Trailers! Trailers! 2020 Cometh

2020 is soon upon us, and there have been a spate of new trailers for some of the big blockbusters and blockbuster hopefuls. It's been a while since I've done a trailer post, so let's get cracking. All links below lead to Trailer Addict.

Fantasy Island - First, I'm including this one just because I've got to talk about the wild approach the filmmakers are taking with this property. The original "Fantasy Island" was a '70s television series about people getting to experience their fantasies on a magic island. There were a few "be careful what you wish for" stories, but the tone was generally lighthearted. Now, Blumhouse has gotten their hands on it, and we have a horror reboot. Michael Pena, god bless him, is not remotely an adequate substitute for Ricardo Montalban, Tattoo is nowhere in sight, and the scares look pretty tedious. That said, I like the look of the cast and I like that the filmmakers are taking a big risk. So, fingers crossed. We'll see how this turns out.

No Time to Die - Bond is finally back. He's got a fantastic supporting cast around him, some comforting (and not-so comforting) old faces around, and a nice hook for the latest installment. Apparently at some point James Bond retired to be with Lea Seydoux, and now he'd being reluctantly un-retired for more mayhem. Lashana Lynch looks like she'll have a bigger role than I originally anticipated, and I like how they're setting up Rami Malek. What peeved me a bit was the was the multiple acknowledgements that Bond is getting old - something they've been harping on for several movies now. Craig's tenure may be long, but he isn't the oldest Bond we've had, and still looks great in the suit.

Black Widow - I still have no idea what to make of this movie, but the new character introductions are good. I know to expect lots of action in the same vein as the "Captain America" movies, plenty of dodgy Russian accents, and very good actors saying very silly things. It worries me that our heroine looks to be the least interesting character in her own movie, but it's far too early to conclude anything yet. I just hope that the filmmakers make better use of Scarlett Johanssen, who clearly has the chops to make Natasha into a truly iconic hero, but has never really been given the right material to do it, even after so many other MCU appearances. Don't screw this one up, kids!

Wonder Woman 1984 - I'm not really digging the clunky golden eagle armor. That aside, I love this trailer to bits. I love the music, the rampant '80s nostalgia (which I now accept is not just a phase), and all the wow moments. Diana seems to have gotten all the glamour shots and badass shots that "Black Widow" is missing. She's dressed to kill! She's riding lightning! I'm glad that Chris Pine is back too, and keeping an open mind about Pedro Pascal playing a Trump stand-in, and Kristen Wiig being primed for future villainy. As far as I'm concerned, of all the superhero movies coming our way in 2020, "Wonder Woman 1984" is the one to beat.

Free Guy - Oh boy. This looks a lot dumber than I was expecting, but then again I shouldn't be too surprised with Shawn Levy directing. On the other hand, Ryan Reynolds is as charming as ever, the premise has a lot going for it, and I like the entire cast. I just hope that Jodie Comer's role isn't going to be as dull as I think it's going to be. Also, making a mental note that Hollywood has managed to update their gaming references roughly to the point of "GTA" with some "Fortnite" characters types. They're still behind, but they're not as far behind as they used to be, and that's something.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife - It looks like we're all going to pretend that the Paul Feig "Ghostbusters" never happened, and I'm perfectly okay with that. The new tactic is clearly to go for full "Stranger Things" style spooky nostalgia (Hi, Finn Wolfhard!) and downplay the comedy. It feels very appropriate to have Jason Reitman taking over, though his filmography contains nothing that remotely resembles this. I'm just hoping that the culture wars don't decide to blow up around this franchise again - and that the filmmakers are smart enough to address and defuse it.


In the Heights - It's nice to see musicals making a comeback, and I'm happy to see a more recent one getting an adaptation. I hardly know anything about this title, and it's staying that way until I see the movie.

