Menor the Destroyer

I think older audiences are more hesitant to go to the movies right now so the usual leg pattern could be skewed (older-skewing movies may skew toward the committed base). Haven't had many older-targeting big movies recently to test that. Hopefully it can draw people back.

Oh, I guess you meant F9. Your post says F7. In that case, yeah. I think it has a good shot.

That seems pretty ambitious just based on the first day. Bond definitely has a fan base. Probably more so than V2 actually.

Yeah, just not a very interesting location, just a generic dystopian city full of generic characters.

Very good hold for Shang-Chi, pathetic for openers obviously.

Honestly I wish almost all of the Zion subplots in the sequels had been removed. What happened inside the Matrix was always a lot more interesting.

Rewatched the first two. The first one held up pretty well to how I remembered it. I liked it quite a bit, the first half especially was really energetic and propulsive, but thought the ending fight scenes were a bit dull, and the Neo/Trinity romance was awful. But overall it was neat, moved at a nice pace, some very nice action scenes and a great sense of mystery and discovery. The opening scene, Neo's training, and the very end when Neo unlocks his powers were highlights. Reloaded though was a lot worse than I remembered (I had thought of it as a pretty good sequel). The movie was just incredibly bloated and moved at a glacial pace, with the pseudo-deep philosophy being really awkwardly inserted. The Zion subplots felt like a chore to watch, especially the pointless love triangle between Morpheus/Niobe/Lock. Didn't really like the Smith army either and the Merovingian was a very meh villain. There was a lot of emphasis on the Neo/Trinity romance again and I just can't really care too much about it. Neo also seemed nerfed from the end of the first, especially when he struggled against the Merovingian's goons. The ending was also very abrupt, now these kinds of cliffhanger part 2 endings were common in the early 2000s but I felt LOTR and POTC executed it much better. Now as to what I did like, the freeway scene was a delightful action scene, built up really well and had a ton of energy. I also really enjoyed the Architect's conversation with Neo, it added a nice twist to the story. Now I might rewatch Revolutions for completeness' sake though I don't expect too much from that (I remember it being a lot worse than Reloaded).

Why would 4PM deflate late shows? I get the runtime point but starting early would get more shows.

Seems like quite a soft start for Bond at MTC2. Showcount is pretty low as well, especially for Friday.

Cameron isn't just gonna do Avatar 2 to rehash the first. It may be a sequel but it will be a new experience. He's clearly passionate about it.

This will have no effect on anything. As celebrity controversies go this is pretty minor.

This was pretty good after I was fairly meh on last week's. But I wish they would do longer episodes for stories like these. We needed to see the conclusion. For stuff like episodes 3 or 5 the shorter format works well but here it's like we leave it right in the most interesting part. Strange ChaCha Killmonger Fury's Big Week Zombies Captain Carter

There was some kind of rumor earlier in the year that those who had seen it were saying it was the best MCU movie or something. I can't seem to track it down, but I distinctly remember reading it somewhere. There is also the factor that Shang-Chi has had reception on the higher end of the MCU but Feige has been talking up Eternals a lot more this year. I think that speaks to the confidence that Marvel has in the film. Edit: found them. The tweets are on page 59 of this thread. Not as specific as I remembered but they are indeed very positive about the film.

It all depends on whether the effects in this one will be worth the hype. If Cameron has truly delivered a leap forward like the first one had, then the sky is the limit imo. I'm quite excited to see what he has in store. The first, while the story/characters were merely passable, had a truly immersive world and the visual ambition was awesome to behold. I don't think there has been a blockbuster since that has matched it in that department. If this one can match it then I will be there opening weekend.

Ugh. I suspected it would be so but it still sucks to see after the way PS was going.

LOTR and HP were a lot more audience-friendly than is even possible for a Villeneuve film.

Really excited now after reading these.

The claim in that article that a "dragon mother" would have no problem with Katy's job because of her degree does not make sense to me. At least from Chinese-American friends I have, their parents seem to be a lot more concerned with them getting a high-paying job than with their degree. In fact, I would think it would make the mom more mad, since Katy has credentials to get a better-paying job and instead works as a valet.

I was negative on this (BO performance-wise and reception-wise, I was always confident in quality), but the early indicators are looking nice.

UK presales for Bond will be way higher than US presales. It's a way bigger franchise there.

You are right. Actually didn't realize WhatIf got that high. I guess that kinda throws doubt on the predictive value of D+ trailer metrics, though it still may be more useful for live-action projects. Though I think WandaVision was in high 600s before release (I don't remember where Loki and Falcon were) so Hawkeye may still be the highest.

To add onto that the one time Bad Batch charted was the 75-minute premiere (WhatIf never had an individual episode even half that long).

For that reason alone it should at least be better than the first. Riot was trash.

Hoping this does great. A good start in Europe could help build buzz here in the States (hopefully would help counteract the HBO Max issue).

That's the animation penalty. A live-action MCU show won't fail to chart. DCEU shows will be more dicey in terms of viewership because there's a less locked-in fanbase so each show will have to attract audiences on its own.