Porthos

Buzz and interest is a funny thing as there's little rhyme and reason to it. I don't think Taylor Swift having a meaningful role in the film would mean all that much in the end. Not adding a huge amount to the OW, that is. On the other hand, I think Lady Gaga being in Joker 2 *IS* very meaningful, despite her not being a "draw" in and of herself in some of her previous films. (yes, I know the obvious difference between the two situations so no need to point it out, thankyewveddymuch) Think of it more as synergy/force multiplier than anything else. Or rather, more positive prerelease buzz = more hype = more initial interest = stronger opening, no matter what the actual reason is for the "more positive prerelease buzz" at the beginning of the equation. Now, of course, the smaller the role, the less of a deal this is. Including all the way down to nothing burger. Still, I do think we collectively sometimes swing too far into the "Nothing that happens on social media matters" side of things versus the "buzz is buzz no matter what the source". Taylor Swift being in this film would add buzz, at least as long as it isn't a blink-and-you-miss-it type deal. And as I often say, we ignore/discount buzz (positive or negative) at our peril.

I said nothing about gullibility, even by implication. A great deal of them like to "hunt for clues" as part of a social pastime with friends on the internet. Very few of them are actually at It's Always Sunny level of conspiracy board thinking. Now as for Marvel winking and nodding along? I tend to think we'd be hearing through backchannels/spoilermongers if there was a large chance that Swift isn't in this film. So I would agree there that Marvel better rip off that bandaid pdq lest they get a decent sized backlash on their hands. (not that the backlash would amount to much, but film studios should try to head off controversy, even if it is mostly meaningless in the end)

I would point out that Swifties are (in)famous for... looking for hidden meanings in any and all Taylor Swift material. So it is not exactly a surprise to see people leap to a conclusion here. Might be intentional, might not be. Might also be Confirmation Bias, as well as some folks playing to the audience for likes and clicks. Either way, helps build buzz for the film. How much buzz and how much that actually matters in the grand scheme of things is more debatable.

... Yes? "Penny wise, pound foolish" is a(n often) forgotten truism for a reason.

To the surprise of absolutely no one... ‘Fallout’ Renewed For Season 2 At Amazon (Deadline)

They had semi-fast travel unlocked, obviously. ======== The travel was one of the few complaints I had about this, actually. Mentioned it in a previous post with the movements of Wilzig, but it did pop up in a few other areas. Didn't bug me enough to overly affect the grade, but it is something I noted. Don't know how long we're enforcing spoiler bars in a series that was binged, so I'm still holding off on some things. Started a rewatch and some things that irked me on the initial watch, didn't when seeing the whole picture. But other things I noted didn't quite fit as presented so far. Am holding off on complete judgement in case it's brought up in a future season. But the one that bugs me the most after a partial rewatch is that FWIW, Todd Howard has confirmed that BIG SPOILERS AHEAD It is interesting that what looks to be the most controversial storyline came from the person on the production team who has been playing the games since the first Fallout since 1997 and Bethesda was somewhat talked into it, if I read between the lines right. ====== That nit aside, I am very much looking forward to S2 and am... curious if some of the dangling threads from S1 are gonna be tugged at or not. NB: FWIW, I absolutely agree with you about the eight episode complaint. At least these weren't short episodes, for the most part. 12 or 13 episode order probably have been preferable regardless.

That might have been "half an episode" of something seen that has a longer normal run time, but it was a tight and tense episode. And even calling it "half an episode" isn't truly fair as the immediate situation and problem presented in this episode was handled adroitly (and logically, I might add). I think it's better to compare it to a... Well Republic serial, which is what a large part of this franchise was based on in the first place. Very well done. The Batch has pushed its chips "all in", as the saying goes. Now we see the start of the endgame.

Saw that, laughed a little. Presume I'd laugh even more had I seen Civil War and known the exact context. But I did make something for you, shamelessly ripped off of a reddit conversation: (as always, click to embiggen)

Thanks for both replies. 👍 Reminds me a bit of Tulsi Gabbard where she had a couple of core beliefs (and even those could be tossed overboard if needed), but otherwise would go where the wind/money would take them. Especially once they find out how lucrative it is. (I make the Gabbard analogy because folks who have followed her closely for decades [i.e. me] aren't surprised one whit to see the direction she's taken, given her history/background in Hawaii back in the '00s)

The film It, not Joker. 🙂 The Italicization was a little hard to see, I think.