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Youtubing, Part 7

My yearly Youtube playlist is mostly made up of media ephemera that's difficult to categorize, and the only thing they really have in common is utilizing a strong musical element. Still, I think that they're worth recommending and writing about. This batch includes more tie-in music videos, advertising, and oddball musical numbers you probably forgot about.


Agony! - Whatever you want to say about the 2014 film version of Sondheim's "Into the Woods," directed by Rob Marshall, at least it gave us this priceless version of "Agony," with Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen hamming it up as the princes. Of all the cuts and omissions that were made to the second half of the adaptation, I've gotta say that the "Agony Reprise" being dropped hurt the most. I still hold out hope that they may have actually filmed it, or at least recorded a demo version, and it's just sitting in the back of the Disney vault waiting to be rediscovered in a decade or two.


Blue Danube - I love digging up the old Muppet sketches. This one aired on the 1967 CBS musical variety show "Our Place," hosted by Rowlf the Dog. Only ten episodes ever aired. The sketch would be repurposed for "The Muppet Show" a few years later with different music.


Shelling Sequence - One of the only things that I felt the "Ghost in the Shell" remake got right was the score. In addition to the work of Lorne Balfe and Clint Mansell, they also got the original film's composer, Kenji Kawaii, to update the main theme. I really wished that they'd used it with the opening "shelling" scene, which would have given us a proper live action third iteration of the sequence after the original hand-drawn one in the 1995 anime, and the CGI version in 2004's "Innocence." Fortunately, this is the internet, and everyone has editing software, so an enterprising fan gave us just that.


Reach - Once upon a time in 1983, Bill Paxton and Andrew Todd Rosenthal, formed a new wave musical band called Martini Ranch. For their 1988 single "Reach," James Cameron directed the music video. It includes cameos from Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Jenette Goldstein, Judge Reinhold, Brian Thompson, Adrian Pasdar, Bud Cort, and Kathryn Bigelow - several of the actors being from the cast of "Near Dark," which Bigelow was shooting at roughly the same time. This was made a few years before Cameron and Bigelow got married. Oh, and Judge Reinhold is credited as the whistler.


Danny Elfman in Concert - Danny Elfman went on tour with his "Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton" concerts back in 2015, resulting in a "Live From Lincoln Center" episode among other things. Elfman, who of course was the singing voice for Jack Skellignton, does a fantastic job onstage in the "Nightmare Before Christmas" segment. If I didn't have time constraints, I'd have just put in the whole thing. You know what? I don't have time constraints. Go watch the whole thing.


Inferno - Can you imagine the kind of pull you have when putting together this insane '70s rock parody video is possible? Where you can just call up David Hasselhoff and all these MCU stars, and ask them to sing nonsense in ridiculous costumes? Is that Michael Rooker as a lion? Written by James Gunn and Tyler Bates, this "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" tie-in video is actually a spoof on Meco's disco "Star Wars Theme." Speaking of which, I should go and find THAT music video.


C is for Cookie - The folks over at Sesame Street have been producing some new content specifically for web viewers, including new animated lyric videos for several of their beloved songs. So, the new 2018 version has an animated Cookie Monster and friends getting up to hijinks, including Cookie chasing around a giant cookie. It's charming as heck, though I prefer the original, and I'm very relieved that they mostly kept the original audio.


The World is Not Enough - I always liked the title song of "The World is Not Enough" far more than the mediocre James Bond movie that it was attached to. I'd completely forgotten that it had an official music video, starring Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson as a gynoid infiltrator. The music video, no surprise, is also better than the movie.


Climax Opening Scene - And all you need to see of the latest Gaspar Noe movie is this sequence. Trust me.

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My Top Ten Films of 1972

This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog.

The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.

The Godfather - One of the key films of the New Hollywood era, heralding the arrival of a slew of new talent, subject matter, and filmmaking aesthetics.  Francis Ford Coppola successfully married a gangster narrative to an immigrant family saga, creating an entirely new genre of film. The copious violence on display is not nearly as important as the starkness with which it was portrayed, through Gordon Willis' groundbreaking cinematography.  And ironically, the iconic Don Corleone is memorable not for his shrewd criminal mind, but for Marlon Brando's sensitive portrayal of a gentle, humane paterfamilias.  

