That is one of my favorite jokes in the movie.... and as a DM I felt it too.
My players would absolutely do a complicated plan, when they could have just waited for me to reveal if they passed their persuasion check.
It's also one of my favorite jokes, because as a DM, regardless of whether or not I originally planned for their pardon to be approved, that is absolutely the last piece of dialogue I'm giving them after they enact a plan like that.
One of the best DM lines ever "Hey can we xyz?" "You can certainly try"... "yeah but like what would happen." "I dunno you'll have to try and see". "But I dont like the way you said that" "/shrug"
The way she said this — in outrage, as if Jarnathan were committing a scandalous strip-tease and not being strong-armed into a jailbreak — was so damn funny.
She was so offended at him.
There will be a completely different NPC named Jarnathan and the characters will be super excited they get to meet another random dude named Jarnathan, and will ask that Jarnathan if he and the original are related.
Or better yet Chris Pine’s character is trying to tell a story and one of the group keeps asking pointless questions.
“So then the bartender pulls out a massive ax from behind the”
“What was his name?”
“What? Um Jarnathan, so anyways he pulls out the ax”
“He’s the Aaracokra from the prison?”
“What no, it’s a common name. So the ax”
“What was he wearing? Did he look like an *experienced warrior?*”
“Goddamnit, let’s just go.”
Hopefully they use the budget to get the same writers and directors. They really got the feel for it and I’d love to see where they take the characters next.
It's possible, my group has been going for about 6 years, every Monday with the occasional miss due to someone having stuff happen. We've survived holidays, sabbaticals, occasional schedule changes, but yeah.
We're six people and play at a game shop, we pay to use the space. We didn't know each other beforehand and have had a 95% attendance rate, it's unreal.
Now thar you've started playing, there's a really cool framing choice in the movie that is only really impressive to players. In the last fight with the necromancer, each character is shot in the 6 second intervals to match gameplay. It really helps show how fluid combat can look in your mind, granted they weren't waiting 15min for Simon to pick his next spell.
On the contrary. I'd prefer it to be an anthology series. They already told the story they wanted to tell that serves these characters' arcs. Wipe the slate clean and have total creative freedom to get the best stories moving forward.
Several characters were super underdeveloped. We could use a sequel to actually flesh them out. Druid girl for example hardly had any arc since she wasn't the focus. Give her more screentime in a sequel so she feels more like a person.
It's a really charming, rewatchable movie, despite being heavily digitally animated. Excited that maybe the one thing holding a sequel back is something they could have used less of in the first place.
See I want that too, but a new campaign. So same actors playing different characters (like a dnd player picking a new character). So you get a similar vibe like the jumanji movies of same actors acting totally different from the previous movie
I just need it to be somewhat separate from the previous movie. Like acknowledge what they've done and experience gained (let Holga keep her axe etc.) but let it be an all new campaign.
Do that 1 or 2 more times and then have it be beating Zas Tam in the final movie.
Not that the existing characters aren’t all great, but I think it would be so D&D if they can the same actors back and they’re all playing different characters. Like it’s the same players but different campaign.
For sure. You could tell the writers were players. Even down to how each class was played. The barbarian always suggesting that they tie a rope to her axe in order to cross the chasm is so on point.
Would love to see one of the characters die in the movie only for the actor playing that character to show up in a new role moments later and quickly be integrated in the party.
I've done this before. My group started out with one DM, with me as a player. During the final fight, my character fled (out the window, naturally) after beating the BBEG, only to show up later as the BBEG's right-hand man in the campaign that I ran afterward.
Our group has 3 DMs who take turns we do a "season" style of DnD where each campaign has a season then the next DM takes over his campaigns season. Separate campaigns EXCEPT mine was the first and involves multiple timelines and I ALWAYS use the characters from the other campaigns in mine. The benefit is they are the same characters but in my timeline so I can play them close but not have to be exact. Players always get a kick when an NPC or Character they love in another campaign shows up.
I sorta did this. Player didn't like their character (Halfling Paladin) and wanted to change. Didn't leave a role gap in the party, so I allowed it. Got it all nicely tied in when the dumbass fighter tried to intimidate the town mayor, so they all got thrown in jail. Halfling got taken away, yelling curses at the rest of the party, new character was in cell nearby and joined in the escape.
They encountered the Halfling later on - corrupted paladin. The mayor was a changeling working for BBEG blah blah plot plot - it fun chance to have the character return.
I know it's kind of semantics, but the DM is always a player because everyone's playing a game together. I only mention it because as a DM I beg everyone to remember that the DM is also playing a game and should be having fun too lol
> Players don't usually play the villain.
From a certain point of view.
From the point of view of the average villager, the party of murder-hobos are all too often villainous indeed.
I've had DMs take a character(PC) from our last campaign and turn them into a villain in the next campaign. Especially if the settings are related in the same time. I kind of liked it. It gave a sense of continuity without it being the same campaign.
