Murphy's Multiverse

Author: Joseph Aberl

  • ‘Mission Impossible 7’ Opens Softly Domestically But Makes Up for it Internationally

    ‘Mission Impossible 7’ Opens Softly Domestically But Makes Up for it Internationally

    2023 remains a rough year for entertainment, while writers and actors are fighting for their livelihood, it looks like people just aren’t that big into going to the movie theaters anymore, or at least not as frequent. If not even Tom Cruise can bring in the audience after last year’s mega release of Top Gun: Maverick, it may be a bigger showcase of just how rough this year has been.

    Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has opened at the top of the box office this weekend, but managed to pull in a soft $56.2M over three days. It did have the benefit of a five-day opening and managed to push forward towards around $80M, it’s still a far shot from the initial $90M that was expected from Cruise’s star power. Perhaps Maverick was more about the adrenaline than what he was cooking up.

    Ticket sales are behind 2018’s Fallout, which still is the highest-grossing of the franchise, and even behind Mission Impossible II released in 2000. Though, the five-day total is higher than the first and it does have a strong A CinemaScore which will likely give it some good legs moving forward. Though competition is stiff at the moment with Barbie and Oppenheimer likely to bite into it.

    The issue, a common one by now, is that it has a similar price tag to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at around $300M. While it has a bit more staying power given stronger reception and audience score, it’s still an uphill battle either way. The starts and stops of COVID are being highlighted as one major issue as to why its budget increased as it did. Though one could also argue the same for most productions releasing now that faced COVID limitations and ballooning budgets, but there hasn’t been much reporting on those cases oddly until now.

    The film did, however, makeup with its release internationally at around $155M. Though China remains the same weak box office release as it has with other productions since they allowed Western productions back in. The rest of the weekend was rounded up with other recent releases. Indiana Jones passed $302M globally while Insidious: The Red Door is showing some good holds. Even Elemental managed to pass the $300M mark and stands proud at $311.7M.

    Source: Variety

  • Marvel Revives Ms. Marvel as a Mutant, Disney+ Star Writing the New Comic

    Marvel Revives Ms. Marvel as a Mutant, Disney+ Star Writing the New Comic

    It’s safe to say that the “death” of Ms. Marvel was probably one of the most controversial decisions by Marvel Comics. Yet, it seems they had some big moves happening while the special issue Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel remains a sour spot for some, there was a pretty expected strategy. Just as we were mourning the fallen hero, we already have an update on what we can expect from her comic’s future.

    The big reveal is that Iman Vellani, who plays Kamala Khan in the Disney+ series, is actually co-writing the project alongside Sabir Pirzada, who worked on the series. Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham are providing the art with Sara Pichelli involved with the comics’ main covers. As part of the reveal, Vellani reveals what it was like moving on from writing fan fiction to the real thing.

    This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me. Those projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.

    Iman Vellani

    Check out the cover for the new series.

    As the cover unveils, Ms. Marvel is moving on from her Inhuman story towards embracing a new identity. The first Muslim superhero for Marvel is now a mutant, just as it was revealed in the Disney+ series. For those still mad at this revelation, it was the creator’s original intention to have her a mutant but ended up as an Inhuman due to the story that was written at the time. Of course, we’ll see just how long Kamala is going to stick around with the X-Men before once again embracing her Captain Marvel roots, which will be the focus of the upcoming The Marvels film.

    Source: Entertainment Weekly

  • Disney CEO Claims Pixar Had “Some Creative Misses” and Reflects on Disney+ Impact

    Disney CEO Claims Pixar Had “Some Creative Misses” and Reflects on Disney+ Impact

    It’s been a wacky day. SAG is officially entering a strike alongside the WGA while Bob Iger seemingly decides to shift the blame to a cracking industry on the people desperately keeping it alive. With millions to spare, he seemingly decides to take some wild swings in a recent interview by not only blaming the current situation on those trying to survive but even hitting into his own company.