Cabaret - Bob Fosse pushes so many boundaries, creating one of the darkest and most fascinating film musicals of the 1970s.  His approach to choreography and his directing sensibilities are perfectly suited to a story about the rise of Nazi Germany and the loss of innocence.  I love the way that the musical numbers are used like interstitials, allowing Joel Gray's garish emcee to appear throughout to comment on the twists and turns of the plot.  I love the frank sexuality of the main characters, and the unusually direct discussion of sexual and gender politics. Most of all I love the despairing, cynical mood and tone.  

The New Land - The sequel to Jan Troell's "The Emigrants," featuring much of the same cast and crew.  Having made the journey to America, the Swedish settlers now get down to the business of building their new home and community.  There's less momentum here, and less of a sense of discovery, but the characters remain deeply moving, and the struggles they face are considerable.  I especially enjoy the more personal stories - Kristina turning on an intolerant pastor, and Robert going West in search of gold. This is a story about time, rather than distance, but it connects to the prior narrative beautifully.    

Solaris - An existential science fiction film that invites no easy comparisons, except perhaps to Andrei Tarkovsky's other work.  Thoughtful and deliberate in every aspect, the film's mysteries unfold at their own unhurried pace, occasionally creating startling and disturbing juxtapositions through the performances and editing.  Few answers are provided, but many clues help to suggest the nature of the manifestations we witness. I especially love the look of the film, the way that it combines alien landscapes and science-fiction imagery with deeply personal memories and impressions.    

Aguirre the Wrath of God - One of the earliest and most satisfying of Werner Herzog's collaborations with Klaus Kinski.  The film is a portrait of madness, set in the wilderness, made with perhaps too much fidelity to the plight of the Spanish conquistadors who inspired the story.  Shot on location in the lush Peruvian rainforest, "Aguirre" perfectly sets the stage for one of the greatest screen performances of all time. Kinski wonderfully embodies Aguirre's descent into madness and horror, surrounded by the unforgiving jungle.  It's no wonder Herzog would return to both subjects again and again over the years.      

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant - One of the most over-the-top, stylized films from Rainer Werner Fassbender, but still exemplary of his stripped down, low-budget style.  It's a lesbian psychodrama that indulges in all the problematic tropes and stereotypes, but the characters are rich and fascinating, even if they exist in this heightened, surreal place.  The film discusses so many taboo and illicit subjects in a candid, uninhibited way, while never stooping to salaciousness. The performances are very strong, flamboyant but fueled by genuine emotion.  And the film knows how to use silence when it needs to.    

Cries and Whispers - Death and grief transport a trio of sisters into a frightening maelstrom of emotional turmoil.  This was one of Ingmar Bergman's first color films, and one of his most visually striking. The blood red interiors of the house, the ambiguous frames of reality, and the various groupings of the female characters all give the film a very distinct look and unusual tonal intensity.  One trauma magnifies and builds upon another, until the web of shared history and tragedy engulf all the characters. It's a magnificent, devastating piece of work, a painful but deeply rewarding watch.  

Play it Again Sam - Easily the best Woody Allen film that Woody Allen didn't direct.  Allen did write it, however, and starred alongside his frequent leading lady Diane Keaton.  The gimmick is that Allen is playing a neurotic "Casablanca" fan, and is constantly interacting with an apparition of Humphrey Bogart who serves as an imaginary friend of sorts.  The films is a sweeter, kinder counterpart to Allen's later "Purple Rose of Cairo," examining the relationship between a piece of media and one of its fans. The little visual recreations and bits of cinematic magic are especially rewarding for classic film nerds.        