Pulling this out of the Civil War thread as to not be Off Topic Yes, let's take a look at Sasha Stone. What the fucking hell happened to her? Saw some stray commentary off and on in the CW thread about her being a right wing loon and that didn't match up at all with my memories of her being a stereotypical HRC supporter who was the type to blast the Susan Sarandon's of the world for giving us Trump in the first place. Took a look at her Substack just a few minutes ago (which I am not linking to on purpose) and.. Y I K E S Again... What the fucking hell happened to her? Did COVID break her that badly? Case of Being Terminally Online Leads to Brainrot? Oppositional Defiance Disorder thanks to butting heads with too many Other Terminally Online (so-called) Leftists? Cause while she's always been... let's say opinionated and blunt with her style of commentary, holy hell I wasn't expecting that. Especially her worshiping of Tucker Carlson. Biz-zare. No, seriously, what the fuck happened to her? Was this a gradual thing where she kept inching and inching and inching before leaping over the slippery slope, or did it come somewhat out of the blue. Because that ain't the Sasha Stone *I* remember. Gonna tag @Cmasterclay coz he was one of the first people I remember mentioning Stone's Face Heel Turn as well as @BoxOfficeFangrl and @Cap as they're both far far faaaaaar more in tune with the Awards Circuit than I am.

*double checks something* Hmmmmmm..... It's OW looks to be adjusting to around $148m, more or less. Still need another 22m, though. *checks something else* Anyone care to guess what Deadpool's OW is, adj'ed? At least according to the adjustment given currently by the-numbers?

Wellll, I said legs "can be all over the place" when it comes to anime, because.... they can be all over the place. Take The Boy and the Heron. That has something like 3.6x legs. That's also one of the most acclaimed anime films in recent memory. It also started from a low base. But it also shows the "oh, it's actually relatable to a Western audience that doesn't regularly consume any particular anime series good? Wow, okay, I'll check it out" factor that a lot of anime has to fight through. On the other hand, if it has more upfront interest, that could cut into that sort of WOM making it more "normal" as you say. I think it's gonna be the "initial hesitation"/"overcoming stigma of anime" which is the biggest unknown here. Once we get a gauge of that, then it becomes... Well, maybe not easier, but at least it sharpens the picture a bit.

According to the Never Wrong Wikipedia™: Okay, here's the problem in a nutshell. The next anime film that does more than 100m DOM will be the first one. The next anime film that doesn't have the word "Pokémon" in the title that does more than *50m* DOM will be the first one. Now it is true that after adjusting to inflation (using the-numbers), Pokémon: The First Movie adjusts to something like 65.8/181.8 (note: Wed opener). On the other hand, that was released around the height of the Pokémon craze in the US. 2024 is also a far far faaaaaaaar different movie going environment than it was in 1999 which makes inflation adjustments a rough cudgel even with the best of comps. If we must bring in The Clone Wars (which, again, is a terrible comp for a long list of reasons), that is currently adjusting to something like 21.9m OW/52.8 DOM. 22m OW isn't too far away from a couple of the more recent high profile anime films lately. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, for instance, opened at 21.1 back in 2022. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train opened up at 21.2, though that was one of the very first films to come back as theaters were re-opening so something an interesting dynamic of pent up demand to see ANYTHING versus limited theaters/seat restrictions (as can be seen by the other Demon Slayer releases not doing as well [though, yes, I KNOW it's more complicated than that]). Past those films it gets rough sledding, pretty fast. (BOM used since the-numbers doesn't have an easy chart reference for anime films [at least that I can find]) Or, to put it another way, WotR has to "prove it". Still, I think looking at 25m-35m OW might not be too bad as an optimistic viewpoint right now with 20m-25m as "default" range, sight unseen.

That's what I presumed as well. Perhaps useful as a range, but the very fact that it's self-selected from folks who install the extension injects problems, though perhaps just adding another layer of problems since the very concept of like:dislike is based on self-selected behavior in the first place. Perhaps best as a yardstick against similar projects. But then we comes to the bugaboo about just what is a similar project to this. In the end? In the end the trailer is very popular and well-liked. Determining how well liked is... probably a bit of a waste of time.