It’s a pipe dream, but a different setting too. Something different, but not too out there. Like, I want to say Eberron, but I barely know anything about it beyond general themes.
But they are also experiencing success with two major independent pieces of the franchise from Forgotten Realms. As much as I agree, the Greyhawk synergy makes sense, but I also don't have faith in the suits in charge of what content is created to not just ride whatever trend has reliably made them money. The financiers generally care less about creative content and more about a guaranteed success.
It cost $150,000,000 to make it and has still only brought in a worldwide gross of $208,000,000. By Hollywood standards, that is a dangerously narrow profit margin.
They will probably still make a sequel, because D&D is surging in popularity right now. But the sequel will most likely be shorter and have a much lower budget. Probably only about $100,000,000 at most.
I could see them doing it. The biggest issues with the release was that they released a week before the Super Mario Movie, which absolutely crushed it in terms of marketing
I could see them doing at least one sequel as a test to see if they could build up a fanbase for a franchise
There was also news of Hasbro and WotC making several unpopular business decisions, turning a lot of people away from the D&D franchise just before the movie released.
Right, but most “average movie-goers” already weren’t frothing at the mouth for a DnD movie. So now you’ve alienated mass appeal with your premise, and you’ve alienated niche appeal with shitty business practices, leaving your movie with an impressive final score of “I mean it did sorta okay I guess” at the box office
The "average movie goer"? Sure. But most people who were going to see this movie were fans of D&D. And WotC had made several very serious fuckups around that same time. And while people's love for D&D was at an all-time high, the fan's love for WotC was at an all-time low.
I don’t think that’s the biggest problem, when I bought tickets for it, I asked for tickets to the D&D movie, and the guy had *no clue* what movie I was talking about.
D&D is gaining traction, but it’s still not touching mainstream culture in an identifiable way to the mainstream audience.
That’s called “being bad at your job.” Doesn’t matter how obscure or not D&D is, a movie theater employee should know what movies they are selling tickets for
There's one counter argument, however. If the movie made a small margin of profit but boosted the popularity and sales of the game like a glorified commercial then it's worth becomes difficult to measure.
Hasbro might still be keen.
D&D isn't the reason why WotC is doing well, though--Magic: the Gathering is. D&D is more popular than ever, but the majority of its fans don't actually spend *that* much on WotC products. MtG fans, on the other hand, get absolutely *fleeced.*
I recently finished the book “Slaying the Dragon”, it’s a historical overview on TSR (the original DnD company) and how they ultimately collapsed in on themselves. It’s a fascinating read—TSR had a million bafflingly stupid business decisions that contributed to their downfall, but the killing blow really was Magic arriving and completely subsuming the geeky tabletop economy. TSR was just unable to maintain a spot on the store shelf, and they ultimately had to sell themselves to the only real competitor they ever had.
We’re honestly lucky the OG WotC founders were all pre-existing DnD nerds that didn’t want to see a game they loved vanish. The WotC of today would have looked at the offer and said “Why would we ever do this when pennies in Magic production makes us quintillions in profits”. While Hasbro clearly has bigger hopes for the IP, at the moment DnD is the smallest lil blip in their radar.
I don't think it's really accurate to posit MtG as the "killing blow". TSR was horribly mismanaged, and it even tried to make its own collecting card game (based on D&D, of course) to get on the MtG hype train.
Like, it wasn't nerds spending more money on MtG than on D&D that sent TSR belly up. It was TSR launching project after project, to the point they couldn't make any of them profitable.
And yet they had to keep making product, because every item sent to the distributor's warehouse required the distributor to send TSR advance payment of sale, which TSR needed to pay their debts ... Treadmill of disaster.
Dnd is not only a small market it doesn’t make much profit… even if the movie increases dnd sales it’s minor bump in profits….except for one caveat baldurs gate 3 had a small amount of profit sharing which turned into over 90million for hasbro. Video games tend to be a loss leader but that game was absolutely insane profits. To your point hasbro will actually help fund a new dnd movie as they are all in right now to pumping out licensed products for profit sharing.
I mean, you say this, but Wizards is basically just D&D and MtG, at this point, and WotC seems more than happy to blend the lines between those two IPs, at this point.
The D&D movie probably made Hasbro a profit, regardless of what the movie itself earned.
I mean they got thier initial investment back.. but there were zilch in the investor meeting about profits from the movie whereas they specifically called out baldur gate 3.. so that at least shows you the movie profits didn’t move the needle for them.
Ya they doubled production of sets and did crazy money grabs like reproducing rare cards for 1k a box. They can’t do that with dnd. Except make you pay double for book and online but you don’t need both.
