The Dark Samurai

Updated international totals with actuals for Inside Out 2 and D&W: $985,124,795 for Inside Out 2, up $1,3 million from estimates ($983,8) Worldwide total: $1,627,589,803 $597,933,034 for D&W, up $1.1 million from estimates ($596,8) $1,144,752,993

Inside Out 2 and D&W weekend grosses after their opening weekend: 101/57/30 for Inside Out 2 97/54/30 for Deadpool and Wolverine Grosses after week 4: D&W $546,819,959 Inside Out 2 $534,138,158 With Labor weekend coming up and little new competition, the path to $650 is not unrealistic for D&W. There's a decent chance of being over $605 million after Labor day weekend which again would be around $10 million more than Inside Out 2 after 6 weekends.

Both the-numbers and Boxofficemojo are a mess. The less said about the foreign grosses at the-numbers, the better. On the other hand, BoM has obvious and silly mistakes like Black Panther's WW gross being $1.375 instead of the $1.347 it actually has, because it somehow made $27,353,641 in a 2020 re-release in Australia, after opening with $35,897. It probably didn't add $100,000 to it's total there, let alone $27 million. I miss the prime days of BoM, when we had an authoritative source for all things box office.

If myself as a die-hard Mad Max fan in general and Fury Road in particular, had absolutely no interest in the film partly due to the casting (i liked ATJ in The Witch and in nothing ever since) and partly because there wasn't a mystery that needed solving behind the character's past, how would anyone that isn't invested in the franchise would be interested in it? It was the most predictable box-office bomb ever. It was a film that was neither made for the general public, not for Mad Max fans (considering the character isn't there) and not for Fury Road fans considering the two leads of that film are not in the film. Every director wishes he could get $200 million to make whatever he wants. And while that's good for Miller, it's terrible for Mad Max fans because we're not seeing another film for a long time if ever, after this debacle. Like i previously wrote, Theron WAS Furiosa. Her performance and unique looks made the character famous and popular, not the writing. It might not have made the film a blockbuster but i would have been invested in another story with her. Obviously, not in a prequel, as Theron is 49 years old, but a continuation of Fury Road, even without Max? I would have been there day 1.

Furiosa's (the character) greatest asset was Theron's performance. She said so much with her eyes, there's a lot of pain and regret underneath the tough-no-nonsense persona. There's isn't much to the character narratively, and that's not a bad thing at all. The heart of the film is the silent understanding that develops between Furiosa and Max throughout the journey. It could easily be a silent feature, everything is clear and understandable through gestures, looks and nods. The problem begins when you make a prequel, and you cast a vastly inferior actress with none of the charisma, or lived-in experience that Theron exuded, and that actress is only in the second half of the film. For my money, Mad Max: Fury Road is the greatest pure action film ever filmed. Furiosa is like the B-side outtakes, it has some great scenes but it delivers predictable answers to questions no one cared to ask for.

I agree but i have no idea how. They deserve to be publicly shamed for that. And it's not the first time something like this has happened but never this egregious where they obviously manipulate the score. It's notable that it's not just one review, because the very next fresh review would've taken it to 94%, so they're making sure it stays at 93%. On top of that, i just went to archive.org and in February 2024, the film had 402 fresh/28 rotten, a fresh review away from 94% but once AGAIN someone deleted a review, so that's why it was 2 fresh reviews away from 94% since then instead of one. Basically, as soon as it closes in on 94% or crosses it, someone starts removing reviews until it drops down.

Congrats to the film but i'll make a bit of a digression from the box office, still on the topic of Wolverine. Rotten Tomatoes is a bottom level scum of a website. ''Logan'' was 2 reviews away from 94% since December. It got them in the last couple of weeks, and the very next day, 2 other reviews mysteriously disappeared and it fell back to 93%. It honestly made me irrationally angry because there's absolutely no chance it's a coincidence. I checked all the other comic book films that have 90%+ tomatometer and none of them were suddenly missing a review, let alone two. They're basically manipulating the tomatometer without any care in the world. Despicable.

The ''Mistborn'' books were an absolute chore to read through. i don't usually read fantasy but i decided to give them a try after all the good things i heard about them, and take a detour from my usual reading habits. After the fiftieth ''Vin frowned'' in the first 200 pages, i couldn't believe this is the same Sanderson people rave about. He might be a good world builder but considering i don't really care much about that, all i can say is that i've read better prose on a milk carton.

