Cap

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/shang-chi-ben-kingsley-trevor-slattery-the-mandarin-1235055074/ Fun read!

Yes. Also kissy face meant I was joking!

We don't have to worry about the Russos. Secret Wars is AT LEAST 4 or 5 years away, and can be pushed back. 😘 I read the whole article. The big take aways: Bob C is REALLY bad at the interpersonal communication part of this job. I would be shocked if he'd not future endeavored sooner rather than later. He might've been fine at theme parks and Wall Street, but this job takes way more finesse than I think he possesses. ScarJo is REALLY is crazy greedy. She already got 20M for the role. She wants another 80M. TBH Disney, give her 40M and move on. Alan Horn, Iger, and Kevin are not involved. Fun Kevin Tidbit: "Putting "Black Widow" on Disney+ conflicted with Mr. Feige's tiered approach—creating TV shows that complement movies on the big screen. He resisted plans for the movie's simultaneous release, in part because he didn't like the idea of having one of Marvel's few female-driven movies demoted to the at-home streaming service, said people familiar with his thinking." He's so good and thoughtful and I *heart eyes* him.

Me at @Porthos and this weekend thread.

Y’all really can find a way to make anything a Debbie downer. It’s a gift. A talent.

And the final word has been spoken:

@Porthos It was beautiful!!!

some don’t need the almost:

We got this too. Tbh, It made sense that it was tied Marvel since it also promoted the Disney Movie Insiders club. Or perhaps they just knew that everything kept moving, and picked the titles which weren’t. It’s pretty funny watching the trailers thinking that just moved, that just moved, that’s not moving. That’s probably not moving.

Usually they wait until Monday. So watching them say fuck it at like 4 o’clock on Saturday morning is a really funny to me.

If you have not seen the movie, I would not watch any of Marvel’s TV or Twitter ads. They have zero chill. They’re like look at our new Avenger, and look at all of this actually really spoiler filled footage that were showing you. 😂😂 Just FYI for folks

Gosh, this is precious.

Discuss Wenwu Here.

So, who's ready for some fun numbers from Newington? Tonight. Shang Chi. 6 Showings. 405/780 51.92% Sold. Previously. Black Widow 7 Showings 436/858 50.81% Sold. Which comps out to 92.88% of Widow, or 12.26M. Wouldn't that be a trip. LOL. Falmouth was at 8.2M. Newington at 12.26M. So hopefully 10.2M is the lucky number.

There was a moment half way during the movie that I thought "This is lagging a little" and then I realized it's cause Tony Leung hadn't been on screen in five minutes. I'm a whore, okay. This is excellent. I have a lot of feelings, but this was good.

A N Y W A Y I just got back from the theater, and honestly, I think I'm in the best mood I've been since 2019. We drove down to Newington, and it was A REAL THEATER. With stadium style seats, and recliners, and drinks and popcorn that was too expensive and too big for anyone to consume. I rounded the corner and saw the GIANT FLOOR TO WALL SCREEN and cried. Not tear cry, but scream for joy cry. My friend told me she'd never seen me so excited. I was in HEAVEN. We got like SEVEN TRAILERS and I wasn't even mad at it taking so long. OMGZ ETERNALS IN PREMIUM FORMAT. I DIIIIIIIIIIE. And then the movie started and it was SO GOOD. Great action, funny moments, great character work, nifty Easter eggs, some really lovely CGI money shots, TONY LEUNG, bread crumbs for what's to come next. All Marvel bread and butter, and you know what, it's fucking delicious. My audience ate the whole thing up. Lots of laughs, applauds at the end, really happy crowd. This will have staying power through the month. Maybe opening weekend won't be as big as some hoped, but this isn't going off a cliff next week. I except some solid holds through September.

Recency Bias Strikes Again. Also, I'm sad that if Hateful Eight got that high it didn't get #8 for some sweet symmetry,

Meanwhile,

I am actually OFF to the theater in Newington, so I won't have data on that until I can sort through it before I get back. But the TL;DR is it's going to be a full theater tonight!

I am SOOOOOOO HYPED. I have spent the past week watching Tony Leung films, and my body is ready for him to destroy everyone on that screen. General Thoughts (films posted in the order I watched them): Chunking Express: Nice amuse bouche for what's to come, but didn't linger with me. The Grandmaster: I love when Art Hos do Wing Chun. Beautiful to look it, but felt trapped by the "must do 50 years in 2 hours" biopic straitjacket. Bonus: I love watching Zhang Ziyi steal movies away from the boys. Lust/Caution: I have still not recovered. I may never recover. Does anyone do a slow burn better than Ang Lee? In The Mood For Love: The whiplash of watching Lust/Caution and this as a double feature is REAL. Oh and I got my answer to above. Wong Kar-wai does a slow burn better than Ang Lee. 2046: Need to revisit this. As a direct sequel to In The Mood For Love, it really didn't jive with me. That film feels/is soo ethereal, that I was just turned off by the sequel link. 2046 its own film, though, is firing on all cylinders. So, again, a revisit is needed. Hard Boiled: SPEAKING OF FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS. I'm pretty sure when we reached The Hallway Scene my soul left my body. John Woo is a crazy motherfraker, and the world is better off for it. Infernal Affairs: I can't believe Marty won his Oscar for his shitty remake of this masterpiece. And I've been staring at Happy Together on HBO Max for a week. I thought my gay heart getting wrecked was not the best HYPE, so it's being saved for a late night dessert this weekend.

Mid Day Update Falmouth Flagship 6:45PM: 83/101 6:55PM: 71/117 Total: 154/218 = 70.64% Sold Out. My final count for Black Widow was 252/399. We're running at about 61.11% of that for Shang Chi, or 8.06M for previews. I repeat - and maybe someone at the theater is magically reading this exactly right now and can do something about it: Where? 👏 Are? 👏 My? 👏 Screens? 👏 All of the "good seats" are gone, it's only singles and the front row left. And it's not like the area can go else where! You are the only damn theater open within 30 minutes. They should've added two more by now. The 6:55 of TSS has no one it in. Cancel it now before you get stuck with a theater that only have 1 ticket sold instead of 50 like the Jungle Cruise and Widow screens will be tonight.

Hopefully Jon and Alice can get this out of Development Hell!

BOOOOOOOYS. @Porthos @Lokis Legion @charlie Jatinder @Menor @everyone Aka. I’m really living my best life right now watching Tony Leung movies in preparations for tomorrow. I don’t have time for talk about meltdowns. I think it’s important to keep in mind that the record, even without a pandemic, for Labor Day is $30 million. Anything over 50, regardless of how this is tracking or not should be a victory. Yes, if you want to be personally upset cool. But we haven’t even released the movie yet. Can we not use the M Word until we at least open the weekend thread. Okay time to go back to this sexy, sexy man.

I think the greatest strength of this series is also its greatest weakness. A viewers engagement level will depend on their emotional attachment to the lead character that week. So there’s definitely going to be episode reactions all over the place. But I think it’s fun. Different strokes for different folks