Sleuth - It's such fun to watch Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine take turns destroying each.  Honestly, the filmmaking isn't much to talk about, but the two central performances are so magnificent that it's all the audience is going to be paying attention to anyway.  "Sleuth" manages to pull off some outrageous tricks, hairpin turns, and surprises that have to be seen to be believed. This is one of the few films I've ever watched that literally got me to scream at the big reveal.  There have been many imitators over the years, and one well-meaning but ineffectual remake, but the original "Sleuth" remains unmatched.

What's Up, Doc? - One of my favorite comedies, a lighthearted farce featuring Barbara Streisand at her most irresistibly charming.  Director Peter Bogdanovich gamely keeps the energy high, fueling screwball antics, silly sight gags, and one of the greatest comedic chase scenes ever filmed.  The Buck Henry scripted dialogue is full of swell puns and one liners, Streisand gives the musical numbers plenty of kick, and the roster of veteran comedic actors is put to excellent use.  It may be a throwback, but "What's Up Doc?" is such a comedic triumph that I'm sorry that they don't make them like this anymore. 

Honorable Mention:

Fellini's Roma

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"Dolemite is My Name" is a Winner

It's easy to draw comparisons between "Dolemite is My Name" and "The Disaster Artist" or "Ed Wood," other notable chronicles of notorious amateur directors, especially since "Dolemite is My Name" shares the same screenwriters and many plot elements with "Ed Wood." However, I think the better comparison is with "Dolemite is My Name" director Craig Brewer's earlier film "Hustle and Flow." Both are about black men with dreams of stardom, who battle their way through adversity to success, with a little help from their friends. The hero of "Hustle and Flow" was fictional, but "Dolemite is My Name" is based on the life of a very real person, Rudy Ray Moore, who gives Eddie Murphy a fantastic comeback role.

We first meet Moore as a struggling performer, managing a record store as a day job, and emceeing for bigger acts at a Los Angeles nightclub. After a long string of failures, he finally hits upon a winning idea: he creates the persona of Dolemite, an exuberantly profane and vulgar pimp, who knows karate, and appeals to black audiences. He starts to see success as a comic, sharing his success with friends Jimmy Lynch (Mike Epps), Ben Taylor (Craig Robinson), Theodore Toney (Tituss Burgess), and discovering newcomer Lady Reed (Da'Vine Joy Randolph). However, it's still an uphill battle for Moore as he fights against censors, racial prejudice, and the entertainment establishment of the times. Moore keeps getting more ambitious ideas like recording his own comedy album, and eventually sets his sights on making his very own "Dolemite" movie.

"Dolemite is My Name" is a long film, and a little unwieldy since the first half is all about Rudy Ray Moore's rise to fame as a comic, and the second half shifts gears to chronicle the making of the 1975 blaxploitation film "Dolemite." The film's production is eventful and entertaining enough to sustain a whole feature by itself, with a Moore wrangling a snooty director, D'Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), a high-minded screenwriter Jerry Jones (Keegan-Michael Key), and a crew comprised mostly of UCLA film students, lead by Nicholas von Sternberg (Kodi Smit-McPhee). However, the second half works because the first half sets up Moore and all these other characters, and ensures that our sympathies are with them. Moreover, it establishes the stakes of the production and everything that Moore and his friends are up against as outsiders to the movie business and an independent production.

The main event, however, is Eddie Murphy's performance. He's mostly playing a variation of his usual screen persona, but a little older, a little heavier, and a little more heartfelt. He is so much fun here, summoning up seemingly endless amounts of energy to sell the standup scenes, but also endearing and vulnerable when he gets nervous before a sex scene or has a heart-to-heart with Lady Reed. He makes it clear that he knows the Dolemite persona is all pretend, but the outrageousness of the character seems to propel his own ambitions and his own confidence. There's so much affection in the portrayal of Moore, and for the whole era of blaxploitation and underground comedy that he was a part of. The filmmakers tying Moore's struggles to the race representation issues is very on the nose, but handled well enough that it's all very uplifting and goes down easy.

