We watched lesbian subtle hints on one Saturday mornings during Xena Warrior Princes.. no one cared, so I did not think it would have much of an impact on this movie. It has always been a part of the television I watched.

I still question if this one scene is the reason the "movie did not work". I am sure it played a part but I would think the tightening of budgets also plays a part in this movie's box office failure. Adults will run out to see their movies on opening weekend but the kids can wait six weeks and watch it on Disney Plus.

[Jon Dent]

"The Kiss" does factor in somewhat, as I've explicitly heard a few people state that as a reason. But that's not all

Lightyear is like a perfect storm of little things that combined together to make a bit of a flop.

The movie isn't all that great. It's entertaining in a disposable way, like "Chicken Little" or "Shark Tale" or "Robots" or any of the interchangeable CGI cartoons that nobody really remembers today. In a crowded season with Doctor Strange, Jurassic World and Top Gun it just doesn't stand out. A favorite reviewer of mine said it was "generic sci-fi plot #2" and he's right.

Trying to make a fragile connection to the Toy Story universe that is completely irrelevant to anything that happens was probably a mistake as well. Replace Buzz and Zurg with Awesome Ranger Dude and Evil Dude and nothing about the film changes.

The whole thing feels so conventional. Pixar used to have a wonderful gift of taking scenarios and putting a unique spin on them ("You sly dog! You got me monologuing!"), combined with an infectious irreverence, like "The Simpsons" in it's prime. Lightyear doesn't have that attitude. Instead, it has traditional comic relief in the form of wacky sidekicks. Buzz himself is completely straight laced, without any of the absurd, pompous ass overtones that made Tim Allen so endearing.

And then there's "The Kiss". In an ideal world, nobody would give two hoots, and it's hard to state just how nondescript the whole moment is. But we live in the real world, and Disney had to be aware that the moment would perfectly play into the fringe's "Woke Disney is indoctrinating your kids!" bullhorn. Maybe they realized the movie itself wasn't all that compelling so they needed something to get people talking, to get them to come and see for themselves what the fuss was about. If that's the case, then they screwed up, and if not, then they are truly blind to how they're perceived by a sizeable part of the population. Either way, it was a mistake in my opinion. Lightyear would've struggled even without the controversy, but at the end of the day I believe it did cost them some box office.

[Mike Blakesley]

Our booker told me he thinks the biggest reason it didn't do so well is "the kids just don't like it that much." It's actually a pretty impressive list of things that this movie has working against it.

- Jurassic World 3 was still pulling in families, who might not have two movies this month in their budget
- The kids .... just don't like it that much
- "The Kiss" causing negative publicity (and whether it's justified or not is another argument, but you can't deny it's impacting ticket sales)
- Top Gun 2 still pulling a lot of people in, too
- They don't have Tim Allen
- The movie isn't all that funny and the story isn't all that original
- They don't have the rest of the Toy Story characters
- Disney's conditioned people over the past two years that Pixar movies are straight-to-video product (the saddest item on this list, I think)
- They won't commit to a long window, they want to stick to their "one movie at a time" thing, which makes theaters less eager to promote their movies
- They wanted a 3 week commitment, causing many of us (including me) to say no-thanks. I'm actually surprised they're letting some people out of the third week. In this day and age of "insta-home-video," the three week commitment needs to go. We'll play an extra week if it's justified but let us make the call.

Besides all of the above, Minions 2 looks pretty funny, so a lot of people might be just waiting for that instead

[Leo Enticknap]

...but she knew all the ins and outs and went into frenzy mode for weeks on-end when Princess Diana died back in 1997...

Ha! My grandmother had an intense, visceral hatred for Princess Di, which my father and I could not figure out, because she was a sensible, rational person in pretty much all other respects. The weekend after her "accident," my father and I were due to have Sunday lunch with her. A couple of days beforehand, Dad called me about an unrelated matter, and just as we were about to end the conversation, he asked, "...so, are you going to bring the Champagne, or shall I?"

The other memory I have of that is the manager of the cinema I was working in at the time demanding that the national anthem be played at the first show when we reopened after the funeral (we were closed for the afternoon shows, but reopened in the evening). In order to do this we had to buy a CD box set of all the world's national anthems, with rights cleared for public playback, published by the International Olympic Committee for use at sports tournaments, and sold for a staggering sum (well into three figures of GBP). That night after the shows finished, all of us had a bit of fun in the bar, giggling over the lyrics to the anthems of the tinpot dictatorships, and especially those that glorified the dictators. I couldn't imagine anybody being able to sing them with a straight face.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Ha! My grandmother had an intense, visceral hatred for Princess Di, which my father and I could not figure out, because she was a sensible, rational person in pretty much all other respects. The weekend after her "accident," my father and I were due to have Sunday lunch with her. A couple of days beforehand, Dad called me about an unrelated matter, and just as we were about to end the conversation, he asked, "...so, are you going to bring the Champagne, or shall I?"

I guess her hatred for Prince Charles was about the same level as your grandmother's hatred for Princess Di... Even before the "accident", we'd regularly find all kinds of those gossipy magazines, where the face of Charles was crossed out or adorned with some devil's horns with some biro... There also was quite some latent racism left in her. We used to take her out to her favorite restaurant every sunday and suddenly she didn't want to go anymore. She later confessed to me, it was because the color of the skin of the new cook. We switched over to another restaurant and suddenly, that was no good either, because she heard somewhere, the cook was gay... You'd learn quite quickly that trying to get this out of her system was, unfortunately, a pretty hopeless endeavour.