    Disney isn’t perfect and has had some rough patches throughout the years, but they have developed two golden geese: Pixar and Marvel. They had the kind of bankability any franchise still dreams of, especially direct rivals like DC. Yet, the last few years have been rough on the industry and they made some big steps to grow their streaming business.

    Now that the pandemic is seemingly done and behind us, they are back peddling their original plan and trying to become theatrical giants once more. While they proved to still be the most consistent up until now, Bob Iger decides to downplay Pixar’s creative output as “creative misses” while knowingly highlighting that their streaming releases of these iconic films slowed down their box office prowess.

    There were three Pixar releases in a row that went direct to streaming, in part because of — mostly because of COVID. And I think that may have created an expectation in the audience that they’re going to eventually be on streaming and probably quickly, and there wasn’t an urgency. And then I think there was some, I think you’d have to agree that there were some creative misses, as well.

    Bob Iger

    While he seemingly ignores this part when discussing their Marvel releases, it’s bizarre to see him downplay the value of projects like Luca, Turning Red, and even Elemental. We don’t know what projects he’s talking about specifically, but it sounds a lot like a justification for why they went to streaming only with their projects. It almost feels like a way to save face without doing so. It’s a darn shame that this is how the hard-working animators are treated by their own studio head after being a strong part of its legacy for years.

    Source: Variety

  • Bob Iger Speaks Out on “Diluted Focus” Due to Marvel’s Recent Output

    Bob Iger Speaks Out on “Diluted Focus” Due to Marvel’s Recent Output

    Marvel is the big fish in the pond and for the first time in a long time, they had a project not quite reach the heights they usually do. While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania didn’t crack the $500M, it was more a warning of what was to come throughout the summer box office with one bomb after another that barely crack the $300M ceiling. Outside of a few exceptions, including Guardians fo the Galaxy Vol. 3, it has been rough all around.

    That still didn’t stop people from calling it the end of Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a common complaint throughout the Internet’s long history with the franchise. Still, Disney CEO Bob Iger is seemingly aware that their own ambitions became a focus point of general audience drag. He ends up discussing the performance of some recent releases, but generalizes the topic of how their streaming ventures hurt their theatrical output.

    There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better. It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.

    Bob Iger

    He ends up highlighting Marvel as an example by downplaying previous TV ventures and stating that audiences’ “focus and attention” was diluted. While the internet would make that seem true, there’s a big batch of people out there that generally don’t keep up even when there were just two or three films a year. Plus, there was the whole pandemic that changed many viewers’ behaviors and strongly showed its fangs this summer at the box office. The sudden increase in output to appears the Chapek era of “all-in streaming” strategy still played a role in this multi-faceted world.

    Marvel’s a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.

    Bob Iger

    One thing concerning this comment is claiming that Marvel has “not been in the TV business at any significant level,” which means Iger is mainly referencing Marvel Studios as an entity or generally forgetting the past few years. Their Disney+ output is far removed from the weekly releases of a 22-episode season that was Agents of SHIELD. The various Netflix series set the standard for many’s expectations of the current shows.

    That is also ignoring Hulu’s Runaways which ran for two seasons, the non-Disney productions like Legion and The Gifted. We also can’t forget Cloak & Dagger which ran on Freeform and we haven’t even touched upon any of the animated series or whatever Inhumans wanted to be. There was more output from Marvel at one point, and seems like an oversimplification of a post-COVID media world.

    At the end of the day, if a film is good but not worth a rewatch in theaters: why watch it in theaters? Their strategy to release films within 45 days created a new habit for viewers and ended up dragging their box office successes more than diluting viewers’ attention. Similar to how they milked their other golden goose on the streaming service and ended up hurting Pixar’s box office success long-term. It’s never that simple.

    Source: Variety

  • First ‘The Marvels’ Funkos Include Goose, Captain Marvel, and More

    First ‘The Marvels’ Funkos Include Goose, Captain Marvel, and More

    It looks like Funko Pops for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe entry is slowly finding its way online. While we still have some time before The Marvels‘ releases in theaters this November, it looks like a sneak peek of what’s to come has surfaced online. To be fair, these don’t include anything majorly new that wasn’t already hinted at in the trailer, but it’s definitely interesting to get a bit more from the project.

