TServo2049

I never heard anything about that.

But weren't these films greenlit BEFORE GOTG broke out? Ant-Man was, at least. Oh wait, you mean the people at Disney trusted Marvel would pull off another GOTG-level success? In hindsight, isn't Ant-Man is going to do what a lot of people early on thought GOTG was going to do? Oh, how a breakout hit can change expectations.

Good grief, this makes me feel really lucky and really guilty - my main venue, Regal Hacienda Crossings 20 in Dublin, CA, is consistently a good experience. Sure, the tickets are $13 just for a regular 2D evening, but I go alone, and I don't buy concessions. They don't seem to be "forcing" 3D on anybody, the largest auditoriums are almost always 2D these days (except IMAX of course - even RPX seems to have gone almost exclusively 2D for the last 2 years, Iron Man 3 is the last time I remember the RPX being 3D only), if a film is playing 3D there are always plenty of convenient 2d show times. All the showings I go to are well-behaved, nobody talks loudly during the movie, kids only make noise on occasion, nobody texts, only extremely rarely does someone not silence their phone, and even though there are sometimes people who leave their popcorn behind, nobody makes serious messes. The auditorium is always clean when I come in for a showing, the sound never has problems, the projection doesn't have problems (the last time I had to complain to management was when they didn't open the curtains/masking to the right aspect ratio for Captain America 2 - though now, no theater I've been to seems to adjust the screen masking at all, they just leave it fully open). Just regular 2D is excellent on its own there. All the major chain theaters in my area seem to be on about the same level. Even the old 6-screen that's closest to my house, though it gets crowded due to the small lobby size, is good, everyone quiets down during the movie. The East Bay must just be extremely well-behaved, with managers that actually give a darn. Again, I feel guilty that I haven't experienced major theater problems anywhere since something like 1999.

And over on KJ, there's another argument about how much potential business TDKR lost because of Aurora, and whether the shooting means TDKR was not a disappointment compared to AOU. I swear, the same half-dozen arguments surrounding TDK, TDKR, MOS and now AOU are going to last for eternity. (What did you BO people incessantly argue about before 2008?)

It's the existing Phase 2 showdown. Though there should be a TIH one. Brandon and Ray both would have done it, I'm sure.

I don't know what leaves me more speechless, the spots themselves, or that they had already made 51 spots earlier. Good grief, how many TV spots do movies HAVE these days? (I rarely watch commercial TV, I DVR and fast-forward through the ads if I do, so I never see this stuff.)

And if you take away IO's first weekend too: JW's total since 6/22: $208.4m IO's total since 6/22: $215.9m These two are joined at the hip. Let no movie put asunder.

I was hoping a Chronicles of Prydain live-action adaptation would come out of the success of LOTR/Narnia, but then the high-fantasy bust of the late 00s happened, and then Prince of Persia/John Carter failed, and Disney came into much more lucrative franchises, so I don't entertain any notion that we're going to get a Black Cauldron do-over. Shouldn't Pinocchio be left off the list too? A non-Disney version is in development, just like with The Little Mermaid.

MinaTakla, you apparently don't realize that we here at BOF loathe juvenile humor in animated films with every fiber of our being, and pray to the cinema gods every night to smite every animated film that is not mature and nuanced. Or at least that's the impression I get from people wanting Minions to fail, previously wanting Home to fail and DreamWorks to go out of business, and so on. I didn't really enjoy Minions that much either, but I am not going to throw a fit when the GA enjoy a movie more than I did (especially when they have shown they also equally enjoyed Inside Out, which I did enjoy).

I don't understand why people pour so much blood, sweat and text into talking about the Sunday projection part of an estimate. That's the day that hasn't happened yet. I don't care what models they use to extrapolate possible Sunday business, at the end of the day they are still blindly guessing. At least Friday/Saturday have flash info from theaters and early theater estimates from Rentrak to go off of (or am I mistaken?)

