Old Spice

Same here. This plays out one of two ways: (1) Miller gets their shit together and the promotion for the film becomes one of repentance and redemption, which will be the first time that the vast majority of filmgoers even hear about all the drama, or (2) they don't, and the focus switches to Keaton, Affleck, and Sasha Calle. Either way, if it's as good a film as rumored, it will be successful, especially overseas where I expect it to easily blow past $350M. (Domestically, I'm expecting $200M+.)

The main cast is already doing press, which actually seems really early to me given that the film is still 9 weeks away. By the time October rolls around everybody and their dog is going to know about this movie.

I would prefer it to be a straight Aquaman movie (the blending of Arthur's and Bruce's world is so torturous a suspension of disbelief that it would require significantly more screenwriting skill than we saw on display in the first movie), but either way, the film is going to be major event- Jason Momoa and the success of Aqua 1 guarantees that. I'll be there for the gangster crab lords and octopi drummers. 🐙

Let's hope so.

IIRC, Netflix has already ordered a second season. I am halfway through and really liking it. Tom Sturridge, in particular, is perfect as Dream.

You and Krypto! 🙂

I'm an old fart/semi-Luddite, so I literally go to the seating charts and count the number of tix sold. Welcome, and it would be great if you could provide some data from the upper Midwest!

Fair point. My main complaint with her is that she's not a good actress. Ezra is a whole other matter.

Bullet Train report for Salt Lake City, 2:00 PM MST Dog days of summer at the Cinemark Sugarhouse with only 28 tix sold so far. The suburbs aren't doing much better with the Cinemark Draper PLF at 48 and the Cinemark Farmington PLF at 36. Total tix sold: 112 (Nope had sold 301 tix at the same time; Super Pets, 121.) Sugarhouse comps: Uncharted ($1.29M) Lost City (1.38) Nope (1.58) Morbius (2.31) Black Phone (2.99) Nope comp including suburbs (2.38) Will go with previews of $3.2M including EA and an OW of $25.6

That's the huge irony. We're not talking A listers who were perfect for their roles. They were both TERRIBLE. At least with Aquaman, they can pretty easily reshoot, and if Lost Kingdom gets moved back to later in '23, that's almost certainly what they're planning, but Jesus... Flash is just ruined.

Good grief. If somebody pitched the saga of the DCEU to a producer, she'd probably tell them to stop doing drugs. No way back from this one. That earnings call at 4:30 PM EST should be interesting to say the least.

Affleck in Aquaman. Batgirl rumored to be cancelled, not even an HBO release, despite no indication at all that the test screenings were poor. The common thread? Michael Keaton. Not that he's anything other than the GOAT that he most assuredly is, but I think the way they're addressing the Ezra Problem is by totally doing away with everything The Flash Movie sets up, which means that film is the next domino to fall. (And if and when that happens, it also becomes the Holy Grail of lost films for me, even over the the Lord and Miller Solo project.) R.I.P. Batgirl. R.I.P. Supergirl. Hello again, Henry? Not believing the HBO stuff as that doesn't make ANY sense. Aside from the obvious incongruity of Bloys just re-upping his contract, Euphoria and Succession are two of the most popular shows on any platform, and House of the Dragon will likely join them in August. Also, we know that The Batman spin offs are already heavy in scripting and I really doubt that the new regime would just throw Reeves over like that. But after today- assuming this isn't the biggest short-selling hoax ever perpetrated- I guess anything is possible. WHAT. A. CLUSTER.

Just put up my review in the Pets thread, but as an aside, there were TONS of walk ups at my screening, like 2-2.5X the presale. I tried to count the exact number but many of them were small and moving quickly so it was hard to get an accurate count.

Absolutely loved it. Sweet, funny, and without a cynical bone in its body, this is just a great family film. The first five minutes had me teary, and the closing credits had me welling up again. In between there's lots of bright colors and action for the kids and clever repartee for the adults. And there are SO many nods and winks to the DC Universe. There's even this hilarious bit where Krypto In short, it was everything I hoped it would be and I had high hopes going in. Its OW won't break any records but I see this having a long, long run. Streaky the Supercat for the sequel, please! 4.5/5

Salt Lake Report for Super Pets, 1:00 PM MST. Really mixed back here in the SL Valley. Pets is dead in the water at my theater with just 2x what Hank did. It's performing much better in the suburban PLFs though. Using Nope as a comp (I know, it's a terrible comp, but it's the only one I have with the PLFs) I get $2.5 for preview nite. Using just the PLFs, it comes out to $3.78. So honestly, I have no idea. All I know is, I'll be seeing it in a few hours and I can't wait. Krypto was my gateway drug into the world of DC comics over half a century ago, at the height of Mort Weisinger's Silver Age craziness, and I have had a soft spot in my heart for him ever since. And now he has his own movie?! As his pop frequently said back in those days, "Great Krypton!"

Oh man, that's classic!

World of Reel says this morning that ad blurbs have been circulating calling this "The Best Movie of The Year," and attributing the quote to The Wrap. Problem is, The Wrap reviewer actually gave it a negative review, and unfortunately for Universal, his response is now getting some airplay. I can't believe they would be brazen enough to just make up the quote- probably some intern in the marketing dept hadn't had their coffee yet- but what a screw up.

One thing I should have noted in my update is that a lot of folks in Salt Lake will be off work tomorrow as Pioneer Days, the state holiday, falls on the weekend this year. Will stick with my 6.2/51 but that may be inflating some of the numbers tonight.

Salt Lake Valley report for Nope with two new theaters added! Added: Cinemark XDs in Draper (south of SLC) and Farmington (north of SLC). My theater, Sugarhouse, is non-PLF and skews liberal and older (boomers), while the two new ones are pure suburbia; young, largely LDS families with a conservative bent. Hopefully, casting a wider net will help me avoid any more egregious misses like I had with FB3 and Crawdads. As for Nope, it's looking to finish strong. Total tix sold for preview night: Sugarhouse- 113 Draper- 73 Farmington- 115 Sugarhouse comps: Elvis ($4.16) Thor (6.55) Batman (5.8) Halloween Kills (6.09) Dominion (5.59) I'll go with 6.2 and 51.

Talked to a friend in France the other day who had been undecided about going to see Thor, but yesterday she went (and enjoyed it) because the movie theater nearby was one of the few places where you could sit in relative cool for a few hours.

Great hold.

Great list, Cap! Have a blast at SDCC and say hi to Krypto for me if you see him! My early Sunday, not-yet-caffeinated list would include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, American Beauty, Waiting for Guffman, Fellowship of the Ring, The Searchers, Wizard of Oz, Double Indemnity, Finding Neverland, Infinity War, Amelie, Inside Out, It's a Wonderful LIfe, Fargo, and scores of others...

Lincoln would on there for me too.

Bridge of Spies gets better with each viewing. Peak Spielberg. I love his earlier stuff too, but he really has had an amazing last 1/4 of his career and The Fablemans this Christmas seems likely to continue the trend.

Oh man, this one stings. I flubbed FB3 because I failed to properly account for how much Salt Lake overindexes Wizarding World, but everything at my theater yesterday pointed to a much stronger opening for WTCS. I think I need a bigger data set, so beginning with Nope I'm going to start canvasing two other theaters in hopes of getting a more representative look at the valley as a whole. It will take a while to build up a list of comps, and in the meantime I'll still report on Sugarhouse, but hopefully this will lead to a more accurate picture down the road.