    As shared on Instagram by IG account funkochaseryeg, a new box set is unveiled that includes a Pop figure of Captain Marvel in her binary form. Not just that, but it also confirms that the kittens we saw in the trailer are indeed the children of Goose, who will definitely leave chaos in their wake; never double-cross a Flerken kitten. The box also includes Ms. Marvel and Photon Funkos.

    Goose seems quite dominant as part of the merch push, but that’s not too surprising. The feline was a standout in the first Captain Marvel movie and has been highly anticipated to return to the franchise since he puked out the Cosmic Cube. It’ll be interesting to see how they will explore the storyline with the kittens and if perhaps Goose has a surprisingly more active role in the film moving forward.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Barry’s Anthony Carrigan Joins ‘Superman: Legacy’ as Metamorpho

    ‘Barry’s Anthony Carrigan Joins ‘Superman: Legacy’ as Metamorpho

    Seems like James Gunn has been quite a busy casting for his upcoming film Superman Legacy. While all eyes were on who exactly would end up taking on the role of Superman and Lois Lane, he has been quietly gathering some other DC Comics heroes that’ll have an unknown role in the project. Recently, it was revealed that Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion, and Isabela Merced have joined the production in some familiar roles to comic fans. Now, one more has been added to the list.

    The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the classic character of Rex Mason, better known as Metamorpho, has joined the cast. He will be played by Anthony Carrigan, who recently had a standout role in the HBO series Barry and even showed up in the DC series Gotham. So, he’s not new to the world of heroes.

    Seems these announcements and finalized casting choices are being made with the SAG-AFTRA strike on the horizon. The film is set to release on July 11th, 2025 but if the strike moves forward, they’ll have to push back the release quite a bit as they were eyeing a production start early next year. With some time to go, who knows what else might happen by then as well.

    The big question is what role these heroic characters will have. Who knows if they are an actual integral part of the story, which would be a shame given the importance of giving Superman his own film that is less pure set-up but an introduction to this new world. It makes you wonder if Gunn is more focused on setting up his new DC Cinematic Universe but it’s a given as he’s the CEO of DC Studios and the director/writer of the first “true” entry in the franchise.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • New ‘Deadpool 3’ Set Photo Offers First Look at Hugh Jackman in Comic-Accurate Wolverine Suit

    New ‘Deadpool 3’ Set Photo Offers First Look at Hugh Jackman in Comic-Accurate Wolverine Suit

    Just recently, we had a first look at Ryan Reynolds‘ new Deadpool costume in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe threequel. As the entry was moving away from 20th Century Fox, many were hoping this meant we’d also get Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine to finally wear a comic-accurate costume of his own. His return gave many the hope that we’ll finally give the actor the chance to have one last go after Logan to be a bit closer to the comics.

    Luckily, the latest set photos from the production have finally confirmed that he will, in fact, wear the iconic yellow outfit from the comics. It seems strongly inspired by the Astonishing X-Men run and it’s crazy to see the actor actually wear a costume that isn’t just black leather or a brown jacket. Even X-Men: Days of Future Past only gave him some yellow highlights and remained true to the 2000s X-Men franchise.

    https://twitter.com/GeekVibesNation/status/1678400255652507651

    It is bonkers to think that he’s been playing the character for over 20 years and never had the chance to actually don the iconic suit. Deadpool 3 is the perfect time for his character to return and get that iconic look, as it blends the two worlds together in a potential multiversal storyline. Plus, it would’ve been a shame for these two giants not to meet with the entire Deadpool franchise building up to their eventual meeting.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Holds On as the New ‘Insidious’ Takes the Top Spot

    ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Holds On as the New ‘Insidious’ Takes the Top Spot

    That B+ AudienceScore is showing its fangs, as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has slipped to the second spot in its second weekend. While not every blockbuster needs to hold on to the top spot, the film simply had a disappointing $60M opening with a $295M production budget. It would need to make at least around $800M to make its money box, and it’ll need to leg out to make back its money.

