This Is Where I Leave You (2014) - December 16, 2014

[Scottie]

This Is Where I Leave You (2014)

When their father passes away, four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens.

[IndyMLVC]

Really funny movie. Under-rated and shouldn't have been ignored.

[GorillaGuy]

Love that artwork

[noirjunkie]

That's a fast turnaround from theaters to blu-ray. I suppose they want to get it out in time for the holiday shopping season.

[jwerk]

Saw this movie today. My expectations were kinda low once I found out it was directed by Levy, but I really liked it a lot. Might be one of my favorite movies of the year.

[Show spoiler]Adam Driver was great in every scene, and that cute kid carrying around the potty was really cute.
I thought they dealt with the weird & difficult family stuff very well. It isn't a very well written movie, but the actors do a great job with what they have and they have great chemistry.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by jwerk

Saw this movie today. My expectations were kinda low once I found out it was directed by Levy, but I really liked it a lot. Might be one of my favorite movies of the year.

[Show spoiler]Adam Driver was great in every scene, and that cute kid carrying around the potty was really cute.
I thought they dealt with the weird & difficult family stuff very well. It isn't a very well written movie, but the actors do a great job with what they have and they have great chemistry.

Wow, my reaction was the complete opposite. You could play a drinking game with every family-comedy-drama cliche they carted out in this thing. Me and my wife's eyes were starting to hurt from all the rolling they were doing.

[IndyMLVC]

Loved it when I saw it in theaters and showed it to my family over the holidays. They loved it as well.

[jwerk]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

Wow, my reaction was the complete opposite. You could play a drinking game with every family-comedy-drama cliche they carted out in this thing. Me and my wife's eyes were starting to hurt from all the rolling they were doing.

This is kinda what I was thinking. I had just watched August: Osage County, and had the same response you did to this film. Even though this film didn't have Meryl Streep, I thought it worked much better.

[Bk_Tan]

I liked this film. Apparently it sold less than 3,000 units on opening week on Blu-Ray.

What I wanted to drop in here, because I don't know how many people would be interested in me starting a thread, is the fact that the two worst release dates for a movie on home video release are: Black Friday week and the week before Christmas.

You could even extend it to the second week after BF and Xmas, simply because the stock from the previous week remains in stores/shelves and still are prominent.

I don't know why studios would choose to release their films that are not blockbusters or have a reliable fanbase on these weekends. Going by past data from thenumbers, movies that mostly grossed less than $50m released on these weekends never chart. Now, not charting is not that bad a thing, you could still sell off-charts, but this does not seem to be the case.

Why I bring this up, is because this directly affects a movie's longevity. Think about it. If I the studio release by new 2014 movie and it cannot sell 100k copies, or even 50k as a new release, I'll never release it again as it is not worth it, but they are doing it to themselves.

Going through the data for the entire year, you realize that even the smallest and most badly received wide release movies still can sell 50-100k copies (all these are DVD charts as there are 30 entries, easier to refer) because they dominate the shelves. Nothing else is there. The catalogue market is virtually non-existent, I assume movies are released so they can sell throughout the year at low numbers. All those released by specialty labels, probably don't even make it to B&M stores. The future of catalogue right there. I mean, right now, there's like movies from 80s and older that 90% of people don't know. It doesn't take very long for movies released in 2000 to join those. So, really only recent releases and the new release are at the forefront of the store and people pick them up.

I don't see how a movie like this cannot sell any copies compared to other movies this year like Mom's Night Out, Bad Words or Under the Skin. It grossed more than those combined. Yet, it can't sell and these can shift? The release date is the problem and I'm surprised that studios have not detected this.

I have gone back to 2010 and seen the same. Spy Kids 4, Going the Distance, Jobs, Getaway etc. all fail to make the charts and sell anything much it seems. Even this year, the Giver makes an appearance on week 3, perhaps it was discounted then, and that seems it's the only way to remain relevant after they miss the momentum of the first week. It's all about the first week on home video, and if they cannot make an impression they are gone.

These weeks are extremely difficult to contend with because the space is for discounted movies, mostly popular movies, from the years past. It has no chance if it is a movie that does not make $50m or has no inherent fanbase to speak of. Once the opening week is negated, it has to build up, but the stores probably dump the movie because the sales were weak. It's a chicken and egg, Catch 22, however it is easily solved by delaying the release date to a non-competitive week, which most of the rest of the 48+ weeks are. Dumb decisions by the studios.

In the future, I hope I will be able to pick this up.

PS: Interesting to know how much of sales come from online these days too. I would imagine despite the size of Amazon and other retailers online presence, the % is still a lot smaller than B&M.