I do miss the click wheel.

Sounds like you’re *building* an iPod at that point 😉. But sounds cool.

What do you need to mod about one?

“Are there lyrics?”
“Gon-Doors need not sing.”

(I’ll probably dig that up to add A3 into the mix now that I think about it.)

Well, I can tell you that Endgame actually DID brute force its way to $2b in a month 😁.

I did track A2 vs A1 in a spreadsheet somewhere just because I was curious at the time to see how long it would take for A2 to fall behind A1 (essentially tracking the bigger opening vs slower burn process).

The first film had a really long run- was still playing in theaters for Earth Day in April after it was already out on DVD. And I think it has the 2nd longest run of #1 weekends of any films outside of the 80’s (when theater run models were very different) except for Titanic.

And, if Star Trek IV (or, if you prefer, Star Wars Rebels) has taught us anything, audiences love to save the whales. 😉 🐋

An escape where they can feel like you’re riding these animals or diving with them, hang gliding through the air, or taking a general nature walk through a tropical environment.

Oh, to add to my first point there- I believe that immersiveness provides a combination zoo/aquarium/vacation type experience in the middle of winter/holidays when most folks aren’t/can’t travel/visit to those types of experiences in real life.

Varang is incredible in this film.

In the end, though, I think the franchise helps to keep perspective on fandom in general-as mighty as any fandom may be, they (and their online presence/chatter) are not the totality of what makes a film successful (though they can be key in a big launch, longer theatrical runs can circumvent that).

And, yeah, having 1 of the top 3 theme park rides in the US (at the biggest resort destination in the world) doesn’t hurt, either. There’s probably tons of ppl that were introduced via the ride who then went back to watch the films (or did so in line given how long the wait times still are for it).

The story tends to be simple but has emotional cores that appeal across ages and languages (thus appealing to older family members and doing such high numbers overseas in China and France, etc).

I feel it’s the immersiveness into a fantastically exaggerated nature. That alone pulls people to see it at a theater- and, more importantly, it’s doing so (during holiday breaks) among general audiences/parents/relatives that don’t normally rush out to fandom-based event films. Which gives it legs.