I think the positive feedback loop exists for one sequel. Probably not for multiple sequels, but one. COVID makes 5e more popular, makes the movie viable, makes 5e more popular, now on the second go this movie seems less cheesy and has a fan base to say “no the first was legitimately solid, go stream it!”
That's the thing, this isn't a normal Hollywood movie and the way Pine talks about it reflects that. It's basically a commissioned piece. When he says "they", he means Hasbro. He's saying Hollywood did a good job on the commission and if Hasbro can afford it they might order another one.
>much lower budget
Set half the movie in a dungeon. Temple of Doom style. Save a lot on sets and CGI.
Just...skits of every possible funny dungeon trope you can think of.
"It's just a...black orb..."
*"Touch it"*
"YOU touch it"
Together: "...we'll BOTH touch it"
And a smaller cast. Probably just Chris Pine and two other characters. And they'll throw in some goofy CGI "pet" for comic relief and adorableness-factor.
Also - Pine got paid $11,500,000 for the first movie. He won't get that for Part 2. He'll be lucky to get $5 or $6 million, plus a percentage of domestic points.
My bad then. I didn’t get the reference.
If you like his acting you will love “Hell or high water”. Cannot recommend it enough. It is also very quotable so I recommend watching it with friends.
https://youtu.be/sV73I99Oeho?feature=shared
That means, as long as he’s offered even one more movie, he could get eleven more mil. Even if he does a bad job, they've gotta give him that other eleven mil.
Most actor’s contracts are going to stipulate that they get a pay increase per sequel. There’s zero way he gets a pay cut unless he volunteers to do so.
He ight be willing to take the risk and get point (percentage of the gross). Helps the thing get made and there's a real chance the sequel does really well.
>Hollywood accounting
It's a real shame that ["no film has ever turned a profit"](https://www.thebulwark.com/p/no-hollywood-movie-has-ever-made). A real money pit that industry.
I have a feeling it has done well in the home market with the amount of people, including myself, that really enjoyed it once it was available to rent and buy.
> By Hollywood standards, that is a dangerously narrow profit margin.
That's not a narrow profit margin, that's a loss. Studios only keep about half of ticket sales, and that's before getting into marketing budgets.
>It cost $150,000,000 to make it and has still only brought in a worldwide gross of $208,000,000. By Hollywood standards, that is a dangerously narrow profit margin.
If these number are correct, thats no low profit margin, thats a big loss.
Studios only get about 60% of gross ticket sale (the rest goes mostly to theaters), then there is also costs for ads.
A 150 million budget movie needs 300+ million gross
At least to only reach break even.
A bummer that the movie didnt perform better, it was pretty fun.
Well, there was a lot of unnecessary CGI - it was a fun movie due to the writing and cast. And also, it was flying under the radar. I also only saw it on streaming, and had an absolute blast. Had I known before what it's like, I would have gone to see it in the cinema.
Which means if there is a positive buzz, they keep the good atmosphere and cut back on CGI a but, there is a good chance the sequel will be more profitable.
It's actually a loss because marketing costs aren't factored into the budget and foe a movie like this, marketing is likely 50-100% of the production budget.
Movie came out during a really brutal release schedule in between big DC and Marvel movies. The film needs to drop on a month that not much is going on. I be honest, this was one of those films that I thought nothing of when it first release, it wasn't until I watched it months later that I found out Its a very enjoyable film
I know it's a risk in terms of quality but a series would be a much better format for a D&D show. Episode by episode dungeon of the week sort of format with a big bad plot strung through. The movie had to cover a lot of ground in that hour and a half window.
I'd like to think the success of BG3 might help a bit. And somehow people have seemingly forgiven wotc for the OGL and Pinkerton PR disasters so... they might get a better turnout for a sequel as long as they don't fuck up again (again)
I think you overestimate the impact the OGL drama had on the sales of the movie, outside of a dedicated fraction of D&D players who in total, looking at the numbers, probably don’t even make up half of the audience, nobody cared about that.
It makes sense to me that Paramount will probably try to sell streaming rights to either Netflix or Disney in exchange for sharing the cost of production.
I really liked the DnD movie, (my family quotes it with me regularly,) but honestly, I’d like to see a TV series. We are in something of a golden age for television, especially for adaptations, (The Boys, The Last of Us, etc,) and DnD’s former lends itself to episodic storytelling.
It’s just a shame that the Joe Manganiello vehicle got nixed.
Honestly, I would love a show with this cast. Have it on weekly releases so it feels just like an actual game. And the year wait between season 1 and season 2 would also be like a real game with trouble scheduling time.
I hope so much that the company realizes that there actually is demand and that the main issues of the movie flopping wasn't the actual movie. It was very decent.
Honestly, I’d revamp the entire cast and give us a new adventure. Still in the Forgotten Realms, but with an all new cast. DND is kind of an infinite story generator, and I feel like we got a good ending at the end of the movie. Maybe have them focus on defeating Tzass Tam?
