John Harris

16.8%, I believe.

Friday’s number was underwhelming but don’t underestimate the power of the Marvel Saturday!

We will be talking about this weekend for a long time. Everyone knew this was gonna be huge, but did anyone predict over $350 mil DOM OW?!

I'm all out of superlatives to describe the numbers we're seeing. As a fan of Marvel Comics since long before many of you were born, I can't tell you how thrilling it is to see the world finally catch up to what I always knew to be true: Stan/Jack/Steve created a modern mythology for the ages. And in the right hands, these characters can appeal to EVERYONE. What a ride this has been since 2008!

My crowd cheered at all the right parts, and there was loud sobbing in a few places, too. And solid applause afterward. I loved it!

I started reading comics (Marvel-only, of course!) waaaaaay back in 1974, and these films are basically my childhood dreams come to life. The fact that the rest of the world seems to be enjoying this series as much as I have is just icing on the cake! Iron Man was always a fringe character to me as a kid - he was OK, I bought his monthly comic faithfully... but he was never a favorite like Spider-Man, Hulk, or the FF. Yet Downey has created such a memorable character, IM is probably my favorite on-screen superhero now. Just think, we almost had Tom Cruise in the role! (That may have turned out fine, but it's hard to even imagine ANYONE else in the role now!)

Richard Roeper gave Endgame 4/4 stars, and says Robert Downey deserves an Oscar nod; his performance is "great acting in a great film." Wow. I would love to see Downey get an Oscar nom for Endgame, sort of as an all-encompassing nod to his complete body of work as Tony Stark, which has been consistently great and sometimes amazing. Really can't wait to see this now! Only 6 hours to go!

No worries, my fault. I'm in it just for fun, then.

Gah, I guess I'm too late. I honestly haven't heard any real numbers, so here's my guesses in case you want to take pity on me: DOM: $303,115,083 OV: $725,230,478 WW: $1,028,345,561 China: 1,777,000,001

Thought it was pretty great fun for the first 90 minutes or so, but it ran out of steam during the overlong final battle. Could've used a little more fat trimmed off of it, but overall it was a good time at the theater. Will be interesting to see the WOM on this film; the audience I saw it with seemed to enjoy it but there wasn't a crazy amount of buzz afterward.

Just saw an early screening... and was very disappointed. It's not terrible but, man, I expected so much more. It starts out strong but drags badly through the middle before really going off the rails at the end. The crowd I saw it with seemed equally unimpressed. I so wanted to like/love this movie, as I love Unbreakable and enjoyed Split a lot, also. I was hoping Shyamalan's career was back on track, but this seems like another step in the wrong direction. Way too many WTF moments, especially in the third act. I expect it to sink like a stone after this weekend's strong opening. But I also thought Aquaman's legs would be poor, so what do I know?

Really wanted to love Aquaman, but it's a bloated, campy mess. Momoa is game and the effects are pretty amazing, but the script is all over the place. The dialogue is straight out of the "Batman & Robin" handbook, packed with cringy misfires. I sat in a packed theater last night and it was silent as a tomb throughout, except for one well-timed pee joke. DC went way too dark/serious in MOS, BvS, and JL; now it's boomeranged too far in the other direction, opting for "Superfriends"-level of good/bad guys and weightless threats against our hero. I had high hopes for this one, but it seems it's time to put the DCEU to pasture and start over. I'll be watching the legs on this one carefully, as I'll be shocked if it doesn't drop like a stone over the coming weeks. Maybe the holidays will save it, though.

Monday numbers yet?

That Solo number looks bad... but it’s awfully early on Friday to make anything other than educated guesses right now. Deadline’s numbers are notorious for jumping all over the place during the early part of the weekend.

It's a valid point. OTOH, those are the key events of Han's pre-ANH life that we as fans want to know about/care about. Would it have been a better film if each of the events you mentioned came after a "Six Months Later" notice? I generally prefer compressed, tight storytelling to episodic epics (which is why I just don't love "The Godfather" as much as most people - sorry!), so I was OK with it. Yeah, it felt fan-fictiony to a point, but there were some surprises/heretofore unknown elements, too. Becket and Q'ira are key figures in young Han's life that we never heard of in the OT, for example, and they're intriguing characters in this film, so it's not all fan service.

I get that these weekday numbers are nothing special, but the use of the word "save" here is kinda comical. Does IW's BO need saving in any way, shape, or form?

Lucky? Other films avoided these two weekends, thinking they'd be crushed by IW's first and second weekends... then the early opening made May 4-6 and May 11-13 IW's 2nd and 3rd weekends instead. No luck involved, just a smart business move by Disney, moving IW up a week.

Hey, are you sure The Wizard is OK with you revealing the magic that goes on behind the curtain???

I'm late to the party. What movie are you referring to?

Wow, amazing run for T'Challa so far! It will be very interesting to see how Infinity War does after this. Does Marvel pull a WB and put together one last Black-Panther-centric IW trailer before May? j/k As Marvel is nowhere near as desperate as DC was going into JL... Marvel's characters are an embarrassment of riches at this point. I knew BP would be big but certainly didn't expect it to be The Avengers big!

Does Feige need an excuse to give the shield to Bucky? Bucky took the mantle in the comics before Sam Wilson did. I personally preferred the Winter Soldier's ascension to Captain America in the comics to Sam's. Fighting in a war alongside Steve, thought dead for decades but instead suffering an even worse fate - turning against everything he'd fought for... and still becoming the ultimate American hero. All of that still fits in the MCU. The movies' Sam Wilson just doesn't have that interesting of a back-story where his rise to becoming CA would be all that amazing. That being said, I'd be OK if they go with Sam-as-Cap. I love Anthony Mackie in the role, even though he's quite a bit different from the more serious Sam in the comics. Seeing him as Cap would be fun, but it would be more of a triumph for movie-Bucky. We'll see how Barnes behaves in IW, which will be the first movie we've seen "Good Bucky" in from start to finish since CA:TFA; I'm sure there will be clues if he's headed toward becoming Cap. It's an interesting debate, because really it should come down to who (most believably) would movie-Steve *want* to take up the mantle when he's gone. An argument could be made for both. Steve obviously trusts Sam with his life at this point, definitely more than anyone who is still alive at this point. But he gave up nearly everything out of loyalty to Bucky in Civil War. And I loved the dynamic between Sam and Bucky in CW; they could continue to make a formidable duo if/when one of them takes up the shield.

Film Snob Alert! Personally, I'm only excited for one of those films (Avengers 4), and mildly interested in two others (SW9, TS4). Probably won't see the other three. There are still plenty of artsy flicks out there for ya. Movies like Deadpool and the X-Men movies make Fox enough dough to finance stuff like "Three Billboards..." It all works out!

To paraphrase Dr Ian Malcolm: Marvel is throwing together every hero they have in a team-up film the likes of which Hollywood has never seen; how can we have any idea what to expect (regarding IW’s ceiling)??? May 2018 is gonna be crazy around here!

GOTG2 should win the Worldwide battle, which is cool - I loved both movies.

It's strange: I've seen the Heston Apes movie a dozen times or more, and consider it one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever. But as I type this, I still haven't seen any of Reeves' Ape films. I couldn't tell you exactly why: Everyone I know who has seen them recommends them highly. I guess I'm just not that keen on seeing how the apes takeover happened. Seems too sad/tragic... not a fun watch at all. I hear that by pretty early in the trilogy you end up rooting against the humans and for the apes - again, not a take I'm really that interested in seeing. I'm sure I'll watch them eventually, but the excitement just isn't there for me.