I watched the original "Dolemite" after watching "Dolemite is My Name," and I'm glad I waited. Without the context of the biopic, it would have been easy to write off "Dolemite" for its amateurish production, gratuitous content, and over-the-top story. Frankly, I thought it was pretty terrible, but the movie wasn't made for me, and that's all right. I can appreciate all the effort and the daring that went into the creation of "Dolemite," and the importance of the film to black cinema history. As for "My Name is Dolemite," it's one of those rare films about the making of a film that's better than its subject matter. It's howlingly funny. It's genuinely touching. It gives Eddie Murphy a perfect opportunity to shine once again.

Surprise, surprise, this is currently the top contender for my favorite feel-good film of the year. And maybe just my favorite of the year.

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"Yesterday" and "Late Night"

These two comedies have a bit more in common than there appears to be at first glance.  Both star members of the South Asian diaspora. Both are about the characters' relationships with mostly white-male dominated pop culture, music in "Yesterday," and comedy in "Late Night."  And oddly, both involve the creation of these weird alternate realities to explore the themes of creativity and personal growth. I don't think either film is particularly good, though both are pretty watchable and feature some decent performances. 

First, there's "Yesterday," written by romantic-comedy vet Richard Curtis, and directed by Danny Boyle.  It stars Himesh Patel as Jack Malik, an aspiring singer/songwriter of limited talents. His childhood friend and manager, Ellie (Lily James), is the only one who believes in him.  Then one day, Jack is hit by a bus and wakes up in a world where the Beatles apparently never existed. Jack is the only one who seems to remember their songs, so he uses their catalog to propel his own music career to new heights.  However, when his fame really starts to take off, he has to weigh his newfound success against his relationship with Ellie and his own artistic integrity.  

"Yesterday" is a lot of fun as a Beatles fan, because the filmmakers got the rights to a big batch of the original songs, and there are some good gags with Google-as-exposition, Jack coming to grips with his circumstances, and the Beatles' extensive cultural footprint.  There's a lot of dunking on Ed Sheeran, who plays a loser version of himself in the film, and Kate McKinnon is firing on all cylinders as a monstrous L.A. music agent. The trouble is that the entire romantic side of the film is awful, with developments that make no sense whatsoever.  It was infuriating to watch Lily James being wasted in a nothing of a role. And while Patel carries the film with no problems, Jack isn't particularly interesting or sympathetic either.

While the premise is a lot of fun, it feels like the movie exists to be an excuse for Beatles nostalgia.  And if you're not already familiar with the Beatles - and they are receding in the popular culture at a pretty rapid pace these days - the movie doesn't work nearly as well.  Frankly, it strains credibility that some of these songs written in the '60s and '70s would gain so much traction in 2019. And while I appreciate that Himesh Patel was cast as the lead, it doesn't feel like the filmmakers took enough advantage of his background.  I don't think there's any acknowledgement of it within the film itself.

This is not a problem with "Late Night," which was written by Mindy Kahling and based off of her own experiences as a comedy writer in an industry full of white men.  It may be Emma Thompson headlining, but the bulk of the movie is following Kahling's Molly on her journey from newbie to cornerstone of the writer's room. What strikes me as curious, however, is that "Late Night" also takes place in an alternate reality.  Molly is hired to write for late night host Katherine Newbury, played by Thompson, a female, British host on American late night, who has been a comedy icon for decades, but is now in danger of losing her once massively successful show.

In other words, "Late Night" takes place in a universe where David Letterman was a British woman, who dealt with the boy's club by more or less joining it and upholding the status quo.  The movie diligently explores these issues, putting Molly in a position where she has to deal with the prejudices of both the totally white male writer's room and a demanding female boss.  I understand why Kahling put Newbury into the movie, because the dynamic is interesting, and it allows them to look at some of these issues from a different perspective. On the other hand, Katherine Newbury is not a well constructed character.  Emma Thompson's performance is just the right mix sympathetic and awful, but I just don't buy Newbury as a late show host - even one past her prime. 

"Late Night," despite being about comedy, isn't very funny.  "Yesterday" deploys far more successful gags and one-liners. Instead, it's an office workplace dramedy trying very hard to be insightful and sincere, with mixed results.  I can't help wondering if it would have made its points better and been overall more successful if it had just been about Molly in a more real-world scenario. Kahling and company still could have talked about life after #Metoo, the reality of being a diversity hire, and the pitfalls of being a funny woman.  Emma Thompson could have still been involved playing another writer or a director, or a talent wrangler. Heck, Newbury being a more recently hired host instead of part of the old guard would have solved a lot of issues. The current version, the fading icon, often just feels like wishful thinking, and I don't think anyone really thought through all the implications that came with it.

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My Favorite David Fincher Film

I'm  a little apprehensive about writing this post, as David Fincher is one of the most recent directors that I've profiled so far.  However, he has been active for well over a quarter century, and has more than enough classics to qualify. Also, while I'm sure that Fincher will make another film that actually gets released in theatres eventually, for now he's in a bit of a hiatus, and I suspect we're seeing him transition from one stage of his career into another.  So, it's a good time to take stock.  

My first David Fincher film remains my favorite.  "Fight Club" was one of those movies that I never would have seen before 1999, when nearly all my cinematic selections had to be negotiated with my loving, but rather squeamish parents.  "Fight Club" came out right when I was leaving home for college, however, and an R-rating for "disturbing and graphic depiction of violent anti-social behavior, sexuality and language” was no longer any kind of barrier.  At that point in my life, it was more of a selling point.

In short, I was perfectly primed to really enjoy and appreciate the subversiveness and plentiful vileness of "Fight Club."  Based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel about modern masculinity in crisis, the film is absolutely bursting with violence and depravity, presented with pitch black humor and a gleeful transgressive verve.  The characters revel in cathartic brawling and nasty pranks, as they work themselves up to full anarchic rebellion. And Tyler Durden and friends don't just stick it to the Man, but they do it in the most brazenly family-unfriendly way possible.  There actually isn't as much adult content in the film as you might expect, but all the violence is realistically gory, the attractive actors constantly look like hell, and the nocturnal world they inhabit is full of broken glass, spilled fluids, and grimy stains.  The memorable dialogue follows suit. There's the famous story of Fincher being ordered to remove the word "abortion" form the script, so he replaced it with a cringe-inducing pedophilia joke. 

When I think of David Fincher movies, I immediately think of the tactile unpleasantness of "Fight Club," of the bag of liposuctioned fat getting stuck on a chain link fence, or Jared Leto being pummeled to a pulp.  I also think of the very exacting camera work, tightly controlling perspective, mood, and tone. The narrative twists and turns are executed so well because of the precision with which Fincher parses out the amount of information that the viewer is privy to.  He also plays with the cinematic form itself, shaking the frame during episodes of mental strain, and including subliminal images to make the audience question the fidelity of the film's reality. I love the little instances of fourth wall breaking, the penetrating virtual camera, the in-jokes, the multiple frames of reality, and a very, very unreliable Narrator.  Already a notorious perfectionist, Fincher shot roughly three times as much footage as a normal production, orchestrated complex special effects shots, and ran considerably over budget. 

Everyone talks about Brad Pitt's elevation to cinematic icon status with Tyler Durden, but what really holds the movie together is Ed Norton's performance.  He is absolutely fearless, getting so much abuse and degradation heaped on his head as the movie's stand in for the hapless modern schlub. His monotone line readings, describing horrific car accidents and the banality of his own life, are alternately hysterical and depressing.  Of course, onscreen he's no match for the charisma bomb that is Pitt as Tyler Durden, the Devil figure of the piece. Not even a scuzzy pink bathrobe could stop the sheer amount of masculine intensity coming off of Pitt. I suspect this is why some viewers never got it through their heads that "Fight Club" was supposed to be a cautionary tale, and the shallow philosophy of Project Mayhem was a pipe dream.

"Fight Club" famously didn't do well at the box office, but quickly became a cult film, misunderstood and beloved by a generation of disaffected young malcontents.  In hindsight, it's a fantastic snapshot of certain attitudes and afflictions of the '90s, and a great example of the kind of no-holds-barred filmmaking that David Fincher was capable of with the right collaborators and the right material.  Sadly, that perfect confluence wasn't so easy to achieve, and became less and less so as his career went on.    

What I've Seen - David Fincher

Alien 3 (1992)

Seven (1995)

The Game (1997)

Fight Club (1999)

Panic Room (2002)

Zodiac (2007)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

The Social Network (2010)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Gone Girl (2014)

Mank (2020)

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Bye Bye Box Office Mojo

Sadly, I didn't see this one coming. The Box Office Mojo website has been the default source of online box office statistics for as long as I can remember, offering up-to-date information on ticket sales, screen counts, and more. Amazon bought it through IMDb back in 2008, but has largely left it alone. When IMDb's redesign happened a few years ago, there were some indications that the two sites would be combined, but this didn't end up happening. And then, at the end of October, a massive redesign of Box Office Mojo finally went through, breaking the functionality of much of the site, and sticking access to certain data behind paywalls - specifically an IMDbPro subscription. Box Office Mojo is now "Box Office Mojo by IMDbPro." You can't even look up budgets or inflation-adjusted figures without a paid account anymore. This has kicked up a ruckus, because everyone used Box Office Mojo, including most of the entertainment industry, journalists, and fans.

There's been plenty of griping from all corners of the entertainment world, but it's doubtful that Amazon is going to budge. They declared that the changes were "made in response to customer feedback and usage patterns, which will continue to inform future feature launches.” The customers in question are clearly IMDbPro users, as Amazon is now treating Box Office Mojo as an extension of their IMDb services, which have grown to include networking tools and streaming content over the past few years, while jettisoning popular features like the message board system and user reviews. I guess we should have realized this was going to happen back in 2014, when Box Office Mojo was taken offline briefly, and visitors redirected to IMDb. No explanation was offered at the time, and none have been offered since, so it's clearly not worth it trying to engage with whoever is making these decisions.

It's been a strange and disheartening, watching Amazon gradually monetize these bare bones, statistics-centered resource sites. Not content with simply sticking ads on the pages, they keep mucking around with the basic elements that made them appealing in the first place - their ease of use, their accessibility, and their strong, simple presentation of data. Thankfully, though IMDb is now obnoxiously graphics heavy, the site's basic functionality is mostly still intact. I can look up bits of data like release dates and production credits without too much hassle. Box Office Mojo, however, may be permanently, irreparably broken. It wasn't just one or two things that were removed, like the message boards. The vast majority of the data that was at the core of the site has been walled off, and the navigation is truly impenetrable. Users have been reporting errors everywhere, and some of the old functions are gone for good, even for the IMDb Pro users. What remains free and easily accessible to the public can be found at a dozen other film sites around the internet.

As a result, Box Office Mojo's users have proved perfectly willing to abandon the site in search of alternatives. There has been a noticeable exodus to rival site The Numbers. Box Office Pro has its boosters. It was announced that there are efforts underway to build a non-profit replacement site for Box Office Mojo, though like all fan driven projects, this doesn't look like it'll amount to much. What's clear is that a major tool used by everyone connected to the business of movies is gone. It went, suddenly, and without warning, and there's no way of getting it back. And it now stands as yet another stark reminder of how quickly things change online, and with so little rhyme or reason. A site as useful and well-regarded as Box Office Mojo can disappear overnight at the whim of Amazon or Google or Facebook. And all we can do is ask, "what's next?"

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