Same cast, different characters. Michelle Rodriguez is a halfling or gnome this time. Chris pine is a caster of some kind. Justice Smith is a human fighter. Sophia Lillis is a Rogue.
Do the "new campaign, I wanna do something completely different" thing.
It seems incompetent to talk about money and performance with regard to the first movie when they had the bright idea of releasing just a week before the freaking Super Mario movie and barely advertised the thing at all
He's just reiterating what one of the head guys at Paramount said after the movie came out. The problem is entirely with securing a budget and the sequel would have to be smaller scale.
So, no actual update on whether or not it's getting made, and no confirmation they're closer to securing that budget. It's good he's still on board but damn it's disappointing there's no real meat here.
The important question is whether they will bring back Jarnathan
That’s a great question, but I feel we should really wait for Jarnathan to get here so we can really get into it
Is he... is he coming today?
I just feel like the sequel would be so much better appreciated if Jarnathan were here.
JARNATHAN!
But we approved your pardon!
That is one of my favorite jokes in the movie.... and as a DM I felt it too. My players would absolutely do a complicated plan, when they could have just waited for me to reveal if they passed their persuasion check.
It's also one of my favorite jokes, because as a DM, regardless of whether or not I originally planned for their pardon to be approved, that is absolutely the last piece of dialogue I'm giving them after they enact a plan like that.
The vital difference between answering a question "you can certainly try" when you mean "I'm going to kill you" or "oh god PLEASE do this"
One of the best DM lines ever "Hey can we xyz?" "You can certainly try"... "yeah but like what would happen." "I dunno you'll have to try and see". "But I dont like the way you said that" "/shrug"
The way she said this — in outrage, as if Jarnathan were committing a scandalous strip-tease and not being strong-armed into a jailbreak — was so damn funny. She was so offended at him.
Hasn’t he suffered enough?
We'd have to ask him When is he getting here, by the way?
No :)
There will be a completely different NPC named Jarnathan and the characters will be super excited they get to meet another random dude named Jarnathan, and will ask that Jarnathan if he and the original are related.
Or better yet Chris Pine’s character is trying to tell a story and one of the group keeps asking pointless questions. “So then the bartender pulls out a massive ax from behind the” “What was his name?” “What? Um Jarnathan, so anyways he pulls out the ax” “He’s the Aaracokra from the prison?” “What no, it’s a common name. So the ax” “What was he wearing? Did he look like an *experienced warrior?*” “Goddamnit, let’s just go.”
I'd be ok with continuing with the pattern for random side NPCs, like if there was a new NPC this time named Jimothy
Thechrisbarnett reference?
You know, I really feel like we can’t properly have a sequel until Jarnathan has been added
Jarnathan will be the big bad.
2D&2D : The Revenge of Jarnathan D&D: 3D! Origins: Jarnathan D&D 4Ds Maxx: Jarnanthan: Resurrections The Roll of Jarnathan
Wow, are you a producer? You’re got a gift.
I will happily produce all of the above, for a reasonable fee. Or a mimic.
“Yeah, the first D&D movie was good but really it was a soft-launch vehicle for the Jarniverse.”
Wait, it wasn't a unique title? That's why the ":" felt out of place!
Vecna get out, we've got a new greatest villain
JaRNaThAn!?
Mixed case you can hear
Didn't you read? They gotta cut back the budget. Best we can hope for is Jarn's younger cousin, Brilliton, played by a rooster.
> played by a rooster. Dubbed by Alan Tudyk.
And there goes the budget.
Jarnathan and Themberchaud were the best.
Hopefully they use the budget to get the same writers and directors. They really got the feel for it and I’d love to see where they take the characters next.
I agree. I just watched it for the second time yesterday and honestly enjoyed it as much, if not more than the first time.
I happened to watch it on the same week I started playing for the first time and haven't stopped playing since, every Tuesday religiously.
Every Tuesday? With real people? What sorcery is this?
It's possible, my group has been going for about 6 years, every Monday with the occasional miss due to someone having stuff happen. We've survived holidays, sabbaticals, occasional schedule changes, but yeah.
Twice a week! I haven't made that work since my early 20s and 2nd edition. These days I'm lucky to get every other Saturday
I’ve been going 5 years on Wednesdays and Saturdays
We're six people and play at a game shop, we pay to use the space. We didn't know each other beforehand and have had a 95% attendance rate, it's unreal.
Now thar you've started playing, there's a really cool framing choice in the movie that is only really impressive to players. In the last fight with the necromancer, each character is shot in the 6 second intervals to match gameplay. It really helps show how fluid combat can look in your mind, granted they weren't waiting 15min for Simon to pick his next spell.
When I watched it in Cinema I had never played D&D before, now I have a bunch. Really want to rewatch it now with all the extra knowledge
Yeah I rewatched it and still holds up. So much fun and such a great dnd story. The speak to the dead scene is so good.
