BadOlCatSylvester

King of the Monsters is one of the biggest dual edged swords on film to date. On one hand, the monster scenes are spectacular, with each of them having distinct and memorable personalities that shine through in their designs, facial expressions and movements. Dougherty understood the importance of that, and that's why they're the best parts of the movie. Unfortunately, the actual story surrounding them is pretentious drivel full of unlikable and/or insufferable clowns. One of them is even basically Rick Sanchez, a guy who shouldn't be anywhere near a movie that wants to take itself seriously and be a deep statement on climate change and the like. For all its faults, the 2014 reboot was not all that bad, just dull whenever Goji wasn't around after Heisenberg bites it. There's a reason why Wingard is the only one who returned for a second helping, because he focused on what this franchise does best: awe, spectacle and exploration. That's what works about Skull Island, Godzilla vs Kong and the best episodes of Monarch. I went out of his movie far happier than Dougherty's, and am very pleased to see him back at the helm for another one. Hopefully he delivers again!

No wonder why Marvel's solely focusing on this one for the year. It's their biggest surefire hit in ages. Two huge characters who can stand on their own even when the larger Marvel brand is on the brink finally meet, and the latter is bringing his iconic suit with him for the first time ever in live action, complete with the actors who made them household names bringing them to life once more and the same writers who made the first two Deadpool movies hit the zeitgeist returning as well. If this one is even remotely good I can actually see it reach the billion dollar mark, which would be the first time a pure Marvel movie gets there in half a decade. The only question now is whether this or Jonkler 2 is going to be the biggest movie of the year.

A lot of movies coming out around that time suffered the same fate, thanks to the crushing weight of Disney at its peak. They always had something to choke the competition to death every month, be it Captain Marvel, Endgame, Aladdin, Toy Story 4 and Lion King. Most non-Disney movies like Godzilla 2, Detective Pikachu, Men in Black International and Pets 2 among others either underperformed or bombed. We're definitely never seeing that level of pop culture domination again, as evidenced by that very behemoth now being anything but.

It sounds like neither this nor Fantastic Four are going to make it to next year, with filming for that one being pushed back late into this year and this one struggling to fill in a major villain role. Blade is also a major question mark as we haven't heard anything major on that in a while. I'm thinking both Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts get pushed back to 2026 while Joss2ce League Captain America 4 heads to May of next year. Blade can go either way, but the recent reports about it having a modest sub-$100M budget tell me it won't need anywhere near as much postproduction work as your average Marvel tentpole, so as long as cameras get rolling on that this year they can get it done for that November 2025 slot still.

A movie like this not even reaching half a million on Marting Luther King's birthday is just depressing. I just feel bad for everyone involved especially after hearing about all the production issues.

With the series not having much of a pulse whenever Godzilla isn't on screen I'm not sure if we'll get another season. If we do, I'm still hoping for a creative refresh, or at least to have Fraction and/or Black writing the entire series. I want a more consistently great story next time, one which doesn't have a lot of the issues the first two Godzilla movies had. I also want a stronger creature lineup and maybe some more Toho characters, but if they insist on this being an interquel they are really boxing themselves in.

I can't read Japanese, but a wall of text from Hideo is basically a seal of approval. These final two episodes seriously turned it around for me, even if the series as a whole was a wildly uneven mess. Hopefully he produces an even bigger wall of text when New Empire is out in Japan.

I'd downgrade that opening to around $130M, and the total to $250M or so. In a normal world it would've had atrocious word of mouth and been the second coming of Batman v Superman. It pretty much ended Patty Jenkins's career in the world we ended up in. That says something.

Ouch. The Batman v Superman of musicals has arrived. Do you all remember when that movie's huge drop was once in a lifetime? Now we get a bunch of those every year.

This explains why Cruise jumped ship to Warner. Paramount likely doesn't want him anymore after how much of a letdown Dead Reckoning was for them. He's lucky the next one was as far along as it was before the strikes, because otherwise I feel the plug would have been pulled on that last year. But that one will be the end of an era to be sure.

