BadAtGender

POT 1 1. Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring 2. Lord Of The Rings; Return Of The King 3. The Dark Knight Rises 4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 5. The Avengers POT 2 1. Frozen 2. The Dark Knight 3. Finding Nemo 4. Jurassic Park 5. Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers I was totally expecting Frozen to lose the last bracket, so I had to stare at the selections for a bit and wonder where The Lion King went.

I suppose I tend to grade things on a 5 point scale: 1 - I couldn't finish watching it, or it was quite insufferable to actually do so 2 - I didn't like it 3 - I enjoyed it, but there were problems 4 - I liked it and would probably watch again. 5 - Something in the movie spoke to me in a strong, personal way. MCU: IM1 - 4 TIH - 3 IM2 - 2 Thor - 5 CA1 - 4 TA - 3 IM3 - 4 Thor2 - 4 CA2 - 3 Other Marvel (ignoring anything I can't remember well enough to grade): X-Men - 4 (Possibly dropping to 3 over time) X2 - 4/5 X3 - 2 Spider-Man - 4 (Possibly dropping to 3 over time) Spider-Man 2 - 4/5 Spider-Man 3 - 2 FF - 3 FF2 - 3 WolvO - 3 XMFC - 3 TASM - 3/4 Wolv - 3/4 Daredevil - 2 DC (recent) BB - 4 TDK - 5 TDKR - 4 SR - 3 GL - 2 MOS - 4 DC (historical) Superman - 3/4 Superman 2 - 3 Batman - 3/4 Batman Returns - 3 BatForever - 1 Others Spawn - 1 Hellboy - 3/4 Hellboy 2 - 3/4 Green Hornet - 3 The Incredibles - 5 Hancock - 3

These are all very specific numbers.

1. How to Train Your Dragon 22. Big Hero 63. The Boxtrolls4. Edge of Tomorrow5. Maleficent6. Jupiter Ascending7. Cinderella8. Lucy9. Fas7 & Furious 10. Into the Woods

Okay, the list isn't so bad since they at least had most of the truly great ones on there. The order is all wrong though.

It's kinda funny, but it seems if Disney had decided they wanted Frozen to beat IM3 DOM (and delayed the video release a month to allow it to get there) it would be much better assured to beat it WW.

Somewhere between 12 and 20 billion yen.

Marvel, especially at this point, is very focused on the overall franchise product. The films have this very committee driven feel: they need to have the look right (one that doesn't stray too far from the original comics), they have to have a balance between humor and action without tilting too far one way or the other, they have to have some prominent Easter eggs, one or two in-or-post credits scenes, and several things that connect them to other films. As it tends to pan out, Marvel's films are very safe: they are engineered to the point where it's pretty much guaranteed that they won't suck (and indeed, none of them do. Even IM2 does have elements that are enjoyable.) But they also for the most part don't reach too far on an individual basis. Director vision is (at this point) pretty much non-existent: pretty much any mid-level director of talent could be slotted in to take the helm of a film and it would turn out the same. If you have any knowledge of the comics, you have a pretty good idea what any given character will be like if/when they show up in the movies. DC, well, we really only have one film to go on, if we're talking about shared-world series. But looking back at the history of DC movies, we see that there's a bit of a different trend. The production control doesn't seem to be as strong and they're willing to let individual directors play around to achieve the look and feel they'd like for an individual film. This is pretty much the case for all non-MCU Marvel films, too. What it generally means is that there's a greater chance an individual film can suck, but also the chance it brings something really new and surprising to the table. I doubt Christopher Nolan would have been able to give us the brilliance of The Dark Knight if he had been doing it within the MCU. And whatever faults you lay on MoS, the film does have Snyder's distinctive look that's very different from any previous Superman film... or anything out of the MCU. Now, whether that remains true going forward with the DCU films remains to be seen: the last time there was a lot of producer meddling to try and set up a shared-world series like the MCU, we got Green Lantern, so there's a cause for concern. It's entirely possible there shared world just won't work, especially if they're going to let the directors play with their own visions. However, I hope that's the route they do go: Marvel films are fun, but I do enjoy seeing someone try something new with the characters. From the history of the two comics companies, these two approaches actually make a lot of sense. Marvel, from the 1960s on, was created as a shared world, with all the characters inhabiting the same timeline and able to affect each-other. This was a big change from before, where characters could crossover, but tended to inhabit their own reality. DC... started many attempts to copy that. However, the DCU wasn't constructed as a whole: it was assembled piecemeal from not only individual comics about Batman and Superman and such, but also from the characters of other companies that DC acquired over time, such as the SHAZAM Captain Marvel. It's like... at a certain point there are things that are difficult to reconcile because different characters have different worldbuilding considerations. (For an excellent article about this, see Chris Sim's discussion on "The Problem": http://comicsalliance.com/dc-comics-marvel-golden-age-silver-age-comics-history/) Going forward, Marvel is likely to have an overall better product. They're predisposed to make sure nothing bad comes out. DC's probably going to vary wildly in quality. But they should have a few that really shine because of it. I'm still quite excited to see the JLA on film. Even if it's flawed.

Straight action is really strange to say. Is Lone Survivor ineligible? What about Captain Phillips?

Furious 6.

TD YD Title (Click to View) Studio Daily Gross % +/- YD / LW Theaters / Avg Gross To-Date Day 1 1 Captain America: The Winter Soldier BV $4,805,702 -31% - 3,938 $1,220 $113,026,031 6 2 2 Noah Par. $1,106,111 -33% -58% 3,571 $310 $76,388,482 13 3 3 Divergent LG/S $766,168 -25% -51% 3,631 $211 $116,600,609 20 4 4 God's Not Dead Free $685,620 -16% -11% 1,758 $390 $34,718,397 20 5 5 The Grand Budapest Hotel FoxS $530,617 -22% -25% 1,263 $420 $34,911,349 34 6 6 Muppets Most Wanted BV $336,557 -26% -48% 3,052 $110 $43,169,947 20 7 7 Mr. Peabody & Sherman Fox $293,260 -26% -49% 2,931 $100 $103,128,774 34 8 8 Sabotage (2014) ORF $207,147 -20% -43% 2,486 $83 $9,531,399 13 9 11 Bad Words Focus $144,337 -21% -30% 1,074 $134 $6,406,092 27 10 9 Non-Stop Uni. $137,135 -31% -55% 1,724 $80 $88,584,415 41 11 12 300: Rise of An Empire WB $135,595 -21% -63% 1,555 $87 $104,467,382 34 12 10 Need for Speed BV $129,297 -32% -59% 1,779 $73 $41,272,613 27 13 13 The LEGO Movie WB $103,304 -21% -56% 1,350 $77 $250,963,732 62 14 14 Cesar Chavez LGF $68,978 -23% -49% 664 $104 $4,826,538 13 - - Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (IMAX) WB $31,614 +4% - 37 $854 $275,490 6 - - Son of God Fox $30,019 -16% -69% 481 $62 $58,641,103 41 - - Frozen BV $29,108 -19% -19% 321 $91 $399,030,622 139 - - Frankie & Alice (2014) LGF $27,581 -19% - 171 $161 $439,479 6 - - Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club LGF $25,553 -27% -69% 425 $60 $15,744,471 27 - - The Nut Job ORF $25,386 -14% -19% 285 $89 $63,587,037 83

Oh, fuck yes!

Huh. Really going to push for a second wind at that point, then. Could be a big boost. Historically, how do films tend to drop after GW?

It's weird discussing movies like this. Even when I enjoyed the movie, I still feel like a hater.

No! All must have the same opinion!

While the grosses are down a lot from before the video release, it's stabilizing pretty well at this point. It'll get there even without tricks.

TD YD Title (Click to View) Studio Daily Gross % +/- YD / LW Theaters / Avg Gross To-Date Day 1 1 Captain America: The Winter Soldier BV $6,977,056 +12% - 3,938 $1,772 $108,220,329 5 2 2 Noah Par. $1,640,014 +31% -55% 3,571 $459 $75,282,371 12 3 3 Divergent LG/S $1,025,397 +28% -47% 3,631 $282 $115,834,441 19 4 4 God's Not Dead Free $819,273 +25% +1% 1,758 $466 $34,032,777 19 5 5 The Grand Budapest Hotel FoxS $680,295 +35% -16% 1,263 $539 $34,380,732 33 6 7 Muppets Most Wanted BV $457,211 +23% -41% 3,052 $150 $42,833,390 19 7 6 Mr. Peabody & Sherman Fox $394,508 -3% -42% 2,931 $135 $102,835,514 33 8 8 Sabotage (2014) ORF $259,163 +25% -45% 2,486 $104 $9,324,252 12 9 9 Non-Stop Uni. $197,405 +35% -46% 1,724 $115 $88,447,280 40 10 10 Need for Speed BV $191,279 +35% -56% 1,779 $108 $41,143,316 26 11 11 Bad Words Focus $182,439 +33% -28% 1,074 $170 $6,261,755 26 12 12 300: Rise of An Empire WB $171,639 +26% -63% 1,555 $110 $104,331,787 33 13 13 The LEGO Movie WB $130,765 +8% -54% 1,350 $97 $250,860,428 61 14 14 Cesar Chavez LGF $89,482 +28% -56% 664 $135 $4,757,560 12 - - Frozen BV $36,014 +35% -6% 321 $112 $399,001,514 138 - - Son of God Fox $35,839 +20% -67% 481 $75 $58,611,084 40 - - Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club LGF $35,088 +46% -65% 425 $83 $15,718,918 26 - - Frankie & Alice (2014) LGF $33,933 +24% - 171 $198 $411,898 5 - - Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (IMAX) WB $30,744 +22% - 37 $831 $244,187 5 - - Gravity WB $29,991 +29% +116% 255 $118 $273,658,529 187 - - The Nut Job ORF $29,510 +14% -18% 285 $104 $63,561,651 82

A week or two ago, a friend asked me what comic book movie I'm most excited about. I thought for a moment and then told him none of them, really. Then I thought some more and said DoFP, because childhood nostalgia goes a long way. (And then I mentioned BH6, but that's for other reasons entirely.) I'll still go to a number of them, and probably enjoy most of them, but they are getting a bit tiring. It's not that they're bad, but they've become such linchpins for the movie industry that they don't really reach for anything. They put in a lot of effort to make sure they don't suck, sure, but there's no effort to stretch and try anything new, either. Few things in any of these films are truly a surprise that provides an emotional response.

Could, but highly unlikely. We're talking Spirited Away levels of business. Or beyond it, actually, considering the population of Japan has declined in the past 12 years. It does really showcase how much more of a movie-going country SK is than Japan.

I did some back-of-envelope calculations, and in order for Japan to match Korea's admissions to population rate, it would need about 25-26 million total.

Also, there's the problem that we're never shown any real connection that should provide the tension. The film could have delved into that more, but didn't. Instead it left it up to people to infer the connection from knowledge of the comics.

One thing I will say in favor of CA2, and the MCU films in general, is they're not afraid to do things with big implications on their universe. Getting rid of SHIELD was a change I didn't expect. (Oddly, it's a change that could make the TV show a lot better. I may need to check it out again at some point to see.)

I completely disagree. There was a lot of clever choreography in Thor 2's climax. CA2 may have been "bigger", but that doesn't mean it was better. I didn't laugh during it. I didn't go "wow" at any moment. When the carriers started firing, I pretty much shrugged, because the way they filmed it with Hill hitting the button didn't feel "strong". But, hey, to each their own.

Maybe I'm getting old. I suppose I mostly agree with Tele about this. The movie was okay, but never specifically wowed me at any point. There was a lot of potential, but very little of it was realized. A lot of people have said that this is the most Avengers-like film of Phase 2, and that's correct, but considering how I don't think Avengers was especially great, either, that's not high praise. CA2 feels like Avengers-lite, with all the disjointed plot transitions therein. If only they had gone for a taught political thriller, full of conspiracy and shadows. But they never bothered to really capitalize on the sense of Cap being on the run from a system gone bad. If only they had really played up the connection between Cap and Bucky, to make the conflict very personal and harrowing. But we just get two real interactions between them and some surface reminiscing from Cap. If only we had gotten a real sense of character from, well, anyone in the film. But the film was too expansive and effects laden to really hunker down with a few core characters to get their motivations and such. (Marvel, I am BEGGING you to give us more Maria Hill. Cobie Smulders is fantastic in the role and has been criminally under-utilized.) I can accept all those issues, though. Once I realized that it was going to be just another action & effects film, I mostly enjoyed it. Although I have to say the climax was pretty underwhelming. There wasn't a bunch of wow factor at any point when the helicarriers started blowing each other up. Contrast it to Thor 2, which had a hellaciously fun and inventive final action sequence. There was a lot of humor and cleverness in the portals. Or to IM3, which, although a bit overblown, did manage to twist things up with Pepper right at the end. So, not a film, I hated, but it didn't overwhelm me. I suppose I'm just whelmed. Well except for the direction. That was pretty poor. I wish Marvel had actually gone and gotten Paul Greengrass to direct it. Because he can actually make things tense.