In the larger scheme of things...yes, they do. The producers are definitely trying their best to win the geek crowd over, but they alone do not propel a film to success. If they did, Pacific Rim would have made $200m+ off of the huge reception from SDCC. Geeks take too much credit for the success of these films: "See? They did these films true to the comics, they listened to us, we showed up, they made a ton of money!" That could be why they felt slighted or betrayed by stuff like the twist in IM3, their patron saint Joss Whedon leaving Marvel, their golden boy Edgar Wright leaving/being pushed off of Ant-Man, etc. They don't have control over what happens in the MCU. They never had control, that's the illusion. Same deal with Star Wars; Disney/Lucasfilm understand they need to win these people back, regain their trust, let them spread the good word early rather than discouraging people because they were previously burned by the prequels, but the GA will make or break it like everything else. And I say this as someone who is relatively "geeky" (though I avoid the Internet geekosphere like the plague, because they spoil absolutely everything).

I just have a soft spot for the Hellboy movies in general. Really, for Perlman as Hellboy; I don't remember much about the movies themselves but I really enjoyed Perlman as Hellboy. I was being over enthusiastic, but yes, I'd like to see Hellboy one more time because Ron Perlman is awesome.

That's it, I'm definitely seeing Pacific Rim 2 if it means we finally get a Hellboy 3. Dammit, I want Hellboy 3!!!

Is there really a stigma in Portugal against adults going alone to kids' movies? Do they really suspect those people of being pedophiles? I saw Inside Out in a theater alone three times, nobody thought anything of me. (Does Pixar have a following among twentysomethings in Portugal, the way they do in America?)

Please explain what you expect out of comic book movies instead. And Feige was in charge before Disney. They were already going for four-quadrant PG-13 films before Disney. I can't see any measurable difference in anything.

OK, was just checking. I know nothing about how sports affects attendance, and I didn't see a measurable effect at my theater.

I enjoyed it for one viewing but won't see it again in theaters. This is going to be the first MCU film to not get repeat business from me since Thor 2. That's another one I just saw opening night, and literally have not watched since. This was probably better than Thor 2, though. Hey, remember when the MCU's viability was in a bit of question based on disappointment about the quality of IM3 and TDW? Remember when people were asking where the "Avengers bump" went when IM3 barely got over $400m and Thor 2 had to struggle past $200m? Not trying to set up a false equivalency, just remembering that 2013 felt a little underwhelming at the time. (Anybody else remember predicts of $450m+ for IM3, and $250m+ for Thor 2?)

I don't understand why the theater owners aren't pushing back against IMAX for freedom to program screens at their own discretion. Being forced to kick out a movie that's still getting excellent business has to hurt, I wonder how much business JW was doing in IMAX when they had to drop it for Terminator. Or I guess IMAX is buddy-buddy with the Big 3 chains?

Weather was great in Bay Area yesterday, was there bad weather elsewhere on the WC?

There were baseball games in the evening in Oakland, Anaheim, San Diego and Phoenix (with San Francisco visiting). The SF/AZ game was in extra innings when I got back from the theater around 10 or so. Think that could have depressed WC evenings?

For crying out loud, it's not even the first time a FRANCHISE has been run like this. This has been the M.O. of the Bond series from day one. Albert Broccoli ran that franchise as tightly as Feige does. Even when an auteur like George Lucas ended up in franchise filmmaking, his ostensible wishes to give other filmmakers free reign to play in his sandbox gave way to him armchair-directing Jedi using a British journeyman as his hired gun, because Empire wasn't the kind of film he wanted.

People act like it's somehow unprecedented that production executives have had more control than the directors. But that last sentence reminds that this is not without precedent. We're just so used New Hollywood ideal of the director being the auteur (itself not the rule until the 70s, when the old studio system essentially collapsed) that this stuff looks like some sort of dangerous new trend of commerce stomping out art. It's not.

Though shows in the 80s weren't serialized, so you didn't need to watch every episode and watch them in order...

Utter bullshit. I don't believe it for a second. Though after Cannon got the rights to Spider-Man in the 80s, Menahem Golan notoriously commissioned a script where Spidey was a half-spider mutant because he misunderstood the character.

I meant outside of here, but I'm glad I said that so you could reply with that quote. Now THAT was a great villain. You know, with all this talk of the Joker in TDK, it occurs to me now that I really haven't seen an honestly great villain in a live-action tentpole film SINCE the Joker. (Granted, I haven't seen everything - e.g., didn't see Skyfall, didn't see Fury Road - but still...) I guess Bane would be the closest, even though I don't consider him "honestly great." And that points to another unfortunate trend - when a decent villain does come along, and they turn out to just be a puppet/figurehead of another, far lamer villain.