Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | February 17, 2023 | Competing with Eternals on RT, Competing with BvS on box office legs

[Hades]

They should have saved Tobey and Jackmans return for Secret Wars. That Nostalgic novelty will be well gone by the time Secret Wars arrives...

[YM!]

27 minutes ago, BadOlCatSylvester said:

Bring on the discourse, as well as last minute rewrites on Kang Dynasty with Secret Wars being undated and shelved for a while.

You and SpiderByte are opposite ends of two extremes in Quantumania discourse lol.

Edited February 8, 2023 by YM!

[SpiderByte]

8 hours ago, eddyxx said:

 

Wait what? She doesn't go on the mission? Then how did she get powers? I've never seen the 2015 movie lol

It's super dumb. Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Victor (who isn't named Von Doom and still isn't a dictator of Latveria) go on the mission without her, and she has to help retrieve them when it goes wrong. She gets her powers when they crash land back.

 

This happens an hour into an hour and 40 minute movie.

[SpiderByte]

1 hour ago, Hades said:

They should have saved Tobey and Jackmans return for Secret Wars. That Nostalgic novelty will be well gone by the time Secret Wars arrives...

If they're major roles people would just say they should have introduced them earlier if they weren't in other movies. 

[interiorgatordecorator]

1 hour ago, Hades said:

They should have saved Tobey and Jackmans return for Secret Wars. That Nostalgic novelty will be well gone by the time Secret Wars arrives...

 

phase 4 needed at least 1 clear win (in the eyes of the GA)

[THUNDER BIRD]

"I don't want to be Pallet Cleanser anymore" - Ant Man director

 

Well congratulations, you aren't EVEN a Pellet cleanser anymore.

[YM!]

12 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

 

phase 4 needed at least 1 clear win (in the eyes of the GA)

No Way Home? Shang-Chi? Wakanda?

[interiorgatordecorator]

11 minutes ago, YM! said:

No Way Home? Shang-Chi? Wakanda?

 

from what I understand, the latter 2 did not play well internationally 

[JustLurking]

3 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

 

from what I understand, the latter 2 did not play well internationally 

NWH was a smash reception wise everywhere, but yes SC and WF had reception problems in Asia.

[Valonqar]

12 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

 

from what I understand, the latter 2 did not play well internationally 

 

Only NWH is a clear win and it isn't even Disney but Sony. Shang-Chi did OK for a Z list hero in pandemic but doubtful it would have done better in normal times with actual competition (remember, September was absolutely barren). It also did slightly better dom than OS which is a bad ratio for growth. BPWK dropped a lot from the first but if it hit 1B it would be a win. I mean, Avatar dropped from the first too but it passed 2B and then some so no one says it's a disappointment cause it isn't. It's the first post-pandeming 2B grosser. BPWF won't hit even 900M with China (where it's tanking). Only Bassett's inevitable Oscar win in Supporting saves this one from being labelled a massive disappointment which it absolutely is boxoffice-wise. Costing lot more than the first and making almost half less. 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Valonqar

[M37]

Just to maybe ease of some of the doom and gloom over the last however many pages ...

 

I think it matters both why an entry in a franchise is considered "not great" and what audience expectations are going in. The first Ant-Man got a 83 RT/64 MC, in part because they were grading against the high bar of established solo character stories, and it fell short, even though it wasn't really trying to be GOTG or Winter Soldier which preceded it. But the second scored higher at 87/70 ... even though audiences rate the first better; almost as if critics had subconsciously lowered the expectations bar based on the first film

 

Reading over some of these reactions, the seem to be some issues with story, but really  no one is really saying its unfunny or boring, and that both Majors and Pfeiffer give good performances, and even a Rudd semi-mailed-in showing still has plenty of wit and charm. I think the fans are hungry for an epic, broader story moving film, and this may only be partially be it (see also MoM), and that's dissapointing

 

tl;dr - I don't think even mixed reviews are going to tank AMWQ in the way they did to Eternals or even Thor's weak legs, because the broader MCU audience still largely views this release through the expectations set by previous Ant-Man films. If its entertaining, then it should be fine, even if the ceiling is probably lower now

[Factcheck]

42 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

 

Only NWH is a clear win and it isn't even Disney but Sony. Shang-Chi did OK for a Z list hero in pandemic but doubtful it would have done better in normal times with actual competition (remember, September was absolutely barren). It also did slightly better dom than OS which is a bad ratio for growth. BPWK dropped a lot from the first but if it hit 1B it would be a win. I mean, Avatar dropped from the first too but it passed 2B and then some so no one says it's a disappointment cause it isn't. It's the first post-pandeming 2B grosser. BPWF won't hit even 900M with China (where it's tanking). Only Bassett's inevitable Oscar win in Supporting saves this one from being labelled a massive disappointment which it absolutely is boxoffice-wise. Costing lot more than the first and making almost half less. 

Their focus wasn't clear. They should have focused on Captain America, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man, and Black Panther in Phase 4. They have made some unnecessary movies in Phase 4. BW, Eternals, and Thor4 could have been a D+ special presentation or a series. BW existed just to setup Yelena as the lead of Thunderbolts, and Thor4 existed to setup the Hercules movie and Valkyrie series. Because of these unnecessary movies, Phase 4 looks weak and bad.

[Carlangonz]

I was really looking forward to see this in theatres after Loki but after trailer two I think I'm going to skip it and wait for it at Disney+.

 

I feel like shorter windows everywhere is making everything non-event look like just an extended TV episode that you can catch on Disney+ later on. Especially as the quality doesn't improve and you could say they got the same investment. 

 

Stranger Things already made episodes that could be movies (and even longer than an average MCU title) so I guess in time more people could follow suit and cheapen standalone releases.

[SpiderByte]

1 hour ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

phase 4 needed at least 1 clear win (in the eyes of the GA)

How about that movie with several Oscars noms and at least one very likely win?

[THUNDER BIRD]

4 minutes ago, SpiderByte said:

How about that movie with several Oscars noms and at least one very likely win?

Oscar win won't make movie received any better than what it was. 

[exomassey]

It’s a bit weird to say films that made over 800m aren’t hits.

 

Multiverse of Madness, Love and Thunder, Wakanda Forever were considered disappointments to some but they are still big hits even if they didn’t breakout/cross a billion.

 

 

[SpiderByte]

33 minutes ago, THUNDER BIRD said:

Oscar win won't make movie received any better than what it was. 

Winning awards does not count as part of the movies reception for some reason now?

[SpiderByte]

5 minutes ago, exomassey said:

It’s a bit weird to say films that made over 800m aren’t hits.

 

Multiverse of Madness, Love and Thunder, Wakanda Forever were considered disappointments to some but they are still big hits even if they didn’t breakout/cross a billion.

Thank you. It is nuts that people were calling Multiverse of Madness as underperforming when it made 900 million, which is much much more than the first one.

[THUNDER BIRD]

20 minutes ago, SpiderByte said:

Winning awards does not count as part of the movies reception for some reason now?

It never did.

[SpiderByte]

1 minute ago, THUNDER BIRD said:

It never did.

I'd like you to explain how that's the case?