Amen, especially as a foreigner. 95% of these serious prestige movies are similarly restricted to megacities here, and my area never gets them.

This is likely because of the sudden Mandalorian movie announcement. Lucasfilm will need him for that if they are to film this year, so this one is likely being pushed to later in the year to accomodate his updated schedule. After Marvel's recent woes I can see a lot of talent being highly reluctant to sign on to what they might see as a sinking ship. I still think that factored into Steven Yeun's recent departure.

Seeing Hugh with the iconic mask will be worth it for sure! Hopefully this one will be more like No Way Home than the Flash movie.

Even if they did market it properly, everyone in our always-on social media age would still be aware of the impending reboot, and the movie being a boring slog lacking the charm of the original would've been a handicap.

The reception, while decent, doesn't even hold a candle to the raves Puss 2 got. Still, relative to its budget it will be a hit in the end. That honestly wouldn't be awful for a storytelling dead end left over from a defunct regime. It'll still lose money since it was destined to from the moment the reboot was announced, but at least the blow will be softened somewhat, which is more than can be said for its ancestor Dark Phoenix. Anyone But You is the real highlight of the weekend of course. Two weekend increases in a row is kind of unprecedented. Have there been any other like it before?

Anyone But You was originally planned to be released on December 29th in my homeland, but its theatrical release got cancelled on the 4th of that month. After seeing how it's performing in America I also wonder if our distributor will change its mind, or simply wait for it to drop on Netflix in America and simultaneously have it there in my homeland as well. We have a big mandatory 5-month theatrical window here, and Disney cancelled the Bob's Burgers movie here in order to circumvent that and have it on Disney+ at the same time as it landed on Hulu in America. Sony could simply do that too.

Damn, Anyone But You has the best hold by far today out of all the movies. I wonder where it'll end at. Colour Purple also gets a "damn", but for the opposite reason. Dropping below $1M so soon is embarrassing, especially when its opening day was $18M. And the worst is still yet to come as it'll be destroyed overseas.

The second coming of Minions 2. Not on the same scale of course, but still a decent boost.

This goes to show just how fortunate the Snyder Cut was to have been greenlit when it did. It's a streaming gold rush baby in every sense of the word, completed for the sake of having easy and attractive content for Max back when they couldn't film anything new on a major scale, and approved by suits who were willing to make an entire year's worth of blockbusters go day and date. Without a lucrative environment and a lax regime like that, Ayer's original cut never stood a chance. DC refocusing on a singular shared universe instead of Hamada's multiverse plans would be another big hurdle. I would still like to see it even if I don't see a good movie in the first Suicide Squad like I did in Justice League, but I highly doubt it'll ever happen.

I do buy the scheduling conflict tidbit now that Yeun has confirmed it himself, but I still think the degradation of the Marvel brand factored into that. He could've dropped out of one of the other projects he's attached to, but he chose this one, which could be an indication that he doesn't see this movie as worth it, at least when compared to other projects he has an eye towards. It's definitely going to be unfortunate for Jake Schreier and those writers from Beef to lose someone they saw eye to eye with, but I hope not being killed by Marvel's recent woes keeps them optimistic enough to see this through, find another talent for Sentry, and still try to make a good movie.

Marvel's brand diminishing might also affect talent's perception, not just the average moviegoer's. This franchise is well on its way to being a sinking ship, and after seeing what just happened to the DCEU, a lot of actors might have second thoughts about joining it. It really could be because of scheduling conflicts, but I have a feeling Steven Yeun is in that camp, and won't be the last to go.

Thunderbolts is also attached to a damaged brand like The Suicide Squad was. Not even rave reviews were enough to save that, so you're right, this movie has an insanely steep hill to climb.

Ironically their former golden boy James Gunn perfected the concept Marvel's going for right now with his Suicide Squad movie. Why even bother at this stage?

I wonder if Robert Kirkman indirectly confirming his casting as Sentry cost him the job. We know Marvel will do anything to protect those precious spoilers, quality be damned.