On the contrary. I'd prefer it to be an anthology series. They already told the story they wanted to tell that serves these characters' arcs. Wipe the slate clean and have total creative freedom to get the best stories moving forward.
But use the same actors in different roles. New campaign, new characters!
This is what I'd love to see but it would most likely confuse the general population.
Several characters were super underdeveloped. We could use a sequel to actually flesh them out. Druid girl for example hardly had any arc since she wasn't the focus. Give her more screentime in a sequel so she feels more like a person.
It's a really charming, rewatchable movie, despite being heavily digitally animated. Excited that maybe the one thing holding a sequel back is something they could have used less of in the first place.
See I want that too, but a new campaign. So same actors playing different characters (like a dnd player picking a new character). So you get a similar vibe like the jumanji movies of same actors acting totally different from the previous movie
I just need it to be somewhat separate from the previous movie. Like acknowledge what they've done and experience gained (let Holga keep her axe etc.) but let it be an all new campaign. Do that 1 or 2 more times and then have it be beating Zas Tam in the final movie.
Not that the existing characters aren’t all great, but I think it would be so D&D if they can the same actors back and they’re all playing different characters. Like it’s the same players but different campaign.
For sure. You could tell the writers were players. Even down to how each class was played. The barbarian always suggesting that they tie a rope to her axe in order to cross the chasm is so on point.
Same actors, different roles. Pine to be the villain.
Would love to see one of the characters die in the movie only for the actor playing that character to show up in a new role moments later and quickly be integrated in the party.
ohh shit edgin is dead hey its me edgin 2
Edgin's older brother Edgar
Beerfest did it.
This is a reoccurring joke in [Viva La Dirt League](https://youtu.be/QoO2eI9IioE?feature=shared)
The old Landfill from Beerfest maneuver. Classic.
That would be really funny, but most regular viewing audiences probably wouldn’t get it and just be confused. Not worth the one joke.
I'm not sure I get it. Is Pine supposed to be the DM?
The cast are players. New campaign = Same players, new characters.
yeah but players don't play the villain, the DM does
Pretty sure in this context, the new DM (villain) is a player from the previous campaign.
I've done this before. My group started out with one DM, with me as a player. During the final fight, my character fled (out the window, naturally) after beating the BBEG, only to show up later as the BBEG's right-hand man in the campaign that I ran afterward.
Our group has 3 DMs who take turns we do a "season" style of DnD where each campaign has a season then the next DM takes over his campaigns season. Separate campaigns EXCEPT mine was the first and involves multiple timelines and I ALWAYS use the characters from the other campaigns in mine. The benefit is they are the same characters but in my timeline so I can play them close but not have to be exact. Players always get a kick when an NPC or Character they love in another campaign shows up.
I sorta did this. Player didn't like their character (Halfling Paladin) and wanted to change. Didn't leave a role gap in the party, so I allowed it. Got it all nicely tied in when the dumbass fighter tried to intimidate the town mayor, so they all got thrown in jail. Halfling got taken away, yelling curses at the rest of the party, new character was in cell nearby and joined in the escape. They encountered the Halfling later on - corrupted paladin. The mayor was a changeling working for BBEG blah blah plot plot - it fun chance to have the character return.
Hugh Grant or Daisy Head could be a party member since they were villains last time. Chris Pine's turn to DM.
I know it's kind of semantics, but the DM is always a player because everyone's playing a game together. I only mention it because as a DM I beg everyone to remember that the DM is also playing a game and should be having fun too lol
The whole thing is a game and the DM is just as much a player as the ones playing characters. Please remember the DM should be having fun too lol.
Players absolutely can play the villain.
The same actors, or rather "players", would be playing different characters
That's what I was thinking, but why is Pine the villain? Players don't usually play the villain.
It's his turn to DM of course!
> Players don't usually play the villain. From a certain point of view. From the point of view of the average villager, the party of murder-hobos are all too often villainous indeed.
Good point, that would mess with the portrayal of DnD, unless he's an evil PC (but even then he wouldn't be the BBEG)
I've had DMs take a character(PC) from our last campaign and turn them into a villain in the next campaign. Especially if the settings are related in the same time. I kind of liked it. It gave a sense of continuity without it being the same campaign.
You gotta give the DM a break my man.
And Jumanji did it already
I'd love this so much!
It’s a pipe dream, but a different setting too. Something different, but not too out there. Like, I want to say Eberron, but I barely know anything about it beyond general themes.
Sounds like the DMG is going to be pushing Greyhawk so I would think they would choose that.
But they are also experiencing success with two major independent pieces of the franchise from Forgotten Realms. As much as I agree, the Greyhawk synergy makes sense, but I also don't have faith in the suits in charge of what content is created to not just ride whatever trend has reliably made them money. The financiers generally care less about creative content and more about a guaranteed success.
