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  • 27/11/2023
Film Critic Karen Krizanovich spoke to CGTN Europe on the thanksgiving box office.
Transcript
00:00 film critic Karen Krasanovic. Great to see you, Karen, as always. I want to start, let's
00:05 start with Disney. Celebrating 100 years, betting big on a family flick, but do they
00:11 need to wish on another star? I think they need to wish on quite a few different stars,
00:18 yeah. You know, the critics didn't really like Wish, not that the critics have, you
00:22 know, that much, that much thrall these days, but when a bunch of critics don't really like
00:27 something that Disney's doing, then they know Disney has got a problem. And I think one
00:32 critic called Wish a YA adaptation of Les Mis, Les Miserables, which I thought was really
00:38 funny. It tries to be everything to all people, and I think that is the problem with Wish,
00:45 and that's also the problem with Strange World, because it was last year, bombed last Thanksgiving
00:50 as well. They're just trying to play it too safe. What about Napoleon, a much more of
00:56 a grown-up film, big director, epic budget, long running time? Yeah, well, the great thing
01:05 about Napoleon, it's almost like two films pushed together. There's the romance, period,
01:11 and then there's also these great battles, particularly Austerlitz, which is getting
01:14 the critical notion, just, you know, it set a world record for artificial snow, I'll have
01:22 to say. It's exciting and it's strange. There's a love story there, that if you're bored with
01:28 the battles, you can watch that. If you're bored with that, you can watch the battles.
01:32 And I think it's a remarkable bit of filmmaking, and I can't wait for the longer director's
01:37 cut. I wonder, though, how it's going to do in some other key territories where it hasn't
01:41 been released yet. I'm thinking of China. And also, Karen, how much the box office dollars
01:46 mean to someone like Apple? Well, you have to remember that Apple, these two, Killers
01:52 of the Flower Moon and Napoleon, are kind of lost leaders for Apple. They're not really
01:57 expecting those films to make back their budget or their marketing budget. Don't forget, a
02:02 production budget is only one part of the budget, and then that again. So if it's 200
02:08 million, the whole cost of the film is going to be at least 400 million. These are things
02:12 to grab our attention for the company. So I think that that's what we're looking at.
02:16 We're looking at spectacular quality films. What about franchises, though? There seems
02:21 to be a lot of those happening. The Hunger Games, Trolls, Marvel. Well, those are great
02:28 family movies for the most part. I mean, Marvel's never really smelled quite right. The cast
02:34 is wonderful. It's an innovative script, but it's just very flat-heeling. Trolls is fun.
02:41 And it's, you know, the great thing about a franchise is that you know what you're going
02:45 to get. Now, I love the way you said Songbirds and Snakes. You got it right. I wanted to
02:50 call it Songbirds and Snacks. It's remarkable because it didn't do very well in its first
02:57 week, and its second weekend it's doing very well. I think it's got good word of mouth,
03:01 and it's setting up its own projection for another franchise, even though it is technically
03:08 a prequel. And what's the outlook for indie films? I remember on the
03:13 awards circuit last year, you and I were talking quite a lot about After Sun, which did very
03:19 well. What should we go and see that might not be on billboards, might not be on our
03:25 radar? Wow, there's so much. I've seen 150 features
03:30 this year, and a lot of them have been independents. There are so many good independents. For example,
03:36 I guess I shouldn't say Yorgos Lathimos, Poor Things, which won at Venice. I'm not really
03:41 sure that is an independent, hasn't really come out yet. The Holdovers, Alexander Payne,
03:46 is a wonderful film. Again, I'm not really sure if that's an independent, but these are
03:50 things that don't have this big, big profile. There's a wonderful film, Argentinian film,
03:55 called The Delinquents. It's three hours long, but the first two hours are great. So there
04:01 is an awful lot to see. There's a huge choice. And if the topic grabs you, go and see it
04:07 and give it a try. Karen Krusanovich, always a pleasure chatting
04:11 to you about the movies. Thanks so much.
04:13 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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