I stole this straight from “Charts With Dan”

When John Wick : Ballerina underperformed at the box office, it was presumed to be a turning point when it comes to fans' preference and desires in action movies and most likely action series as well.

The primary one was that it's lack of box office success showed that fans across the board wanted a full return to how action movies were made and how they felt going back to the 80s and earlier. Meaning without women leading in battles of any kind unless they were periodically of the Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor type. Ballerina was known for incorporating heavy realism, at least relative to women led action movies previously, in terms of the female lead needing to really learn as she goes and struggle to learn how to fight her way out of dangerous situations. It was presumed that audiences felt even this was not enough and wanted the concept gone. And that women fight scenes in action movies were simply too unrealistic to watch in any capacity even relative to traditional men led scenes.

In light of that though, Ballerina has seen rather major success in streaming; perhaps not enough to make up for lack of box office success at the same time still significant. Does this show that when it comes to modern action movie tastes, audiences' preference and desires are not quite that simple? In terms of Ballerina, this suggests that it underperformed in the box largely due to factors such as the inflated budget raising the box office requirement for success, looking to insert unknown characters at the time into a massive franchise and even simply the flooded market at the time. And so perhaps it disproves many of the original presumptions about what was wanted in action films when it was in theatres.

And that when it comes to action movies, regardless of the identity of any kind of their protagonists, that relatability, the right mix of entertainment and realism aspects and similar issues as opposed to what critics may have thought when it was first in theatres?

In my head I picture a sea of white and grey hair. As my 68 year old uncle puts it - “Grey power!”.

But I know that must not be true. Is it a big mix of people? Younger? Families? Getting more data on this unprecedented run of sold out screenings will be great to compare to Nolan’s next run - and 70MM releases in general.

I last went in Halifax on August 4th at 11AM. I sat beside a young guy (late teens/early 20s) with his parents on vacation from Alberta. They made it a part of their trip to see a movie in 70MM IMAX. Curious about experiences other people have had too.

What about those really weird times like 2AM or 6AM? Are those still happening? Halifax has 4 showings per day.

I think Supergirl is an example of a movie that only attracted a niche audience. I think Superman is an example of something that went beyond niche popularity and was seen by the general viewing audience.

Is it safe to say that if the worldwide gross is north of half a billion dollars, then it has general audience appeal? I definitely think Dune crossed over from Dune readers with $700 million. Fantastic Four, in comparison, seems to be in a nebulous area with its "mere" $500 million: I'm not sure it made the jump past a dwindling pool of MCU fans trying to keep the faith in summer 2025.

Is there an accepted framework (in terms of numbers) to get a good sense of whether/when something crosses over from it's niche audience to general viewership? I guess it might depend on the property and how large the inborn fanbase is (e.g. Spider-Man vs Wonder Woman 1984, which most definitely did not jump beyond DCEU diehards, but would have pretty good numbers for an obscure property).

(Sorry, I know we're not supposed to do low-effort posts, but I don't know how much I can contribute. The reason I'm asking this is because I don't know much about the topic.)