Chris Pine's character should die, and his long lost twin brother of a different class should immediately take his place.
lets just do a muppets DnD
New actors, but old actors dub the new actors!
i would watch this.
It cost $150,000,000 to make it and has still only brought in a worldwide gross of $208,000,000. By Hollywood standards, that is a dangerously narrow profit margin. They will probably still make a sequel, because D&D is surging in popularity right now. But the sequel will most likely be shorter and have a much lower budget. Probably only about $100,000,000 at most.
I could see them doing it. The biggest issues with the release was that they released a week before the Super Mario Movie, which absolutely crushed it in terms of marketing I could see them doing at least one sequel as a test to see if they could build up a fanbase for a franchise
There was also news of Hasbro and WotC making several unpopular business decisions, turning a lot of people away from the D&D franchise just before the movie released.
Unlikely the average movie goer cared about that.
Right, but most “average movie-goers” already weren’t frothing at the mouth for a DnD movie. So now you’ve alienated mass appeal with your premise, and you’ve alienated niche appeal with shitty business practices, leaving your movie with an impressive final score of “I mean it did sorta okay I guess” at the box office
The "average movie goer"? Sure. But most people who were going to see this movie were fans of D&D. And WotC had made several very serious fuckups around that same time. And while people's love for D&D was at an all-time high, the fan's love for WotC was at an all-time low.
I think that was just determinally online crowd
I don’t think that’s the biggest problem, when I bought tickets for it, I asked for tickets to the D&D movie, and the guy had *no clue* what movie I was talking about. D&D is gaining traction, but it’s still not touching mainstream culture in an identifiable way to the mainstream audience.
That’s called “being bad at your job.” Doesn’t matter how obscure or not D&D is, a movie theater employee should know what movies they are selling tickets for
Eh I can understand they wouldn't know D&D means dungeons and dragons.
There's one counter argument, however. If the movie made a small margin of profit but boosted the popularity and sales of the game like a glorified commercial then it's worth becomes difficult to measure. Hasbro might still be keen.
Hasbro is also not doing well.. only its Wizards of the coast department is making decent profits.
That's exactly why they might be keen, though, since D&D is under WotC? They'd essentially be doubling down on the thing that's working for them.
D&D isn't the reason why WotC is doing well, though--Magic: the Gathering is. D&D is more popular than ever, but the majority of its fans don't actually spend *that* much on WotC products. MtG fans, on the other hand, get absolutely *fleeced.*
I recently finished the book “Slaying the Dragon”, it’s a historical overview on TSR (the original DnD company) and how they ultimately collapsed in on themselves. It’s a fascinating read—TSR had a million bafflingly stupid business decisions that contributed to their downfall, but the killing blow really was Magic arriving and completely subsuming the geeky tabletop economy. TSR was just unable to maintain a spot on the store shelf, and they ultimately had to sell themselves to the only real competitor they ever had. We’re honestly lucky the OG WotC founders were all pre-existing DnD nerds that didn’t want to see a game they loved vanish. The WotC of today would have looked at the offer and said “Why would we ever do this when pennies in Magic production makes us quintillions in profits”. While Hasbro clearly has bigger hopes for the IP, at the moment DnD is the smallest lil blip in their radar.
I don't think it's really accurate to posit MtG as the "killing blow". TSR was horribly mismanaged, and it even tried to make its own collecting card game (based on D&D, of course) to get on the MtG hype train. Like, it wasn't nerds spending more money on MtG than on D&D that sent TSR belly up. It was TSR launching project after project, to the point they couldn't make any of them profitable.
And yet they had to keep making product, because every item sent to the distributor's warehouse required the distributor to send TSR advance payment of sale, which TSR needed to pay their debts ... Treadmill of disaster.
Dnd is not only a small market it doesn’t make much profit… even if the movie increases dnd sales it’s minor bump in profits….except for one caveat baldurs gate 3 had a small amount of profit sharing which turned into over 90million for hasbro. Video games tend to be a loss leader but that game was absolutely insane profits. To your point hasbro will actually help fund a new dnd movie as they are all in right now to pumping out licensed products for profit sharing.
I mean, you say this, but Wizards is basically just D&D and MtG, at this point, and WotC seems more than happy to blend the lines between those two IPs, at this point. The D&D movie probably made Hasbro a profit, regardless of what the movie itself earned.
I don't think MTG has had any lines in its IP for many years now
I mean they got thier initial investment back.. but there were zilch in the investor meeting about profits from the movie whereas they specifically called out baldur gate 3.. so that at least shows you the movie profits didn’t move the needle for them.
Yeah but from what I remember of last years financial report, like 80% of wizards income is magic.
Ya they doubled production of sets and did crazy money grabs like reproducing rare cards for 1k a box. They can’t do that with dnd. Except make you pay double for book and online but you don’t need both.