    Though, while some are calling this a bad slip, it still dropped “only” 56% from its opening weekend. Putting that into perspective with The Flash opening to a $55M but slipping by 72% with a similar rating shows that Indiana Jones at least has some staying power moving forward. Though it also has quite a bit of competition that might bring that hold to a quick end potentially, it drop still could’ve been better which may be why the reactions are surfacing as they are.

    The big winner of the weekend was Insidious‘ return with a $31.4M opening weekend, which is slightly beyond the initial expectations. Insidious: The Red Door was created with only $16M when compared to other films and has shown a curious twist of smaller budgets making up for bigger blockbuster releases. Though, horror moviegoers remain committed while the general audience is a bit more cautious at the moment.

    Joy Ride is the other major release of the weekend that opened with $5.85M. While many are pointing to “smaller budget means more money,” it does seem like that isn’t always the case. The irony is also that the original small-budget release is trailing behind while the IP-focused entry is the one making money. So, we’re just seeing the usual blockbuster developments on a smaller scale than usual.

    Source: Variety, The Wrap

  • Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Teaser Trailer Passes 10M Views on YouTube

    Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Teaser Trailer Passes 10M Views on YouTube

    TUDUM was the big unveil for the first trailer for Netflix’s live-action One Piece series. A short teaser gave us a first look at what is to come and was our first real look at the cast in their costume, especially since they were teased with posters in January. Half a year later, we not only got to see the main cast in action but even a release date of August 31st.

    After around two weeks, the show hit its first milestone as the teaser trailer passed 10 million views on YouTube, which was also shared by the official @Eiichiro_Staff Twitter account. Even on Twitter, the trailer has reached around 32.2M impressions and was retweeted up to 74.2K times.

    Even the recent Anime Expo video of confirming that the live-action series will be dubbed by the original Japanese voice cast has already hit 3.2M views on Twitter. Though, it currently has managed to pull in 595K viewers within the last five days as of writing this article. Though, that is higher than other trailers or videos from the same event such as Zom 100, PLUTO, Pokémon Concierge, and Delicious in Dungeon.

    It’s difficult to say what Netflix considers a healthy sign and viewership on YouTube doesn’t always equate to viewership on Netflix. So, we’ll still have to see if Netflix can keep up this strong promotional run for the series as we close in on its August release. While a mixed reception is expected for any live-action adaptation of a popular anime, this series has a big chance of potentially reaching a new audience that wouldn’t give the manga or anime a chance. So, here’s hoping the passion of everyone involved translates to the finished product.

    Source: Twitter, YouTube

  • BREAKING: Jennifer Garner to Return as Elektra in ‘Deadpool 3’

    BREAKING: Jennifer Garner to Return as Elektra in ‘Deadpool 3’

    It looks like the rumors are true, as Deadpool 3 will act as a callback to the era before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was getting started. In a new piece by The Hollywood Reporter, they have unveiled that not only will Ryan Reynold’s film see the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but we’ll also get an iconic character from a previous Marvel film. Jennifer Garner is back as Elektra one more time.

    For those that might not remember, Garner famously played the character in 2003’s Daredevil starring alongside Ben Affleck before getting her own spinoff in 2005. Her inclusion further supports the rumors that the story is going to feature a big multiverse storyline, as a way to build upon what we saw in Deadpool 2‘s post-credit sequence.

    Of course, Garner’s return opens up the discussion as to if recent rumors of Affleck being on set might also indicate that he’s set to return as well. Who knows if Daredevil will actually be featured and how exactly this multiversal storyline will connect, but it’s definitely the perfect idea to make good use of Deadpool’s shenanigans as a final hurrah to that era before the MCU became the de facto franchise based around Marvel characters.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter