I can also see Sam Elliott riding the film on its coattails and finding a way to a nomination. He's not in the movie for long, but he's easily gotten the most to chew on when it comes to the supporting cast, and with this film expecting to sweep so many categories already, he could join in too. Also helps that Supporting Actor's a pretty barren slate this year.
Anecdotal of course, but whenever I talk to my parents about movies, the one thing they keep asking me is when Bohemian Rhapsody comes out. I've also seen a lot of excitement from my own circle of friends and a lot of the Facebook groups I'm a part of. Don't see Han's lofty predictions, but I feel like a 40M opening and a total similar to SOC seems about right.
Gaga fans might have made the film more presales-driven. When it comes to 8, almost all the actresses skew towards older audiences, or at the very least those who don't buy tickets right away. Even with Rihanna, she was far from the focal point of the film's marketing. Little Monsters are so crazy in love with Gaga they went out of their way to make bots to create fake Venom reviews on Twitter.
Yeah, but...Ant-Man and the Wasp isn't some incredible, game-changing masterpiece. It's just a fun, goofy Marvel flick. I'd somewhat get it if someone said Venom was better than Lawrence of Arabia, but...