Barbie crossed exactly $1.03 billion after it's third weekend, having a domestic weekend of $53 million with a drop of 43%. Deadpool will also be at $1.03 billion after it's third weekend, having a domestic weekend of $54+ million with a drop of 43-44%. Barbie made $415 million worldwide after it's third weekend, while D&W needs $320 million to cross $1.35 billion, which i think it's more than doable. Passing Super Mario's gross of $1.362 billion would be a really good target.

It's kind of incredible that after 34 MCU films, there's a very good chance the two highest grossing non-Avengers films will be Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine.

D&W made $205 million worldwide this week. A multiplier of 3 from this week until the end would give it $1.4+ billion. Now that the Olympics have finished, i think the over-under is Black Panther's $1.347 billion.

The awards season so far: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - 115 points 28 wins - Atlanta, Michigan, NBR, DC, Vegas, NY Online, Phoenix (PCC), Indiana, Boston Online, St. Louis, Phoenix (PFCS), North Texas, Southeastern, Black, Online Female, Oklahoma, Central Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, DiscussingFilm, Utah, HCA, Capri; Hollywood Film Fest, Austin, Denver, Hawaii, North American 5 RUs - Boston, Toronto, Dallas, San Diego, New Mexico 21 noms - Chicago, GG, CC, Florida, Utah, Satellite, London, Greater Western NY, Columbus, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago Indie, North Dakota, Music City, ADG, CAS, Houston, Paris, Annie, PGA, CSA’s Artios The Boy and the Heron - 73 points 12 wins - NYFCC, LAFCA, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Diego, Florida, New Mexico, Great Western NY, GG, San Francisco 4 RUs - Toronto, St. Louis, Georgia, DiscussingFilm 29 noms - Michigan, HCA, Vegas, DC, North Texas, Indiana, Phoenix (PCC), CC, Utah, Satellite, Online Female, London, North Carolina, Columbus, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Hawaii, Portland, Chicago Indie, North Dakota, Music City, ADG, CAS, Houston, Paris, Annie, PGA, North American Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - 36 points 2 RU - Boston, Central Florida 32 noms - Michigan, HCA, Chicago, Vegas, DC, St. Louis, North Texas, Phoenix (PCC), CC, Florida, Utah, Satellite, Online Female, London, North Carolina, Greater Western NY, Georgia, Columbus, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Hawaii, Portland, Chicago Indie, Music City, ADG, CAS, Houston, Annie, PGA, CSA’s Artios, North American Robot Dreams - 33 points 3 wins - EFA, Toronto, Nevada 5 RUs - LAFCA, Boston, Indiana, Philadelphia, Utah 14 noms - Chicago, St. Louis, Florida, San Diego, Satellite, London, Georgia, San Francisco, Hawaii, North Dakota, Music City, Houston, Paris, Annie (Indie) Elemental - 27 points 27 noms - HCA, Vegas, DC, St. Louis, GG, North Texas, Phoenix (PCC), CC, Satellite, Online Female, North Carolina, Greater Western NY, Georgia, Columbus, Austin, San Francisco, Denver, Hawaii, Portland, Chicago Indie, North Dakota, Music City, ADG, CAS, PGA, CSA’s Artios, North American Nimona - 19 points 1 Win - Columbus 16 noms - Michigan, HCA, DC, Indiana, CC, San Diego, Utah, Online Female, North Carolina, Greater Western NY, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago Indie, North Dakota, Houston, Annie The Super Mario Bros. Movie - 10 points 10 noms - Michigan, Vegas, GG, North Texas, Indiana, Denver, ADG, CAS, PGA, North American Suzume - 10 points 10 noms - HCA, GG, Indiana, Florida, Satellite, London, Austin, Seattle, Paris, Annie No other film has more than 5 points.

Nimona will replace Super Mario at the Oscars and those will be the final 5.

What a great category, if only Elemental wasn't a shoe-in due to Pixar's reputation and strength. The Boy and the Heron, Spider-Verse, TMNT, Robot Dreams, Nimona, Suzume... Pixar has no business being in contention this year. My only solace is that it won't be blocking a TMNT nomination which could have been the case if Wish and Chicken Run 2 had a lot better reception that they were/are getting. I'm really glad the critics have judged the film on it's merits and didn't thumb their noses because the franchise has been a critical disaster historically. Seeing a TMNT film nominated by the Chicago film critics and a runner-up by the Boston film critics is incredibly satisfying.

Washington Film Critics Association Best Animated Film: The Boy and the Heron Elemental Nimona Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Top 4 as usual, with Nimona as the fifth. It would be a great line-up ignoring Elemental/Pixar's guaranteed spot no matter what they dish out.