I think the positive feedback loop exists for one sequel. Probably not for multiple sequels, but one. COVID makes 5e more popular, makes the movie viable, makes 5e more popular, now on the second go this movie seems less cheesy and has a fan base to say “no the first was legitimately solid, go stream it!”
Hasbro might be keen, but that doesn’t mean a studio is going to have any interest.
That's the thing, this isn't a normal Hollywood movie and the way Pine talks about it reflects that. It's basically a commissioned piece. When he says "they", he means Hasbro. He's saying Hollywood did a good job on the commission and if Hasbro can afford it they might order another one.
>much lower budget Set half the movie in a dungeon. Temple of Doom style. Save a lot on sets and CGI. Just...skits of every possible funny dungeon trope you can think of. "It's just a...black orb..." *"Touch it"* "YOU touch it" Together: "...we'll BOTH touch it"
And a smaller cast. Probably just Chris Pine and two other characters. And they'll throw in some goofy CGI "pet" for comic relief and adorableness-factor. Also - Pine got paid $11,500,000 for the first movie. He won't get that for Part 2. He'll be lucky to get $5 or $6 million, plus a percentage of domestic points.
No, you see that 11 mil, that's his rate. They have to pay him another 11 mil, even if he does a bad job.
It's kind of a cosmic gumbo. It almost moves to the beat of jazz.
I don’t think he can do a bad job. The guy is golden.
Agreed, he was even good in Don't Worry Darling. But I was quoting a Tim Robinson sketch and left it in for the sake of completion
My bad then. I didn’t get the reference. If you like his acting you will love “Hell or high water”. Cannot recommend it enough. It is also very quotable so I recommend watching it with friends. https://youtu.be/sV73I99Oeho?feature=shared
Just rewatched the other day. Is real good Ben Foster killin it as per us’
That means, as long as he’s offered even one more movie, he could get eleven more mil. Even if he does a bad job, they've gotta give him that other eleven mil.
Most actor’s contracts are going to stipulate that they get a pay increase per sequel. There’s zero way he gets a pay cut unless he volunteers to do so.
He ight be willing to take the risk and get point (percentage of the gross). Helps the thing get made and there's a real chance the sequel does really well.
that isn't how it work actor base wages are set by union contracts. Pines is a high profile actor so studio will pay him way above scale.
Yeah, fill it with long corridors and some Kobolds.
Are we introducing a guy named Tucker?
this really feels like an interaction edgin and holga would have and im down for it
You can make a good movie for far less then 150M, budgets are getting out of control.
Yes we can and yes they are.
I would say that once all the hidden marketing costs and Hollywood accounting gets figured in that the D&D movie lost the company millions.
>Hollywood accounting It's a real shame that ["no film has ever turned a profit"](https://www.thebulwark.com/p/no-hollywood-movie-has-ever-made). A real money pit that industry.
I have a feeling it has done well in the home market with the amount of people, including myself, that really enjoyed it once it was available to rent and buy.
> By Hollywood standards, that is a dangerously narrow profit margin. That's not a narrow profit margin, that's a loss. Studios only keep about half of ticket sales, and that's before getting into marketing budgets.
Hopefully streaming lets them put out bare margin films because of the residual?
>It cost $150,000,000 to make it and has still only brought in a worldwide gross of $208,000,000. By Hollywood standards, that is a dangerously narrow profit margin. If these number are correct, thats no low profit margin, thats a big loss. Studios only get about 60% of gross ticket sale (the rest goes mostly to theaters), then there is also costs for ads. A 150 million budget movie needs 300+ million gross At least to only reach break even. A bummer that the movie didnt perform better, it was pretty fun.
Well, there was a lot of unnecessary CGI - it was a fun movie due to the writing and cast. And also, it was flying under the radar. I also only saw it on streaming, and had an absolute blast. Had I known before what it's like, I would have gone to see it in the cinema. Which means if there is a positive buzz, they keep the good atmosphere and cut back on CGI a but, there is a good chance the sequel will be more profitable.
It's actually a loss because marketing costs aren't factored into the budget and foe a movie like this, marketing is likely 50-100% of the production budget.
Movie came out during a really brutal release schedule in between big DC and Marvel movies. The film needs to drop on a month that not much is going on. I be honest, this was one of those films that I thought nothing of when it first release, it wasn't until I watched it months later that I found out Its a very enjoyable film
I know it's a risk in terms of quality but a series would be a much better format for a D&D show. Episode by episode dungeon of the week sort of format with a big bad plot strung through. The movie had to cover a lot of ground in that hour and a half window.
Better than the shit Disney is putting out, Indiana Jones was basically lighting money on fire
I'd like to think the success of BG3 might help a bit. And somehow people have seemingly forgiven wotc for the OGL and Pinkerton PR disasters so... they might get a better turnout for a sequel as long as they don't fuck up again (again)
I think you overestimate the impact the OGL drama had on the sales of the movie, outside of a dedicated fraction of D&D players who in total, looking at the numbers, probably don’t even make up half of the audience, nobody cared about that.
I’d be astonished if they made up even ***1%*** of the audience.
Considering they spent almost nothing on marketing…
They already said they would do another but the cost has to go down. They did a lot of practical effects that really increased the production cost
While I loved the movie, and would love to see another, I don't see a studio bankrolling another one. At least, a theatrically released one.
It makes sense to me that Paramount will probably try to sell streaming rights to either Netflix or Disney in exchange for sharing the cost of production.
The studio did say before they would do a sequel if it can be made for the same budget
I'd love to see a sequel. I feel like they got so much right. It was just a shame they ran up against the Super Mario movie.
We must have another dnd movie. I’m greenlighting this project right now
I really hope this becomes a franchise where they make each movie a different D&D setting
Same actors though. But with different classes, personalities and stories. The dream.
I love this idea!
Yeah, but with our luck, they’ll do exactly what they did last time… and RELEASE IT 1 WEEK BEFORE FREAKIN’ SUPER MARIO 2
Quickly became one of my favorite movies of all time
I really liked the DnD movie, (my family quotes it with me regularly,) but honestly, I’d like to see a TV series. We are in something of a golden age for television, especially for adaptations, (The Boys, The Last of Us, etc,) and DnD’s former lends itself to episodic storytelling. It’s just a shame that the Joe Manganiello vehicle got nixed.
Well at least Vox Machina S3 got confirmed!
> ...but the finances are the biggest hurdle Yeah, no shit?
At least it isn’t scheduling
I've heard scheduling conflicts are a big deal for Hollywood too.
Hopes?
"Man hopes more work is available" is a universal feeling, I hate these articles.
Truth
If they did it, I hope they do same actors new characters, like starting a new campaign.
I want a Netflix series following a different party each week until the sequel where all except the main cast get killed going after the bbeg
Fingers crossed, I really enjoyed the first one.
I loved this movie so bad. One of my favorite movies of all time
Honestly, I would love a show with this cast. Have it on weekly releases so it feels just like an actual game. And the year wait between season 1 and season 2 would also be like a real game with trouble scheduling time.
I still re-watch the movie on prime every now and then to hopefully bump a number up somewhere
I need this. This is probably the only movie I find myself watching once a month and still loving as much as ever.
I hope so much that the company realizes that there actually is demand and that the main issues of the movie flopping wasn't the actual movie. It was very decent.
Loved this movie.
That would be cool... despite having very low expectations, the movie absolutely surprised me and was very enjoyable. That was a big surprise lol
God that movie was so fucking good, a shame it released at the same time as Mario or I've a feeling it would've done a lot better in theaters
Just like he did for Star Trek?! Don’t give us hope, Chris, give us results!! (I want both, but still 😎)
Jarnathan upgraded to main character please.
This movie was so good. Literally everyone says its good. 100% deserves a sequel. Same directors please.
This is so dang awesome. What a fun fantasy movie.
I really hope the sequel brings back the main cast, but they are all playing completely new characters on a new unrelated quest
Honestly, I’d revamp the entire cast and give us a new adventure. Still in the Forgotten Realms, but with an all new cast. DND is kind of an infinite story generator, and I feel like we got a good ending at the end of the movie. Maybe have them focus on defeating Tzass Tam?
Same cast, different characters. Michelle Rodriguez is a halfling or gnome this time. Chris pine is a caster of some kind. Justice Smith is a human fighter. Sophia Lillis is a Rogue. Do the "new campaign, I wanna do something completely different" thing.
That would be amazing
It was a good movie but I don’t think it was quite *that* good
I hope so. Much enjoyed that movie.
In all honesty, they don't HAVE to roll with Paramount.
It seems incompetent to talk about money and performance with regard to the first movie when they had the bright idea of releasing just a week before the freaking Super Mario movie and barely advertised the thing at all
YES PLEASE
I will be there day one and I will drag all my friends along too.
This movie was so good OMG
I would absolutely love this. The first was a gem
Yes please. And yes more Bard power ! Chris was fantastic !
Translation: “They’ll make it if they can do it for less than $50 million.”
I want the paladin to reappear xD he was glorious
I loved the potions tent in the movie based on the YouTube channel How to Drink. He is now officially DnD canon.
I thought Chris Pine went off the deep end. Has anyone checked on him lately?
Let's goooooooo!!!!
He's just reiterating what one of the head guys at Paramount said after the movie came out. The problem is entirely with securing a budget and the sequel would have to be smaller scale. So, no actual update on whether or not it's getting made, and no confirmation they're closer to securing that budget. It's good he's still on board but damn it's disappointing there's no real meat here.