RRA

If that’s the case, Disney being cheap gas bumming on ScarJo was silly

Let’s remember that the movies that the French New Wave critics/filmmakers had fondness for were those 30s-50s era Hollywood studio films and how that played in developing the misunderstood/abused auteur theory.

It’s almost like I cited a recent example for why I’ll take that projection from the same source with caution and treat it for what it is.

It could surprise but forced to put down money, I’ll guess boilerplate MCU level. Decent.

Pro’s TSS tracking was IIRC 35-60m, so we have to take Pro’s guesstimates with some salt.

There’s merit to the idea that if you condition folks long enough to believe most movies (or better yet certain kinds) aren’t “must see” events in theaters, they’ll believe it.

Anybody care to make TSS drop guesses? I’ll go spicy and say….55%.

It’s based off a theme park ride aka an IP so NAH.

This reminds me of this Anyway fwiw best opening previews for an original movie since 1917.

Fans now know how it feels to be House Atreides

Well this won’t cause film Twitter to panic. /s

OK my mistake, I thought you meant 3 days. Fair enough.

$70m is....optimistic to say the least. Of course some locals said BW would do 100m OW and even with presales, I was skeptical and proven correct. Of course my prediction of $85 million OW itself turned out a tad naive so what do I know? With everything else and Asia markets (which I'm not sure even if everything is A-OK they would be necessarily be lining up for this one), I still think Disney will have to take it on the chin here. The movie I'm sure will be fine as MCU boiler plate, or who knows better? Crazier things have happened.

When in doubt, Marvel goes back to their reliable playbook: TEAM UP! Anyway this pilot for WHAT IF...? is fun, brief, and slight. Like the source comic book and its one-shot nature, it's not so much another expansion of the Marvel universe (or in this case the MCU) as much an insular endeavor, In other words, nerd porn. It's great having alot of the THE FIRST AVENGER folks show up again in this pilot since that is one of my favorite MCU pictures. But I'll admit even the animation won me over, which I was iffy on from marketing we've seen. Some of it looks wonky at times which can be off-putting, yet other instances it's attempt at fluidity in motion reminded me of rotoscope animation. Ralph Bakshi might get a boner from this.

Technically they've snatched two so far. I've joked before that they'll get the Russos at some point. Of course like Snyder they're deep in Netflix money right now so who knows but that endgame (har har) wouldn't shock me at all. As for this Marvel/directors topic, a good comp (albeit a stretch since we're talking blockbusters) is what Roger Corman in his heyday would do. Hey you want to make movies and put something on your resume or you're looking for a job? Come to me at AIP or New World. I won't pay you much and it'll be formulaic drive-in programmers where you don't have final cut *but* hey it's a credit that can help you out. Countless directors worked for him that went on to oblivion, yet another notables got their foot in the door thanks to Corman (Scorsese, Coppola, Dante, Ron Howard, etc.) that yeah it's why many people hustled for ole Roger. Yes we can MCU directors that came and went and subsequently who cares, yet enough made their mark at Marvel and afterwards that it's a reason why many are willing to work for them. (It's funny you namedropped Johnston. We've all heard the stories about Marvel and their directors sometimes not getting along, well known at this point. Johnston though has said that TFA was the most satisfying directing experience he's gone through. Of course after the BTS mess that was Wolfman beforehand, his perspective arguably was skewed but still.)

Going from 45 window to 21 something days would peeve off theaters, wouldn't it?

Dang. If some people threw a parade for JC’s opening, imagine the reaction if this somehow does that…

This is boiler plate MCU, which means its still decent and works for why these things tend to work even if because of its hefty at this point catalogue you know its a curse to be this reliably good because you know they can do better and have. I agree with alot of the same praises/criticisms though I think people are sleeping on that Indiana Jones-y action beat during the prison escape setpiece with the bazooka. George Lucas loved having his heroes seemingly solve their problem, only for that solution to beget a larger new issue to escape from. Surprisingly not enough folks noticed how that Moonraker reference (asides from clearly betraying King Kevin's age of when he became a 007 fan) foreshadowed the last setpiece which I found amusing, what with the sky/space villain fortress coming crashing down and our heroes trying to escape it. Of course irony is that people complaining about the acting/characterization being more memorable/effective than the action stuff, here's a secret kids: that element is why MCU has its global fanbase. Oh sure we all love the action stuff too with these imaginary action figures clobbering each other, but if you don't connect to the characters then who cares? Interesting how much TWS has influenced the subsequent MCU in terms of tone, with BW being a (shallower) rehash of it when you think about it. I do wish Taskmaster wasn't an afterthought though because c'mon. ***1/2 out of 5

I would be surprised if they’re not. What’s the benefit of hiding them? There’s an obvious hype factor to normies from “oh another Spidey movie!” To “WHOA!”

I won’t get into data analytical debates about how excited or not people are about this title. But at that date with the market as a mess and blah blah, even friggin The Batman sans Max would probably struggle (albeit theoretically not as much.) Yes good thing about (for now) theater exclusivity in its favor. Downside? One less excuse bingo card to play.

That's fair.

That's a bummer about this franchise strangled at the cradle, would've been a potentially fun franchise for Pugh to front. Sa la vie...

In retrospect that would make sense. "Oh a sequel to a spandex movie we liked" doesn't hold the same theoretical draw power as "two iconic monsters duking it out finally!*" *=The original 1960s movie (not knocking it, I have fond nostalgia memories of it) happened a lifetime ago, might as well not have happened to many casuals.

That's a little much. As for everything else, why would TSS be relevant in 5 years other than maybe you or others having recency bias because you liked it and just saw it? Not belittling anybody who's seen TSS (I've not seen it yet) but I'm just curious why something like this (other than that already-shot Max spin-off show) will be on everybody's tip of the tongue 5 years from now? Pop culture is consumed faster than ever and who knows what DCEU (much less the movies in general) will be a few years from now.* And FTR you can look at my old posts, I've given DCEU films a hard time in the past. But I found BOP decent? Sure I can nitpick it, but I could do the same with a good many MCU joints and BOP was on that decent afternoon diversionary level. *=Since we're talking Jimmy Gunn here, GOTGv2 four years ago had a good reception among the Marvelites online from what I remember. Now that's a polarizing in that catalogue, people either love it or want to drown it. That development would've surprised me 4 years ago.

I meant why didn’t TSS do more than MK?